Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- This St. Petersburg Times (http://www.sptimes.com) story has been sent to you from [EMAIL PROTECTED] MORE ON SEN. BOB (”I can’t talk about that”) GRAHAM: In a perverse way (think “Dr. Strangelove”), this article is rather humorous. Graham “leads two lives,” as “power broker” and “tight-lipped guardian of secrets.” Like the proverbial ”potted plant” referred to during the Iran-Contra hearings, he is often mum during interviews and unable to “share [information] with other members of the committee” he chairs. The notion that America should be “able to sleep better at night” with this throwback standing watch over our benighted Republic is as darkly comic as it is chilling. Sleep tight? Not for a minute. Graham provides one more reason to mobilize for the September 29 march on Washington. Regards, N.C. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.sptimes.com/News/072201/Worldandnation/Sen_Graham_oversees_w.shtml Sen. Graham oversees world of intrigue By PAUL DE LA GARZA © St. Petersburg Times, published July 22, 2001 In his role heading up the Senate committee that monitors all the U.S. spy agencies, the Florida Democrat has had to learn how to keep secrets. WASHINGTON -- The scene was nothing like the sexy banter between 007 and Miss Moneypenny outside M's office. In this spy story, a small group spoke in hushed tones outside the supersecret hearing room of the U.S. Senate. The group, mostly men in dark suits and the occasional military uniform, was about to enter a secure "vault" to testify about some of America's deepest secrets before the committee that monitors American spy operations. And ready to hear what they had to say was a familiar face: Sen. Bob Graham. As the new chairman of the 17-member Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Florida Democrat is charged with making sure that the intelligence community, which is part of the executive branch, plays by the rules. His purview includes all spy agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency. Graham enjoys the nation's highest security clearance, "Top Secret Codeword," and is privy to a mind-boggling body of secrets, including every covert operation run by American intelligence. "By virtue of where he sits," says CIA Director George Tenet, "he has access to know in real time the behind-the-scenes of what's going on around the world." What's going on, Graham isn't telling. Indeed, over the years, the senator and the words "I can't talk about that" have become close. In a recent interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Graham did allow that U.S. spying capabilities amazed him. It's the stuff of spy thrillers, he said. "There are technical things that we can do that I was shocked were within our capability," he said. "And there are some tactics that we use which aren't part of the Boy Scout handbook of prudent behavior." Born of CIA scandals The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and its counterpart in the House, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chaired by Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, are relatively young committees. The Senate committee was created on May 19, 1976; the House panel a year later. The committees were born out of the CIA scandals of the mid-1970s, when, after decades of virtually free rein, stories surfaced about bizarre assassination plots, mind-control experiments on unwitting subjects and domestic spying. Coupled with a loss of confidence in the executive branch after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Congress set up ad hoc committees to investigate. What they uncovered was, well, un-American. During a 15-month investigation that began in January 1975, for example, the Church Committee -- chaired by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho -- discovered at least eight plots against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. One featured a poisoned wet suit for scuba diving. Four years ago, L. Britt Snider, the former CIA inspector general, chronicled congressional oversight of the agency since its creation in 1947. He expanded on the reasons the CIA ran afoul. He cited a 1956 letter by Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia opposing a resolution to create a joint committee on intelligence as typical of the thinking back then. "If there is one agency of the government in which we must take some matters on faith, without a constant examination of its methods and sources," Russell wrote, "I believe this agency is the CIA." Not anymore. Loch Johnson, a University of Georgia political science professor who served on the Church Committee, says the oversight committees tend to focus on three major categories of legislative interest. They review the collection and assessment of information, or analysis; the protection of the information, or counterintelligence; and covert action. He describes covert action as "the aggressive use of the CIA to intervene secretly in the affairs of other nations to advance the interests of the United States." Former Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., the longest-serving chairman of the committee, said service on the committee carries enormous weight. Indeed, unlike other committees, the members of the Intelligence Committee are chosen by their Senate leaders rather than by all senators of their