Justice at the Price of Safety

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

A unified approach to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay will be crucial in order to meet the one-year deadline signed into law in January by President Obama, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who testified before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Holder said the Department has "no choice but to release" some of the detainees. He said they must be released because otherwise an order from the In terms of release, we have to release them or an order from the U.S. courts would be defied.

The Department of Justice is taking the lead from the work set out by President Barack Obama to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and ensure that the policies going forward “live up to our nation’s value,” said Holder.

The Guantanamo Review Task Force will make decisions about where detainees will be housed on an individual basis. Holder said that Task Force's decisions will be guided by “what is in the interest of national security, the foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.”

Ranking Member U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said “the President has announced the closure of Guantanamo Bay without any plan for the terrorists detained there and has admitted that he cannot guarantee that those detainees who are released will not seek to attack our country again.”

In response, Holder reiterated that the Department isn’t going “to do anything, anything that would put the American people at risk. Nothing.”

Musicians demand pay for radio play

Billy Corgan, vocalist and guitarist of the music group Smashing Pumpkins, spoke today before the House Judiciary Committee on behalf of musicFIRST, a coalition of musicians pushing for compensation when their sound recordings are broadcasted. As the law stands, the song writer receives compensation when it is played on AM/FM radio, but the performer does not. Corgan argued, "The decision behind this long-held inequity stems back to 1909 when radio was in its infancy... the old-fashioned radio business has held onto this exemption for over 80 years -- a law made in a bygone era for a set of reasons long past. This landmark exemption however stripped performers of their right to a free market evaluation of the value of their recorded works."

The committee was split on the issue. Chairman Congressman John Conyers (D- MI) spoke strongly in support bill HR 848 which would legally mandate artist compensation for radio broadcasts. He pointed out that only four developed nations in the world do not pay musicians: The US, Iran, North Korea, and China. This, he stated, is not something we should be proud of. He predicted that sooner or later, HR 848 will become a law, and "the sooner, the better."

However, dissenting views were expressed by other members of the committee. Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) pointed out how radio stations have seen steep decline in revenue during the current economic downturn, and the forecast is that the situation will only get worse. Goodlatte stated that it would be detrimental to apply another fee to small radio stations, in fact, this bill may be "the last straw" which causes small stations to close.

The core of the debate came down to which side receives unfair benefits in this situation; Whether musicians benefit from promotion due to radio play, or radio stations benefit in terms of listenership from playing music. Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R- TX) stated his proposition, "What I propose is that both parties agree to have a third-party entity conduct an objective study of the economic impact of royalty payments on performing artists and radio stations. Stakeholders would offer issues to be evaluated. And at least there will be some quantitative analysis to help mold legislation."

Kucinich testifies at divisive hearing on Bush administration

Republicans told the House Judiciary Committee that political disagreements, no matter how large, are not grounds for impeachment proceedings at a hearing discussing appropriate Congressional responses to Bush abuses of power. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said the hearing served no purpose other than anger management, stating that no evidence exists which supports grounds for impeachment and that the hearing’s lack of bipartisanship affected Congress’s already low credibility.

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said the Bush White House is unprecedented in its distortion of executive privilege, noting Bush’s alleged falsification of pre-Iraq war intelligence and approval of certain interrogation techniques. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) stated that the committee was attempting to solve an institutional problem,acting in a deliberative manner, not an accusatory manner. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) earlier had called Bush “the worst President our country has ever seen.”

In his testimony before the committee, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said pre-war justifications provided to Congress were untrue and that Congress had relied on the White House’s false statements while authorizing the Iraq war. Kucinich also said that Iraq posed no security threat to the United States and, since Iraq lacked a weapons program, Saddam Hussein was unable to harm the United States or arm terrorists. Congress’s decision now, Kucinich said, is whether it should defend the Constitution and prevent abuses of power in the Executive and Judiciary Branches.

Rep Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) said the White House has been dominated by corruption and incompetence, stating that the Bush administration ignored numerous warnings prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s decision to scale back troop levels in Afghanistan aided Osama bin Laden’s escape into the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. Hinchey suggested that it would have been more difficult to justify an attack against Iraq if bin Laden had been apprehended by the US military. Recognizing that impeachment had been referenced by many, Hinchey said the Bush administration, through the ways it violated the law, is “probably the most impeachable administration in the history of America.”

Who is watching the watchers?

The question before us today, is if the Federal Bureau is using its resources wisely and appropriately. At the House Judiciary Committee FBI Oversight Full Committee hearing on the FBI, Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said there are serious concerns about the FBI wiretapping the voices of Members of Congress during the investigation into Congressman Renzi, and the point, he said, is that surveillance “of this nature” by necessity, raises serious constitutional questions- most notably the speech and debate clause. Can any member of Congress get their office broken into, he asked, and can any member of Congress have their phones tapped?

Although the terrorist threat seems as if it disappeared, Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) said, it is easy to become complacent about the need for intelligence gathering. But FISA is outdated, and Congress has no greater responsibility than to enact long-term, common sense legislation to modernize FISA. However, he said, we cannot lose sight of the FBI’s traditional crime-fighting responsibilities.

Congressman Gohmert (R-TX) quoted King David from the Bible, saying that without adequate accountability, there is a tendency to abuse power. The three sections of government were created that way to avoid the abuse of power, and who has the authority, he asked, to wiretap the FBI? Who, he said, is watching you?

FBI Director Robert Mueller testified that the cyber threat, and the intersection of home-grown extremists using the internet, is one of our greatest threats. Public corruption remains the FBI’s top priority, and he pointed out that the search of Congressional Offices is all done using legal resources, and under a search warrant.

There were quite a few questions on different topics, one of which was about child pornography. Director Mueller said the FBI is looking into the ability to record ISP addresses and keep a database in order to keep track of the perpetrators. Also brought forward was mortgage fraud, and Mueller said there are intense efforts being done within the FBI to investigate it.

Of a major concern was the resources the FBI would need to close “the wide open door” threats that are caused by the accessibility of the internet. Mueller said part of it is giving partial security to the net, and so last year they started a National Cyber task force, including DOD, NSA, and others, to address individual hackers and government hackers.