Bush's Witchunt Against The Truth-Tellers

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Tue, 3 Jan 2006 08:40:19 -0800 (PST)

Bush's Witchunt Against The Truth-Tellers

 

 

 

Bush's Witchunt Against The Truth-Tellers

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 patriots 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 kindergarden

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, 12-28-05), 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.