party. During his tenure, Boren said, he managed to put a stop to questionable covert operations involving foreign bank accounts. The money wasn't being spent like it was supposed to. "You really stand there," said Boren, who led the committee during the collapse of the former Soviet Union, "as the trustee for the American people." Jungles and hideaways In a very real sense, Bob Graham leads two lives. He is the public Washington power broker, and he is the tight-lipped guardian of secrets. Because the committee's business is usually conducted behind closed doors, Graham says, it acts as the "eyes and ears" of the American people. In that capacity, he often finds himself in exotic locales, in the coca-infested jungles of Colombia, for example, or in some secret hideaway in the Middle East. Graham also uses the tools of the spy craft, known as the black world within the intelligence community. He has secure telephones in his Senate offices and in his homes in Washington and Miami. He has regular contact with Tenet, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Graham said one of the biggest challenges he faced when he landed on the committee in 1993 was to learn how to keep quiet. A seasoned politician, he had grown accustomed to courting the press, to calling attention to himself and to his legislative agenda. As chairman of the Intelligence Committee, however, a position he assumed last month during the power shift in the Senate, some secrets he can't even share with other members of the committee. So how does he do it? How does he keep from blurting out secrets? By erring on the side of caution, Graham said. During the interview, for example, conducted over breakfast in his regular Senate office, he often turned to committee staff to ask if he could answer a particular question. Invariably, he couldn't. Even the identity of the group that testified that day was off-limits. Asked what his constituents would think about the secrets he knows, Graham paused. "We just had a briefing on the issues of terrorism, and I think people would be alarmed at how potentially significant this threat is to the United States," he said. "They'd probably be surprised at some of the techniques we are using to try to control it." Watching the spy network Although overwhelmed, the two committees do relatively good work, national security analysts say. With a combined work force of maybe 100 people, including members of Congress and professional staff, the committees keep tabs on a spy network with tens of thousands of people and an annual budget in the billions of dollars. Committee staffers say that to effectively monitor a high-tech, complicated community with many moving parts, they pick and choose their targets. In other words, they can't review everything. Staffers say the CIA inspector general is a powerful ally in the oversight mission. Snider, however, the CIA inspector general who retired in January, said that when it comes to oversight, Congress is still at the mercy of the White House. "Congress itself, though relatively satisfied with its ability to tap into intelligence information, still remains at the forbearance of the executive in terms of the intelligence it is given," he wrote in his report in 1997. "Congress cannot request information it does not know exists." Johnson gave a mixed assessment of congressional oversight. "Their work has been uneven, episodic, but so much better than what we had before 1975," he said. "Intelligence oversight is not an oxymoron." Johnson, however, argued that intelligence oversight is not a congressional priority because of the demands of elected office. He said the biggest weakness of the committees is a problem endemic to Congress: the amount of time members have to devote to the task. Graham said he spends about 10 hours a week in his role as committee chairman. "You get credit for passing bills," Johnson said. "You get credit for pork. You don't get a lot of credit for oversight." Graham agreed that with 17 members on his committee and approximately 30 professional staffers, "the scale of the stated job is a lot bigger than our resources." But he said there are ways to keep the intelligence community honest. The committee, for example, tries to stay close to the users of intelligence, including the Defense and State departments, to determine if they are being properly served. It also reviews past failures, like the USS Cole attack in Yemen and the Robert Hanssen spy case, to avoid repeating mistakes. And it tries to identify potential problems, which Graham plans to stress as committee chairman. For example, he talked about problems with analyzing reams of intercepted communications in languages and codes barely understood by American intelligence. He also said that the intelligence community must build up its human assets and become more diverse, not solely recruiting Russian-looking spies, but spies who can operate in places like the Balkans, North Korea and the Andean region. "You're dealing with the worst people in the world within the bounds of the law and our concepts of human rights," Graham said. "You have to be prepared to respond, if not in kind, at least sufficiently to achieve the mission and protect your people." Goss, a former CIA officer and a close friend of the senator's, said the committees also can use their control of the intelligence budget as an effective oversight