We are watching the other shoe drop now following DoJ's OIG report documenting numerous problems, though no criminal malfeasence, in the FBI's administration of their NSL authority. For background on this issue, please see here and here.
Hearings have begun in the House Committee on the Judiciary as to what actions to take. The FBI's General Counsel Valerie Caproni gave testimony today, and a copy of her prepared statement outlining the FBI's response to the problem is here.
Not surprisingly, there are calls from the Democratic side of the Committee to simply take away NSL authority from the FBI as a part of reducing the scope of the Patriot Act - long a favored cause of the far left. As reported by Fox:"This was a serious breach of trust," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the Judiciary chairman. "The department had converted this tool into a handy shortcut to illegally gather vast amounts of private information while at the same time significantly underreporting its activities to Congress."
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Congress should revise the USA Patriot Act, which substantially loosened controls over the letters.
"We do not trust government always to be run by angels, especially not this administration," Nadler said. "It is not enough to mandate that the FBI fix internal management problems and recordkeeping, because the statute itself authorizes the unchecked collection of information on innocent Americans."
Hopefully, Republican's will be able to run enough interference to buy the FBI the time it needs to fix the administrative and bureaucratic problems that were highlighted in the OIG report. And the FBI does need to solve the NSL administrative problems immediately. That said, the NSL's have been an invaluable tool to fight against terrorism, but an easy target for the left wing because, without a full understanding of the limited information that can be sought under the NSL's, it has been easy for the left to effectively label the NSL's as a vast and near inherent breach of Americans' privacy. Watch for this to become a major partisan political battle splashed across the papers in the coming days as the Democrats seek to cut off the FBI's NSL authority for partisan political gain.
Type rest of the post here
Showing posts with label hearings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hearings. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
FBI's National Security Letters Under Fire
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Highlights from National Intel Director Testimony
The new Director of National Intelligence, retired Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, and his staff testified before Congress yesterday. The highlights include:
Iran is training Iraqi Shia militants at Hezbollah camps in Lebanon. Senator Lieberman noted that this is very serious and recommended "we ought to consider taking steps to stop [this training] in defense of our soldiers."
3/4 of the old leadership of al Qaeda has been killed or captured
al Qaeda is reconstituting in the Fronteir Provinces of Pakistan, an area that is only nominally under Pakistan's control
al Qaeda is planning attacks throughout Europe, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
Iraq is the "cause celebre" for foreign jihadi recruitment. Note that I do not know whether Director McConnell was asked what the effect of a rapid withdrawal would be on jihadi recruitment.
The political situation in Iraq is difficult because Shia are not confident in their control of Iraq, the Sunnis act as if they are in control, and the Kurds are biding their time and protecting their position.
Democrats at the hearing complained because the National Intelligence Estimate included an assessment that a rapid withdrawal from Iraq would lead to chaos.
Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.) was one of several Democrats who questioned the decision to include an assessment of a "rapid withdrawal" of coalition forces from Iraq as part of the recent National Intelligence Estimate. The NIE judgment was that such a withdrawal would increase violence and hasten deterioration of the situation in Iraq -- a finding that has since been cited by Bush and others who support a troop increase and oppose withdrawal.
National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar, who supervised production of the NIE, told the Senate panel that "unquestionably and categorically" there had been no political pressure to shape the estimate.
"I'm not criticizing your bona fides," Bayh told Fingar, "but I do care about the credibility of your work product . . . and when you start down that slippery slope, you just get into these kinds of arguments."
The Democrat's reaction on this issue goes to the trouble that is at the center of the party right now -- how to make the greatest partisan advantage out of the war while not having to face responsiblity for any acts that they may take.
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