Protecting Agencies From Oversight, Obama Threatens to Veto Intelligence Funding

[tekisui]

Source: The Raw Story

The White House is threatening to veto a key intelligence funding bill over what it considers to be a dangerous amount of oversight on covert agencies, according to published reports.

The 2010 Intelligence Budget has gone through a number of key changes over the past few months, with House Democrats and the Obama administration butting heads over a number of provisions. Key among them for the latest White House veto threat is a provision that would allow the Government Accountability Office to investigate intelligence agencies.

"Current law exempts intelligence and counterintelligence activities from GAO review, leaving oversight to the inspectors general at the various intelligence community agencies," Politico reported.

In a letter to the House and Senate intelligence committees, Office of Management and Budget chief Peter Orszag highlighted several areas of the bill that have intelligence officials worried, including the GAO oversight provision.

Orszag's letter also claims that proposed reforms to how Congress is notified of covert activities poses a "serious" threat that intelligence agencies object to.

more: http://rawstory.com/2010/03/protecting-agencies-oversight-obama-threatens-veto-intelligence-funding/

[DrDan]

1. oversight from the agencies themselves - guess we are just following the wall street precedent

[jody]

2. Makes sense, presidents have the authority to torture or assassinate anyone the presidents declares

is an enemy in the never-ending war on terror.

That is what our Constitution says, isn't it?

[lamp_shade]

3. Let's tell secrets to McConnell and Boehner. Yuh... Let's do that.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34447.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4307944&mesg_id=4307944
"Current law requires the president to notify the Gang of 8 — the top eight lawmakers on the two congressional intelligence committees — when the most dramatic actions are taken. The new funding bill would require the president to notify the eight when an administration makes any changes to covert action policy, and it would require intelligence officials to notify every intelligence committee member of the "main features" of all intelligence activities."

[tekisui]

4. Wow.Just wow.

Don't hurt yourself stretching to defend this shit. So what about the rethugs. They are members of Congress. I argued that COngress should have oversight when bush was in the WH. Nothing has changed.