BUSH Had NO Intell Oversight For 1st 2 Yrs Of Admin & After That Simply Did NOT Report Violations

[kpete]

No Oversight
by emptywheel
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/07/no-oversight.html#more

Remember when I pointed out that the real story of those civil liberties violations that Gonzales didn't admit to was the role of the Intelligence Oversight Board? Well, I was right:

An independent oversight board created to identify intelligence abuses after the CIA scandals of the 1970s did not send any reports to the attorney general of legal violations during the first 5 1/2 years of the Bush administration's counterterrorism effort, the Justice Department has told Congress.

Although the FBI told the board of a few hundred legal or rules violations by its own agents after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the board did not identify which of them were indeed legal violations. This spring, it forwarded reports of violations in 2006, officials said.

The President's Intelligence Oversight Board -- the principal civilian watchdog of the intelligence community -- is obligated under a 26-year-old executive order to tell the attorney general and the president about any intelligence activities it believes "may be unlawful." The board was vacant for the first two years of the Bush administration.

Basically, this article reveals that Bush didn't have an Intelligence Oversight Board for the first two years of his Administration. Afterwards, it simply didn't report violations to the Attorney General, though the FBI admits there were violations. And I presume, since the article makes clear (as I suggested) that Bush's IOB a part of his PFIAB, then IOB stopped meeting classification guidelines in the year that IOB started doing it's job, kind of. Which is another way of saying that, either Bush didn't have a functional IOB, or if he did, he permitted it to play the same classification games he permitted Dick Cheney.

As a result, Bush has gotten a technically clean bill of health in the realm of civil liberties violations, even while violations occurred.

Until recently, the board had not told the attorney general about any wrongdoing. "The Attorney General has no record of receiving reports from the IOB regarding intelligence activities alleged to be potentially unlawful or contrary to Executive Order or Presidential directive," the Justice Department told the House Judiciary Committee in a May 9 letter.

Neat trick, huh?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071400862.html?hpid=artslot

[aquart]

1. Ever heard of the Augean Stables?

It was a huge pile of shit. Hercules had to muck it out. That's our inheritance from Bush.

[Hissyspit]

3. K&R n/t

[tbyg52]

7. Yep. Half of us are in there,

half of us are pushing that rock up the hill, and half of us are playing whack-a-mole.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. K&R

The Fuhrer is above the law.

[DemReadingDU]

4. morning kick

[KoKo]

5. Impeach.....Gonzo should be impeached first then the rest of them immediately following...

Enough of these "clever" lies. Always covering their ass because they claim they didn't know because they didn't receive a report ...or classification means they couldn't talk about their corruption, etc., etc.

Leahy needs to work with House Judiciary and start Impeachment proceedings which would haul their asses up there to the hill and wring the info about their lies and criminality out of them.

[annabanana]

6. Well there goes one of Tony Snow's talking points. . . .

"no record of receiving reports" This now means, there is no one on any oversight body to issue reports!

I certainly hope some journalist follows up when he hears it...

"Tony? Is there "no record" because there's "no board"?"