"SpyGate"-What Were The Bushbots Looking For?
By Paul Craig Roberts
Caught in gratuitous and illegal spying on American citizens, the Bush
administration has defended its illegal activity and set the Justice (sic)
Department on the trail of the person or persons who informed the New York
Times of Bush's violation of law.
Note the astounding paradox: The Bush administration is caught red-handed in
blatant illegality and responds by trying to arrest the patriot who exposed
the administration's illegal behavior.
Bush has actually declared it treasonous to reveal his illegal behavior! His
propagandists, who masquerade as news organizations, have taken up the line:
To reveal wrong-doing by the Bush administration is to give aid and comfort
to the enemy.
Compared to Spygate, Watergate was a kindergarten picnic. The Bush
administration's lies, felonies, and illegalities have revealed it to be a
criminal administration with a police state mentality and police state
methods. Now Bush and his attorney general have gone the final step and
declared Bush to be above the law. Bush aggressively mimics Hitler's claim
that defense of the realm entitles him to ignore the rule of law.
Bush's acts of illegal domestic spying are gratuitous because there are no
valid reasons for Bush to illegally spy. The Foreign Intelligence Services
Act gives Bush all the power he needs to spy on terrorist suspects. All the
administration is required to do is to apply to a secret FISA court for
warrants. The Act permits the administration to spy first and then apply for
a warrant, should time be of the essence.
The problem is that Bush has totally ignored the law and the court.
Why would President Bush ignore the law and the FISA court? It is certainly
not because the court in its three decades of existence was uncooperative.
According to attorney Martin Garbus (New York Observer, 12-26-05), the
secret court has issued more warrants than all federal district judges
combined, only once denying a warrant.
Why, then, has the administration created another scandal for itself on top
of the WMD, torture, hurricane, and illegal detention scandals?
There are two possible reasons.
One reason is that the Bush administration is being used to concentrate
power in the executive. The old conservative movement, which honors the
separation of powers, has been swept away. Its place has been taken by a
neoconservative movement that worships executive power.
The other reason is that the Bush administration could not go to the FISA
secret court for warrants because it was not spying for legitimate reasons
and, therefore, had to keep the court in the dark about its activities.
What might these illegitimate reasons be? Could it be that the Bush
administration used the spy apparatus of the US government in order to
influence the outcome of the presidential election?
Could we attribute the feebleness of the Democrats as an opposition party to
information obtained through illegal spying that would subject them to
blackmail?
These possible reasons for bypassing the law and the court need to be fully
investigated and debated.
No administration in my lifetime has given so many strong reasons to oppose
and condemn it as has the Bush administration.
Nixon was driven from office because of a minor burglary of no consequence
in itself. Clinton was impeached because he did not want the embarrassment
of publicly acknowledging that he engaged in adulterous sex acts in the Oval
Office. In contrast, Bush has deceived the public and Congress in order to
invade Iraq, illegally detained Americans, illegally tortured detainees, and
illegally spied on Americans.
Bush has upheld neither the Constitution nor the law of the land. A majority
of Americans disapprove of what Bush has done; yet, the Democratic Party
remains a muted spectator.
Why is the Justice (sic) Department investigating the leak of Bush's illegal
activity instead of the illegal activity committed by Bush? Is the purpose
to stonewall Congress' investigation of Bush's illegal spying? By announcing
a Justice (sic) Department investigation, the Bush administration positions
itself to decline to respond to Congress on the grounds that it would
compromise its own investigation into national security matters.
What will the federal courts do? When Hitler challenged the German judicial
system, it collapsed and accepted that Hitler was the law. Hitler's claims
were based on nothing but his claims, just as the claim for extra-legal
power for Bush is based on nothing but memos written by his political
appointees.
The Bush administration, backed by the neoconservative Federalist Society,
has brought the separation of powers, the foundation of our political
system, to crisis. The Federalist Society, an organization of Republican
lawyers, favors more "energy in the executive." Distrustful of Congress and
the American people, the Federalist Society never fails to support rulings
that concentrate power in the executive branch of government.
It is a paradox that conservative foundations and individuals have poured
money for 23 years into an organization that is inimical to the separation
of powers, the foundation of our constitutional system.
September 11, 2001, played into neoconservative hands exactly as the 1933
Reichstag fire played into Hitler's hands. Fear, hysteria, and national
emergency are proven tools of political power grabs.
Now that the federal courts are beginning to show some resistance to Bush's
claims of power, will another terrorist attack allow the Bush administration
to complete its coup?
COPYRIGHT CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Paul Craig Roberts is the author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of
Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the
Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow's Forbes
Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial
misconduct.
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Michelle Malkin (Mickey) aa list#1
BAAWA Knight & Bible Thumper Thumper
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