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CIA, Senate and a Constitutional Crisis Resolved (not in favor of the Constitution)
Chroniclers of the decline of the republic will recall March 2014. Speaking then in reference to revelations that the CIA searched computers being used by Senate staffers, and removed documents those staffers received from the CIA detailing its post-9/11 torture program, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein said:I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution, including the Speech and Debate Clause. It may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities.
[CIA actions] may also have violated the Fourth Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as Executive Order 12333, which prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance.
Feinstein went on to say then “The interrogations and the conditions of confinement at the CIA detentions sites were far different and far more harsh than the way the CIA had described them to us” and emphasized that her committee’s report would detail “the horrible details of the CIA program that never, never, never should have existed.”
It appears more than likely the files the CIA pulled out of the Senate’s hands would reveal two presidents lied to the world about the torture program, and that horrors beyond what we know were committed in our names.
A classified 6,300-page Senate report on torture was prepared 19 months ago, before the details of the CIA spying became public. Calls were made, in March 2014, to declassify parts and release them to the public. Now, in July, we are still waiting.
The Constitutional Crisis
The bulk of the Constitution is a road map to the checks and balances the Founders created to ensure no one part of government would become so strong and powerful so as to negate the others. Chief among those checks and balances is the oversight role Congress plays over the Executive branch. Simply put, Congress investigates what the Executive does. That is what Dianne Feinstein and her Senate Intelligence Committee were doing looking into the truth behind the lies of CIA torture.
When the Executive, using the CIA in this instance (and there are credible claims Obama personally knew of the CIA’s activities ahead of time), inserts itself wrongly in that process by spying on and manipulating evidence of the Committee, you have a Constitutional crisis. The essential checks and balances designed to sustain our democracy and rein in an out-of-control Executive are no longer functioning.
The Obama administration declined to get involved. Then-White House spokesperson Jay Carney announced Obama administration lawyers were told about the CIA’s intentions to have the Department of Justice investigate Senate staffers for potentially stealing classified documents they sought to hold on to after the CIA tried to delete them by spying on and penetrating the records database, but did not approve or weigh in on the agency’s decision.
With the White House choosing the sidelines, a DOJ investigation, no matter the motive, was the only check and balance to be applied to this crisis of power, and the only hope for public clarity about what really happened.
The DOJ Declines Intervening on the Side of the Constitution
On July 10, 2014, DOJ released a short statement: “The department carefully reviewed the matters referred to us and did not find sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.” There will be no reckoning of what the CIA did to conceal or influence the Senate report.
Previously, in 2012, the Justice Department closed an inquiry into prosecuting low-level CIA practitioners of torture without bringing any charges.
Post-Constitutional America, Again
Dianne Feinstein appears to have made no comment on the DOJ decision despite her central role in all this and previous claims of unconstitutional actions by the Executive. As this is written, her most recent public remarks deal with immigration. The last reference found on her official website to the torture report is from April 2014.
The CIA attacks on the Senate, designed to impede, alter or influence the outcome of a report on torture, coupled with a lack of concern from the White House and the Department of Justice, as well as apparently by the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee itself, are another example of our new world, a Post-Constitutional America where the old rules of an aging republic no longer apply.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Rich Bauer said...
1Just surprised the DOJ didn’t wait until Lebron James announced he was going back to the Cavaliers to release its statement.
07/11/14 5:20 PM | Comment Link
Stephen said...
2This is off topic but I wonder if you have read “No Good Men Among The Living” by Anand Gopal”? A line in the epilogue reminded me of “We Meant Well”. “…[I]n fact, that nearly every metric that U.S. or Afghan officials pressed into service to show progress unravels upon inspection”.
Call me naive but I still wonder how it all works. When one goes into government service, does one list mendacity as part of ones skill set or does one just watch and imitate the other apparatchiki?
I don’t include you of course; we know what happened to you. However, I would really like to know. Whew!
07/11/14 9:45 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
3Anand’s book is very good, and I have heard him lecture on it. I have a review on my to-do list.
As for govt employees, the elite may qualify for mendacity, but most below them are better characterized by stupidity and ignorance, plus an intense desire to suck up.
07/11/14 10:06 PM | Comment Link
Jhoover said...
4I dont know if Dianne Feinstein also, believe The Phoenix Program “were far different and far more harsh than the way the CIA had described them to us”
?
07/12/14 1:10 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
5quote”On July 10, 2014, DOJ released a short statement: “The department carefully reviewed the matters referred to us and did not find sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.”unquote
I’ll file that one under
“Great Moments in Incredulous”
Meanwhile, CIA responds to intense grilling on their twitter feed…
https://twitter.com/CIA/status/486255845588475905
If ever there was any doubt about CIA’s social legitimacy, that should clear it up. Now, if only they would clear up rumors of John Brennan’s continuing worship of Freddie Mercury.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/queens-tragic-rhapsody-20140707
If it weren’t for the documented facts of demented war crimes the CIA have perpetrated since it’s inception, their “twitter feed” would be the laughing stock of the entire planet. Of course, if these murdering scumbags can live with themselves knowing what they’ve done.. nothing could embarrass them. Not even Rolling Stone..
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-cia-doesnt-know-where-tupac-is-20140708
Meanwhile the DOJ makes a laughing stock of the “rule of law”..notwithstanding Feinstein.
bartender..make it a double before I die from laughter.
07/12/14 12:30 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
6So help me god..if I hear one more word outta Holders mouth regarding the “rule of law”, I think I might actually buy a policy from the 100 Heads Life and Casualty Company.
07/12/14 12:58 PM | Comment Link
Bruce said...
7“The Obama administration declined to get involved.”
W.T.F.? CIA and DOJ ARE the Obama regime! Even Zer0bama idol, Raygun knew how to take his subordinant employees to the woodshed! What. A. COWARD.!
07/12/14 4:16 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
8Holy mother of Truthsayers like Peter.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/11/on-israel-ukraine-and-truth/
Fuck. Best thing I’ve read since yesterday…which was this
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
Nothing more to say. They pretty much summed up Murka.
07/12/14 7:34 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
9quote“The Obama administration declined to get involved.”
W.T.F.? CIA and DOJ ARE the Obama regime! “unquote
WTF? Let me enlighten you. The CIA/DOD/DOJ ARE the government. The executive “administration” is simply their rubber stamp of legal imperialism. Now, are we clear?
07/12/14 10:06 PM | Comment Link
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