VoterWatch’s Transparency Recap: A Review of Recent Stories

By Danielle Lanzet, VoterWatch Staff

The Department Of Justice remains in the process of adapting the Attorney General Guidelines that reign over FBI investigatory procedure. Whereas the FBI must currently possess some "reasonable suspension" of criminality to further investigate and open a full inquiry, the new Guidelines would sanction for the FBI to assess potential criminality without a single lead. In expanding such, an FBI agent investigating under the new Guidelines would obtain the same degree of power that was previously reserved only for a full-blown investigation. No longer would a FBI agent require sufficient evidence to follow or observe a person of interest. The Center for Democracy and Technology firmly avowed, "the new AG Guidelines permit conduct the original AG Guidelines were supposed to prevent."

In making the Attorney General Guidelines more far-reaching and extensive, the focus appears to shift away from the government and toward the populace. The Center for Democracy and Technology exclaimed:

DOJ properly agreed to a request from Senators Leahy and Specter to hold off on issuing new Guidelines until after FBI Director Muller testifies at an oversight hearing on September 17. September 17 is Constitution Day — the 221st anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Now, it’s up to Congress to use the hearing to send a message to the Attorney General that any change in the Guidelines governing FBI investigations should respect the Constitution by ensuring that investigative resources Congress has provided to the FBI be focused on criminals and terrorists, not on everyone else.

The new Attorney General Guidelines would likely bulldoze through the amount of red tape. However, the Senate Judiciary Committee, on the other hand, possesses little success in passing through such a bureaucratic roadblock, which further infringes and diminishes Congress’s oversight power. The Senate Judiciary Committee must jump through fire to potentially, not necessarily, obtain access to critical Justice Department record concerning interrogation, detention, and torture. Secrecy News provides an enlightening look at the situation with personal feedback from Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) below:

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) explained, "after more than five years of requests, we have only recently received access to redacted versions of OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) legal opinions related to the CIA’s interrogation program. The failure to provide other documents that we have sought repeatedly, however, leaves us without basic facts that are essential to this Committee’s ability to conduct its oversight responsibilities."

The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to possess the requested material but set a deadline for the acquisition of the data for Friday, August 29 at 10:00 AM. However, the Senate Judiciary Committee did not extrapolate on the proceeding action if the material fails to surface.

Less than a month after being instituted, the Scheduled Departure program – which allowed a non-criminal illegal alien to surrender to avoid arrest and detention – flopped. The government spent just over $40,000 to advertise the program with the hope that voluntary deportation would ensue. However, with a laughable eight people deciding to comply, the Scheduled Departure program was consequently canceled.

The director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention and removal operations says the program’s failure proves that enforcement is the only method that works, pointing out that illegal immigrants want amnesty, open borders, and a more vulnerable America.

The failure of the Scheduled Departure Program has the Immigrant-activist sphere concerned that the catastrophe of the initiative could create an increase in raiding and other enforcement. That would essentially bring the matter full circle considering that the Scheduled Departure Program was instituted in response to the criticism of amplified enforcement.

The government remains not only concerned about illegal alien border crossing but also about the frequency of crossing by any U.S. citizen. In an effort to compile a database of border checkpoint travel to guard against terrorism, the government intends to utilize the Border Crossing Information system for future intelligence use. With approximately 75% of people crossing the border into America doing so by land, the task of maintaining a log was impossibly until recently. With the emergence of machine-readable ID material, the government intends to mandate such data to cross the border.

Washington Post Staff Writer, Ellen Nakashima, proclaimed that the effort "reflects the growing number of government systems containing personal information on Americans that can be shared for a broad range of law enforcement and intelligence purposes, some of which are exempt from some Privacy Act protections."

The Department of Homeland Security’s admission of the database coincides with the recent move by the Bush administration to fortify an exceptional amount of data for national security before the end of his term. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Russ Knocke said:

"History has shown, whether you are talking about criminal or terrorist activity, that plotting, planning or even relationships among conspirators can go on for years," he said. "Basic travel records can, quite literally, help frontline officers to connect the dots."

Some concern about the new initiative revolves around privacy and the possibility of data-mining and/or other complex analysis that could involve innocent people.

Moreover, the Department of Homeland Security seeks to absolve the Border Crossing Information system from the 1974 Privacy Act, containing the right of a citizen to be knowledgeable about the viewing of his/her data by law enforcement or an intelligence agency as well as the entitlement to sue for access and correction in such.

by billy

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