Democrats politicize intelligence

Peter Hoakstra:

...

There's also been a flurry of bizarre letters from House Intelligence Committee members about this matter suggesting that Democrats are no longer interested in bipartisan oversight of intelligence. One was slipped under a Republican staff member's door after business hours. I first learned about it from the news media.

Another letter signed by seven Democratic House intelligence-committee members did not use House Intelligence committee stationery, apparently to ensure that Republicans didn't get a copy. Two Democratic House Intelligence Committee members refused to sign this letter because they thought it was too political.

These new allegations, letters and calls for investigations are part of a strategy by Democrats to attack intelligence personnel and agencies. Why? To protect House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who is in hot water over her May 14 comments that the CIA "lies all the time" and misled her about enhanced interrogation of terrorist suspects.

A major consequence of this Democratic effort to politicize intelligence is that the House Intelligence Committee has essentially stopped doing meaningful work. The 2010 intelligence-authorization bill was so poorly drafted (and loaded with language to protect Pelosi) that President Obama threatened a veto, forcing Democratic leaders to pull the bill from consideration this month.

Moreover, although the House Intelligence Committee's Democratic staff is loaded with attorneys supposedly to conduct investigations, the committee has failed to do any serious investigating. For example, 67 days have elapsed with no committee investigation of Pelosi's claim that the CIA misled her about enhanced interrogation of terrorist suspects.

And Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes announced on Dec. 10, 2007 that the committee would conduct an investigation of destroyed video tapes of CIA terrorist interrogations. Now, 588 days later, there is no sign this investigation will ever issue a final report.

...

Disarray by House Democrats on intelligence oversight is seriously damaging the morale of US intelligence officers and their ability to do their jobs. How can Democrats claim they are serious about national security when they are exploiting intelligence and attacking intelligence professionals for political advantage?

...

I think the good news is that if they were competent imagine how much damage they could to to our national security. Reyes strikes me as a light weight who can be bullied by Democrat partisans into pushing their agenda, but neither he or his staff have the "intelligence" to see the real problems.

If they did they would see just how laughable their attacks on the CIA program to kill the enemy is to voters in this country. Are they really going to say they oppose killing the enemy? Are they going to complain that they were not told that the program was never functional. If they had any sense, their outrage should be directed at the fact that it was not killing the enemy.

If they would get their heads out of their kook base, they might be able to see this, but there is not much light or reason in that crowd. O think they are giving the Republicans a great national security issue for the 2010 race.