The Most Insidious Form of Tyranny
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more bizarre in Washington comes a week in which we learned that the CIA had destroyed terrorist interrogation tapes, Iran had apparently abandoned its nuclear weapons program four years ago and the State Department’s embattled inspector general had finally resigned.
The only thing that can be said with certainty about those three events is that abjectly corrupt State Department IG Howard “Cookie” Krongard won’t be spending more time with his family, the reason typically given when Bush administration officials suddenly take their leave. This is because Krongard is so estranged from his children that they had to go to court to keep the Cookster from sending them offensive emails.
But beyond that mere footnote nothing is clear, and it speaks volumes about the state of our government that people trying to suss out the CIA tapes and Iran nukes stories end up feeling like crash test dummies. I myself also want to puke.
The CIA tapes story would seem to be pretty straightforward: Despite explicit warnings from everyone and their uncle, Jose A. Rodriguez, the chief of the CIA’s clandestine service, ordered the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two Al Qaeda operatives.
The reason also would seem to be pretty straightforward:
The AQ operatives were being tortured and Rodriguez knew that the CIA had to cover its ass. So the tapes met the same fate as those zillions of White House emails that had been subpoenaed by Congress.
The reaction to this blockbuster, of course, has been anything but straightforward: Beyond refreshingly unusual bipartisan calls for investigations, an even louder hullabaloo has broken out over the tired definition-parsing question of what constitutes torture, with too many of the shouters copping the attitude that the AQ operatives were merely being “severely interrogated” and were getting their just desserts anyway.
Andrew Sullivan, who has taken the lead in condemning the embrace of torture, summed up where we are thusly:
“[W]hen you look at what torture has done already to the United States, we see that every bad scenario that those of us who oppose torture feared has actually come about. And we have no independent evidence that it has solved anything, or saved any lives, except the self-serving statements of those who authorized it. And the truth is: we will probably never know. If they are cynical and brazen enough to destroy incriminating tapes, they are cynical and brazen enough to destroy any evidence within the executive branch that could prove that their torture policy has failed. If this isn’t a form of tyranny, annexed to torture, what is? And if the executive branch can simply get away with it, and have serious commentators defend the president’s trashing of the Constitution as necessary to fulfill his oath of office, we really have left the rule of law behind in the ditch.”
The complicity of the Democrats in these obscenities cannot be emphasized enough.
In 2002, congressional leaders were secretly briefed by the CIA on its terrorist interrogation program, including the use of waterboarding, and no objections were raised, although Democratic Representative Jane Harman did file an official (but classified) protest about the program in 2003. It wasn’t until 2005 when doubts about the legality of waterboarding came to the fore that lawmakers began dissenting in significant numbers, but the CIA had abandoned its use by then. Nor did the hapless John Kerry deign to make torture a campaign issue in 2004.
Meanwhile, House and Senate conferees have reached an agreement on an intelligence bill mandating that the CIA and all other federal agencies comply with the Army Field Manual’s outlawing of waterboarding and other forms of torture. The White House, of course, is righteously upset.
* * * * *
The news that a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 had not even sunken in when President Bush upstaged the report by saying that he had only found out five minutes earlier, or something.
Meanwhile, his own aides said he had known about the finding for weeks, if not months – a period during which the man in the Oval Office repeatedly invoked apocalyptic visions of World War III if Iran didn’t halt a program that his spooks had already told him was no longer active.
The NIE brouhaha was even more special because the White House, in one fell swoop, had effectively undercut itself on what was to be the dominant foreign policy issue of the last year of the Reign of Bush. At least there’s the issue of global warming to fall back on. (Nah.)
In a kinder and gentler time, Krongard, Rodriguez and Bush would all apologize for being out of order. And Rodriguez would face criminal charges, which may yet happen.
But we are living in an era when obstructing, destructing, obfuscating and outright lying are the coin of the Washington realm. We’re not just talking about Republicans here. Most everybody inside the Beltway does it and most everybody gets away with it. This is because our expectations, which were not exactly robust by the end of the Clinton years, are nearly nonexistent.
And that, my friends, may be the most insidious form of tyranny.
31 Responses to “The Most Insidious Form of Tyranny”
In 2002, congressional leaders were secretly briefed by the CIA on its terrorist interrogation program, including the use of waterboarding, and no objections were raised, although Democratic Representative Jane Harman did file an official (but classified) protest about the program in 2003. It wasn’t until 2005 when doubts about the legality of waterboarding came to the fore that lawmakers began dissenting in significant numbers, but the CIA had abandoned its use by then.
This is perhaps the entire crux of the matter is it not. You have a president who decided to kick ass and a congress who said “Get after it big Daddy”
Then when the democrats decided to jump off the ship and leave Bush holding the ball the CIA then during this time frame burned the tapes. No when an entire government tells you to do something. Not just the President but congress as well and you do and then later on congress decides opps..that might be wrong…..lets hang you for it……….then by gosh and by golly Id burn the tapes too.
And this has been my entire complaint about politics as usual in this country since 2003 when the Democrats were FOR then AGIN the misadventures into Iraq.
