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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
The IG Report sheds some light onto what happened, but most of it, as intended, remains in the dark, and real accountability is still as far away as it was before this Report was issued.
I can only hypothesize that Obama made some deal to keep this suppressed.
Fly-on-the-wall, anyone?
The deal? The deal is obvious -- any investigations will cause backlash that will destroy any hope of Obama having a successful presidency in any area. Whether the threat is real or not is a side issue. If enough of Obama's people believe it's true it will be true.
You might say the deal is bogus. The deal is false. It's a bad deal. But that's the deal.
Here's Obama yesterday 'scolding' Africa for its governing practices. The cognitive dissonance is deafening:
"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."
We do not have a representive democracy. Congress has become the Soviet Era Politburo, and the there is but one political party, the entrenched corporate interests, of which there are two factions. Our splendidly free press functions as official stenographers, never asking the important questions, but blathering on and on how "manly" W looked in his flight suit.
And the rot runs riot through the blood stream of US politics.
To be fair, the country has been ailing for quite a while, with secret plots, backroom dealing, corporate payoffs and thuggish behavior all in the name of "security" (the 19th and 20th centuries werent particularly virtuous ages) But a body politic can only endure so much abuse before things fall apart.
Stay tuned.....
Keith Olbermann had James Risen on his show last night to discuss the report. It is a very worthwhile interview packed with information, but Risen did mention previous reporting he had done regarding the nature of the other spy programs that had Comey and Ashcroft so upset. Specifically, he is of the opinion that datamining of the email of American citizens was the key illegal activity. The interview is linked at my name.
On another front regarding Risen, he would make a very good Salon radio guest. He now has had two blockbuster stories "held" by the NYTimes and then only reluctantly released: the original reporting of warrantless wiretapping (held past the 2004 election) and today's revelation of more details on the Dostum massacre in Afghanistan and the US refusal to investigate. Someone needs to ask Risen at what point he decides to move on to another news organization (McClatchy, something online?) to have the freedom to publish his stories once they are complete rather than when the corporate overlords deign it appropriate with the powers in DC.
It occurred to me as I read this: I can't imagine what it must be like for parents today trying to teach their kids about the world, and about their civic responsibilities. How do you teach them respect for the law -- when The Law Itself (i.e., its highest representatives) stand for: lawlessness?
Is there any link whatsoever in the testimony in the QWEST/Nacchio criminal trial in which testimony and evidence was submitted that indicated that QWEST actually refused to cooperate with an NSA request for network access as early as February 2001 after the QWEST legal staff determined that the request was illegal?
I think your time frame may be wrong and I wonder if THAT TIMEFRAME is what is being concealed from scrutiny.
That the Bush Administration began their illegal warrantless surveillance program well before September 11th thereby debunking their loose leggal justification for the program and opening a whole other set of questions about the legitimacy of his criminal activities.
they see you when your sleeping, they know when you're awake, they know if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness' sake.
Welcome to governance from the center, which is how most (including Glenn) predicted Obama would govern.
And it's truly brilliant. Obama knows that Americans as a whole want things to return to "normal" and not be upset by investigations, indictments of high officials, and other activities that might destroy the illusions of their lives.
Americans don't want to be discomfited. They want to go to the mall.
The brilliance of Obama is that he knows and genuinely believes that fulfilling those desires is his purpose.
http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=315641
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold On the Inspectors General Report on President Bush's Warrantless Wiretapping Program
Friday, July 10, 2009
“This valuable report highlights just how outrageous and damaging the illegal warrantless wiretapping program really was. Although more information can and should be declassified, the unclassified version of the report underscores the dangers of operating a hidden, illegal program for years. It documents the internal conflicts and chaos surrounding the purported legal authorizations, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s highly misleading congressional testimony. Notably, the report calls into serious question the repeated assertions from Bush Administration officials, especially during debate over the so-called Protect America Act and the FISA Amendments Act, that stopping the program would have had catastrophic results.
“This report leaves no doubt that the warrantless wiretapping program was blatantly illegal and an unconstitutional assertion of executive power. I once again call on the Obama administration and its Justice Department to withdraw the flawed legal memoranda that justified the program and that remain in effect today.”
- - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
__________
"To accept the central premise of our political class -- it's unfair to prosecute Bush officials for things that DOJ lawyers told them was legal -- is to destroy the rule of law in the United States."
That appears to be where we are today, sadly. The rule of law doesn't mean what people think it does.
Don't you mean a Look-to-the-Future-Not-the-Past-Unless-It's-Bill-Clinton-Or-Some-Other-Democrat political culture?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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