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March 10, 2007
President Bush has admitted to abuses at the FBI on March 10.
"President Bush on Saturday pledged an end to FBI lapses that led to illegal prying into people's lives."'Those problems will be addressed as quickly as possible,'" Bush said during a news conference in Uruguay, the second stop on his Latin America trip. (1)
He, his attorney general Gonzales and the FBI Director Mueller have all gone on record saying that FBI agents are overstepping the bounds of the Patriot Act, which itself is already flatly unconstitutional.
Mueller said:
"'Who is to be held accountable? And the answer to that is I am to be held accountable.'"(2)Since Mueller has not been asked to resign,(2) such a statement only shields individual FBI agents.
"Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee (and, like Mr. Leahy, a former prosecutor), told reporters that the bureau had apparently “badly misused national security letters.”"'This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process where the federal authorities are not really sensitive to privacy and go far beyond what we have authorized,' Mr. Specter said.
"Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat on the judiciary panel who voted against the original Patriot Act, said the inspector general's inquiry 'proves that 'trust us' doesn't cut it' when it comes to the F.B.I."(2)
There has mention of disciplinary action. MIM again draws attention to agents in the midst of Ward Churchill matters. If they themselves did not start the ball rolling, the ones who started the ball rolling and passed it along should be fired.
In recent months, discussion of terrorism and spying have merged together. USA Today has noticed:
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies."(3)
Previous to the announcements admitting FBI agents running amok, the FBI admitted that it was pursuing over 400 U.$. citizens. At the same time, it appears that the rule is that these people are not as exciting as the budget-sellers would like:
"FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said, 'Many, if not most, of those cases are dealing with material support for terrorism. These are not bomb-throwers; these are people out there raising money or recruiting.'"(4)
In other words these are people trying to do what everyone else does in politics. FBI Director Mueller has made it quite clear that he opposes "radicalization," not terrorism.(4)
The public still processes this sort of information the wrong way. What is important is not what the so-called terrorists are doing or not doing, but the budget for following people and inventing stories.
"These include doubling the number of FBI intelligence analysts and tripling its linguists and putting analysts in all 56 bureau field offices. At the same time, the FBI has ramped up its regional joint terrorism task forces from 35 to 101 since 2001, expanding the number of federal, state and local agents assigned to them from 1,000 to nearly 4,000."(4)
MIM has also confirmed a recent classified military discussion calling for the abolition of COINTELPRO.
Notes:
1. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-bush-fbi,0,3998123.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/washington/10fbi.html
3. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-10-2138322041_x.htm
4. http://www.townhall.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ContentGuid=a30f1adb-2baa-42bd-bfca-2e52d3addbbb