The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reportedly gave its approval last week to an Obama administration plan to provide weapons to moderate rebels in Syria. There was no public debate and no open vote when one of the most contentious topics in American foreign policy was decided. Ask individual members of the committee, who represent 117 million people in 14 states, how they stood on the plan to use the CIA to funnel weapons to the rebels and they are likely to respond with the current equivalent of “none of your business:" It’s classified. Those were, in fact, the words Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the committee, used when asked a few days before the approval was granted, to clarify her position for her constituents. She declined. It’s a difficult situation, she said. And, “It’s classified.” Read it all. [BJS]
