The CIA And NSA Should Be Happy That Mark Udall Is Gone by Ali Watkins | Huffington Post | Posted: 11/05/2014 11:59 am EST Excerpts: WASHINGTON -- "He wasn't vocal about promoting his work on civil liberties and intelligence. But over time, astute national security wonks learned to watch him. His statements sometimes seemed abstract, but were often signposts pointing to something deeper. He wrote letters, he asked questions and he left hints on the public record signaling major intelligence community abuses. Many times, it was his clues that helped shake those stories loose. But in January, Colorado's Mark Udall (D)will pack up his Hart Senate Building office -- located just a few floors above the headquarters of the Intelligence Committee, where he made himself a thorn in the side of the nation's clandestine leaders -- and return to Boulder, depriving the critical task of intelligence oversight of one of its most viable leaders. With Udall's departure, civil liberties organizations are losing one of their most critical allies on Capitol Hill. Udall has consistently broken with his own party leadership to criticize a number of the Obama administration's national security policies as well as the tactics of the White House's leading spy agencies. Rather than toeing the party line on intelligence issues, Udall instead found a comfortable home in a bipartisan group of lawmakers - commonly called the 'Checks and Balances' caucus - who fought civil liberties infringements and championed greater government transparency. Udall's role as one of the Hill's chief intelligence critics was heralded by supportive colleagues and chastised by intelligence defenders, many of them members of his own party. Along with fellow Intelligence Committee colleagues Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Udall played a key role in uncovering this year's revelation that the CIA had spied on Congress, a feud that panel chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) desperately wanted to keep under wraps. Some advocates say that Udall was able to become a key proponent of civil liberties largely because of unspoken Senate rules that allow lawmakers to carve out specific issues for themselves. "That has a lot to do with courtesy and deference toward another senator who has made something a 'signature issue' "There are a lot of Democrats and some independents and Republicans - who care a lot about these issues," he said, referring to civil liberties, intelligence and national security. Someone, Rickard predicted, will eventually pick up Udall's torch. But it's not likely to be Gardner. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has clearly aligned itself with Udall on many of the senator's civil liberties battles, rates Gardner at a dismal 7 percent, in contrast to Udall's 100. Gardner has voted consistently to extend certain provisions of the Patriot Act. He voted in 2012 to extend provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which ultimately gave way to the massive data collection programs that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed last year. No one quite knows what's next for Udall, who is a career politician. But there's no doubt that his imminent absence from the Intelligence Committee, along with Gardner's pending entrance into the Senate, has the White House and its favorite spy agencies breathing a little easier - for now." read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/udall-cia-nsa_n_6095832.html ...... IMO: Senator Udall was a leading proponent of transparency in government and women's rights was always on his to-do list. He was an extremely capable Senator who had these two issues as his mainstream focus and they are timely, important for a transparent Democracy and the equality of women. While we have a number of Democrats that will carry on Senator Udall's intensive dedication to causes, and his republican successor doesn't appear to have the brains, will, or anything other than blindly following party orders, so government transparency and the plight of American women will possibly suffer until another Democrat steps forward to do great things in the name of Democracy as Senator Udall did. He should now write an explosive book even if he doesn't stand on the Senate floor and read the damn copies of the CIA and NSA stuff that Senator Udall is holding. Many Senators have asked him to do this before he leaves.
This is a shame. He is exactly the kind of person we need in government; someone who will do what they can to break secrecy and hold people accountable. At least we still have Wyden.
Depends on how much they value the concept of a government without secret courts that doesn't spy on its citizens. If they value unaccountable departments doing whatever they want in secret then they made the right decision.
If that was true, where was he on Benghazi, Fast & Furious and the IRS dingo ate the hard drives. What did he do about those? [video=youtube;72g7qmeP1dE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72g7qmeP1dE[/video] Obama said the same crapola, what did either of them do to increase Government transparency about those?
Maybe not. According to Newsweek, he is now contemplating releasing the report on the CIA and torture. I hope he does. http://www.newsweek.com/sen-mark-udall-contemplates-revealing-cia-torture-report-284624
Obama certainly didn't help him or anyone, but Udall was against Obama where it counted; with limiting government when it comes to spying on citizens, holding secret courts, and avoiding accountability. There are only a few members of government fighting this fight, and to lose one is very bad. Without people like Udall and Wyden, we will continue to see our government become more secretive, intrusive, and unaccountable. That's where I'm disappointed. If whoever won can take up his torch in this fight then fine I'm down, but from the sound of it he's just another representative who either doesn't care or supports this kind of crap.
Republicans were so successful in the demonizing of ObamaCare that it really became tho only issue brought to the forefront of these elections and this one was no different. Gardner will not do anything about it.
