http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/030906.html
Oversight by Capitulation
By Robert Parry
March 10, 2006
Despite a dip in his opinion polls, George W. Bush’s transformation of
the United States into an authoritarian society continues apace, with
new “compromises” with Congress actually consolidating his claims to
virtually unlimited executive power.
Bush’s latest success came as part of a supposed “concession” to
Congress that would grant two new Republican-controlled seven-member
subcommittees narrow oversight of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping of
Americans.
While “moderate” Republican senators – Mike DeWine of Ohio, Olympia
Snowe of Maine, and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska – hailed the plan as a
retreat by the White House, the deal actually blesses Bush’s authority
to bypass the courts in spying on Americans and imposes on him only a
toothless congressional review process.
Indeed, the congressional plan may make matters worse, broadening the
permissible scope of Bush’s wiretaps to include Americans deemed to be
“working in support of a terrorist group or organization.”
Given Bush’s record of stretching words to his advantage – and his claim
that anyone who isn’t “with us” is with the terrorists – the vague
concept of “working in support” could open almost any political critic
of the Bush administration to surveillance.
Plus, the only check on abuses would be the closed-door oversight work
of the seven-member panels, which would only be informed of a
warrantless wiretap after it had been in place for 45 days. Republicans
also would have four of the seven seats on each subcommittee and any
dissent from the minority Democrats would be kept secret.
In other words, the plan would let Bush and his Republican congressional
loyalists conduct wiretaps of anyone whose activities might be called
supportive of terrorists, while any Democratic critic would be muzzled
from saying anything publicly under penalty of law.
Chilling Powers
Under such an arrangement, it would not be difficult to envision the
wiretapping of journalists writing critical articles about the abuse of
terrorism suspects, or of disarmament experts who disagree with Bush’s
claims about some “rogue” state’s weapons of mass destruction, or of a
political rival who challenges Bush’s interpretation of his
Commander-in-Chief powers.
Indeed, many Bush supporters have lobbed accusations of “treason”
against the likes of journalist Seymour Hersh, weapons inspector Scott
Ritter and former Vice President Al Gore – because they have presented
information that clashes with Bush’s agenda.
Other influential Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, have urged Bush to move aggressively against suspected “fifth
columnists” inside the United States who supposedly sympathize with the
enemy.
Graham also has called on Bush to use high-tech surveillance techniques
to “map the battlefield electronically,” which in the Internet Age means
going beyond assessing the physical battlefield to examine the political
connections among potential enemies so they can be neutralized at a time
of crisis.
“Here’s where I think I’m your biggest fan,” Graham told Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on
Feb. 6. “During the time of war, the administration has the inherent
power, in my opinion, to surveil the enemy and to map the battlefield
electronically – not just physical, but to electronically map what the
enemy is up to by seizing information and putting that puzzle together.
“And the administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my
opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements,” Graham said. “I stand by
this President’s ability, inherent to being Commander in Chief, to find
out about Fifth Column movements, and I don’t think you need a warrant
to do that.”
Though the Bush administration has denied abusing its four-year-old
warrantless wiretapping program, it has been unwilling to give details
about the numbers of people swept up in the surveillance or define the
precise criteria for who’s wiretapped.
Bush has insisted that the wiretaps are limited to the international
communications of people in the United States who have gotten calls from
al-Qaeda or its affiliates.
Newspaper investigations, however, indicate the spying is much more
extensive than Bush has admitted. The New York Times and the Washington
Post have reported that the wiretapping by the National Security Agency
has scooped up communications from thousands of innocent Americans. [See
Consortiumnews.com’s “Talkin’ Texan Means Lyin’ Big.”]
Investigation Blocked
Congressional Democrats have called for an investigation to ascertain
the scope of the warrantless wiretaps before addressing the
administration’s assertion that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act doesn’t give the nation’s spy agencies the flexibility
they need.
But congressional Republicans and the White House torpedoed plans for an
investigation and instead began drafting legislation that would
effectively endorse Bush’s claim to an unfettered right to bypass the
Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a court order before a legal search
can be conducted.
The new legislation, sponsored by Sen. DeWine, would permit the N.S.A.
to intercept international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents if
the administration saw “probable cause to believe that one party to the
communication is a member, affiliate, or working in support of a
terrorist group or organization.” [NYT, March 9, 2006]
After 45 days, the law would require the Attorney General to take one of
three steps: end the wiretap, get a warrant from the secret FISA court,
or inform the new oversight panels about the wiretap.
White House spokesman Dana Perino said the administration was willing to
give the new seven-member panels information about the wiretaps but that
the members would be prohibited from divulging what they learn.
[Washington Post, March 9, 2006]
Congressional Democrats have criticized the DeWine plan as insufficient
to prevent violations of civil liberties.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on
the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Congress first needed to
exercise its responsibility to conduct oversight of the Executive
Branch.
“It is ‘undersight’ when they tell us what they want us to know,”
Rockefeller told the Washington Post. “It’s ‘oversight’ when we know
enough to ask our own questions.”
However, with hard-line Republicans like Senate Intelligence Committee
Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas joining with more moderate Republicans
like Snowe and Hagel, the Democrats appear to have been out-flanked and
out-muscled again.
A similar process occurred in December 2005 when Congress passed
legislation outlawing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of
detainees in U.S. custody. But an amendment, promoted by Graham and
co-sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., limited legal appeals that
Guantanamo Bay inmates could make in U.S. courts.
Bush administration lawyers have since gone into federal court, citing
the Graham-Levin amendment to prevent Guantanamo detainees from stopping
alleged torture. In other words, the anti-torture law is being
interpreted as granting Bush the sole right to decide how to interpret
its provisions and when to enforce them. [For details, see
Consortiumnews.com’s “Bush Flummoxes Kafka, Orwell.”]
The legislation on warrantless wiretaps now promises to be the next
White House “concession” that will, in reality, consolidate Bush’s
autocratic power in what looks like an inexorable march toward an end of
the American democratic Republic.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the
Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege:
Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at
secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his
1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
--
"But frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for
re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about
terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months when maybe we
could have done something to stop 9/11."
Richard Clarke, terrorism czar under four presidents
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