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Moderate House Dems Shoot Down AOC’s Intel Oversight Amendment

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On 12/9/21 Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) introduced an amendment(Amendment 148 to H.R. 5314–Protect Our Democracy Act), that would have restored the oversight powers Congress always intended the Government Accountability Office(GAO) to have, including over our intelligence agencies. Our intelligence agencies, as everyone knows, are notoriously impervious to any Congressional oversight, and often hide behind a vague 1988 Department of Justice opinion to justify their need for secrecy. Rep Ocasio-Cortez’s amendment would have taken away that cover, ensuring much-needed transparency from our intelligence agencies. Surprisingly, 23 Centrist Democrats voted with House Republicans to kill her amendment.

As Rep Ocasio-Cortez correctly pointed out on the House floor, given the kinds of abuses we’ve witnessed during Trump’s presidency, it is only prudent that we restore GAO’s oversight powers over all federal agencies, including our intelligence agencies. Any reasonable person would agree, that it is foolhardy to assume that former President Trump abused all other federal agencies for his selfish political interests, except our intelligence apparatus, the easiest ones to abuse given the secrecy with which they are allowed to operate.

Rep Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor: “Since it’s creation in 1921, the Government Accountability Office(GAO) has had the purview to conduct oversight of all federal agencies with the goal of reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and holding accountable bad actors. However and unfortunately, most of our intelligence agencies today are not fully cooperative with the GAO, pointing to an outdated and vague 1988 Department of Justice opinion. Our amendment would allow the GAO to act as a check on this behavior, not creating new powers, but restoring the power Congress always intended the GAO to have. This amendment is welcomed by many in the intelligence community, who want to protect their important work and resources from abuse, particularly after the last presidency we just endured. We drafted this amendment in partnership with the community and I’m proud to have the support of Representative Adam Schiff who serves as the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In fact many of my colleagues have already taken a stand in support of this legislation because in 2010, the House passed a virtually identical amendment.”

The amendment failed with a final tally of 233 nays, 196 yeas, with 4 members not voting. Among the 233 nays were 23 Centrist Democrats who Yours Truly is compelled to name. The nay Dems included Reps Cynthia Axne(IA), Cheri Bustos(IL), Matt Cartwright(PA), Angie Craig(MN), Antonio Delgado(NY), Val Demings(FL), Jared Golden(ME), Josh Gottheimer(NJ), Chrissy Houlahan(PA), Conor Lamb(PA), Susie Lee(NV), Elaine Luria(VA), Tom O’Halleran(AZ), Chris Pappas(NH), Kurt Schrader(OR), Kim Schrier(WA), Terri Sewell(AL), Mikie Sherrill(NJ), Abigail Spanberger(VA), David Trone(MD), Filemon Vela(TX), Jennifer Wexton(VA), Susan Wild(PA).

Ever since the Patriot Act was enacted after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, there have been growing calls from civil libertarians and others, for there to be some checks on the almost absolute powers we granted our intelligence agencies after the 9/11 attacks. The reasoning behind this is pretty simple–power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Fast forward to the Trump administration and the abuses we witnessed occurring across all federal agencies–(DOJ being used for the Big Lie, Military on Black Lives Matter protesters in DC, numerous abuses of DHS, “failure” by our intel agencies to anticipate Jan 6th insurrection)– and the need to look into our intel agencies becomes an absolute necessity. It’s against this backdrop that Rep Ocasio-Cortez, with the support of many in the intel community, are pushing for more transparency. One would assume given these set of circumstances, that more oversight would be a no-brainer for Democrats, but apparently not.

Concerns about possible abuses of our intel agencies run the gamut, from the mundane warrantless snooping of our electronic communications (emails, texts, voicemails, etc), to much more serious allegations that if proven, constitute serious violations of our commitments under the United Nations Conventions Against Torture(CAT). These include allegations of 24/7 organized stalking, non-consensual for-profit human experimentation on people entered on terrorism watchlists by weapons manufacturers and others in Big Tech(remote neuromonitoring), militarized attacks on civilians(usually watchlisted) with directed energy weapons, manufactured terrorism cases, etc. These are serious human rights violations that can only come to light through proper oversight. It also bears pointing out that similar egregious abuses have in the past been attributed to our intel agencies, a recent good example being the non-consensual experimentation on U.S. civilians using radiation. President Clinton in 1995, did the just and moral thing by not only exposing this inhumane conduct, but also making whole the surviving victims. The same can be done today.

Bottom line folks, Rep Ocasio-Cortez deserves a lot of praise for pushing for reform on a topic most politicians, and quite frankly the mainstream media, have been terrified to venture into. One only hopes that she musters the courage to push on with it, despite the recent setback on the House floor. Simply put, time has come for our intel agencies to be subjected to some real oversight.

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You may reach the author via email at administrator@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Lindsey Graham’s Totally Bogus Hearsay Defense

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appeared on CBS’ Face The Nation today and as expected, made a totally bogus defense of President Trump as regards the impeachment inquiry. Sen Graham’s argument was that because the whistleblower complaint is based on “hearsay” (second hand information), it is not credible and cannot be used in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

Sen Graham said on Face The Nation, “We are not going to try the President of the United States based on hearsay. Every American has a right to confront their accuser…….” Sen Graham, a lawyer, knows full well that the purpose of the impeachment inquiry is to ascertain whether the allegations in the whistleblower complaint are true and if so to use them as a basis for impeaching Trump. Nobody is “Trying Trump” based on the allegations in the whistleblower complaint. You don’t have to take Yours Truly’s argument for it, just listen to what Republican Congressman Will Hurd, who appeared on Face The Nation right after Sen Graham said.

Congressman Hurd told host Margaret Brennan, “There are troubling issues within the whistleblower’s report, but they are allegations and I think that’s why we should explore these allegations through hearings….in order to get to the bottom of this. I will say this, I was never in a terrorist organization but I collected a lot of intelligence on terrorist organizations when I was an undercover officer in the CIA and so being able to get information second hand is not necessarily a bad thing. I can’t speak to the veracity of this whistleblower’s information but that’s why we bring people in and try to collect facts, understand what was said and be methodical about this…” There you have it forks, Rep Hurd lays out perfectly why there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the whistleblower complaint or the impeachment inquiry as Sen Graham alleges.

It is well known in the legal profession that a complaint does not have to be a first hand account to be credible. Very many meritorious complaints are often based on second-hand information. It is the job of the fact finder (a judge) or in this case Rep Adam Schiff and company, to hold hearings to ascertain whether the allegations in the whistleblower complaint are true. The impeachment inquiry is therefore a perfect vehicle for verifying the allegations made in the whistleblower complaint and it does not in any way violate Trump’s due process rights as Sen Graham, a lawyer, deliberately mischaracterizes it.

Bottom line folks, as Trump’s impeachment inquiry chugs along, expect Trump’s defenders like Sen Lindsey Graham to use every trick in the book to hinder or otherwise derail what is clearly a lawful and necessary impeachment inquiry. Their aim is to prevent the public from getting to the bottom of what happened in Ukraingate and to that end they will do everything to either totally cripple or undermine the integrity of the impeachment inquiry. It is sad that the once respectable Senator Lindsey Graham has stooped to this level and is putting the interests of his political party above our national security interests. If Trump used his office to get a foreign leader to interfere in our elections, the public deserves to know that and Sen Graham should not be working to cripple or malign the impeachment inquiry just to appease Trump. The allegations in the whistleblower complaint raise national security issues, something the old respectable Lindsey Graham might have been concerned about.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Extended #Dem2020Poll

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