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Massive Domestic Spying Investigation Coming Soon?
After Democrats failed to muster any substantive opposition to the Bush White House's overhaul of domestic spying laws just a few weeks ago, it would be a striking turn of events if the House leadership launched into a massive, multi-decade investigation of how the government has been monitoring its own citizens since the Cold War.
But that's what Salon speculates about today in a far-reaching report from Capitol Hill.
While reporting on domestic surveillance under Bush, Salon obtained a detailed memo proposing such an inquiry, and spoke with several sources involved in recent discussions around it on Capitol Hill. The memo was written by a former senior member of the original Church Committee; the discussions have included aides to top House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, and until now have not been disclosed publicly.
That's pretty interesting. This Democratic leadership doesn't seem to have done anything over the past couple years to suggest it is about to launch a broad, sweeping investigation into highly sensitive national security-related issues. (They haven't even really questioned the president on his hugely unpopular Iraq policies).
Reporter Tim Shorrock reaches as far back as the Regean Administration and culls evidence of a secret and potentially illegal database maintained by the National Security Administration called "Main Core." The existence of such a database has been the subject of speculation for years, but never confirmed. This database would presumably be the focus of any large-scale congressional investigation.
The investigation under consideration would be rare in its scope, potentially encompassing both Republican and Democratic administrations.
During one recent discussion on Capitol Hill, according to a participant, a senior aide to Speaker Pelosi was asked for Pelosi's views on a proposal to expand the investigation to past administrations, including those of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. "The question was, how far back in time would we have to go to make this credible?" the participant in the meeting recalled.That question was answered in the seven-page memo. "The rise of the 'surveillance state' driven by new technologies and the demands of counter-terrorism did not begin with this Administration," the author wrote. Even though he acknowledged in interviews with Salon that the scope of abuse under George W. Bush would likely be an order of magnitude greater than under preceding presidents, he recommended in the memo that any new investigation follow the precedent of the Church Committee and investigate the origins of Bush's programs, going as far back as the Reagan administration.
It's hard to think of any examples of a Congressional probe of the scope described here.
The Salon report notes that Democrats on the Hill may be reluctant to green-light the investigation because of their own party's complicity in approving certian surveillance techniques. Key lawmakers declined to comment for Salon's story, including Pelosi, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI).
However skeptical we may be, the idea sounds fascinating. It's hard to think of much more exciting than a parade of witnesses on Capitol Hill revealing how the government has been spying on all of us since the Cold War. We'd be sure to cover that gavel-to-gavel.
Regean?
July 23, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well...
After having opened dozens of investigations already and after having done NOTHING of recourse after each one, there are only two reasons I can see for doing this...
1. Name recognition for the investigators or
2. There are still a couple of senators and congressmen who have relatives NOT on the public payroll and this would be a good way to get them federal or contracting employment...
WHY do we insist on hiring clowns to represent us... it ISN'T funny anymore...
July 23, 2008 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
A massive, multi-decade investigation is too broad in scope and would undoubtedly take years. Congressional Dems should muster the courage to challenge the domestic spying abuses of the current administration . . . but probably won't.
July 23, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I would welcome such an inquiry, assuming they can come up with a way to make it truly independent and credible.
And I would expect the conclusion to be that Reagan/Bush started it, Clinton continued it, and Bush/Cheney took it to an extreme.
As long as the truth gets out and We the People have a chance to say, "No! That's not what we want!"
I'm not holding my breath, however.
-- ARG
July 23, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
From the Girly-Crats? Yeah, whatever.
July 23, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I misread that as "spying on us since the Civil war". I think that would be a bit more accurate.
All that has changed since the 1940's has been that the data storage and gathering methods have gotten more technologically advanced.
I suggest a bit of historical reading on the Palmer Raids, the Pinkerton men used to smash unions (with government cooperation), and the harassment of the left and civil rights movements during the depression and WWII period then add in the secret files of the FBI's Hoover, which were unknown to the AG and the justice department.
