EXCLUSIVE: House Dems Planning Major Changes To Secret CIA Briefings Of Congress

[kpete]

Source: The Plum Line

EXCLUSIVE: House Dems Planning Major Changes To Secret CIA Briefings Of Congress

In a move that could spark another fight with the GOP over CIA intelligence and secrecy, House Dems are quietly preparing to make major changes to the ways the CIA briefs Congress on covert actions, by broadening the pool of members of Congress who will have access to such private briefings, a source familiar with deliberations says.

Dems on the House Intelligence Committee have drafted a new bill that would strip the President of his authority to limit such briefings to the so-called “Gang of Eight” — the leaders of the House and Senate from both parties, and the leaders of the Congressional Intelligence committees — and allow a larger group of members of Congress to attend.

The move, which is being championed internally by House Intel chair Silvestre Reyes, would also compel the CIA to keep a far more detailed record of these briefings, though these details still need to be worked out. The source, who is familiar with the contents of the bill, confirmed the details to me.

The new measure — which would mean as many as two dozen members of Congress would be kept abreast of CIA covert actions — would lessen the likelihood of he-said-she-said arguments over what the CIA told Congress, such as those that have erupted over what Nancy Pelosi was told and when.

Read more: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/house-republicans/exc... /

[babylonsister]

1. Good. It's way past time for this to happen. nt

[saigon68]

5. the so-called “Gang of Eight”

LOL

[pinto]

2. Sounds like a good move, imo.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. This sounds good

I wonder if it will become a reality though?

[truthisfreedom]

4. Stripping off the hula skirt so the sores can be exposed to the light of day...

Party's over, CIA!

[DCKit]

6. The CIA's going to have to clean up it's act, pronto.

With all the blabber-mouths on the hill leaking shit to score political points, the black ops are going to have to be drastically curtailed. We'll save $billion$.

[AlbertCat]

7. Hmmmmm....

I guess that "gotcha Pelosi" campaign is starting to backfire.... as we knew it would.

[bvar22]

8. Sounds like a small step in the right direction.

I applaud this.
This is a place where "incrementalism" can work.

[Wednesdays]

9. K&R

[No Elephants]

10. Why does Congress even get briefed on secret matters, if they feel they can do and say nothing

when something is wrong? Seems to me this simply allows the President (whoever is in office at the time) and his or her party to endgame them, as has been done with the Iraq War and WOT Resolutions and with torture.

If Congress can and should know something, then Congress should be able to act on it. That had to be one of the purposes of the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution.

Bushco came up with the idea of telling them stuff, but making them sign an agreement to keep it secret. And Congress--or at least the Gang of 8--went along with that crap. They should have told him to shove his agreement and do what was best for the country.

[Solly Mack]

11. I was wondering the same thing

It doesn't matter how many people are briefed about crimes/abuses being committed if Congress claims it is helpless to do anything about it

The he said/she said is just a distraction when Congress can't or won't do anything about a war criminal executive.