Hiding the truth about Iraq from oversight.

Bill Frist is going to hold back the Intelligence bill for the second year in a row for political considerations.

If the bill does not come to the floor before the end of the year — a possibility that looks increasingly likely — it would mark the second year in a row that the Republicans have shied away from completing the legislation after an unbroken skein that began in 1978.

Like last year, Senate Democrats are prepared to push amendments that would demand that President Bush give Congress closely held information on the Iraq War and his terror suspect detention practices. But Frist does not want to give them the platform to do so, because he considers a rehash of the war to be a waste of the Senate’s time, according to the Tennessee Republican’s chief of staff.

The failure to pass an authorization bill for two consecutive years would further neuter the Intelligence panels.Without it, the House and Senate committees would have no say in providing the intelligence community with strategic and financial guidance.

In other words, we're not going to allow anyone to prevent present mistakes because they may want to talk about past mistakes.

Also: Negroponte is issuing guidelines to allow agency directors to withhold reporting to Congress "at their discretion."