The NSA Review Panel Shut Down
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The green fields of espionage must be kept in immaculate order. Which is why, when the government shutdown in Washington began, the oversight team also went with it. Or at least the staffers connected with that task.
The NSA Review Panel, set up in August after Edward Snowden’s revelations, was something of a comic interlude in the business of American power. If you wanted the Triads or the Cosa Nostra to conduct a review of their own operations, this is what it would look like. The staffers on the five-member Review group are themselves so ensconced in the intelligence-White House establishment they have ossified. When one is getting former acting CIA director Michael Morell to be top heavy in the action, the power comedians have again taken over.
As for some comedic commentary, we have Morrell himself on the subject of halting the group’s work, claiming it was “no more important than – and quite frankly a lot less important – than a lot of the work being left undone by the government shutdown both in the intelligence community and outside the intelligence community.”
On Friday, the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, which is facilitating the window cleaning operation, argued that staff connected to the panellists would be subject to furlough. Now, in the pro bono spirit of public service, the panel members might still continue in their patriotic industry. But the spy business, and, it seems, those reviewing the spy business, don’t see it that way.
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/08/the-nsa-review-panel-shut-down/