The Pentagon Goes Fishin’

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Following up the last post — in Slate, Andrew Rice provides a simple explanation of what’s going on (emphasis added):

The intelligence gathering, according to the agencies that conduct it, is meant to help discover potential spies and other security threats by giving them information about targeted individuals’ sources of income. When their suspicions are raised, the agencies issue so-called “national security letters” to banks and other financial institutions. Unlike the F.B.I., the agencies have no power to compel the banks to turn the information over, but they’re seldom refused. The military seems to be much more involved in it than the C.I.A. The strongest voices of criticism—and the sources for the story?—seem to be at the F.B.I., which thinks the spooks are going on fishing expeditions. “The more this is done, and the more poorly it’s done, the more pushback there is for the F.B.I.” when it goes to banks to conduct its own investigations, an anonymous “official” tells the paper.

The paper notes that the disclosure is significant, because it marks a breach of the traditional strictures on domestic operations by spy agencies. Congress has rejected several attempts by the agencies to gain the power to compel banks to give them such information. It’s not clear whom the agencies are investigating. The military claims it’s mostly keeping tabs on servicemen and private contractors, though others say the surveillance is broader, especially when it comes to the Pentagon, which has made the use of such letters “standard practice.”

Digby:

… the Pentagon and the CIA have taken it upon itself to investigate the finances of American citizens with no warrants or oversight and keep the information on file forever … The military, the clandestine spy service and the FBI have all been gathering financial information on American citizens. Nobody knows what they have, who’s been targeted or if the information is correct or useful.

Don’t miss this:

We are building a well funded national police state apparatus at the same time that we are giving unlimited money and power to our military and foreign intelligence agencies to operate in the United States. This is incredibly dangerous and I can’t help but wonder why there is so little effort on the part of anyone in public life to educate the public on the inherant dangers of such powerful, unaccountable institutions. This is why we had a revolution to begin with. It’s why we fought two world wars in the last century. (Where is the Al Gore of civil liberties?)

And the most laughable thing is that all of this is apparently perfectly acceptable to the principled right wingers and “libertarians” who spent decades railing against the jack booted government thugs — at least until a Republican administration was wielding the power. It seems that unless the target in question is buying weapons or explosives (in which case they come roaring in to protect the only amendment in the Bill of Rights they care about) these people are just fine with all this. After all, only the “right” people are being spied upon — Muslims, war protestors, liberals, Democrats and other enemies of the state.

Indeed, as near as I can tell from Technorati and Memeorandum, the only rightie blogger commenting on this story as of yet is this one, who says what the Pentagon is doing is “all perfectly legal,” and adds, “As usual, the left is in a snit! Gee, big surprise huh?”

Stupid is as stupid blogs, I say. As Tim F. writes at Balloon Juice, “Add power and subtract accountability. Abuses are inevitable like water flows downhill.”

14 thoughts on “The Pentagon Goes Fishin’”

  1. This is madness…
    I rmember in the ’70’s when “Libertarianism” was fisrt explained to me. I asked, ” So, you want to have safe water and food, and drive the roads, and use the rest of the infra-structure, but you don’t think you shouuld be taxed for it? WTF?”
    Notice, ” Libertarian” does NOT have the word “Liberal” in it (sorry for using that 4-letter word. Hide the children and the monkey’s – as they may evolve; if you believe in that sort of thing; and beside’s, they might want to smoke your stash….). It starts to say “Liberal” (Jesus,one of the other kid’s heard it), and then it chicken’s out – “Liber…”
    I’ve read almost all of Ms. Rand. And it’s a bit boring…
    I don’t remember ever hearing about Ms. Rand wanting to sniff our underpant’s to check for pot resin, or whatever… But, I could be wrong.
    Well, “Libertarian ‘s,” which side of the aisle are you on now?
    Sniffing, or objecting?
    Me?
    You lookin’ at me? YOU LOOKIN’ AT MEEEEEE?

  2. And to think that so much of the “intelligence” work is being contracted to the private sector (50% by cost). Funny to think of Booz Allen staff generating “national security letters” to be handed to Bank of America staff to gather information on government employees for fear they’re on the take. See DemocracyNow piece on Mike McConnell, the man President Bush tapped to replace John Negroponte as National Intelligence Director.

    Can’t help but think of the famous FDR quote:

    The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes strong than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.

