by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ryan Powers, and Nate Carlile
Bush's Secret Spy Programs
When Congress passed the FISA Amendments
Act of 2008 last year, it mandated that the inspectors general of
the different branches of the intelligence community that participated
in President Bush's surveillance operations, known as the President's
Surveillance Program, conduct a comprehensive review of the program. On
Friday, the inspectors general released their report,
confirming that the Bush administration carried out "unprecedented,"
massive surveillance activities that stretched beyond the warrantless
wiretapping
program that had previously
been revealed. Soon after the New York Times reported on the
existence of a
warrantless wiretapping
program in 2005, Bush described the effort as his "Terrorist
Surveillance Program." But the IG report makes clear that the term
describes only one aspect of the overall surveillance program. In 2007,
former deputy attorney general James Comey's testimony before Congress
implied that "other
programs exist for domestic spying" outside warrantless
wiretapping, the existence of which then-attorney general Alberto
Gonzales acknowledged
in 2007. In constructing the legal rationale for the "Other
Intelligence Activities," Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) lawyer John Yoo
"did not accurately
describe the scope" of the activities, which led former attorney
general John Ashcroft to give "his legal authorization to the program
for the first two and a half
years based on a 'misimpression'
of what activities the N.S.A. was
actually conducting." The report found that the
administration's "extraordinary
and inappropriate" secrecy around the program not only allowed it
to be built upon flawed legal arguments, but also "undermined its
effectiveness as a terrorism-fighting tool."
'MISLEADING' CONGRESS: Rep.
Jane Harman (D-CA), a former ranking member on the House Intelligence
Committee, told the Associated Press that "she was shocked
to learn of the existence of other classified programs beyond the
warrantless wiretapping." Harman said that when she asked Gonzales two
years ago if the government was conducting any other undisclosed
intelligence activities, he denied it. "He looked me in the eye and
said 'no,'" said Harman. Indeed, the report found that Gonzales walked
right up to the line of lying to Congress by providing "confusing,
inaccurate" statements about the National Security Agency's
surveillance activities to
lawmakers in 2007. The Justice Department Inspector General concluded
that while Gonzales "did not intend to mislead Congress," his testimony
"had the effect of
misleading those who were not knowledgeable about the program." In
an interview with the AP, however, former CIA director Michael
Hayden insisted that "that top members of Congress were kept
well-informed all along the way." "One of the points I had in every one
of the briefings was to make sure
they understood the scope of our activity 'They've got to know this is
bigger than a bread box,' I said," said Hayden.
DETRIMENTAL SECRECY: As the New
York Times' Eric Lichtblau and James Risen note, "the report found that
the
secrecy surrounding the program may have limited its
effectiveness." At the CIA, "so few working-level officers
were allowed to
know about the program that the agency often did not make full use of
the leads the wiretapping generated." The FBI found that "the
exceptionally compartmented nature of the program" frustrated
agents who were assigned to follow-up on its tips. Knowledge of the
program was so closely held, according to the report, that a top aide
to Vice President Cheney, David Addington, could
personally decide who in the administration was "read into" the
classified program. For the early years of the program, Yoo was the
only OLC lawyer "read into" the program, which meant that he was the
sole lawyer in the department analyzing the legality of the program.
According to the report, senior Justice Department officials
"criticized the assignment of a single OLC attorney to draft the legal
rationale for the program. These officials noted that OLC traditionally adheres to
a rigorous peer review process for all legal memoranda it issues."
Yoo's boss at the time, Jay Bybee, told the DOJ IG that he was
"surprised" and "a little disappointed" to learn that Yoo worked on the
program without his knowledge. Neither Bybee nor Gonzales could explain
how Yoo became responsible for analyzing the legality of the program.
Because the inspectors general "lacked
the authority to compel testimony," five former Bush administration
officials -- Ashcroft, Yoo,
George Tenet, Andrew Card, and Addington -- refused to be
questioned.
CHENEY'S 'DIRECT ORDERS': One
day after the IG report was released, the New York Times revealed
another example of the Bush administration's efforts to keep Congress
in the dark about the intelligence communities activities. Last week,
seven House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee released a letter
revealing that CIA Director Leon Panetta had "recently testified to
Congress that the
agency concealed information and misled lawmakers repeatedly since
2001" about an unidentified CIA operation that was an "on-again,
off-again" effort until Panetta stopped it in June. The Times
reported on Saturday that Cheney gave "direct
orders" for the program to be concealed from Congress. Yesterday,
an intelligence official hinted to the Washington Times that the
program "involved
assassinations overseas but declined to provide further details."
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the now-terminated
initiative "was an
attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture
or kill al Qaeda operatives." The WSJ also reports that in 2001, the
CIA "examined the subject of targeted assassinations of al Qaeda
leaders," but "it appears that those discussions tapered off within six
months" and it "isn't clear whether they were an early part of the CIA
initiative that Mr. Panetta stopped." Congressional Democrats are now
calling for the program and the
lack of congressional notification to be investigated. "The
executive branch of government cannot create programs like these
programs and keep Congress in the dark," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Though some Republicans acknowledge that it's "wrong
if somebody told the CIA not to inform the appropriate members of
Congress," several GOP
lawmakers have sought to defend Cheney and resist an investigation.
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President Obama gave a historic speech in Ghana that both
conservatives and progressives could love.
The Israel Project recommends stoking
9/11 immigration fears in "right to return" talking points.
Washington Post reporter Ceci
Connolly was the "play" in the paper's pay-to-play dinner.
The IG report confirms that Congress needs to "beef
up its oversight concerning how the Obama Administration is
implementing the FISA Amendments Act of 2008."
New York Times columnist David Brooks has a
highly selective "dignity code."
Former Bush "domestic policy czar" Karl Rove now rips czars as a "giant expansion
of presidential power."
Bracing for a week of "Latina woman" idiocy from the press.
Yglesias pitches a story for the next Star Trek film: The
Wrath of Inhofe.
"I suspect, by the way...many Republicans may end up voting for Judge
Sotomayor. I don't think anyone has made a determination at this point
one way the other how they are going to vote."
-- Former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie, 7/13/09, CNN
VERSUS
"I do not plan to vote for her."
-- Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), 5/28/09
AND
"U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Wednesday he will vote against confirming
the Supreme Court nomination of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Sonia
Sotomayor. 'That was a foregone conclusion,' the Oklahoma Republican
said."
-- Tulsa World, 6/18/09
AND
"I cannot support her nomination. I will vote 'no' when it comes before
the full Senate."
-- Sen. Sam Brownback
(R-KS), 6/24/09
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