The Justice Department has dropped its investigation of the FISA wiretapping matter because investigators were unable to obtain clearance to review material necessary to the investigation:
WASHINGTON, May 10 — An investigation by the Justice Department ethics office into the conduct of department lawyers who approved the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program has been closed because investigators were denied security clearances, according to a letter sent to Congress on Wednesday.
The head of the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, H. Marshall Jarrett, wrote in the letter to Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York, that “we have been unable to make meaningful progress in our investigation because O.P.R. has been denied security clearances for access to information about the N.S.A. program.”
Mr. Jarrett said his office had requested clearances since January, when it began an investigation, and was told on Tuesday that they had been denied. “Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation,” the letter said.
Mr. Hinchey said the denial of clearances was “hard to believe” and compounded what he called a violation of the law by the program itself, which eavesdrops without court warrants on people in the United States suspected of ties to Al Qaeda.
Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, said that the N.S.A. program was “highly classified and exceptionally sensitive” and that “only those involved in national security with a specific need to know are provided details about this classified program.” He said the legality of the eavesdropping program had been reviewed by other Justice Department offices and by the N.S.A. inspector general.
Frankly, I find this rather distressing. I’m not as convinced as some appear to be of the illegality of the operation but, as I’ve written before, I would like to see a thorough investigation.
Who could perform such an investigation? An executive branch investigation now appears to be foreclosed and with the poisonous environment that seem to prevail in the Congress I can’t see any serious investigation being done there, either.
What’s really going on here? Is the NSA just stonewalling the Justice Department? The White House? Is there a turf battle going on? Is the Justice Department being petulant? What?
Others posting on this and closely related subjects today include Dean Esmay, who appears to be a little more supportive of the adminstration than I in this, McQ at QandO Blog who appears to see this somewhat as I do except somewhat more so, and Jeremy Dibbell at The Moderate Voice, who has posted in a very similar vein to mine.
James Joyner calls for the President to override the NSA on this. That sounds right to me.
