Matt - FBI Oversight by Bootlicking Senators?
Jim Bovard
jbovard at his.com
Fri Jun 22 06:33:44 PDT 2001
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).
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