Why do you think the Dems caved on the immunity for the telecom companies? Because they knew what was going on, and that it was illegal, and because they don't want their dirty laundry aired any more than do the Bushies.
We live in a quasi-police state with an unaccountable set of secret police agencies that are directed at political dissent, but disguise it by a creating a succession of bogeymen to justify their actions: anarchists, communists, socialists, fifth columnists, terrorists, fellow travelers, islamo-fascists, illegal immigrants...
The nice thing about this routine is that it works every time. The state can always create enough panic to justify clamping down on legitimate political activity.
The government is going to investigate itself and reveal its true activities? Not likely.
July 23, 2008 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice historical perspective by "rdf".
GOOD BOOKS ON THIS INCLUDE:
"The Age of Surveillance" by Frank Donner, who did alot of defense work during the red scares and COINTELPRO.
Ward Churchill's "Agents of Repression"...about politicized gestapo work on AIM...with RICHARD HELD (FBI SAC) DOING ALOT OF THE POLITICAL GESTAPO WORK at every FBI divisional office he visited....like SAN FRAN when JUDI BARI and DARYL CHERNEY were blown up by FBI AGENT FRANK DOYLE, who built the bomb, hid the surveillance logs from civil suit discovery, and "to this day, denies any complicity in his attempted murders and conspiracies to OBSTRUCT JUSTICE" in these attempted murders in San Fran.
July 23, 2008 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure seems like that fascist coup Prescott Bush organized may really have happened, if you consider the amount of time and energy these spooks have wasted spying on ordinary civilians.
Perhaps the reason for having an investigation that goes back through the entire Cold War will uncover the narrative of deceit that the entire government has been complicit in, and just how much it has screwed with everyone's daily lives from then to this point.
I'm very interested to hear about the 'Main Core'. How much useless data does it contain on every American citizen? What purpose does it serve other than blackmail?
July 23, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice points made by "johnnydoughey".
I like the angle where CONGRESSIONAL SWINE pretend to have some interest in some of the legal issues and HIGH CRIMES mentioned by me...and they fake interest to "get some secret backroom quid pro quo" for their relatives?...or payoffs?...or something?
THAT IS PROBABELY THE ONLY EXPLANATION for the Dems "pretending to do some oversight".
This massive new CHURCH HEARINGS...would be focusing on:
----ILLEGAL WARRANTLESS SEIZURE OF ALL PHONE CALLS THAT ARE RECORDED AND ARCHIVED to be used later when "RETROACTIVE RUBBERSTAMPED WARRANTS" will be legal (as they are now since there is no oversight at all at any level of fed, state, or local law enforcement?).
----LEADS TO FALSE FLAG TREASON AND MURDERS facilitated by SIGINT moved through a corporate front like CHENEY'S MURDER OF CHRISTINA MOORE IN ROUND ROCK,TEXAS, ON 9/23/03 using the same m.o. and same NSA TSP MERCS that were sent after me.
MR CONYERS...MY COMMUNICATIONS ARE ALL MISDIRECTED...SO...SUBPOENA ME, AND LET ME SHOW YOU HOW BAD IT IS, AND WAS, and who is guilty of HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS that should not be ignored.
July 23, 2008 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Would the DINO's make a 90-degree turn and do their oversight duties; maybe when hell freezes over!
Also, as reported on MSNBC, Obama's legal beagle said Obama isn't going to pursue illegal activities of BushCo unless it’s egregious in nature (whatever criteria that may be).
Too bad, because under USC Title 18 Misprision of a Felony or Misprision of Treason sets a low bar for conviction. But as posted above, since The Powers That Be inside the Beltway seem to be complicit with Bushco nothing will be done, thus paving the way for an ever more Imperial Presidency.
Long live King Obama.
July 23, 2008 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well then the Bushies are going to claim "Clinton did it first" just the way they try to escape responsibility on everything bad and claim credit for anything good.
July 23, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
More false hope . . . I'll believe it when it actually begins to happen without participants bellowing "Can't answer under the protection of Executive Privilage!"
