The Wrong Senator to Oversee the CIA

[Draggingtree]

The Atlantic: The Wrong Senator to Oversee the CIA

Richard Burr now leads the intelligence committee, but he seems more interested in protecting the agency than holding it accountable.

 

CONOR FRIEDERSDORF

 

JAN 22 2015, 6:56 AM ET

 

Senator Richard Burr is acting like a man who doesn't understand the role or duties that he now has. With the Republican Party assuming control of Congress, the North Carolinian is chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, the body charged with overseeing the CIA. His responsibilities are momentous. All senators are called to act as power-jealous checks on the executive branch. And the particular mission of the Senate intelligence committee, created in the wake of horrific CIA abuses, obligates Burr to “provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States" and "to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws.”