Leahy Sets Sights on Privacy and War Profiteering

ABC’s Jake Tapper reports: Next Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, under its new chairman, Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, will hold a "scene-setting" hearing on one of two issues that Leahy intends to focus on in the coming year — privacy concerns — with particular emphasis on the vast network of databases on you and me created since 9/11 both on the federal and the local level.

Leahy is an aggressive critic of the Bush administration, unlike his predecessor Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., and the hearing could prove interesting. The Committee intends to call witnesses from the right side of the aisle as well — conservative civil liberties experts such as former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.

The hearing will also focus on the vast network of local networks of police-manned intelligence centers called "fusion centers" — now operating in 37 states, popping up with little federal leadership and training.

The other issue Leahy intends to focus on is war profiteering. He introduced legislation yesterday "creating criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world." One focus of future hearings:  whistleblowers who have launched civil suits against alleged war profiteers but have seen their suits delayed by the Justice Department.