July 23, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another good reference book concerning this would be Chatter: Uncovering the Echelon Surveillance Network and the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping by Patrick Radden Keefe. Covers a good bit of history and extent of the eavesdropping.
July 23, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
The main committee should only investigate Clinton and Bush II. It's a balanced bipartisan timeframe and I don't want what is already a technically illiterate Congress getting caught in the weeds of pre-1993 communications technology.
July 23, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Congress is going to investigate this...Congress is going to investigate that....
It's all bullshit. All political posturing at best. If any investigation of real consequence and accountability was going to happen, it would have happened along time ago.
The recent FISA immunity was Congress latest messagae of once more giving the finger to the American people.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
July 23, 2008 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
admiral pointdexter is deserving of inclusion in such a look-see across the span of his entire career plus retirement days.
July 23, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Forget outside terrorist.
The failure to stop this illegal spying on Americans is just further proof that the American corporate/government fears the American people.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
July 23, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just more kabuki theater to obfuscate the lack of accountability. Excuse me Mr. President, what part of 'exclusive' did you not understand?
July 23, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the purpose of the investigation would be limited to post-COINTELPRO because we know we were spying on US citizens and we didn't care because they didn't carrying the "US Citizen" skin tone.
With then inactment of the first FISA courts, it immunizated everything before its inception except for Watergate. This is where our government was spying on "US Citizens".
July 23, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exposing Bush's historic abuse of power
Salon has uncovered new evidence of post-9/11 spying on Americans. Obtained documents point to a potential investigation of the White House that could rival Watergate.
--Other Related Stories
Blacklisted by the Bush government
Spying on Americans without warrants, charges based on secret evidence, a small town divided by fear. Welcome to the world of Bush's "specially designated global terrorists."
By Tim Shorrock
Suing George W. Bush: A bizarre and troubling tale
U.S. officials went to extremes to stifle our legal challenge to Bush's warrantless surveillance -- but a federal judge says the program is criminal, anyway.
By Jon B. Eisenberg
Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?
Salon exclusive: Two former AT&T employees say the telecom giant has maintained a secret, highly secure room in St. Louis since 2002. Intelligence experts say it bears the earmarks of a National Security Agency operation.
By Kim Zetter
TPM should just keep drinking the beer and pretending that FISA Bill didn't happen. It's not just about Attorney General Gonzales, sometimes it's about gross Democratic Party compliancy, indeed even accessory to every criminal act this administration did and continues to do. Pelosi must love torture with her willingness to keep impeachment of the table and she'll deep six the junior Senator Obama before having to do anything about it as well many other congressional Dems. The senators and house members that help Bush hide his crimes are NOT going to help Obama get elected over their own need to protect themselves. It's going to be better for Dems to let Obama lose the election, in just the same way they destory Howard Dean, rather that risk any adverse change the to status quo.
Obama is lossing Ohio and VA. Obama will lose other swing states as well because the indepentant voter and the moderate conservative voters can ALL see that Obama really isn’t a advocate for change, that change is merely a slogan but not an intended action Obama ever undertake other than getting out of the war which is something we'll end up doing anyway.
July 23, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now BO says he will only prosecute crimes that are egregious. Can anyone define egregious for me?? It seems that pillaging & raping the constitution "ala GWB" might not be egregious enough since Nancy " fat scabby ass Bitch" Pelosi says that impeachment is off the table.
My wife and I have donated hundreds of dollars to OB's campaign, but I will donate "NO MORE MONEY" to him. He is setting us up to fuck us after he gets in the WH. I have all the e-mail from his website and/or from the DNC blocked in my e-mail. He is a congenital liar. He backed down on FISA & is now backing down on his promise to prosecute those who comitted crimes in the Bush admin. Perhaps he is going to use Jerry Ford's pardon of nixon under the rubric of wanting to "heal the nation". Mark my words "he is setting us up". I think it was Voltaire(or any number of people) that said "People get the kind of government that they deserve". When you feel the fickle finger of fate start to make it's entrance into your asshole remember who voted for him.
Peace
Windancer
July 23, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink