THE SENATE SELECT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE meets at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday for an open hearing on worldwide threats. Among the attendees will be director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and DIA director Michael Maples.

For months, these officials have refused to answer questions about the ongoing exploitation of documents (known as DOCEX) recovered in postwar Iraq. While much of the questioning will rightly focus on current issues such as Iran, terrorist surveillance, Hamas, and Syria, these hearings present senators with an opportunity to press these intelligence officials on the DOCEX project–both its process and its results. Questions regarding DOCEX should be directed to Negroponte and Maples; others queries should be asked of Negroponte, Maples, CIA director Porter Goss, and FBI director Robert Mueller. If the intelligence community continues to block the release of recovered documents, its representatives should at least be required to provide reasons for their stonewalling and a sense of what we are learning from our limited exploitation thus far.