When a
privacy-rights group requested records to show how many times a
secretive presidential oversight board had asked the Justice Department
to investigate possible violations of intelligence-gathering laws since
2001, the answer that came back last month was as simple as it was
startling.
Zero.
One possible reason: For more than half of President Bush's first
term, the Intelligence Oversight Board had no members because Bush
didn't appoint anyone to it.
Bush didn't make appointments to his oversight board until March 17,
2003, well after his administration had begun an aggressive, post-Sept.
11, 2001, expansion of intelligence-related activity.
The oversight board, which can have up to five members, operates in
secrecy, but the little information about its workload that has come to
light suggests there was ample questionable behavior to examine.
Last month, the Justice Department's inspector general reported that
the FBI had referred 108 possible violations of intelligence
regulations to the oversight board in 2004 and 2005, ranging in
severity "from relatively minor to significant."
A few heavily censored reports that have been made public suggest
that the more serious cases involve surveillance of U.S. residents
without proper supervision.
The total does not take into account any alleged violations that
might have been reported from the other 15 agencies that make up the
U.S. intelligence community.
Critics say the long delay in appointing an oversight board fits a Bush administration pattern of resisting scrutiny.
"This administration has had a consistent lack of interest in what
causes failures," said former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat who
served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from
mid-2001 to early 2003. "There's a disinterest in understanding what
happened, much less holding anyone accountable. It's part of a larger
environment of secrecy and a `we know it all' attitude."
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