On Friday, the White House issued a new executive order effectively gutting the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), “created in 1976 in the wake of widespread abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies.” Under the order, many of the IOB’s investigative powers will now be transfered to DNI Mike McConnell. “Rather than intelligence agencies reporting their activities to the board for review, they will now report them to McConnell,” the AP notes. Smintheus has more.I've said it before and I'll say it again: someone needs to examine Bush's use of Executive orders the way Charlie Savage examined his use of signing statements. If we can't have a Congress that actually performs its constitutionally mandated roll of oversight of the presidency, can we at least document for posterity how democracy is slowly being dismantled?
This latest effort to make sure that the public knows nothing about the actions of its government is in addition to a covert effort to kill the Freedom of Information Act Office.
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