Low on the intelligence curve

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The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has found bad information was provided to the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war. Some members of Congress claim if they known then what they now know they would have not voted to authorize force to topple Saddam Hussein.

That adage about being careful about the finger you point at others because three are pointing back at you applies here. It is Congress, not the executive branch, that fashions our intelligence apparatus, authorizes money and sets parameters beyond which information collection may not legally go. Congress should at least share equal blame with the various intelligence agencies for faulty information. That includes the newly minted Democratic vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, a member of the Select Committee who apparently was not aware of much in his rapid pursuit of higher goals.

A little history adds to the understanding of the restrictions under which the CIA has been forced to operate. The CIA was created in 1947 to address the Soviet Union's growing espionage activities. In the mid-1970s, Congress and the public began questioning the role of the agency following the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal. The media disclosed many abuses by intelligence agencies and new guidelines were recommended by presidential commissions and drafted by congressional committees, including one headed by former Sen. Frank Church, Idaho Democrat, restricting the work of the CIA and mandating stronger legislative oversight.

President Jimmy Carter signed the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980, which restricted the right of Congress to monitor the CIA to the Senate and House Intelligence committees. The law said just eight members of Congress were to receive special information, and even that information was to be released to other members only under extraordinary circumstances.

CIA successes -- and there are many -- are less well known than its failures for obvious reasons. Failures include the Soviet downing in 1960 of the U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers, embarrassing President Eisenhower who first denied and then was forced to admit the spy mission. The Bay of Pigs disaster under President Kennedy further embarrassed the agency. That was followed by Kennedy's assassination in 1963, and more criticism for the CIA when it was learned the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had earlier been identified as a dangerous political malcontent but the CIA had lost track of him.

During the Watergate period, the CIA was found to have spied on American citizens and the agency took heat from the Hollywood and literary left. The Iran-Contra "scandal" during the Reagan administration further besmirched the agency. The 1994 disclosure that longtime CIA employee Aldrich Ames -- son of a CIA executive -- was a Soviet spy and the highest-paid American traitor in history took morale to new lows.

On Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, Congress had access to the same information given the White House and Pentagon. It was information credible to many other nations. In typical hand-washing fashion, Congress now wants to avoid taking blame and is passing the buck to others. Senators could have questioned the accuracy of any of the intelligence they received, but the members of this body, who often do not read the bills for which they vote and seem to care more about pork than matters pertaining to war and security, refuse to hold themselves even partially accountable.

Was it laziness or dereliction of duty on the part of Congress? Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times wrote a year ago: "Fewer than a dozen House members have taken the time to review more than 10,000 pages of intelligence documents backing up the administration claims about Iraq, which were made available more than a month ago." Surely senators had access to this material. Where was congressional oversight?

The larger question -- is the world better off without Saddam Hussein in power? -- cannot be answered any way but "yes." How much more dangerous would the world be had Saddam not been ousted and the Iraqi people given a chance for freedom? Civilization advances when any tyrant falls.

As Congress attempts to correct mistakes at the CIA, Congress should not ignore its own shortcomings. It might also want to question where the weapons of mass destruction have gone, since they were once in Iraq and used by Saddam.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist.