Rumsfeld Pushes For Total Pentagon Control

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Robert Lee <robertslee () comcast net>
Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 10:19:01 -0400
To: "David J. Farber" <dave () farber net>
Subject: FW: Rumsfeld Pushes For Total Pentagon Control

Of possible interest.

 
Robert Lee
Encoda
Office  610-397-1632
Home  610-642-9707
Cell     610-724-1288


-----Original Message-----
From: Ddrasin () aol com [mailto:Ddrasin () aol com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 8:18 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Rumsfeld Pushes For Total Pentagon Control

With thanks to David Morrison
===========================

Rumsfeld Pushes For Total Pentagon Control
(A military dictatorship in the making?)

Below are a series of links to recent articles concerning the latest
legal 
developments in the War on Terror on the U.S. home-front. Some of
you will already be familiar with debate over Patriot Act II,
which if passed would effectively end the law of habeas corpus and the
right to legal representation in the United States.

<http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00203.htm

The stories below concern two other proposed law changes which have
received far less attention, firstly there is a Pentagon Bill to give
Rumsfeld what looks like effective absolute control at the Pentagon –
eliminating Congressional oversight and granting him apparently
unlimited 
powers to contract on behalf of the U.S. Government - and an
Intelligence 
Bill which would if passed would give the CIA and Pentagon powers to spy

domestically inside the United States.

You can find out more about these bills at the following Google News
Links.

Thus far it seems that very little has been written about the personnel
and oversight changes contained in the Pentagon Bill, though there are
other aspects of this bill raising eyebrows.

Search Google News For:

"2004 Defense Authorization Bill "

<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=2004+Defense+Auth
orizat

ion+bill&sa=N&tab=wn

"Intelligence Authorisation Bill"

<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Intelligence+Auth
orizat

ion+Bill&sa=N&tab=wn


*************

<http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6
The Nation's Daily Outrage: Two-Front Rumsfeld
04/29/2003 


Brace yourself. The Defense Secretary is pushing a
205-page Bill through Congress that would -- take a deep breath:

* Strip Defense Department employees of their unions, whistleblower
protections, annual pay raises, and rights to appeal disciplinary
actions;
<http://www.afge.org/Documents/DoDLegislation.pdf

* Let the Defense Secretary dole out no-bid, no-oversight,
no-accountability contracts worth billions (one observer calls it
"the Halliburton Bill of Rights");
<http://www.peer.org/press/334.html

* Exempt the military from environmental and wildlife protection rules
on 
more than 23 million acres of American lands;

* Free the Pentagon from dozens of requirements it report to Congress.

Dissing Congress seems only fair. As long as the Pentagon is offering
contempt to taxpayers, the environment and its own workers, why should
it 
pretend it respects our elected representatives? Especially since
Congress 
doesn't respect itself:

Rumsfeld's bill is moving up Capitol Hill with a bullet. It was being
discussed this morning at a House subcommittee hearing

<http://www.house.gov/reform/042503schedule.pdf

...  and soon could make its way into the front pages. For a more
detailed analysis from the American Federation of Government Employees,
see:

<http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?File=2003_04_24.htm


*************
<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia033266285may03,0
,87388

7.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print

New Powers to Snoop Sought
Domestic access for CIA, Army

By Tom Brune
WASHINGTON BUREAU

May 3, 2003

Washington - The Bush administration is secretly trying to expand the
investigative powers of the CIA and military, allowing them to demand
personal and business records of people in this country, government
officials confirmed yesterday.

If enacted, the new powers would broaden the scope under which the CIA
and 
Defense Department could legally gather sensitive records from
businesses 
and other organizations in the pursuit of foreign intelligence and
terrorism investigations, civil liberties advocates and experts said
yesterday.

Government intelligence and law enforcement officials sought to downplay

the significance of the administration's proposal yesterday, saying it
probably was going nowhere.

Civil libertarians and privacy advocates called the proposal an
"outrage" 
and complained it represents "a radical change in U.S. law" that should
be 
openly debated as an important policy matter and not discussed only
behind 
closed doors.

The provision containing the proposal was quietly attached to the
intelligence authorization bill being considered in confidential
sessions 
of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, officials said.


For Complete Text , see:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia033266285may03,0,
873887

.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print



*************
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/international/worldspecial/02TERR.htm
l?ex=1

052452800

Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
May 2, 2003

WASHINGTON, May 1 — The Bush administration and leading Senate
Republicans 
sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon
far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial records on
people 
in the United States as part of foreign intelligence and terrorism
operations, officials said.

The proposal, which was beaten back, would have given the C.I.A. and the

military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas — known as
"national security letters" — requiring Internet providers, credit card
companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce
materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That
authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and 
the subpoenas do not require court approval.

The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence
authorization 
bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate today in a
closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, officials
said. 
Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the proposal because it

appeared to expand significantly the role of the C.I.A. and the Pentagon

in conducting domestic operations, despite a long history of tight
restrictions, officials said.

After raising objections, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and
other 
Democrats succeeded in getting the provision pulled from the
authorization 
bill, at least temporarily, Congressional officials said.

In a closed vote, the committee passed the bill unanimously without the
proposal. But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman

of the intelligence committee, indicated to panel members that he wanted

to hold further hearings on the idea, officials said.

There was some disagreement over exactly how the provision originated.
Several Senate aides active in the debate said that Senator Roberts had
included it in the authorization bill. But a senior Congressional
official 
said the Bush administration had initiated the proposal and that Senator

Roberts had not objected.

A C.I.A. official said the provision had come from the Bush
administration, after the White House's Office of Management and Budget
signed off on it.

The official said that Congressional leaders had asked the Bush
administration whether there were any additional powers needed to help
combat terrorism. The administration responded with the proposal to give

the C.I.A. and military the power to use the national security letters,
the official said. Another Congressional official said the move came at
the urging of the C.I.A. The White House had no comment last night.

Because the F.B.I. now has primary responsibility for domestic
intelligence operations, the C.I.A. and the military must currently go
to 
the F.B.I. to request that it issue a national security letter to get
access to financial and electronic records.

For Complete Text see:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/international/worldspecial/02TERR.htm
l?ex=1

052452800






------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/