THIS month has brought a sudden surge in partisan ship, accusations and calls for investigations on intelligence matters by House Democrats.
Democrats are claiming they were lied to by the CIA about a program and gleefully charge that then-Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the agency to not brief this program to Congress.
CIA Director Panetta refused to back the allegation that Cheney gave such an order. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden flatly denied that he’d ever been instructed not to brief Congress. Now Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair has also distanced himself from these over-the-top allegations by House Democrats.
There’s also been a flurry of bizarre letters from House Intelligence Committee members about this matter suggesting that Democrats are no longer interested in bipartisan oversight of intelligence. One was slipped under a Republican staff member’s door after business hours. I first learned about it from the news media.
Another letter signed by seven Democratic House intelligence-committee members did not use House Intelligence committee stationery, apparently to ensure that Republicans didn’t get a copy. Two Democratic House Intelligence Committee members refused to sign this letter because they thought it was too political.
These new allegations, letters and calls for investigations are part of a strategy by Democrats to attack intelligence personnel and agencies. Why? To protect House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who is in hot water over her May 14 comments that the CIA “lies all the time” and misled her about enhanced interrogation of terrorist suspects.
A major consequence of this Democratic effort to politicize intelligence is that the House Intelligence Committee has essentially stopped doing meaningful work. The 2010 intelligence-authorization bill was so poorly drafted (and loaded with language to protect Pelosi) that President Obama threatened a veto, forcing Democratic leaders to pull the bill from consideration this month.
Moreover, although the House Intelligence Committee’s Democratic staff is loaded with attorneys supposedly to conduct investigations, the committee has failed to do any serious investigating. For example, 67 days have elapsed with no committee investigation of Pelosi’s claim that the CIA misled her about enhanced interrogation of terrorist suspects.
And Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes announced on Dec. 10, 2007 that the committee would conduct an investigation of destroyed video tapes of CIA terrorist interrogations. Now, 588 days later, there is no sign this investigation will ever issue a final report.
The full committee also has failed to meaningfully act on numerous calls by Republicans to conduct an investigation of the findings of a fall 2008 CIA Inspector General report that exhaustively substantiated claims (as opposed to the speaker’s hollow, contradicted assertions) that the agency misled Congress about a 2001 shoot-down of a civilian airplane over Peru in 2001 which killed two Americans.
Disarray by House Democrats on intelligence oversight is seriously damaging the morale of US intelligence officers and their ability to do their jobs. How can Democrats claim they are serious about national security when they are exploiting intelligence and attacking intelligence professionals for political advantage?
I have emphasized that the intelligence community must be accountable when it does not tell Congress what it is doing. But when Congress is told and approves, Congress needs to be held accountable.
Pelosi’s claim that the CIA lied to her about enhanced interrogations and recent Democratic claims that the CIA misled them about another program ignore the point that Democrats were repeatedly briefed on and approved the CIA’s tough counterterrorism programs from the outset.
Pelosi can’t escape the fact that she clearly knew about and did not object to the programs she now claims CIA lied to her about. It isn’t the CIA that needs to be held to account here — it is the House speaker.
The incredible amount of partisanship Democrats have introduced into intelligence matters is demoralizing the US intelligence community, causing sensitive information to be disclosed and encouraging our enemies. For the good of our nation, Democrats need to start acting like adults and begin conducting responsible and bipartisan intelligence oversight. These attacks on our intelligence community need to stop now.
Partisan political games have no place when it comes to national security.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R- Mich.), is the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.