Incompetence is compromising presidential power.
Just when President Bush seemed to have beaten back the Congressional defeatists on Iraq, along comes his own Justice Department to undermine some hard-won antiterror policy gains. The incompetence at Justice is getting to be expensive for Presidential power.
The latest episode involves the FBI's failure to adequately supervise the issuance of so-called "national security letters," or administrative subpoenas for counterterrorism cases that don't require a judge's approval. Congress authorized these letters in 1986 and their scope was expanded as part of the 2001 Patriot Act. An Inspector General's audit has found that some of these subpoenas were improperly issued, and that the FBI lacked the means even to monitor how many were issued, leading to misreporting to Congress. |