Bowing To The Police State

The executive branch is “walking all over the Congress at the moment,” complained Sen. Arlen Specter, R.-Pa., last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee which he chairs. Unlike Roberts and Hoekstra, Specter seems genuinely troubled at the president’s disdain for the separation of powers and particularly his end-run around the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which prohibits eavesdropping on American citizens without a court warrant.

But when Specter meets a stonewall, he caves. He may ask telephone company CEOs why they surrendered records to the government, but—illegal eavesdropping or no—Specter will likely remain a spectator, as Pat Roberts greases the skids for Big Brother Gen. Michael Hayden, architect and implementer of eavesdropping on Americans in violation of FISA, to become the next director of the CIA. Hayden’s disingenuousness in his testimony before the intelligence committees has been clear, but the committee chairmen are as much to blame for winking at it.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has told Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D.-N.Y., that it is stopping its months-long investigation into who approved the NSA’s eavesdropping-on-American-citizens initiative (now euphemistically dubbed “the terrorist surveillance program”). Justice explained to Hinchey that the NSA would not grant Justice department investigators the appropriate security clearances to investigate the NSA program. Kafka would smirk.

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When the writers of the Constitution envisioned a separation of powers to ensure checks and balances in our government, they were relying on the leaders of those branches to fight to maintain their own power within the system. Fresh from the struggle against King George, they could not have predicted that some of our leaders would voluntarily sign away their own rights to another George who would be king.

Bowing To The Police State
Ray McGovern, TomPaine.com, May 16, 2006

A little over a year ago I wrote:

It is my opinion that the classification mechanism currently in use in the US is deeply flawed and needs to be revised. One idea would be to have an independent body - maybe a committee of some sort outside of the government - that would decide what gets classified and for how long. The system we have now is broken and a threat to our security and liberties.

What I said back then still stands, with the following addition: I believe the US Congress (or at least select commitees thereof) should have access to any and all information as well as be entitled to requesting sworn testimony of any and all persons. That is essential for the survival of the Republic. Passing a resolution to that effect must be our Representatives' first order of business.

 

tags: secrecy  ray mcgovern  us congress  separation of powers  nsa  cia