  3. I can’t see that the governent needs compulsory or non-compulsory authorization to spy on govnt employees in an attempt to see who is being subverted. The subversion of our governemnt is clear, obvious and documented on sites like opensecrets.org, where the links between political contributions and special legislation is available in a non-partisan use of mandated reporting.

  4. That’s the beauty of it. We’re all potential terrorist suspects. It’s the modern day equivalent of heresy. You can’t defend against the accusation, and the accusation carries with it guilt and conviction.

    Now we’re battling al-Qaida, but nobody knows who al-Qaida is because it’s a complete abstraction whose substance is of a different dimension. It is nobody and everybody at the same time. be afraid people..be very afraid.

    This Pentagon spying is Rummy’s baby..it was his little piece of the pie..They gave him billions in mystery dollars and a black box to work out of with the instructions to go forth and bring evil to justice.

  5. Well, Commander Codpiece said (and I quote) “When we’re talkin’
    about war, we’re really talkin’ ’bout peace”.( Orwell rolls in his grave) My biggest concern is that some zealots will be appointed positions of power (as if they haven’t already), and we’ll have a regular inquisition.
    Freedom is on the march! Wave good-bye……..

  6. If this were being written about a President Hillary doing this, you can bet the farm that the right wingers would be in a snit.

  7. There’s a political solution to our military problem.

    Dick Cheney must go.

    The investigations are about to begin. Libby’s gonna get Fitz’d. The congressional subpoenas will be issued. The weariness over constitutional erosion is palable.

    So in advance of the predictable claims of executive privilege, I believe the call for his resignation must begin to rise. Political will for the necessary must begin to be accumulated.

    It may seems a bit premature to some, but I expect it will resonate broadly as events unfold. There is no unitary executive. Not in this country. Sorry about yer luck Dick.

    “The object is a larger one, and the original overarching goal of this administration: expanding executive power, for its own sake”.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2157493/

    Since I expect no reader here to disagree with the above quote, then let’s ask ourselves why we feel obliged to put up with this any longer.

    Congress is suffering fom a type of learned helplessness. Public outcry from most quarters must create intestinal fortitude.

    http://www.democrats.com/Congressional-Dems-Suffering-From-Battered-Spouse-Syndrome

    As I have said before, time is exceedingly of the essence. Do we really want Dick driving the bus at the next geopolitical crossroad?

    The framers put the impeachment clauses in the constitution for scenarios like this. Exercising our rights is an imperative. No signing statement on this one.

    Once this is all over, we will look back and wish Dick had spared us the inevitable vitriol. Men in multi-thousand dollar suits will try and tell America that this is complicated. It’s not. He’s a bad man. He’s an enemy of the republic. He should’ve been cuffed years ago.

    Join the call for his resignation today.

  8. Gee, if only there were a way that military investigators with legitimate suspicions about people could get access to records, perhaps something where they would go to a special third-party who was supposed to be impartial … they could show the reasons for their concern to this third-party who could ‘judge’ whether to give them permission … to decide if the concerns were ‘warranted’.

    Of course, such a system would probably only work well for hundreds of years.

  9. biggerbox suffers from pre 9/11 thinking. Records aren’t needed, political will is.

    Please read Glenn Greenwald’s post

    The collapse of the Bush presidency poses risks

    http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/collapse-of-bush-presidency-poses.html

    This is the closing paragraph:

    The most dangerous George Bush is one who feels weak, powerless and under attack. Those perceptions are intolerable for him and I doubt there are many limits, if there are any, on what he would be willing to do in order to restore a feeling of power and to rid himself of the sensations of his own weakness and defeat.

  10. c u n d gulag, you completely nailed my opinion of Libertarianism. Could I ask one teensy housekeeping favor, though? At the risk of sounding like that pathetic Eats, Shoots and Leaves woman, apostrophized plurals (e.g. monkey’s and kid’s, for monkeys and kids) are like nails on a blackboard to my reading brain.

    Sorry. We all have our weirdness; I guess that’s mine. Otherwise, very cool comment.

  14. Erinyes, It would be nice if it were true and doable..One positive sign in the air is that Cheney came out of his cave today…that’s an indication that Bush is feeling the heat. Cheney only comes out to remind the public that him and Bush are untouchable, and that in order to get to him or Bush we have to betray the sacrifices of the troops in the field. And of course, nothing could make Osama ( remember him?) happier then our questioning of the wisdom of our invasion of Iraq. We don’t want to be Osama’s stooges,do we?

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