Congressman Warned Bush About Potential Constitutional Violations
Congressman Peter Hoekstra, a Republican and staunch ally of President Bush, wrote a letter on May 18th to the President informing him that Rep. Hoekstra had become aware of alleged Intelligence Community operations on which the Intelligence Committe (of which Rep. Hoekstra is a member) had not been briefed.
I present the portion of the letter dealing with this topic, as published by the New York Times:
Finally, Mr. President, but perhaps most importantly, I want to reemphasize that the Administration has the legal responsibility to “fully and currently” inform the House and Senate Intelligence Committees of its intelligence and intelligence-related activities. Although the law gives you and the committees flexibility on how we accomplish that (I have been fully supportive of your concerns in this respect), it is clear that we, the Congress, are to be provided all information about such activities. I have learned of some alleged Intelligence Community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. In the next few days I will be formally requesting information on these activities. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the Administration, a violation of law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the Members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information about our enemies. I strongly encourage you to direct the elements of the Intelligence Community to fulfill their legal responsibility to keep the Intelligence Committees fully briefed on their activities. The U.S. Congress simply should not have to play ‘Twenty Questions’ to get the information that it deserves under our Constitution.
Rep. Hoekstra lost me for a minute when he called “direct affront” to himself just as important as “violation of law,” but otherwise, he’s right on the money. More alarming, is that the alleged intelligence activities kept secret by the Administration are different that ones already revealed through leaks. It is not known whether these alleged intelligence operations are foreign or domestic, but as terrorism as a concept is not purely a foreign enemy, and considering that other revealed programs targeted or included (at least partially) American citizens, it is not unreasonable to worry that other secret unilateral Administration programs may also be targeting Americans.
