Posted on 01/22/2002 3:53:43 AM PST by RJCogburn
And if he does so too freely he will lose their open and honest input.
But still, I'm rethinking my position.
It's not I think the FBI incapable of doing two things at once, it's that I question the wisdom of internal navel gazing, finger pointing, and clownish congressional grandstanding right now.
I think this 30 year old case of FBI abuse/corruption, etc., like the one Attorney Dunn is instigating for his Egyptian client (the student who didn't really have a pilot's radio in his hotel room on Sept 11), should be fought in a court of law, NOT in congress.
Believe me, I'm struggling not to blindly support Bush/Ashcroft. They will make mistakes, I know that...but their motive here is not CYA..it's what they think best for the country. The second I think they are acting to cover up their own illegal acts is the minute I get off the Bush/Cheney train.
Back to the Egyptian guy. The FBI got him to confess the pilot's radio was his. A lie. Now Dunn, one sharp lawyer, is asking the judge to investigate how the FBI coerced a confession from the kid. It's gonna be hell to pay if the judge finds the FBI did illegally charge him, and Johnny Walker's lawyer uses that information to accuse the FBI of the same tactics in getting Walker to talk.
So....I'm not nearly as concerned about 30 year old FBI misdeeds,as I am the present. And I don't want Dan Burton's committee investigating either one.
Now the families of the two other convicted with the perjured testimony that died might consider it long past.
However, the FBI agent who helped pull this off, about summed it up. Whatcha want me to do cry.
Me I want him under the jail.
I want the FBI Cleaned up and its power curtailed.
I don't want them holidng anymore Bar B Ques for a long time.
Seems there is already a strong disincentive against corrupt "input".
Unless a larger problem is evidenced from his trial, and/or the civil suits by others wrongly imprisoned, where is the unpunished corruption?
The Executive doesn't have fourth amendment protections, but if not a "probable cause" standard, it needs better protection from the Congress than "because we want to".
"The lawyers can read the documents kept in Justice Department files but cannot make copies."
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