Feinstein: Senate Intel Committee May Investigate CIA Targeting of Cole

Senator Diane Feinstein says that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence may open an investigation into allegations that the Bush White House attempted to use the CIA to have my reputation destroyed in 2005-2006. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) refuses to have the House intelligence committee look into it, trying to kick it to Eric Holder at the Department of Justice. If the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee is not interested in whether the Bush White House and the CIA broke the law by targeting an American author on US soil, then frankly we have an answer to Ben Franklin’s concerns; after the Constitutional Convention he is said to have been asked about the form of the new government and to have replied, “A Republic– if you can keep it.” Guess not so much.

The Boston Globe editorial board differs with Rogers, calling for a full congressional investigation as well as one by the CIA Inspector General. The Globe notes that then Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte’s response to the scandal, that he has no memory of the event but that others in his office may have been approached by the White House about me, is hardly a decisive refutation of the charges. Negroponte is now “a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.”

Greg Sargent at WaPo notes suggestively:

‘Judging from Senator Feinstein’s quote, the scope and goals of this initial effort to look into the story are unclear, but at a minimum, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are now taking a first step in that direction. This could also force a public relitigation of the Bush administration’s efforts to sell the Iraq War to the public — a topic that is likely to stir intense passions on both sides.’

Well if all this could be an occasion finally to look into the propaganda campaign whereby we were inveigled into the Iraq War, that would make it all worth it. But actually I don’t know what passions could any longer be stirred about it. Most people know the whole thing was a joint Oil Man/ Neocon get-up job.

Salon.com has put together a reading list of my articles for them in the period during which the Bush White House was interested in having the CIA “get” me.