Intelligence, Irony, and Insanity Senator Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee is outraged that the CIA is spying on or obstructing an investigation into actions of the Central Intelligence Agency. As the term is used in the agency’s name, intelligence refers to discovering the secrets of our enemies and helping to keep our secrets safe from them. While many CIA activities are subject to oversight by Congress, there are parts of their mission referred to as ‘off budget’ – things which are funded but for which specific details are not given to Congress because they may put national security at risk. Technology has come a long way in the times since WWW II (when the OSS was founded, a predecessor to the CIA). From code breaking and eavesdropping, we now have a pervasive Internet, hacking, identity theft, massive search engines, wireless intercepts, worms, viruses and other ways of invading privacy which were never conceived of by our Founding Fathers. Many people are outraged when such devices are used on them, but should Feinstein have been surprised when it happened to her committee? When a phone conversation or transmitted file is sent over a satellite relay or a microwave tower and the signal is intercepted out of the air and then decrypted with powerful computers does this fit our legal definition of wiretapping? Where is the wire? Government agencies have been wiretapping reporters, investigating conservative political organizations, monitoring and storing metadata about phone calls, emails and others. Congress gets outraged when it happens to them – welcome to the feelings shared by the public and more specifically to people with different political views than those held by current Washington insiders. Some might even call it ironic. The real irony is that Feinstein is invoking “the separation of powers embodied in the Constitution” as an argument for why a part of the Executive Branch should not be able to do this to a part of the Legislative Branch. Understanding the irony is not difficult. When the Affordable Care Act was passed, it was about 2,700 pages long. About 27 pages of it are still in effect. The balance of the law has been nullified by Executive Branch actions without bothering to ask Congress to go back and change the law they wrote. When no comprehensive immigration reform was written by Congress, the Executive Branch simply modified the actual enforcement of immigration law. Much of this was done without benefit of even a Presidential Executive Order, but rather by instructions to a Department controlled by the President. While agreeing with Senator Feinstein that this is a breach of the separation of powers, it pales in comparison to things about which Senator Feinstein is making no complaint. The insanity commences when Senator Feinstein discusses how this may be handled. She thinks the activity may be criminal and should be turned over to the Justice Department for investigation. Some define insanity as repeatedly doing the same things and expecting a different outcome. Attorney General Holder has been held in contempt of Congress (so what?) because he has little regard for the rights and powers of Congress. Whether it is New Black Panthers, Fast and Furious or numerous other issues, he has shown contemptuous disregard for his departmental responsibilities and his oath of office to enforce the laws of this country. Insanity is thinking that the Justice Department would do something to hold the CIA liable for what some might think is a criminal activity. While I fully agree that separation of powers is either not understood or not important to this administration, I feel that Senator Feinstein is showing early signs of dementia or insanity if she thinks Eric Holder and the Justice Department will be part of a solution
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:18:03 +0000