Not Oversight but Complicity

Not so long ago, the Church Committee investigated the executive branch rot generated by a long-standing lack of congressional oversight. It was this committee that gave us among other things FISA, serially ignored by the Bush Administration.
That the committee's work brought about the existence of the current Senate Intelligence Committee makes it doubly shameful to witness the silent complicity by the likes of current committee chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
The revelation that the CIA in 2005 destroyed interrogation tapes and that Rockefeller, among others, knew not only of the existence of the tapes as early as 2003, but the intention to destroy them, has shown us how utterly irresponsible (if not complicitly criminal) and ineffectual the Intelligence Committee has become.

Law Professor Jonathan Turley: "Democratic members appear to have had knowledge of both the official use of torture (which is a crime) and the stated intention to destroy evidence (which is also a crime). Yet, again, they remained totally silent and passive."

Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman: "Jay Rockefeller claims that the Intel Committees were not ‘consulted’ on the use of the tapes ‘nor the decision to destroy the tapes.’ But he does not deny that he was informed of the agency’s intent to dispose of the tapes, and he acknowledges that he learned of the destruction one year ago, in November 2006. And this is the first time he has said anything about it. Jay Rockefeller is constantly learning of legally dubious (at best) C.I.A. intelligence activities, and then saying nothing about them publicly until they are leaked to the press, at which point he expresses outrage and incredulity — but reveals nothing. Really, isn’t it about time the Democrats select an effective Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one who will treat this scandal with the seriousness it deserves, and who will shed much-needed light on the C.I.A. program of torture, cruel treatment and obstruction of evidence?"

And to think this post isn't even about illegal wiretapping or telecom immunity. That congressional oversight is this non-existent ought to be a crime in and of itself.