As PsiFighter37's
diary details at length right here at Kos, the
NY Times is reporting today that Pres. Bush, by Executive Order, is permitting the NSA to do domestic spying on Americans, something that was forbidden after domestic spying got totally out of hand during the 1960s and 1970s. There is an awful lot to dissect in this story for closer examination. But to me, this story is preeminently about transparency in the workings of our government. So I think one of the most important things to know, as usual, is who knew what, when, about Bush's radical expansion of the NSAs powers? Nancy Pelosi almost certainly knew. More possibilities, and some commentary, below the fold.
The Times reports that:
The officials said the administration had briefed Congressional leaders about the program and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret Washington court that deals with national security issues....
After the special program started, Congressional leaders from both political parties were brought to Vice President Dick Cheney's office in the White House. The leaders, who included the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, learned of the N.S.A. operation from Mr. Cheney, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force, who was then the agency's director and is now a full general and the principal deputy director of national intelligence, and George J. Tenet, then the director of the C.I.A., officials said.
It is not clear how much the members of Congress were told about the presidential order and the eavesdropping program. Some of them declined to comment about the matter, while others did not return phone calls.
Later briefings were held for members of Congress as they assumed leadership roles on the intelligence committees, officials familiar with the program said. After a 2003 briefing, Senator Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who became vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee that year, wrote a letter to Mr. Cheney expressing concerns about the program, officials knowledgeable about the letter said. It could not be determined if he received a reply. Mr. Rockefeller declined to comment. Aside from the Congressional leaders, only a small group of people, including several cabinet members and officials at the N.S.A., the C.I.A. and the Justice Department, know of the program.
In 2002, when the EO presumably took effect and the Cheney briefing took place, the leadership of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees consisted of:
Senator Bob Graham, D-Florida, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI); Representative Porter Goss, R-Florida, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI); SSCI Vice Chairman Richard C. Shelby, R-Alabama; and HPSCI Ranking Democrat Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
Leadership of these committees has changed somewhat over the years, of course. In its current avatar, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence consists of:
Republicans:
Pat Roberts - Chairman, Kansas
Orrin Hatch - Utah
Mike DeWine - OH
Christopher Bond - Missouri
Trent Lott - Mississippi
Olympia Snow - Maine
Chuck Hegel - Nebraska
Saxby Chambliss - Georgia
Democrats:
John D. Rockefeller IV - Vice Chair, West VA
Carl Levin - Michigan
Diane Feinstein - California
Ron Wyden - Oregon
Evan Bayh - Indiana
Barbara Mikulski - Maryland
Jon Corzine - New Jersey
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence consists of:
Peter Hoekstra - (R) Mich - Chairman
Jane Harman - (D) Cal-36 Ranking Member
Ray LaHood - (R) Ill - Vice Chair, Comm on Oversight
Terry Everett - (R) Ala - Vice Chair - Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence
Elton Gallegly - (R) Cal
Heather Wilson - (R) N. Mex - Vice Chair - Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy]
Chair - Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence
Jo Ann Davis - (R) VA - Chair, Subcommittee on Terrorism/HUMINT, Analysis and Counterintelligence
Mac Thornberry - (R) Tex - Chair, Comm on Oversight
John McHugh - (R) N.Y.
Todd Tiarht - (R) Kan
Mike Rogers - (R) Mich - Chair, Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy
Rick Renzi - (R) Ariz
Alcee Hastings - (D) Fla
Sylvestre Reyes - (D) Tex
Leonard Boswell - (D) Iowa - Ranking Dem, Subcommittee on Terrorism/HUMINT, Analysis and Counterintelligence
Robert (Bud) Cramer - (D) Ala - Ranking member, Oversight Committee
Anna Eshoo - (D) Cal - Ranking Dem - Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence
Rush Holt - (D) N.J. - Ranking Dem - Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger - (D) Maryland
John Tierney - (D) Mass
The Times does not specify whether all members of these committees knew of the Bush-NSA initiative, reporting only that "leaders of both parties," including (but, you'll notice, not limited to) "the chairmen and ranking members" of the Congressional intelligence committees, were included in the Cheney briefing. Surely, the chairs, vice-chairs, and ranking members were briefed. So who else was in on this?
As much as I feel like dropping the editors of the NYT on their pointy little heads for holding on to this story for a year (and in an election year, at that!), I'm really incensed that Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle thought this was just business as usual. Who the hell do they think they are, letting our democracy go down the tubes without so much as a peep? Kudos to Sen. Rockefeller for posing objections to this outrage, and to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the FISA court for the same courageous stance. Thanks also for the courage of unnamed rank-and-file government workers who did not want to put this EO into action. But the rest of the so-called "leadership?" Where were they? I'm especially interested in knowing which Congresspeople and Senators heard about this AND were in office when the NSA got its hand slapped for abusive surveillance the first time around.
Remember the running Jane Curtin - Bill Murray - Gilda Radner schtick on Saturday Night Live? The one in which Lisa and Todd would compliment Mrs. Lubner on her delicious egg salad sandwiches? Mrs. Lubner almost always mentioned her dead husband, Mr. Lubner, who died because "he had no spine." Well, somebody or somebodies have got to get the Annual Lubner Prize For Spinelessness, for this newest fiasco. The Times gets a runner-up, of course. (And as an aside, the excuse that the Times held on to this story "to do more reporting" is a joke. Do you see any named source at all in the entire Times article? I don't. So what additional reporting did they really do?) But top prize, the Golden Lubner Prize itself, has got to go to the highest ranking Democrats and Republicans -- those in the safest Congressional or Senate seats -- who said nothing at all about this.