Congress Must Investigate the CIA

Victoria Toensing, writing in the Wall Street Journal, calls for an invesigation of the CIA to determine what really happened in the case of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame.

Among the many questions she raises is why the CIA did not warn Bob Novak off the story when he called to verify the information he had been given regarding Joseph Wilson's wife. As Novak himself noted, he would have edited out any mention of Plame if the CIA had indicated that there was anything "covert" about her.

The entire Plame affair appears increasingly likely to have been an attempt by a faction within the CIA to "sting" the Bush administration. Since Patrick Fitzgerald has displayed zero interest in getting to the bottom of what Wilson and his wife were up to, a Congressional investigation is both appropriate and long overdue.

This Republican Congress has displayed a near total aversion to investigating crimes on the part of the political opposition. Perhaps the lesson they took from the Clinton impeachment trial is that such investigations will always be spun to their disadvantage. Whatever the explanation, the list of matters crying out for Congressional hearings is extensive and grows longer all the time. The forged memos pertaining to Bush's TANG service are an example, and the widespread vote fraud in the 2004 elections are another.

John Hinderaker and Bill Kristol wonder why the Bush administration does not fight back against the lies. It's an appropriate question, but one which might be asked with equal force of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate, which appear to be more concerned with trying to appease the Democrats in Congress and the media than in defending themselves and advancing their own agenda.

A single blog has little influence. But if all the blogs on the right extert pressure, and sustain it, they can sometimes get results. It is time for us to start putting pressure on the Republican party, both in Congress and in the White House, to thoroughly investigate what has happened and is happening within the CIA. This intelligence agency continues to leak classified information to the detriment of the war effort, even several months after Porter Goss took over the reins. If the executive branch is unable to control the departments under its jurisdiction then Congress has both the right and the obligation to provide oversight.