Oversight overlooked

The four senators I worked for taught me that the most important thing I could do as a national security staffer was to help them with their oversight responsibilities. That is, to find out what was really going on in the Defense Department behind the gloss of official testimony, the military services'

sleek budget brochures, and officers' slick briefings on supposedly flawless weapon systems. That way, my bosses could ask the kind of questions at committee hearings that would prompt Defense witnesses to glance back at their staff for help and promise to provide complete answers - just as soon as they found out themselves.

On Feb. 13, I attended a Senate Armed Services Committee oversight hearing where Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified. Rumors were rife that day that war with Iraq was imminent. In that atmosphere, you'd think the oversight afterburners would be lit and the committee would be doing all kinds of things to find and address soft spots in our defenses that Pentagon officials had failed to address.