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Daily Archives: December 15, 2005

New CRS Report Clearly Documents Differences in Congressional and Presidential Access to Intelligence Data

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Press release: Senator Feinstein Releases Nonpartisan CRS Report that Concludes Congress Did Not Have Access to Full Scope of Prewar Intelligence.
CRS Report, Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information, December 14, 2005:

  • Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National Intelligence – By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President’s position also affords him the authority – which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted – to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President – in contrast to Members of Congress – have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community’s intelligence more accurately than is Congress. In addition to their greater access to intelligence, the President and his senior advisors also are better equipped than is Congress to assess intelligence information by virtue of the primacy of their roles in formulating U.S. foreign policy…”

    • Commentary by Bill Moyers on Government Secrecy

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    In the Kingdom of the Half-Blind, by Bill Moyers. “This is the prepared text of the address delivered on December 9, 2005, by Bill Moyers for the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library at The George Washington University, in Washington D.C.” “It has to be said: there has… Continue Reading

    Non Partisan Report Notes Slight Upturn in Satisfaction With E-Gov Sites

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    Federal Government Scores, December 15, 2005, American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Commentary by Professor Claes Fornell: “Since 2003, the ACSI has also measured satisfaction with Federal government websites. This year, the ACSI e-Government index rose 2.5% from 72.1 a year ago, up to a score of 73.9. Much like offline government services, there is a… Continue Reading

    Report Reveals Post 9/11 Gov’t Surveillance of Americans

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    New York Times: Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials Say, by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau: “Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the… Continue Reading

    Senate Vote on Patriot Act Scheduled Tomorrow

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    AP: Feingold Now Has Numbers on His Side – As the only Senator voting against the Patriot Act in 2001, Feingold’s consistent efforts to reform the bill have resulted in a bipartisan group now comprising over 24 Senators who are demanding reforms before reauthorizing the legislation. Statement by Sen. Russ Feingold: “The Senate is scheduled… Continue Reading

    Science Magazine Reviews Accuracy of Wikipedia

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    Following up on a series of postings included in Authority of Vast Collaborative Online Encyclopedia Questioned, please see this related article, Nature 438, 900-901 (15 December 2005), Special Report, Internet encyclopaedias go head to head, by Jim Giles: “Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a… Continue Reading