Fair point SD, and one I think with which Shaun would agree, but his overall take is the real scary part of what has been happening over the last two decades. As he says, the state of our democracy was none to strong at the end of Clinton’s term, its on life support in 2007 and by the end of the next president/s terms will all but have vanished if we as a country don’t step up and take our country back.
Is there no one left in Washington prepared to say ‘the law of the lad demands you don’t do that’ and courageous enough to take action necessary when ignored?
Shaun does agree.
The problem is systemic lies, obfuscation, stonewalling and coverups have become tools with which politicians keep the public at bay, and thus maintain their positions of power. Why have a Congress with subpoena power if those subpoenas can be so easily ignored? Is there anyone who seriously believes that former AG Gonzales will ever be charged with perjury for lying to Congress- or that he wouldn’t be first in line for a presidential pardon if he was?
Even massive investigations like the Abramoff scandal have ground to a halt because of high turnovers on the case because of the Justice Dept. I agree that some of it started with Clinton, but really it began with Watergate. Bush figured out how to keep his administration’s wrongdoing from getting to the point that Nixon’s did or that Clinton’s did. He may be a zero as president, but has excelled at CYA. The WH puts its spin on events, which is carried to the greater public through talk radio and FNC, and everything’s hunky dory. The Democrats do not have the guts to make any serious moves, because they’re afraid of losing the majority.
While the Demonocrats have allowed some things to slip under the radar, their over site is is real compared to Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas and Curt Weldon, former Congressman of Pennsylvania. Criticize if you must, but don’t lose fact that the Bush administration is responsible for the mess and now many are jumping on a “blame Democrats narrative”.
Remember the Reid-Roberts Senate shutdown. To expect big changes is a stretch when the Demonocrats don’t even have a fictitious Bush mandate. Roberts never even issued his Phase II report, it came out after the 2006 Republican Congressional losses.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 6:01 p.m. ET, Tues., Nov. 1, 2005
WASHINGTON – Democrats claimed “victory for the American people” Tuesday after the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to continue an investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the Republicans, the Senate minority leader said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9886959/
Until late 2005, NO Democrats even spoke out firmly against the Iraq War, Murtha started the “ball rolling in November 2005. Would we prefer the “stay the course” days?
He may be a zero as president, but has excelled at CYA.
I dont think hes been a zero at all. I think he has been a minus Zero. Not because of this but inspite of it. He was set up and framed by congress. Since that day he has been in CYA mode because that is what the Democrats forced on him.
How different would things have been had there been true honesty in government. Had congress said…..opps my bad……we made a mistake and ill advised President Bush.
Bush most likely would have said oh….okay sorry…lets fix this………but no it suddenly out of thin air became the Democrats power seeking by using a new found ANTI WAR VENOM in which EVERYTHING was suddenly Bush and Cheney and the GOPS fault.
CYA became the rule of law for the next 4 years……not because Bush wanted it that way but the way things worked out forced it to be that way.
The battle was lost the minute that this congress and this president decided to part ways. Had they remained a team as in the first few months after 911 they would have come to their senses and realized this is America and we dont waterboard. But their would not be this Bush is evil mantra running thru this nation. Their would be a defined, Unified GWOT that made sense and included everyone and had purpose.
As it is now. The GWOT has been painted as Bush’s war and the GOP’s personal attempt to give halliburton and Blackwater more money.
This has never been a GOP war. Or a Religious right war. It has been everyones war and when this country turns to Hillary or Obama or Rudi in a year……it will still be in everyones best interest to solve the thuggery that Islamic terrorism brings to the table.
What the solution is should be made as a unified nation. Not as part of Politics as usual. Because in one year when a democrat is in office then the GOP will suddenly turn around and make it HILLARY’S WAR. And it will be CYA for Hillary as well.
This is just plain wrong. Always has been and it has been my mantra for 4 years now.
Somebody – Your comment is well thougt out but misses one important point, Bush never planned to govern by consensus, remeber the 50% + 1 Rove tactic.
Bush made no attempt to keep the Democrats in the fold, Somebody- he wasn’t set up, he arrogantly assumed he didn’t need them. Not much has changed in 7 years. He is still governing that way. I agree Congress should have considered its war vote more carefully in ’02. They allowed Bush and Cheney to pressure them into voting for it before the midterm election. Other than that, and being a mite timid in providing oversight (though I agree the GOP provided absolutely none in the 6 years previous), I don’t see how you can lay this debacle at their feet.
BTW, Bush has been in CYA mode since he came up from Texas and put his best friends in high government positions, instead of looking at qualifications.
Somebody said-
“Not because of this but inspite of it. He was set up and framed by congress. Since that day he has been in CYA mode because that is what the Democrats forced on him.”
I beg to differ.
So the much-lauded “give the people a few bucks to shut em up and make me look like the good guy” tax rebate in 6/01 was a setup by Congress? The first third of his first year in office? ON VACATION!
This is a President too poor to even pay attention, and a narcoleptic Vice President- an adminstration of incompetent cronies playing the bully while holding our sons and fathers and mothers and daughters serving in Iraq as political capital- with a cowed Congress serving as the enablers.
