Oversight
Of the 535 members of the House and Senate, only 4 are even briefed on what the intelligence agencies are up to, and since those briefings are classified, they can’t tell the other members what is going on. How can there be any meaningful oversight in a situation like that?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is attributed to Juvenal in his Satires. It is translated variously as: Who watches the watchmen?; Who polices the police?; etc. When Congress doesn’t know what is going on, when the Federal courts don’t know what’s going on, when the people don’t know what is going on – how can anyone know if what the intelligence agencies are doing is legal or even effective. We know they lie, so we can’t take their word for anything.
Mr. Fish shows us what we are left with.
We created a government with checks and balances and it is about time the legislative and judicial branches started earning their paychecks.
2 comments
The reality is that Congress could pass a law tomorrow giving them full oversight powers over the intelligence agencies — and don’t do it. On purpose. Because they don’t *want* oversight. Because that would mean responsibility. And responsibility is the last thing that our do-nothing Congresscritters want.
Yes, it is amazing how much complaining they do about things that they can readily control, through the ‘purse’ if nothing else, but they never take any action beyond calling hearings.