The White House made over 200 changes to a new report by a civilian oversight boardintended to keep tabs on whether anti-terror executive branch policies intrude on civil liberties. The Washington Post obtained a draft of the report and in a story on Tuesday highlighted several questionable Bush administration revisions.
In particular...
"one section deleted by the administration would have divulged that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's civil liberties protection officer had 'conducted reviews of the potentially problematic programs and has established procedures' for intelligence officials to file complaints about possible civil liberties and privacy abuses. The passage would have been the first public disclosure of an internal review identifying such potentially intrusive intelligence programs. In its place, White House officials suggested more modest language, which ended up as a substitution in the final report."
And...
"One change that stirred significant controversy among panel members was the deletion by White House aides of a passage on concerns about federal prosecutors' ability to detain 'material witnesses' indefinitely in terrorism cases. It was reversed after protests by panel members."
And...
"Another significant revision was the deletion of a reference to the panel's plan to investigate how the Department of
Homeland Security assigns "risk" ratings to people entering the United
States under the Automated Targeting System. The controversial program's scope has expanded over the past decade from screening cargo to targeting allegedly dangerous travelers, foreign and American. Customs officials have said they store the risk assessments for up to 40 years."
We've come to expect this sort of thing from the White House. But is it possible for a board consisting of five members "appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the President" to perform adequate oversight of the president?
Photo: Dan4th Nicholas