tool. "Without us, there's no funding," he said. "We make it clear (about) being candid and operating above board. If we get burned once, they'll get burned a longer time." Tenet pointed out that the budget process added transparency to agency operations. "Yes, it's hard to get into every nook and cranny of everything," he said, speaking of congressional oversight. "But in terms of focusing on the most important things, they do a very good job." The vault Both the committee offices and the hearing room down the hall, or the "vault," exude a feeling of intrigue. Staff computers have tags marked "Top Secret" and paper shredders sit on top of file cabinets. Without windows and under constant armed guard, the vault is in Room SH-219 in the Senate Hart office building. Known as a sensitive compartmented information facility, it sits around the corner from the witness waiting area. Among its features are specially designed metal doors that keep radio signals from escaping. The idea is to prevent unauthorized intercepts. A tiny resource library by the waiting area features spy books with titles like, Cloak and Gown, Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961, and Spying on Americans. The walls are olive, the carpeting brown, the top of the horseshoe-shaped table where the senators sit an ugly green. The chairs are pink, with worn wood armrests. The seals of the various spy agencies line the back walls. The vault seats under 100 people, including committee members and staff. Three video monitors face the senators should they need to set up a conference with intelligence officers around the world. The monitors also can hook up to a classified computer network, to pull up secret maps and charts. To serve on the Intelligence Committee, staffers -- the majority of them former members of the intelligence community -- must undergo a criminal background check. Needless to say, they're squeaky clean. Consider the national security application. "Background investigations for national security positions," it says, "are conducted to develop information to show whether you are reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the United States." Members of Congress get a security clearance by virtue of getting elected. The Bond mystique It is no secret that the intelligence community leans heavily on technology. American satellites are equipped with cameras so powerful they can see on which side you part your hair. Satellites also can snatch most forms of electronic communication out of the air. In the book Body of Secrets, Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, author James Bamford reveals that the United States regularly listens in on the portable telephone conversations between terrorist Osama bin Laden and his mother. "According to intelligence officials," he writes, "bin Laden is aware that the United States can eavesdrop on his international communications, but he does not seem to care." Former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., a previous committee chairman, said, "The capability is there to almost know what the prime minister had for breakfast." The problem, he said -- which Graham and Goss are addressing -- is how to analyze millions of intercepts in a timely way to get it to the right customer. DeConcini said that in addition to being able to eavesdrop on the conversations of world leaders, including U.S. allies, American spies run remarkable covert operations. A few years ago in Colombia, DeConcini said, he saw "one of the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering capabilities" targeting drug traffickers. The operation was run by a special arm of one of the U.S. armed forces. The operation was so secret, DeConcini said, that only three or four people within the entire Colombian government were aware of its existence. Access to that type of information gives the committee a certain mystique. Staffers say there is a waiting list of at least 20 senators. Service on the committee is limited to eight years to avoid losing objectivity. Graham got a two-year extension because of the lack of Democrats on the panel with experience. "It does have a James Bond quality," said Johnson, the former Church Committee staffer. "You're really in the know on things that are important, things that could have real repercussions for American society." Graham agreed. While Floridians won't see a road project or a bridge go up as a result of his work on the Intelligence Committee, they will reap benefits nonetheless, he said. Like the rest of America, the senator said, his constituents should be able to sleep better at night. America's spy agencies As the new chairman of the 16-member Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Bob Graham is charged with making sure that the intelligence community, which is part of the executive branch, plays by the rules. His purview includes: Central Intelligence Agency National Security Agency Defense Intelligence Agency FBI Counterintelligence National Reconnaissance Office National Imagery Mapping Agency Intelligence and Research, State Department Treasury Department Energy Department Department of Defense Counterintelligence Community Management Account, which includes two subaccounts: Department of Defense and non-Department of Defense ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://Topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
