TPM: 'A Mute Watchdog'

The President's Intelligence Oversight Board, a panel that has existed for decades, helps police the government's surveillance activities. For several recent presidents, the IOB has been an important watchdog, monitoring potential abuses and legal violations.

Given the Bush gang's record, you'd think the panel would have been working overtime the last several years. We are, after all, talking about a White House that has endorsed secret prisons, rendition policies, torture, and unaccountable domestic wiretapping without warrants. If the IOB exists to investigate intelligence and surveillance abuses, it was tailor made for George W. Bush's presidency.