Obama's Disappointing Secrecy | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Disappointing Secrecy | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The administration recently threatened to veto the intelligence authorization bill, the annual legislation that funds the Central Intelligence Agency.

The trouble with the bill, according to the administration, is a requirement that intelligence officials brief some secret intelligence activities to Congress's full intelligence committees rather than just the 'gang of eight' (each party's leader in each house and the chairmen and ranking members of those committees). The administration wants to keep the power to determine whom it briefs."

"Thanks to a report written by the inspector generals of several federal agencies, we also learned last week that the National Security Agency's controversial, warrantless wiretapping program (the "terrorist surveillance program" to its Orwellian creators) found few, if any, terrorists, contrary to its advocates' claims."