Rockefeller: Senate Intelligence Committee is slipping into irrelevance

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/17/eavesdropping/

Senate plans no probe of NSA spy program

<snip>

Ranking committee Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller said the decision was influenced by the Bush administration.

"It is ... more than apparent to me that the White House has applied heavy pressure in recent days and recent weeks to prevent the committee from doing its job." (Full story)

He said the committee is slipping into irrelevance because it's not providing oversight of the program.

...

Rockefeller said no committee vote was taken on his request to investigate the program, and any signs of compromise from the White House "are entirely unknown or unheard of by me."

"The very independence of this committee is called into question as we are continually prevented from having a full accounting of prewar intelligence on Iraq; the CIA's detention, interrogation and rendition program; and now, the NSA's warrantless surveillance and eavesdropping program," said Rockefeller. "If we are prevented from fully understanding and evaluating the NSA program, our committee will continue its slide toward irrelevance."