CPAs For The FBI And CIA
By Gary Aldrich (07/28/03)
When Enron went belly up and thousands of financial portfolios, careers and retirement plans were tossed into the trash can, authorities and the American people looked for reasons to explain the Enron fiasco.
Months later, investigators established that management had engaged in and ordered unethical and sometimes illegal activities, especially in the way that books and records were maintained. There was also plenty of evidence of incompetent management, along with the usual attempts by that management to silence whistleblowers who were aware of the coming collapse but were trying to head it off.
Eventually it was realized that a highly respected, experienced entity existed for the sole purpose of making sure a financial train wreck of this magnitude could not happen - the accounting industry. These career professionals were given huge fees to examine the books and records to identify weaknesses and errant directions of the management, as well as the rank and file, so the interests of all – especially the stockholders - could be protected.
As a result of the exhaustive investigations conducted to determine culpability, Certified Public Accountants bore the brunt of the blame. Had they done their jobs correctly, the collapse of Enron might have been prevented. CPA’s were accused of looking the other way, or otherwise dodging their responsibilities. The fallout for the accounting profession is still being felt, as corporations and the government try to avoid repeating Enron’s mistakes.
In addition, the news media correctly identified a member of the Enron management, Sherron Watkins, who blew the whistle on the unusual and unethical accounting procedures. She was not only applauded for her courage, but she was made one of three “Women of the Year” to grace the cover of Time Magazine.
How, then, did the U.S. Congress, which has oversight responsibility for both the law enforcement and intelligence communities, decide that the FBI and CIA failed to keep track of terrorists prior to September 11 without mentioning failures in its own oversight responsibilities?
Aren’t congressional oversight committees supposed to function as the federal agencies’ CPAs?
In its oversight role, doesn’t Congress “audit” the very agencies that are determined to be responsible – in part – for the failure of the federal government to protect us from attack by foreign terrorists? As the stockholders, don’t we have a right to all the information about what went wrong so we can work together to stop it from happening again?
Also, where is the list of whistleblowers who had the courage to come forward before September 11? Why don’t we acknowledge those who tried to sound an alarm that these agencies were becoming too politically correct and spent too much time trying to overcome unreasonable new policy, foisted on them by Hard-Left Liberals in the Clinton Administration and the mainstream media?
From 1993 to the end of the Clinton Administration, brave whistleblowers made the dangerous trek up to Capitol Hill to report serious national security breakdowns in the Executive Branch caused by the reckless policies of that administration. What happened to all the information that was given to Congress, but not acted upon? It’s nowhere to be found in the soon-to-be-released report. The blame will be placed on the two agencies that take orders directly or indirectly from the White House.
Though the new report will focus on the FBI and CIA, everyone in Washington knows that these agencies have little independence and, in fact, have been domesticated by a liberal mentality that insists upon merit and excellence taking a second seat to diversity and sensitivity.
The “Enron” equivalent to this congressional report would be a report on the causes of its collapse from the CPA’s who were partly responsible. The true fact is that two branches of the federal government – the executive and the legislative - let the American people down, not just two government agencies carefully following the policies of higher civilian leadership.
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