By Robert Parry
December 3, 2006
Gates Hearing Has New Urgency
SecrecyPlus, as Defense Secretary not only would Gates be in charge of managing the Iraq War and the broader “war on terror” but he would oversee the National Security Agency’s electronic spying operations and the new military tribunals which amount to a parallel legal structure existing outside U.S. constitutional safeguards.
In all these areas, Bush has resisted any meaningful congressional oversight – and is likely to continue asserting executive secrecy when the Democrats try to conduct informational hearings after taking control of Congress in January.
The Bush administration has made clear it won’t submit to congressional subpoenas if it considers the information privileged or overly sensitive.
Thus, it makes sense for Bush to push through Gates’s confirmation during the lame-duck session when the Republicans are still in charge. Quick confirmation would deny the Democrats one of their few pressure points – approval of Gates – that they could use to extract some cooperation from the White House in the planned oversight hearings.
Once Bush secures the Senate’s consent on Gates, the only practical moves left to Congress – besides time-consuming subpoena battles fought through the federal courts – will be withholding money from the war effort or impeachment – two drastic steps that the Democrats have signaled they won’t do.more at......
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/120306.html