http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=34029
November 6, 2005
Bush's Wall of Shame
By Tom Engelhardt
The motto of this administration might easily be: "failing upward."
Of course, that's not hard when those leading the country into
catastrophe are also making the appointments and bestowing the honors.
Somewhere in this world of ours there should be at least one Wall of
Shame (and perhaps an adjoining Wall of Cronyism) for an
administration which has heaped favor, position, and honors on those
who have blundered, lied, manipulated, and broken the law (not to say,
cracked open the Constitution and the republic).
Here is just a sampling of the band of culprits who might appear on
such a wall and but a few of the things for which they might be held
accountable:
Honored for Catastrophe
Former CIA Director George ("slam dunk") Tenet, who oversaw an
"intelligence" program of lies, misinformation, abductions, torture,
the disappearing of prisoners, and the setting up of a mini-gulag of
private prisons from Thailand to Eastern Europe, awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom as his tenure at the Agency ended.
Former Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul (I never saw an
army I didn't want to disband) Bremer III, under whose leadership in
Baghdad the American occupation mis- and displaced more money than is
humanly imaginable, and under whose leadership Iraq descended into
chaos, awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard ("Guantanamo is a
model facility") Myers, who oversaw the Iraq War and whose claim to
fame may have been that he called Dan Rather of CBS to try to suppress
the first "60 Minutes II" report on Abu Ghraib, awarded the Medal of
Freedom.
Former Centcom Commander Tommy ("we don't do body counts") Franks, who
oversaw "victories" in Afghanistan and Iraq in wars that have never
ended, retired to great administration praise and became a "paid
patriot," awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Promoted (or Retained) for Disaster
Defense Secretary Donald ("stuff happens") Rumsfeld, who planned the
invasion and occupation of Iraq so brilliantly and bragged that he
could stand up longer than any Guantánamo detainee, kept on as
Secretary of Defense in George Bush's second term.
Former Undersecretary of Defense Paul ("There is no history of ethnic
strife in Iraq") Wolfowitz, who spearheaded the administration's blind
cakewalk into Iraq and declared himself "reasonably certain" that the
Iraqi people "will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to
keep requirements down," was made World Bank president and now prefers
not to be "distracted" with ancient "history."
Former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International
Security John ("I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop
the vote" and "there is no such thing as the United Nations") Bolton,
who never saw a country he couldn't include in the Axis of Evil, a
treaty he wasn't ready to shred, or negotiations he wasn't prepared to
sabotage, was given a presidential recess appointment as UN Ambassador
after his nomination was deep-sixed by Senate Democrats.
The Torture Brigade
Former White House Counsel Alberto (no rules apply) Gonzales, who
helped marshal the administration's case for "relaxing" interrogation
rules on prisoners, and the man to whom so many of those torture memos
were sent, was made Attorney General.
Former General Counsel for the Pentagon William J. Haynes II, who
appointed a working group to circumvent laws and treaties restricting
the administration's urge to torture, developed administration
policies to deny detainees at Guantánamo prisoner of war status;
developed the Pentagon's military tribunal policy to try them;
promoted the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens by the President
without legal counsel or judicial review, and recommended (over the
protests of military lawyers) many of the most abusive tactics used at
Guantánamo, was nominated to a judgeship in the Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals by George W. Bush on September 29, 2003. Only a Democratic
filibuster in the Senate derailed the appointment.
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal
Counsel at the Department of Justice John ("must be equivalent in
intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as
organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.") Yoo,
infamous for drafting the August 2002 "torture memo" to White House
Counsel Alberto Gonzales and a supporter of unfettered presidential
rule in matters of foreign policy, returned to his position as
professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of
California, Berkeley, and wrote a book.
Former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Jay
("certain acts may be cruel, inhuman, or degrading, but still not
produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within
[a legal] proscription against torture") Bybee, who was the official
author of the August 2002 torture memo , is now a judge on the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Former Legal Counsel to the Vice President David Addington, "a staunch
advocate of allowing the president in his capacity as commander in
chief to deviate from the Geneva Conventions," "a principal author of
the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects and… a
prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism
suspects without access to courts," known for his "devotion to
secrecy" and to an extreme version of unfettered presidential power
(as well as a backer of the stalled Haynes judgeship), was promoted to
Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff after I. Lewis Libby's resignation.
Former head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division Michael
Chertoff, who advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002-03 on
how far CIA interrogators could go in coercive interrogation methods
on terror suspects under the federal anti-torture statute, was
appointed head of the Homeland Security Department where he oversaw
FEMA's disastrous responses to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma,
and where he remains today.
Former principal deputy assistant to the Vice President for National
Security Affairs John Hannah, a conduit for Iraqi exile prewar mis- or
disinformation on Saddam's WMD arsenal, involved in producing prewar
administration claims linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks and
in the Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson smear campaign, promoted to
National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney.
"Demoted"
Former FEMA Director Michael ("I am a fashion god") Brown, who so
spectacularly botched the agency's response to hurricane Katrina, is
now on the federal payroll as a $148,000-a-year consultant to FEMA.
Former U.S. Military Commander in Iraq Lt. General Ricardo ("Arab fear
of dogs") Sanchez, who personally signed off on the use of coercive
interrogation techniques outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, including
the use of "working dogs," was to be made head of the U.S. Southern
Command and nominated for his fourth star until Pentagon officials
came to fear that his role overseeing the Abu Ghraib scandal would
create opposition in the Senate and so he was given a major command in
Europe.
Former Commander of Joint Task Force Guantánamo Maj. Gen. Geoffrey
("Gitmo-ize the confinement operation") Miller, who brought Guantánamo
interrogation methods, including the use of dogs, to Iraq before the
Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal (reportedly claiming that Arab
prisoners "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe they're
more than a dog, then you've lost control of them"), and for his
efforts was then made senior commander in charge of detention
operations in Iraq, instead of being cashiered in shame, is now
assigned to an Army management position in the Washington, D.C area.
Sadly, while this gallery of rogues was being honored and/or promoted
and/or protected, those who really should have received honors and
medals were, by and large, overlooked or forgotten -- not just figures
like ex-Marine and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who
insisted before the war (to the sneers of American reporters) that
Iraq was unlikely to possess even the shreds of its former WMD
program, but all those millions who massed in the streets and insisted
that an invasion of Iraq would be a path, paved by lies, that would
lead only to madness.
No "medals of freedom" for the likes of them.
______________________________________________________________
Harry
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