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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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-Caveat Lector-
Washington's secrecy battles - from 9/11 to Enron
Date: 5/31/02; Publication: The Christian Science Monitor; Author: Daniel
Schorr
The letter of Coleen Rowley, FBI agent in Minneapolis, bitterly
complaining of the roadblocks that hampered the investigation of a leading
terrorist suspect, is not only a severe embarrassment to the FBI. It also
reopens the perennial issue of how much liberty to sacrifice in the
interest of security.
In the mid-1970s, congressional investigations unearthed years of extensive
illegal FBI wiretaps, surveillance, and break-ins aimed at political
dissidents and civil rights activists, including the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. The 1976 report of the House Intelligence Committee, suppressed by
a vote of the House, spoke of "careers ... ruined, friendships severed ...
in some cases, lives endangered."
It was to establish control of FBI activities that Congress, in 1978,
passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It created a unique
secret court, with judges selected by the Supreme Court's chief justice, to
review applications for wiretapping foreign agents. Operating behind walls
of secrecy, and seldom refused, the bureau became slipshod in writing its
applications.
As a result, in the fall of 2000, according to The New York Times, the
seven judges called Attorney General Janet Reno to their secret courtroom
to complain of misleading affidavits. The scorched FBI counterintelligence
unit began holding back on submitting new applications.
Some requests relating to Al Qaeda were held up for review as to whether
they met the legal standard for a wiretap warrant. This was the atmosphere
in which the dedicated Agent Rowley found herself being frustrated in her
efforts to obtain a warrant to search Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop computer.
But that was in the month before Sept. 11. In the wake of Sept. 11, the
hastily enacted USA Patriot Act gave Attorney General John Ashcroft broader
power to circumvent the Fourth Amendment's "probable cause" standard, and
reduce judges' discretion in issuing certain types of warrants.
So, are we going back to the days when Henry Kissinger, in the Nixon White
House, could write his own list of wiretap targets? Are we faced again with
that vexing question of how much privacy to yield in the name of security?
For a president facing such difficult questions, there is nothing like a
European tour, reviewing honor guards, hobnobbing with foreign leaders, and
walking among the graves on the Normandy beachhead. President Bush has
clearly enjoyed his week of respite from the issues of secrecy vs.
disclosure that are preoccupying Washington. Issues of overseeing vs.
overlooking, you might say.
The secrecy battles are being fought on the domestic and the terrorism
fronts. Domestically, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D) is using congressional
subpoena power to pursue the records of the administration's close ties
with Enron. From papers already released, it is clear that Enron had a big
hand in writing the administration's energy policy and naming its
regulatory officials. The White House is resisting supplying the bulk of
the subpoenaed documents, but is reluctant to invoke executive privilege as
too reminiscent of the Nixon coverup. It is hard to imagine what these
documents contain that is worth all the stonewalling.
The other battle is about terrorism, and that brings us back to what the
administration knew before Sept. 11. The administration continues to sit on
its assets and fiercely resists the idea of an inquiry by an independent
commission. We have learned a lot from the aforementioned letter by Coleen
Rowley in Minneapolis and the neglected memo by Agent Kenneth Williams in
Phoenix about the possibility that Osama bin Laden was using American
flight schools to train terrorists.
But we know very little about another key document - the CIA briefing paper
that was given to the president at his Texas ranch on Aug. 6 and captioned:
"Bin Laden determined to strike in the US." Was the administration too
unconcerned about the terrorist threat in this country five weeks before
Sept. 11?
Vice President Dick Cheney said the CIA paper was just a "rehash,"
containing nothing new. But as to why Congress should not see it, Mr.
Cheney said, "Because it contains the most sensitive sources and methods.
It's the family jewels."
A rehash is the family jewels? A series of alerts about future terrorist
threats has not diverted attention from errors of the past. These issues,
sitting on the president's doorstep when he returned from Europe, await his
full attention.
* Daniel Schorr is a senior news analyst at National Public Radio.
(c) Copyright 2002. The Christian Science Monitor
### 30
Daniel Schorr, Washington's secrecy battles - from 9/11 to Enron. , The
Christian Science Monitor, 05-31-2002, pp 11.
Any power that can be abused will be abused.
— Tyranny Law #1
Abuse always expands to fill the limits of resistance to it.
— Tyranny Law #2
If people don't resist the abuses to others, they will have no one to resist the
abuses to themselves, and tyranny will prevail.
— Tyranny Law #3
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
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