Intelligence agencies to face ‘cleanup agenda’
Mirth November 24th, 2006 - 5:03 pmWASHINGTON (CNN)
The incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says he will have a “cleanup agenda” ready when Democrats take power in January.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said the agenda will include reviews of the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping and the CIA’s secret prisons.
Rockefeller said he wants to correct what he called a “lack of oversight” by the committee that gave free rein to the Bush administration in the war on terror.
“It’s not understandable to me, but the majority party sort of didn’t want to do a lot of oversight,” Rockefeller said in an interview aired Thursday on CNN Radio.
Rockefeller said the committee, which oversees U.S. intelligence operations, should be “holding people accountable, and what I hope to do is be aggressive on that.”
The four-term Democrat will be taking over the chairmanship of the committee from Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas.
