-Caveat Lector-
htttp://www.spectator.org/campaign/bovard/bovard010622.htm
The American Spectator
(Posted 6/22/01)
Bootlick FBI Oversight
by James Bovard
The Constitution has been saved! On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary
Committee held the first of a series of oversight hearings on the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) set
a lofty tone in his opening statement: "Our purpose in holding these
hearings is to find ways to restore confidence in the FBI,
not to tear it down. There are many irresponsible critics of the FBI who
promote their conspiracy theories on Internet Websites and in the popular
media."
However, anyone who sat through the hearing would have to wonder which is
more deluded -- the typical anti-FBI website or the U.S. Senate.
The senators supposedly came to discover and proclaim truth. Instead, they
did as they usually do -- they groveled at the mere mention of the FBI and
competed to heap laurels on the heads of federal agents. The only thing
that kept most senators from actually licking boots was FBI Director Louis
Freeh's decision to spurn Leahy's invitation to testify at the hearing.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal), in her opening statement, proudly announced
that "I went through the Ruby Ridge hearings and I went through the Waco
hearings," which the Senate Judiciary committee conducted in 1995. Her
choice of words is accurate: She had sat there like a potted plant during
those hearings -- except when she made inane comments or sought to impede
other senators from uncovering federal malfeasance.
A big clue that Wednesday's hearing was a farce was the lead-off witness:
John "Saint Jack" Danforth, Janet Reno's hand-picked special counsel on
Waco. Danforth was his usual pious self, repeatedly assuring senators that
the FBI did nothing "dark" at Waco. Danforth's remarks stirred no
controversy -- in the committee's view, evidently, there couldn't be
anything "dark" about sending in tanks in broad daylight to gas young
children.
Senators are anguishing over the need to create a new oversight mechanism
to make double-sure that all FBI agents obey the law. Sen.
Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) announced a bill to
create a "blue ribbon commission to conduct a top-to-bottom review" of the
FBI. Their press release noted that the commission would "be made up
of top law enforcement experts." Schumer hailed the FBI as "the premier law
enforcement agency in the world" and Hatch gushed that the FBI is "one of
the finest law enforcement agencies in the world."
It is most ironic to have Schumer and Hatch in the forefront of FBI
"reform" -- since they were two of the biggest FBI apologists. Hatch
worked mightily in 1995 to block Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)'s valiant
efforts to conduct an investigation into federal abuses at Ruby Ridge.
Hatch even publicly praised FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi -- who killed Vicki
Weaver as she stood in her cabin door holding her baby -- as a "great
American hero."
Schumer was the Clinton administration's point person during the House
hearings on Waco in the summer of 1995. Schumer continually derided and
sneered at any suggestion that the FBI had done anything less than
laudatory during its siege and final assault on the Branch Davidians.
Schumer did more than any other congressman to protect the FBI coverup on
Waco. (During the hearing Wednesday, Schumer congratulated Danforth for
doing a great job with his Waco investigation).
In sharp contrast to all the other committee members, Sen. Charles
Grassley (R-IA) has consistently and courageously pursued allegations of
FBI abuses. Grassley is one of the few Republicans who does not
instinctively cringe and kowtow at any mention of the FBI's name. Nor does
he spend half his allotted speaking time at hearings apologizing for
raising any doubts about the FBI's infallibility.
Grassley derided the notion of appointing an "FBI Review Commission." He
noted that the "end result" of commissions to investigate the FBI "has
usually been that the FBI ends up with a bigger budget, more jurisdiction,
and the Director [of the FBI] walks out with a nice pat on
the back."
The same could be said of the response by Congress to most of the FBI
fiascoes of the last decade. After the FBI sent in the tanks at Waco,
Congress provided a hefty budget increase to expand the Hostage Rescue
Team.
(FBI reforms are percolating elsewhere in Washington. Attorney General
John Ashcroft announced Wednesday -- a few minutes before the start of the
Senate hearing -- his plans to create a Strategic Management Council
for the FBI, stocked with plenty of insiders from federal law enforcement.
Also on Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill to create an
Inspector General for the FBI.)
There was scant awareness at the hearing that part of the blame for FBI
misconduct rests on the U.S. Senate -- especially on the Judiciary
Committee -- for its lax oversight. Instead, senators speak as if FBI
abuses were something that "just happened" in spite of the explicit wishes
of Senate Judiciary Committee members for the FBI to "play fair and
square."
The Senate has been criminally negligent in overseeing federal law
enforcement -- and now we are supposed to be thrilled that some senators
are calling for the appointment of another review commission. Charles
Carroll of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
declared that it was the task of elected representatives "to examine
severely, and judge impartially the conduct and the measures
of those employed in the administration, to represent the grievances, and
watch over the liberties and the properties of the people of this nation."
Carroll's concept of a representative's duty seems even more archaic than
George Washington's wooden teeth. James Madison's scheme for a "balance of
power" between the legislative and executive branches did not assume that
senators would perennially prostrate themselves before the feet of federal
lawmen.
The Judiciary Committee is planning to conduct other FBI "oversight"
hearings. Perhaps more senators will leave their knee-pads at home for the
next round of questioning. Perhaps Grassley's example and record will
finally inspire his fellows. Perhaps Leahy will surprise and silence
cynics by resolutely pursuing the hard facts underlying the FBI's greatest
controversies. Perhaps...
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James Bovard is the author of "Feeling Your Pain": The Explosion & Abuse
of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (St. Martin's Press; to
order, click here).
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