Hooray for Jay! I can't furnish a link on this yet. I just received it via email. Maybe some of us will eventually forgive Jay for voting for the torture bill.
For Immediate Release November 15, 2006
Contact: Wendy Morigi 202-224-6101
Rockefeller Statement on Senate Intelligence Committee’s Priorities in 110th Congress
Washington, DC -- Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV) has been selected to be the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when the Senate reconvenes in January under a Democratic majority. The following is Senator Rockefeller’s statement which reflects his key areas of focus for the committee in the next Congress.
"The Intelligence Committee has an enormous responsibility to help guide and oversee the programs aimed at keeping Americans safe. It is a duty and a responsibility that I take very seriously.
"As we look to the future and the challenges we face, we will only be successful if we recognize that intelligence is not the responsibility of one party or one branch of government – it is a shared responsibility.
"The committee faces many critical and pressing issues that will have an effect on our national security in both the long and short-term.
"To start with, the committee must look ahead to the next 10 years in the war on terror and insist that the United States Intelligence Community create a comprehensive, global counter-terrorism plan for the next decade. This strategy must be informed by a better understanding of emerging threat areas in Southeast Asia, Africa, South America and other parts of the Middle East.
"We need to conduct an agency by agency review which will allow us to measure the implementation of the 2-year old intelligence reform legislation and recommend any necessary changes.
"We must insist on full access to the NSA warrantless surveillance program and the CIA detention and interrogation program. Only then, can we conduct thorough oversight of these programs and determine whether they are legal, appropriate, and effective and what, if any, legislative action must be taken.
"We need to put more of an emphasis on our ability to disrupt potential terrorist threats at home, which starts with addressing the missteps and slow transformation of the FBI.
"We need to conduct a careful review of our counter-proliferation efforts, particularly against North Korea and Iran, and other rogue states.
"Finally, as part of our core oversight responsibilities, the committee must complete its long-overdue, unfinished business, related to the use and misuse of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq.
"We have already put out three reports related to pre-war Intelligence on Iraq, and we will complete the three remaining sections of Phase II. No decisions have been made about the timing and process going forward, but our goal has always been to tell the full story about the role of intelligence and the mistakes that were made in the lead up to the war."
Emphasis mine.