Constitutional Law

Talk Emerges Of Congressional Investigation Into Domestic Spying

An expansive investigation into the Bush administration’s use of surveillance during the “War on Terror,” is being discussed in Congress, according to Salon. The online magazine reports today that “a movement is stirring in Washington for a sweeping new inquiry into White House malfeasance that would be modeled after the famous Church Committee congressional investigation of the 1970s. (In 1975, Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) chaired a committee investigation into intelligence gathering methods of the CIA and FBI, which came to light during Watergate.) Salon obtained a seven-page memo written by a former member of the Church Committee proposing the inquiry and noted that discussions about the memo have included aides to top House Democrats.

Salon reported:

Looking forward to 2009, when both Congress and the White House may well be controlled by Democrats, the idea is to have Congress appoint an investigative body to discover the full extent of what the Bush White House did in the war on terror to undermine the Constitution and U.S. and international laws. The goal would be to implement government reforms aimed at preventing future abuses – and perhaps to bring accountability for wrongdoing to Bush officials.

Writing for TPMMuckraker, Andrew Tilghman voiced skepticism about such an investigation, noting Congress’s failure to oppose the administration’s wiretapping laws and possible concern among Democrats “because of their own party’s complicity in approving certain surveillance techniques.”

Full post as published by ACS Blog on July 23, 2008 (boomark / email).