Spy on America – Spy on the World – But don’t spy on Congress I THINK THERE ARE MORE HYPOCRITES IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM THAN THE GENERAL POPULATION!! WANT PROOF? READ THIS!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What does it take for the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to become outraged over the government’s incessant spying? Just have the CIA break into the committee’s computers. Then, and only then, will Dianne Feinstein remember that we still have a Constitution. Earlier this week the senior Democratic senator from California became outraged that a government spy agency would dare turn its attention to one of the very congressional committees charged with overseeing the intelligence community. In a speech on the Senate floor, she was quick to whip out the Fourth Amendment. “I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied by the United States Constitution, including the speech and debate clause,” she said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “It may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activity or any other government function.” Now, this is the same lawmaker, mind you (one of many) who said she had no problem with the National Security Agency’s blanket surveillance of U.S. citizens (and the citizens of every other nation on the planet). Further, she has also said that no U.S. spy agency has abused Americans’ trust or had acted improperly in any way (fast-forward to the 3:00 mark in the video below): Not one to let such loose interpretation of the facts to slip by, Glen Greenwald, the investigative reporter for Britain’s “Guardian” newspaper (which broke the NSA domestic and global spying scandal wide open, thanks to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden) , called Feinstein out over her subsequent public denials that the NSA had ever done anything wrong, and further, that she had no knowledge of the agency ever operating in violation of the same Fourth Amendment she is currently embracing: Fast-forward to the current situation, and what is driving Feinstein’s newly discovered constitutionalism. And remember that everything in Washington is about politics. Since 2009 – and this date is important, as I’ll point out in a moment – the Feinstein-led Senate Intelligence Committee has been investigating intelligence community practices since the 9/11 attacks. The committee’s probe has focused in particular on the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques against suspected terrorists – specifically, “waterboarding,” which, you may recall, was approved for use by the Bush administration (and, most likely, by President Bush himself, because despite the current president’s serial denials regarding knowledge of anything his Cabinet heads are doing, this is what presidents do – they are briefed on, and approve, intelligence operations). When the Democrats swept into power after the 2008 elections, as Feinstein has admitted, one of the first things she did as head of the Senate Intelligence Committee was launch what can only be called a politically-motivated witch hunt (which she is calling an “investigation”) of the CIA’s post-9/11 activities. As she has said, the probe’s emphasis was on the enhanced interrogation, as well as the agency’s detention of terrorist prisoners at undisclosed secret sites around the world, as confirmed in this CNN report: During the course of this investigation, Feinstein’s committee received more than 6 million documents from the CIA, including a classified internal memo referring to an internal CIA review of its own tactics that apparently was not supposed to have been turned over. When the agency discovered the memo had been released, it apparently searched the Senate panel’s internal communications network on the advice of the agency’s legal counsel, in what was called “The Panetta Review,” ostensibly after Leon Panetta, the former CIA director. “Basically, it was just looking at the material that was being provided to the Hill. There wasn’t any kind of formal study. They call it ‘the Panetta review,’ but it wasn’t a formal study,” Panetta said Tuesday. The CIA’ contention was that the Senate committee’s staffers improperly obtained the memo, so a search of the intelligence committee’s staff computers was launched. The CIA informed Feinstein and her oversight committee of the search in January. Feinstein, in her floor speech, defended her staff, saying no one did anything wrong, that all proper procedures were followed, and that everyone involved had the appropriate levels of clearance to receive any and all information. You would expect her to say this, but that’s beside the point. The issue, then, has become one of a separation of powers: Should an oversight committee be permitted to conduct its work without infiltration, intimidation or interference from the very institute – the intelligence community – the committee is charged with monitoring? The answer is, of course, yes: Congress (and the president) has the ultimate oversight authority over all government agencies. “Since January 15th, 2014, when I was informed of the CIA search of this committee’s network, I’ve been trying to resolve this dispute in a discreet and respectful way,” she continued. “I have not commented in response to media requests for additional information on this matter, however the increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered.” Full-blown crisis, right? To be fair to the Constitution and no politician in particular (because the Constitution is above politics), Feinstein has a valid point. Her committee, along with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is charged with oversight of the U.S. intelligence community (IC) and all of its 17 different agencies (to include the military’s intelligence agencies – DIA, Army intelligence, etc.). Having any one of those agencies hack into a congressional committee’s computers for any reason is big deal because it smacks of an abuse of power and intimidation. On the other hand, Feinstein’s “investigation” smells like pure partisan politics and may ultimately endanger national security by hamstringing U.S. intelligence efforts in the future, depending on the “findings” (you may not like the way the IC has to conduct its business, but it’s a messy business and, as the old expression goes, somebody’s got to do it). That alone isn’t enough to justify an agency breaking into congressional information networks; unfortunately, Washington is all about politics, and politics is all about Washington. Still, Feinstein’s ludicrous denial that no agency of the IC has ever abused the Constitution and/or American citizens “to her knowledge” – especially when couched with her current “outrage” and claims of constitutional violations – is as hypocritical as it is laughable. She has no problem finding key provisions of the Constitution and defending them when her own interests are at stake. What makes all of this even more delicious, however, is the perspective of Russia’s Edward Snowden, who was one of the first ones to point out Feinstein’s duplicity. You just can’t make this stuff up. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEOS. absoluterights/spy-on-the-world-spy-on-america-but-dont-spy-on-congress/
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 17:05:58 +0000
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