Matt: Thought you might get a laugh out of this piece on the Senate Judiciary Committee's first FBI oversight hearing. I don't think there is going to be any BS shortage in Washington this summer. take it easy Jim Bovard's Batterings June 22, 2001 American Spectator Online www.spectator.org FBI Oversight by Bootlicking Senators? By James Bovard The Constitution has been saved! The Senate Judiciary Committee last week held the first of a series of oversight hearings on the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) set a lofty tone in his opening statement: "Our purpose in holding these hearings is to find ways to restore confidence in the FBI, not to tear it down. There are many irresponsible critics of the FBI who promote their conspiracy theories on Internet Websites and in the popular media." However, anyone who sat through the hearing would have to wonder which is more deluded -- the typical anti-FBI website or the U.S. Senate. The senators supposedly came to discover and proclaim truth. Instead, they did as they usually do -- they groveled at the mere mention of the FBI and competed to heap laurels on the heads of federal agents. The only thing that kept most senators from actually licking boots was FBI Director Louis Freeh's decision to spurn Leahy's invitation to testify at the hearing. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal), in her opening statement, proudly announced that "I went through the Ruby Ridge hearings and I went through the Waco hearings," which the Senate Judiciary committee conducted in 1995. Her choice of words is accurate: She had sat there like a potted plant during those hearings -- except when she made inane comments or sought to impede other senators from uncovering federal malfeasance. A big clue that Wednesday's hearing was a farce was the lead-off witness: John "Saint Jack" Danforth, Janet Reno's hand-picked special counsel on Waco. Danforth was his usual pious self, repeatedly assuring senators that the FBI did nothing "dark" at Waco. Danforth's remarks stirred no controversy -- in the committee's view, evidently, there couldn't be anything "dark" about sending in tanks in broad daylight to gas young children. Senators are anguishing over the need to create a new oversight mechanism to make double-sure that all FBI agents obey the law. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) announced a bill to create a "blue ribbon commission to conduct a top-to-bottom review" of the FBI. Their press release noted that the commission would "be made up of top law enforcement experts." Schumer hailed the FBI as "the premier law enforcement agency in the world" and Hatch gushed that the FBI is "one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the world." It is most ironic to have Schumer and Hatch in the forefront of FBI "reform" -- since they were two of the biggest FBI apologists. Hatch worked mightily in 1995 to block Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)'s valiant efforts to conduct an investigation into federal abuses at Ruby Ridge. Hatch even publicly praised FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi - who killed Vicki Weaver as she stood in her cabin door holding her baby -- as a "great American hero." Schumer was the Clinton administration's point person during the House hearings on Waco in the summer of 1995. Schumer continually derided and sneered at any suggestion that the FBI had done anything less than laudatory during its siege and final assault on the Branch Davidians. Schumer did more than any other congressman to protect the FBI coverup on Waco. (During the hearing Wednesday, Schumer congratulated Danforth for doing a great job with his Waco investigation). In sharp contrast to all the other committee members, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has consistently and courageously pursued allegations of FBI abuses. Grassley is one of the few Republicans who does not instinctively cringe and kowtow at any mention of the FBI's name. Nor does he spend half his allotted speaking time at hearings apologizing for raising any doubts about the FBI's infallibility. Grassley derided the notion of appointing an "FBI Review Commission." He noted that the "end result" of commissions to investigate the FBI "has usually been that the FBI ends up with a bigger budget, more jurisdiction, and the Director [of the FBI] walks out with a nice pat on the back." The same could be said of the response by Congress to most of the FBI fiascoes of the last decade. After the FBI sent in the tanks at Waco, Congress provided a hefty budget increase to expand its Hostage Rescue Team. (FBI reforms are percolating elsewhere in Washington. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Wednesday - a few minutes before the start of the Senate hearing -- his plans to create a Strategic Management Council for the FBI, stocked with plenty of insiders from federal law enforcement. Also on Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill to create an Inspector General for the FBI.) There was scant awareness at the hearing that part of the blame for FBI misconduct rests on the U.S. Senate - especially on the Judiciary Committee -- for its lax oversight. Instead, senators speak as if FBI abuses were something that "just happened" in spite of the explicit wishes of Senate Judiciary Committee members for the FBI to "play fair and square." The Senate has been criminally negligent in overseeing federal law enforcement -- and now we are supposed to be thrilled that some senators are calling for the appointment of another review commission. Charles Carroll of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, declared that it was the task of elected representatives "to examine severely, and judge impartially the conduct and the measures of those employed in the administration, to represent the grievances, and watch over the liberties and the properties of the people of this nation." Carroll's concept of a representative's duty seems even more archaic than George Washington's wooden teeth. James Madison's scheme for a "balance of power" between the legislative and executive branches did not assume that senators would perennially prostrate themselves before the feet of federal lawmen. The Judiciary Committee is planning to conduct other FBI "oversight" hearings. Perhaps more senators will leave their knee-pads at home for the next round of questioning. Perhaps Grassley's example and record will finally inspire his fellows. Perhaps Leahy will surprise and silence cynics by resolutely pursuing the hard facts underlying the FBI's greatest controversies. Perhaps... James Bovard is the author of "Feeling Your Pain": The Explosion & Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (St. Martin's Press, 2000). ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************