...to Our Closet of Tortured Skeletons
Using the Bush administration's tried-and-true excuse of needing "greater latitude" in fighting the war on terror, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved granting the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) authority to covertly recruit and train "U.S. persons" as informants. As if that weren't enough "latitude", the Committee decided the DIA should also be able to withhold any information about its activities from the public. Can't have a government that's accountable to the governed after all.
Interestingly, the Senate was forced to withdraw a virtually identical amendment from last year's intelligence authorization bill in response to public concerns about domestic spying. Late this past September, at the Pentagon's behest, the amendment was slipped into this year's intelligence authorization bill, without public hearings or debate.
...many of the documents that have been obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union pertaining to prisoner abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq, were obtained from the DIA. Under the amendment approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the DIA would have the same impunity currently enjoyed by the CIA.
article by Ken Sanders
Posted by Cieciel at October 24, 2005 08:57 AM