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War Crimes Made Easy (part one)
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<blockquote data-quote="susiedriver" data-source="post: 73957" data-attributes="member: 1848"><p><strong>Part Two</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>What Should Congress Know and When Should It Know It?</strong></p><p>A second example of the Bush administration's efforts to "reclaim" the "lost powers" of the presidency concerns congressional intelligence oversight. In the wake of the Vietnam War, a Senate Select Committee headed by Senator Frank Church conducted the most extensive investigation ever made of U.S. intelligence operations, revealing, among other things, a series of previously secret CIA plots to assassinate foreign leaders and overthrow foreign governments.</p><p>In response to these revelations, Congress passed the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980. That Act concentrated the power of Congress to oversee American intelligence operations in the House and Senate intelligence committees. It also required intelligence agency heads to keep the oversight committees "fully and currently informed" not just of their ongoing activities but of "any significant anticipated intelligence activity." Initially, Congress succeeded in performing "serious and nonpartisan oversight," though partisan bickering later reduced its effectiveness, according to Kevin Whitelaw and David E. Kaplan in U.S. News and World Report. In the late 1990s, intelligence committee members and staffs were nonetheless receiving more than 1,200 briefings and reviewing more than 2,200 reports from the CIA annually.</p><p> Shortly after 9/11, George Bush officially informed the CIA and other agencies concerned with national security that "[t]he only Members of Congress whom you or your expressly designated officers may brief regarding classified or sensitive law enforcement information" are "the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Intelligence Committees in the House and the Senate."</p><p>In practice, the Bush administration has failed -- or in certain cases simply refused -- to keep the intelligence committees informed on some of the most important aspects of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism. According to Douglas Jehl of the New York Times, "The restrictions that the White House has imposed on briefings about the C.I.A. detention program" for high-level terror suspects "were described by Republican and Democratic Congressional officials as particularly severe." This, in turn, appears "to have had the effect of limiting public discussion about the C.I.A.'s detention program."</p><p>Senate majority leader Harry Reid forced a dramatic closed session of the Senate this fall to demand that the Intelligence Committee investigate the cherry-picking and manipulation of intelligence used to promote the Iraq war. But the administration has refused to provide critical information such as presidential intelligence briefings. According to a recent article by Murray Waas in the National Journal, for example, President Bush was briefed by the CIA on September 21, 2001 -- less than two weeks after 9/11 -- that there was scant evidence of collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the Intelligence Committee didn't learn about the briefing until the summer of 2004. The Bush administration is still refusing to provide the President's Daily Brief and dozens of related documents to the Committee.</p><p>The Church committee's revelations on such matters as CIA assassination attempts against President Fidel Castro of Cuba, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, and others led President Gerald Ford to issue Executive Order 11905 in 1976. A section entitled "Prohibition on Assassination" states: "No employee of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination." This order was reiterated by Presidents Carter and Reagan. But after 9/11, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, President Bush signed an intelligence "finding" directing the CIA to do "whatever is necessary" to destroy Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization. During his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush bragged of such extrajudicial killings, claiming that more than three thousand suspected terrorists "have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem for the United States."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="susiedriver, post: 73957, member: 1848"] [B]Part Two[/B] [B]What Should Congress Know and When Should It Know It?[/B] A second example of the Bush administration's efforts to "reclaim" the "lost powers" of the presidency concerns congressional intelligence oversight. In the wake of the Vietnam War, a Senate Select Committee headed by Senator Frank Church conducted the most extensive investigation ever made of U.S. intelligence operations, revealing, among other things, a series of previously secret CIA plots to assassinate foreign leaders and overthrow foreign governments. In response to these revelations, Congress passed the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980. That Act concentrated the power of Congress to oversee American intelligence operations in the House and Senate intelligence committees. It also required intelligence agency heads to keep the oversight committees "fully and currently informed" not just of their ongoing activities but of "any significant anticipated intelligence activity." Initially, Congress succeeded in performing "serious and nonpartisan oversight," though partisan bickering later reduced its effectiveness, according to Kevin Whitelaw and David E. Kaplan in U.S. News and World Report. In the late 1990s, intelligence committee members and staffs were nonetheless receiving more than 1,200 briefings and reviewing more than 2,200 reports from the CIA annually. Shortly after 9/11, George Bush officially informed the CIA and other agencies concerned with national security that "[t]he only Members of Congress whom you or your expressly designated officers may brief regarding classified or sensitive law enforcement information" are "the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Intelligence Committees in the House and the Senate." In practice, the Bush administration has failed -- or in certain cases simply refused -- to keep the intelligence committees informed on some of the most important aspects of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism. According to Douglas Jehl of the New York Times, "The restrictions that the White House has imposed on briefings about the C.I.A. detention program" for high-level terror suspects "were described by Republican and Democratic Congressional officials as particularly severe." This, in turn, appears "to have had the effect of limiting public discussion about the C.I.A.'s detention program." Senate majority leader Harry Reid forced a dramatic closed session of the Senate this fall to demand that the Intelligence Committee investigate the cherry-picking and manipulation of intelligence used to promote the Iraq war. But the administration has refused to provide critical information such as presidential intelligence briefings. According to a recent article by Murray Waas in the National Journal, for example, President Bush was briefed by the CIA on September 21, 2001 -- less than two weeks after 9/11 -- that there was scant evidence of collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the Intelligence Committee didn't learn about the briefing until the summer of 2004. The Bush administration is still refusing to provide the President's Daily Brief and dozens of related documents to the Committee. The Church committee's revelations on such matters as CIA assassination attempts against President Fidel Castro of Cuba, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, and others led President Gerald Ford to issue Executive Order 11905 in 1976. A section entitled "Prohibition on Assassination" states: "No employee of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination." This order was reiterated by Presidents Carter and Reagan. But after 9/11, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, President Bush signed an intelligence "finding" directing the CIA to do "whatever is necessary" to destroy Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization. During his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush bragged of such extrajudicial killings, claiming that more than three thousand suspected terrorists "have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem for the United States." [/QUOTE]
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