Senate Agrees to Closed Session

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/49_79/news/4394-1.html (subscription required)

For the first time since the impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton, the Senate is formally planning a closed-door session that will allow Senators to have a frank, off-the-record discussion about how intelligence was handled in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) reached a final agreement on holding the executive session on intelligence Thursday night, after Democrats threatened to force the unusual procedure on their own.

“Daschle and Frist have come to an agreement that this is something they will do in the future, but no details have been agreed to,” said Amy Call, spokeswoman for Frist.

While no date and format have been agreed on, executive sessions of the Senate require that all staff save for a handful of key aides clear the chamber, and the galleries are emptied of spectators and press. C-SPAN cameras are turned off, and the few aides who remain in the chamber must sign a document swearing themselves to secrecy, punishable by contempt charges.