Friday, March 14, 2008

Super Secret House Session No Secret At All

It resembled a perverted version of “I’ve Got A Secret” last night as the House of Representatives went into “Secret Session”. The rare move was supposedly to discuss the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act better known as FISA. The problem with such a session is its secrecy. The business of the American government is supposed to be done in the light of day, not in a closed secret session.

Both sides had objections to the move, and since anything discussed in the session, either classified or not would be sealed, it could in effect make certain already known facts “secrets”. A crafty bit of maneuvering by the GOP.

Commenting on the move Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) noted, “There are some of us here who feel that this country has drifted toward a version of a national security state."

His was one of many objections to the secret session, but in the end it was held. The biggest secret was exposed by Minority Whip Roy Blunt who stated, "I have not suggested this is at the top-secret level."

In other words, there would be no secret material discussed, it was all a sham intended to give the appearance of secrecy. Like many in the GOP, appearances are everything, so I guess they succeeded by making things look very, very hush-hush. Maybe next Congress will try the “Super Secret Double Probation” move from Animal House, it makes about as much sense.

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