Rumsfeld Pushes For Pentagon Total Control
(A military
dictatorship in the making)
Below are a series of links to recent articles concerning the latest
legal developments in the War on Terror on the U.S. home-front. Some of
you will already be familiar with debate over Patriot
Act II, which if passed would effectively end the law of habeas
corpus and the right to legal representation in the United States.
The stories below concern two other proposed law changes which have
received far less attention, firstly there is a Pentagon Bill to give
Rumsfeld what looks like effective absolute control at the Pentagon –
eliminating Congressional oversight and granting him apparently
unlimited powers to contract on behalf of the U.S. Government - and an
Intelligence Bill which would if passed would give the CIA and Pentagon
powers to spy domestically inside the United States.
You can find out more about these bills at the following Google News
Links.
Thus far it seems that very little has been written about the
personnel and oversight changes contained in the Pentagon Bill, though
there are other aspects of this bill raising eyebrows.
Search Google News For:
"2004
Defense Authorization Bill "
"Intelligence
Authorisation Bill"
*************
The
Nation's Daily Outrage: Two-Front Rumsfeld
04/29/2003 @
2:33pm
Brace yourself. The Defense Secretary is pushing a 205-page Bill
through Congress that would -- take a deep breath:
* Strip Defense Department employees of their unions, whistleblower
protections, annual pay raises, and rights to appeal disciplinary
actions;
* Let the Defense Secretary dole out no-bid, no-oversight,
no-accountability contracts worth billions (one observer calls it "the
Halliburton Bill of Rights");
* Exempt the military from environmental and wildlife protection
rules on more than 23 million acres of American lands;
* Free the Pentagon from dozens of requirements it report to
Congress.
Dissing Congress seems only fair. As long as the Pentagon is offering
contempt to taxpayers, the environment and its own workers, why should
it pretend it respects our elected representatives? Especially since
Congress doesn't respect itself:
Rumsfeld's bill is moving up Capitol Hill with a bullet. It was being
discussed this morning at a House subcommittee hearing, and
soon could make its way into the front pages. For a more detailed
analysis from the American Federation of Government Employees, click
here.
FROM: http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6
*************
New
Powers to Snoop Sought
Domestic access for CIA, Army
By Tom Brune
WASHINGTON BUREAU
May 3, 2003
Washington - The Bush administration is secretly trying to expand the
investigative powers of the CIA and military, allowing them to demand
personal and business records of people in this country, government
officials confirmed yesterday.
If enacted, the new powers would broaden the scope under which the
CIA and Defense Department could legally gather sensitive records from
businesses and other organizations in the pursuit of foreign
intelligence and terrorism investigations, civil liberties advocates and
experts said yesterday.
Government intelligence and law enforcement officials sought to
downplay the significance of the administration's proposal yesterday,
saying it probably was going nowhere.
Civil libertarians and privacy advocates called the proposal an
"outrage" and complained it represents "a radical change in U.S. law"
that should be openly debated as an important policy matter and not
discussed only behind closed doors.
The provision containing the proposal was quietly attached to the
intelligence authorization bill being considered in confidential
sessions of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, officials said.
For Complete Text Click Here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia033266285may03,0,873887.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print
*************
Broad
Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon
By ERIC
LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
May 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, May 1 — The Bush administration and leading Senate
Republicans sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the
Pentagon far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial
records on people in the United States as part of foreign intelligence
and terrorism operations, officials said.
The proposal, which was beaten back, would have given the C.I.A. and
the military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas — known as
"national security letters" — requiring Internet providers, credit card
companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce
materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That
authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and the subpoenas do not require court approval.
The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence
authorization bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate
today in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
officials said. Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the
proposal because it appeared to expand significantly the role of the
C.I.A. and the Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, despite a
long history of tight restrictions, officials said.
After raising objections, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and
other Democrats succeeded in getting the provision pulled from the
authorization bill, at least temporarily, Congressional officials said.
In a closed vote, the committee passed the bill unanimously without
the proposal. But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is
chairman of the intelligence committee, indicated to panel members that
he wanted to hold further hearings on the idea, officials said.
There was some disagreement over exactly how the provision
originated. Several Senate aides active in the debate said that Senator
Roberts had included it in the authorization bill. But a senior
Congressional official said the Bush administration had initiated the
proposal and that Senator Roberts had not objected.
A C.I.A. official said the provision had come from the Bush
administration, after the White House's Office of Management and Budget
signed off on it.
The official said that Congressional leaders had asked the Bush
administration whether there were any additional powers needed to help
combat terrorism. The administration responded with the proposal to give
the C.I.A. and military the power to use the national security letters,
the official said. Another Congressional official said the move came at
the urging of the C.I.A. The White House had no comment last night.
Because the F.B.I. now has primary responsibility for domestic
intelligence operations, the C.I.A. and the military must currently go
to the F.B.I. to request that it issue a national security letter to get
access to financial and electronic records.
For Complete Text Click Here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/international/worldspecial/02TERR.html?ex=1052452800
ENDS
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