SpyTalk

Share this post
Fear and Loathing on the House Intelligence Committee, Part Deux
www.spytalk.co

Fear and Loathing on the House Intelligence Committee, Part Deux

The September 11, 2001 terror attacks lays bare the oversight panel's dysfunction

Patricia Ravalgi
Nov 27, 2020
Comment
Share

Share

“Congressional oversight for intelligence,” the 9/11 Commission Report stated bluntly, “is now dysfunctional.” 

Period. And that was a kind way of putting it.

It was 2004. The House Intelligence Committee, in particular, was a smoldering wreck after years of partisan rancor, mostly fanned by Newt Gingrich, the incendiary Republican Speaker of the House. From 1995 until 1999, when he was forced to resign under a cloud of ethics violations, Gingrich had pursued a policy of payback against Democrats who controlled the House for 40 years.

In 2000, its Republican staff director had committed suicide after waging a secret vendetta to destroy CIA Director John Deutch, who had launched a campaign to scrub the spy agency’s payrolls of murderous and corrupt informants, particularly in Latin America. Deutch was forced to resign over security violations and narrowly escaped prosecution. 

Then came the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, a tragic, fiery exposure of the panel’s oversight dysfunction. Ex…

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2022 Jeff Stein
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing