Darker Purpose

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Sat, 30 Jul 2005 12:13:39 +0200

Global Eye, Darker Purpose

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http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/154946/

 

Global Eye

 

 

 

 

Darker Purpose

 

By Chris Floyd

Published: July 29, 2005

 

Last week, we wrote of the Bush Faction's increasingly successful

drive to establish the principle of unlimited presidential authority

-- beyond the reach of any law or constitutional restriction -- as the

new foundation of a militarist American state. This relentless push

toward autocracy gained even more strength in recent days, in two

cases centering on what has emerged as the very core of President

George W. Bush's authoritarian philosophy: torture.

 

Vice President Dick Cheney was dispatched to Congress last week to

strong-arm three Republican senators seeking to place the mildest

limitations imaginable on Bush's power to do whatever he wants with

his captives in " the war on terror, " The Washington Post reports. The

proposed amendments to the defense budget would simply require

interrogators to follow whatever procedures the Pentagon establishes

for questioning prisoners and to register all captives with the

International Red Cross. A third provision would take the radical step

of prohibiting " cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment " of anyone in

custody -- behavior that is already expressly forbidden in U.S. law.

 

 

But Cheney brought hard words from on high for the tepid trio: Bush

will veto any attempt by Congress to place any fetters on his

arbitrary power over the captives in his worldwide gulag. The

grim-visaged veep put it plainly: Such legislation would " restrict the

President's authority " to conduct the terror war as he sees fit, and

thus cannot be tolerated. The whole defense budget will be tossed into

the toilet if the amendments are attached, Cheney thundered.

 

This would be the first veto of Bush's presidency: a mark of the

supreme importance he places on his ability to seize people without

charges, hold them indefinitely, break their bodies and their minds,

then dispose of them as he pleases. This power is obviously more

important to him than the defense of the nation itself. But what's

most striking about this case is the fact that the amendments --

sponsored by ersatz " maverick " John McCain, among others -- are

actually part of the process of establishing an open, " legal "

structure for Bush's unrestricted " commander-in-chief state. "

 

The measure is an attempt to lend congressional legitimacy to the Bush

gulag, as co-sponsor Lindsey Graham made clear. " We need congressional

buy-in to Guantanamo, " Graham said bluntly. He also noted that the

amendments would recognize and support Bush's power to establish his

own private judicial system: the rigged " military tribunals " for

anyone Bush has arbitrarily designated an " enemy combatant. " What's

more, the measure exempts the CIA -- which runs the gulag's most

secret quadrants -- from almost all of its provisions.

 

As for " cruel punishment, " recent history shows that current U.S. laws

against such practices have hardly deterred the Bush Faction's yen for

torture. The White House simply redefines the meaning of " torture " to

suit its needs of the moment. In 2002, a series of memos crafted by

Bush's legal minions virtually defined torture out of existence. Only

the deliberate attempt to murder a prisoner or maim him for life was

considered beyond the pale, they said; everything else was fair game.

Later, when the Abu Ghraib atrocities drew some brief media heat in an

election year, the Pentagon issued a few new restrictions on barbarity

for public consumption -- although once again, the CIA was pointedly

exempted from restraint. McCain's redundant and rather pathetic

proposal, asking the Bushists to please obey laws that already exist,

would doubtless be subjected to the same weasel-wording treatment.

 

So why put the kibosh on this gutless, toothless bill? It's simple.

The autocratic principle cannot accept any institutional infringement

on the Leader's arbitrary power -- not even a craven accommodation

like McCain's measure. Yes, Congress may rubber-stamp the gulag ( " a

buy-in to Guantanamo " ); that's allowed. And Congress may approve

funding for the gulag. But the people's representatives must have no

say whatsoever in the gulag's operations. To give way on this point

would reintroduce the rule of law and genuine democracy to U.S.

government. And the Bush militarists have gone too far, waded through

too much blood, to return to such " quaint " notions now.

 

 

Likewise, the idea of judicial oversight of the executive must also be

refuted. Even as Cheney was chastising Congress, the Bushists were

blatantly defying a federal court order to release 87 photographs and

four videos of last year's Abu Ghraib mayhem. These depict barbarities

that even Pentagon warlord Don Rumsfeld once described as " blatantly

sadistic, cruel and inhumane, " Editor & Publisher reports. A

Republican senator who saw the material spoke of " rape and murder. "

Bush simply refused to obey the federal court, saying he would provide

an explanation for his actions -- in secret -- at some later date.

 

But there is more. Eyewitnesses have said the pictures show the rape

and brutal abuse of young teenagers and children. The filmed evidence

is corroborated by the Pentagon's own investigators. Yet in all this

time -- and in all the show trials of low-ranking " bad apples " the

Bushists have staged -- not a single person has been charged or even

reprimanded for these abominations.

 

This is the power that Bush declares cannot be restricted by courts or

Congress or any law on earth: the power to torture, to murder, to

terrorize -- and to rape children. This is the dark, filthy heart of

his militarist state.

 

With each new atrocity on every side in the hydra-headed " war on

terror, " you think that now, perhaps, we've reached the bottom. But

never believe that comforting notion. The evil that has opened up

beneath our feet is bottomless, and we are falling deeper, fathom by

fathom, into the pit. The worst, far worse, is yet to come.

 

 

Annotations

 

 

White House Aims to Block Legislation on Detainees

The Washington Post, July 23, 2005

 

Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images: Here's Why

Editor and Publisher, July 23, 2005

 

US Defies Order to Give Up Abu Ghraib Photos

New York Times, July 23, 2005

 

Iraq's Child Prisoners

Scotland Sunday Herald, Aug. 1, 2004

 

Bush's Torture Policies: Suffer the Little Children-

Corrente.com, July 24, 2005

 

Introducing Judge Dread: The Affable Accomplice of a Coup d'etat

Empire Burlesque, July 20, 2005