Received: from uchimvs1.uchicago.edu by zaphod.uchicago.edu (5.59/4.7) id AA02464; Fri, 2 Nov 90 12:51:58 CST Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 12:51:58 CST From: ACTIV-L%UMCVMB@UCHIMVS1.UChicago.EDU Message-Id: <9011021851.AA02464@zaphod.uchicago.edu> Received: (from UMCVMB.BITNET for via BSMTP) Received: (from MAILER@UMCVMB for MAILER@UCHIMVS1 via NJE) Apparently-To: (M-MAILER-2980; 119 LINES); Thu, 11 Oct 90 17:56:21 CST Received: by UMCVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 1278; Thu, 11 Oct 90 17:50:57 CDT Date: Thu, 11 Oct 90 10:53:02 -0700 Reply-To: "Activists for Peace, Empowerment, Human Rights, @UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU Justice etc." Sender: "Activists for Peace, Empowerment, Human Rights, @UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU Justice etc." From: christic%CDP.UUCP@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU Subject: BOXER STANDS UP FOR PRINCIPLE To: Harel Barzilai /* Written 5:56 pm Oct 10, 1990 by christic in cdp:chr.contragate */ /* ---------- "BOXER STANDS UP FOR PRINCIPLE" ---------- */ ----------------------------------------------------------------- REP. BOXER TRIES TO REIN IN BUSH SPY BILL By WARREN HINCKLE, San Francisco Examiner, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 1990 Congress was SRO for tourists over the weekend. Visitors to the Federal City crowded the congressional galleries because the animals in the Capitol Hill zoo had made such a bollix of a budget process that Congress was the only tourist attraction open. The saloon wallow of the gallery was punctuated by boos and hisses. It's a pity that Congress is in such dutch with the public this week because something truly significant is about to happen in the House, the type of thing that only happens in Frank Capra movies when one politician stands up for principle against the go-along artists of Washington, D.C. Rep. Barbara Boxer, D- Greenbrae, is preparing to introduce an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 1991 that will at last force a debate on the worst piece of spycraft legislation to slouch toward law since the Frankenstein bill creating the CIA, the National Security Act of 1947. What Boxer is rightly--and so singularly among her congressional colleagues--concerned about is Title VII of the 1991 authorization bill for intelligence agencies. It passed the Senate on a unanimous vote on Aug. 2, when Saddam Hussein was monopolizing attention by invading Kuwait. Title VII is the Iran-contra felons' bill of rights: It authorizes the president to conduct covert operations using funds from ``private contractors'' and ``third-party'' countries. One such ``third-party'' funder of the Iran-contra hijinks was Saudi Arabia, lately so dear to George Bush's heart. Gen. Secord & Co.'s flim-flammy ``enterprise'' was a private company used to fund arming the contras despite congressional prohibitions, but by the logic of this new law General Dynamics or United Fruit could fund the overthrow of a government they didn't like. (This at least would have put the Eisenhower administration's 1954 overthrow of the Arbenz regime in Guatemala on a businesslike basis: Ike did it for United Fruit, so let them pay for it!) Incredibly, Title VII doesn't require the president to disclose the name of the third-party country, or the company, or the amount involved in extra-governmental funding of a covert operation against another nation. If a nosy Congress presses for detail, the bill codifies the ill-used doctrine of executive privilege by specifically allowing the president to keep locked in the White House cookie jar information that he deems ``sensitive.'' Title VII allows the president to bypass the CIA--whose operations are heavily scrutinized by Congress because of past scandals--and use any department of government to carry out a covert operation, and to bury the funding within its budget so the public would never be the wiser if, say, the Treasury Department were responsible for toppling radio transmission towers in Transylvania. Title VII makes legal the end runs around the law that created the constitutional crisis in Iran-contra. It gives the president the express power to launch a covert operation without first consulting Congress--something that has never been granted to the executive in the 43 years since the CIA was created as an intelligence-gathering tool of the president, with only the vaguest of capabilities for secret operations. Boxer has justly declared war on the defenders of Title VII, such as the increasingly hapless Sen. Alan Cranston, who argues that it is a ``reform'' that regulates secret operations by requiring that the president deliver a written finding to the congressional intelligence oversight committees 48 hours _after_ the operation begins! Old Boy Cranston and his gang of intelligence groupies in the Senate are so happy with being thrown the bone of an after-the-fact memorandum from the president that they are willing to grant him in advance the divine right not to tell them with whom he is playing footsie. Boxer's amendment, which will force a House debate on this heretofore unnoticed legislation, stands Title VII on its head. It would require the president to notify Congress in writing for _before_ he begins a covert operation. It would reportedly disallow the secret funding of American paramilitary operations by nameless and faceless corporations and foreign countries. The Boxer amendment should come before the House sometime this week, possibly as soon as Wednesday. If it awakens sufficient solons from their slumber, it could kill or seriously damage the infamous Title VII. Telegrams and telephone calls telling Boxer she's right on would be appropriate. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Lang tcn449 TCN Christic Institute christic PeaceNet 151251507 telex 76247,3214 CompuServe 202-797-8106 voice uunet!pyramid!cdp!christic UUCP 202-462-5138 fax cdp!christic%labrea@stanford Bitnet 202-529-0140 BBS cdp!christic@labrea.stanford.edu Internet