Whistleblower Led GOP Intel Chair To Confront Bush On Wiretap Program

[kpete]

Whistleblowers led GOP intel chair to write Bush
GOP ally told Bush secret intel projects may be illegal
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/GOP_House_intel_chair_told_Bush_0708.html

"Mr. Chairman, I know that you supported and were briefed on the NSA warrantless wiretap program, on the tracking of terror finances," said Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace. "Are you saying that as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, that you were not briefed about other secret programs?"

Hoekstra then explained that whistleblowers had informed him about programs the president hadn't briefed Congress on.

"This is actually a case where the whistleblower process was working appropriately," said Hoekstra. "Some people within the intelligence community brought to my attention some programs that they believed we had not been briefed on."

....................

Hoekstra added that he took the president's failure to inform Congress "seriously," and that it wasn't an "optional" responsibility.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Whistleblowers_informed_GOP_House_intel_chair_0709.html

[annabanana]

1. Note at the end of the PDF of his letter to the sneak-in-cheif:

cc: Steve Hadley
Josh Bolton
John Negroponte

(like any of them gives a rats ass about the law...)

on edit: I'd love to give props to whichever principled intel insider gave him the heads-up!

[DemReadingDU]

2. Larry Johnson: House Intel Chief Misses the Boat

Today's news from Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane that the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra, sent a nasty gram to the White House complaining of being kept in the dark on intelligence matters is significant, but misleading. It is significant because Hoekstra is staunch defender of the Bush Administration and yet is now willing to insist that his committee must be briefed on intel operations. So far, so good. What the reporters missed is the underlying message in Hoekstra's letter--that the Bush Administration is being too soft on the intel community, particularly the CIA, and that the CIA is a rogue political actor.

... What caught my eye is Hoekstra's outrage over news that Steven Kappes, the former Director of Operations at the CIA who resigned because of a dispute with Porter Goss, was coming back to the Agency as the Deputy Director. Once you understand how extreme and venomous Hoekstra's world view toward the CIA is, we can begin to understand why many intelligence officers, regardless of political persuasion, have lost confidence in Congressional oversight of the intelligence community.

For those not familiar with the details on the initial Kappes flap, here's the rundown.

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/house_intel_chi.html

[kpete]

3. Thanks DemReading DU

see-saw politics

[DemReadingDU]

4. Larry Johnson has great insight into the

inner workings of the CIA!