http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/politics/14251566.htmPanel that reviews intelligence gathering sees little work
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - When a privacy-rights group requested records to show how many times a secretive presidential oversight board had asked the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of intelligence-gathering laws since 2001, the answer that came back last month was as simple as it was startling.
Zero.
One possible reason: For more than half of President Bush's first term, the Intelligence Oversight Board had no members because Bush didn't appoint anyone to it.
Bush didn't make appointments to his oversight board until March 17, 2003, well after his administration had begun an aggressive, post-Sept. 11, 2001, expansion of intelligence-related activity.
...
"This administration has had a consistent lack of interest in what causes failures," said former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat who served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from mid-2001 to early 2003. "There's a disinterest in understanding what happened, much less holding anyone accountable. It's part of a larger environment of secrecy and a `we know it all' attitude."