COMMISSION SENSIT IVE

MEMORANDUM

F O R

T H E

RECORD M eeting with Vice Cha irman Lee Ham ilton on Congres sional Oversight February

25,2004

Attendees: Ph ilip Zeli kow, Chris

Kojm,

Joh n Roth, t he Vice Cha irman 's assistant, and Gordon

Lederman

Prepared

by:

Gordon Lederman Gordon Lederm an provi ded a brief update on our work concerning C ongress ional oversight. The

HPSCI

and S SCI have coll ect ed docum ents at our reques t and are holding them for our review. W e have scheduled interviews with SSCI an d HPSCI

staffers.

Also, we have covered Congressional oversight

issues

during i nterviews with E xecutive Branch

officials

and academics. Vice Chairman H amilton

suggested

that

we

tal k with

t he

staff

director

o f

Rep. Chris Shays' Government

Reform

subcommittee. W e shoul d also tal k with Senator Bob Graham's staffers

an d

Sen.

Shelby's

staffers.

We are

already scheduled

to

meet

with Bill Duhnke. Philip Zelikow sug gest ed that we talk with Sen.

Shelby's

staffer

who wrote the

Senator's

addendum

to the

Joint Inquiry;

Philip Zelikow

thought that

th e

staffer

had

gone

into

the Executive B ranch. Vice C hairman Ham ilton sa id that he is unsure how to approac h this issu e and directed us to meet with

staffers

of

Senators

McCain , R ockefell er, and Harm an to ask t hem for recommendations

f or

strengthening oversight

an d

w hat recommendati ons

a re

actually feasible.

He

not ed that

th e

Joint Inquiry

did not

examine

Congressional

oversight

due to

time constraint s. Vice Ch airman Ham ilton s aid that we should keep in close cont act with Comm issi oners Kerrey,

Roemer,

and G orton

because

they have a str ong inter est in this issue on account

of

their experience i n Congress. Com missioner K errey is extremely interested, Vice Chairman Hamilton said. Vice Chairman Ha milton said we should not co nfine our inter views

just

to Congress but should talk with high-level Execu tive Branch

officials.

However, t alking with s uch

officials

is a deli cate matter . W e s hould als o talk with the PFIA B. The Intelli gence Community is

difficult

to over see because

(1 )

it has a

leave

it to us attitude, and (2) the re is no media exposur e. The PF IA B and Congress are the two bodies with a

stand-off

perspecti ve on the Intel lig ence Com munity, al though Vice Chairm an Ha milton noted that the PFIA B is appoint ed by the President. Chris

Kojm

suggested that w e need to go beyond C ongres sion al oversi ght of the Intell igence C omm unity and examine how Congres s as an instit ution is handling nat ional security issues

after