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December 20, 2004

Target Wyden

Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden is under fire along with Jay Rockefeller (D-W.VA) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill) for public complaints they made about an expensive, unamed intelligence program.

During debate on the intelligence reform bill, Wyden referred to a "major acquisition program" as being "unnecessary" and "too expensive". Wyden is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and recieves information on intelligence programs behind closed doors. A few days later it was revealed in the Washington Post that at issue was a $9.5 billion spy satellite system.

Wyden's Chief of Staff Ron Kardon said that Wyden's remarks were approved by the Intelligence Committee staff of Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the committee to make sure it was safe for national security purposes.

The problem here as I see it is that so much information is kept classified that it keeps Congress from having proper oversight. How can a Senator properly debate a line item in a spending bill if he can't talk about the line item? Especially from the minority/opposition party, it seems unlikely that line items are being properly vetted in Committee. Democrats have complained vociferously since the GOP took over control that they've been shut out of the process.

Also at issue is the public's right to know vs the necessity of keeping intelligence issues secret for national security reasons. I believe we've erred much too far on secrecy. The public needs to have some oversight of these organizations. It's inappropriate for them to have multi billion dollar budgets and for the public to not know if the money is being spent appropriately.

Posted by Carla at December 20, 2004 08:04 AM