Cuis custodiet

And for our second helping of Congressional mischief this morning  (I do not want to blog about this stuff, I took a day of A/L to do math:  but the affordances of the morning papers  so stick in the craw  that I cannot swallow my croissant, and must spew this out  before breakfast can continue), courtesy of columnist David Ignatius, a longtime follower of the IC:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-senates-anti-leaking-bill-doesnt-address-the-real-sources-of-information/2012/07/31/gJQAPBElNX_print.html

Highlights:

The first question to ask about the draconian anti-leaking legislation passed by the Senate intelligence committee last week is whether it applies uniformly to all branches of government that may disclose classified information unlawfully.

And the answer is: Of course not. Members of Congress and their staffs are entirely exempted from the new rules that may require for others more polygraphs, more paperwork and the possible loss of pension benefits. White House and other executive-branch officials (weren’t they the supposed targets?) are also exempt from most of the new rules.

No, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bill does the usual congressional thing when there’s a flap involving intelligence matters: It whumps on the intelligence agencies themselves. That’s where the committee’s jurisdiction lies, so that’s where the hammer falls.

But after 35 years of writing about intelligence matters, I want to confide a journalistic secret: Most damaging leaks don’t come from U.S. intelligence agencies. They come from overseas, or they come from the executive branch, or they come, ahem, from Congress.  …The members of Congress who see the most sensitive classified information aren’t even given a security check!

O tempora, o this sux (that’s Latin).
Or, as Juvenal so aptly put it:  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  Who shall police the police? Or in this case:  who shall police those policing the police ??

If these cackling ganders  would pour the goose-sauce upon themselves as well, the bill might do some good.