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Wed, 4 Jan 2006 05:02:55 +1100 (EST)

A Criminal Administration

 

 

 

 

http://antiwar.com/roberts/

 

January 2, 2006

A Criminal Administration

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 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 (FISA) 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.

 

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 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 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?

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