From Salon.com, 5/7/97
The Whitewash Brigade
Motto of the CIA's "oversight" committee: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
By David Corn

WASHINGTON -- Imagine if the head of a secret, $30 billion-a-year enterprise that recently had been involved in some real screw-ups -- cover-ups, failed operations, drunks, liars and traitors on the payroll -- came before a committee that was overseeing your business. You'd expect some pretty tough questions to be asked.

That is not what happened when President Clinton's latest nominee to head the CIA, George Tenet, appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for his confirmation hearing Tuesday. The vigilance displayed by our elected representatives veered between lackadaisical interest and outright boredom. Tenet had to put up with barely three hours of softball questions, and more than half of the committee did not bother to return after the lunch break. The day provided evidence of why intelligence oversight is considered an all-too accurate pun.

From the moment Tenet was selected -- after Tony Lake's nomination crashed and burned -- he's been a shoo-in for the post. After all, he used to be staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a fact Republicans on the committee fondly recalled, figuring he would be well-trained in the skill they most appreciate: the care and feeding of committee members.

As a former staffer for the National Security Council and deputy CIA director (a post he has held since 1995), he has not done much to irritate the rank and file of the clandestine world either. In fact, last year he pleased many in the CIA by pulling the security clearance -- and, thus, effectively ending the career -- of State Department official Richard Nuccio, who had shared classified information on an agency cover-up with a congressman on the House Intelligence Committee. Nuccio's action triggered a public scandal regarding CIA activity in Guatemala, and the spooks wanted his head. Tenet obliged.

Still, the dispatch with which the committee acted was practically embarrassing. In the afternoon session, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., looked at all the empty seats on the rostrum and sheepishly asked, "Where is everybody?" There were a few interesting moments -- which probably tell more about the purported overseers than the nominee. Several senators asked about the CIA's knowledge of chemical weapons in Iraq during the Gulf War (see top Newsreal story). Tenet said that management had erred by not providing enough resources to CIA analysts working on this matter and that he shared in the blame. In confirmation hearings of years past, it would have been customary for senators to lash into Tenet for his role in this mess. Yet, there was no criticism. And no senator inquired about a statement that Tenet released in February maintaining that the CIA had no information on chemical weapons at an Iraqi site. How had he come to be so misled by his underlings? Did he intend to discipline anyone for passing him such bad information? None of this was brought up. Doing so would have made everyone -- Tenet, the CIA, the committee -- too uncomfortable.

Tenet issued the obligatory rhetoric about ensuring that CIA employees act responsibly. But he refused to criticize those who had engaged in blunders -- so as to not diminish precious morale at the agency. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., noted that an internal CIA report had recommended punishment for 23 agency officials in the aftermath of the Aldrich Ames spy case, yet only 11 were disciplined. He asked Tenet to comment on this apparently light response. Tenet declined to do so, and the senator did not push.

There were no questions for Tenet about the CIA's refusal to make its budget public. Nothing about its refusal to disclose information it possesses on death squads in Honduras that operated in the 1980s. (A governmental inquiry in Honduras has requested the material.) He was not asked about recent allegations that the CIA had become involved with drug traffickers while supporting the contras in Nicaragua.

In fact, Tenet repeatedly declared it was time to stop looking to the past -- words doubtless appreciated in the halls at Langley.

David Corn is Washington editor of the Nation and a frequent contributor to Salon on national politics