“Don’t you understand the way intelligence works? Do you think that because I’m chairman of the Intelligence Committee, that I just say I want it, and they give it to me? They control it. All of it. All of it. All of the time. I only get and my committee only gets, what they want to give me.”

what a bastard, don’t suppose he’s ever heard of a subpoena?
wtf does his staff do, sit around and play with themselves all day? right, like there’s absolutely nothing that’s ever been put into print about any of this and their phony crap…N.F.L, Rockhead

I reported on alleged U.S. support for Jundullah last year when I interviewed Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) about the stories from ABC News and Sy Hersh claiming the U.S. was supporting anti-Iranian terrorist groups. Not that you’d be surprised, but Rockefeller claimed there was nothing he could do to investigate the allegations.

When asked what he could do to find out if there was any truth to the news reports, Rockefeller (condescendingly) told me:

“Don’t you understand the way intelligence works? Do you think that because I’m chairman of the Intelligence Committee, that I just say I want it, and they give it to me? They control it. All of it. All of it. All of the time. I only get and my committee only gets, what they want to give me.”

(You can hear audio of the interview by clicking my name.)

At the time, the Other Scott Horton wrote (http://harpers.org/archive/2007/04/horton-20070425lwyh) that the exchange demonstrated the Bush administration’s “covert war on the Constitution”. I’d agree with those comments, except I’d say Rockefeller and the majority of Democrats in Congress are, at the very least, willing enablers of that war.