Just heard on MSNBC that the Justice Department will launch an investigation on the NSA spying issue. Here we go again, the foxes investigating the break in of the hen house.
Hopefully, American's will recall that one of the lawyers who reviewed and approved the NSA's activities was none other than current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Your typical American has the attention span of an artichoke. More of them have forgotten that NSA is spying on them than could ever remember who Gonzalez is or what an Attoreny General does. We wouldn't be having this problem, otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe Justice Department is capable of conducting an independent inquiry. Many of the people there are career types whose tenure extends beyond any single administration.
ReplyDeleteThat said, if the upper levels of the Department (i.e. the AG) want to make life difficult for those who are trying to conduct the investigation, they certainly can do so. And if the investigation sets forth a final opinion as to the legality of a certain practice, that opinion is going to reflect the opinion of the AG.
If this were an investigation into clear-cut criminal activity (like embezzlement or something), then I think the Justice Department would carry it off just fine, even if they are investigating the Executive. But in this case, the legality of the NSA activity is open to interpretation (well, in my mind it is pretty clearly illegal, but legal scholars do differ on it) - so when it comes down to putting forward a Department opinion, we're probably going to get Gonzales' opinion, and apparently he doesn't think it was illegal.
It won't amount to much, in other words.
When can we get the IRS to go along with us in like fashion? "Um, yeah, I'll be auditing myself. My investigation will be fair, yet firm..."
ReplyDeleteWell, not so fast. Now they're saying it's an investigtion into who blew the whistle.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not surprised.
Oh. LOL. Ok, well at least that makes more sense - investigating the NSA spying itself seems pointless because the admin has already admitted to it and that the President authorized it. What we need now is to get the issue into the courts so it can be ruled unconstitutional.
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