This is truly a dysfunctional Democracy we are living in, one that has been gamed by those clever enough to cheat the system.
Article II being self-enforced by the President ( making a President accountable unto himself? Magna Carta be damned!
…how much longer is this twisting of the infrastructure going to go on?
…and to top it all off with a cherry, Dana Perino doesn’t know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was. ::Head desk::
Is this a record? SBS has gone from almost sane to batshit mad in just six posts.
The only ‘time’ the Bush administration had for congress was while the republicans rubber stamped everything and the dems shut the hell up. As soon as they started to voice concerns (and election time arrived) the ‘are you for us or against us? Are you a patriot or a traitor. The dems want to offer therapy to the terrorists!!!’ bull made an appearance.
The 2002 election strategy was simple- paint the dems as weak on defence, the GOP as strong and win as many extra seats as possible. If that means likening a Vietnam vet who lost three limbs fighting for his country to the man who planned the deaths of over 3000 Americans, well, so be it.
If this is really how things seem in SBS’s universe, then it must be a white, warm, and padded space.
No my second post was meant to infuriate the Batshit Left.
They cant abide positive thinking and the replies proves it.
So the much-lauded “give the people a few bucks to shut em up and make me look like the good guy” tax rebate in 6/01 was a setup by Congress? The first third of his first year in office? ON VACATION!
Well at least its obvious the hatred for him started Before 911. What does this even have to do with the OPs story?
Secondly now the far left looney toons are having to regroup as its coming to light that Bush may not have been in this alone.
The stategy? Go back to the same tired arguments only SHOUT them even louder and with more vehemence to cover up any suggestion that darling lefties in congress mighta been in on this at the beginning as well.
Hah. Im laughing at you guys now as you fume and scream and foam at the mouth trying to regroup from 4 years of LIES.
Somebody:
Your “hatred” meme is so tiresome. I haven’t “hated” a politician since Nixon and I had gotten over that before his death.
You’re awfully ugly toward Bush on this site.
As to others’ behavior, the word “hatred” is correct.
DLS–uh- you can hate a politician’s actions and not hate him personally. Once W’s safe at Crawford clearing brush or out “refilling the coffers”, I won’t give him a second thought.
The torture issue is the most serioug question before the American people. In my opinion it’s more critical than the invasion of Iraq.
It is the most glaring example for gauging our chances of surviving the age of terrorism without morphing into a country of barbarism – the very
thing we are supposedly fighting.
When I see the reacton consist of wild speculations, presented as absolutely known truth, regarding party strategies and plots to frame the President,,then or now, our chances appear to be approaching zero.
If hit with a nuclear bomb I suspect the last survivors would be playing the blame game and spiinning paranoid theories about party strategiws.
From what we actually know, stripped of imaginary embroidery, no one involved should be anything but ashamed of their roles in proposing, practising or condoning torture.
What we really need, but won’t get, is for everyone involved to come clean instead of making excuses(Pelosi) and making ‘we do not torture’ speeches (Bush).
If they were to do that, I would allow a dose of mitigaing circumstances into the mix. The whole country was a scared mob in the aftermath of 9/11 and our leaders failed to dampen the hysteria, Instead, choosing to fan the flames.
Okay. Here we are today we’ve had some years to cool off and to start thinking rationally again.
We’ve had time to consider what really is the best strategy to survive terrorism without becoming a copy of the terrorists.
Let’s find out the FACTS about the past, hold everyone responsible for their roles, and then proceed to dealing with the here and now.
By playing these imaginary politcal games where we just KNOW,what those we don’t like are thinking and plotting, we are falling right into the trap of people like AlQaeda and Iran. They understand perfectly well how social dysfnvtion can be used for their advantage and how it enlarges our disadvantages.
We;re making their work easy, by tearing each other to shreds. And we’re doing that by taking whatever we can imagine to be the truth.
I know, K. But what’s aimed at Bush is like that which was aimed at Reagan, though worse, I believe. Many lefties hated “Ronnie Raygun” (and pathologically were against US armament, though not the USSR’s, and against our response to Soviet aggression, but not to the aggression) and they hate Bush now and have since Inauguration 2001.
Not surprisingly, I agree, and that’s how Reagan was treated (other than a few cheap shots, which I doubt Bush will be seen as meriting). Any thoughts of him, or reactions to others’ mentioning his name, I have guessed already will be met with “frowns and yawns” (may have said it the other way earlier).
Before that, whether he will or will not endorse GOP candidates and appear with them next year, that is, whether he will be sought or avoided, remains of interest.
This strategy was used successfully in 2002 and 2004, including the re-election of Bush (did that ever make the lefties seethe!). It failed in 2006.
While Bush has his share of blame to take with Congressional relations, Congress is just as bad and sometimes worse. Waxman is playing his games all the time — and look at Social Security. You can say Bush’s plan was bad, but the Democrats did nothing but obstruct Bush; they did not present an alternative plan, and instead were dishonest with everyone (“Social Security is sound”; they used not the onset of deficits but the trust-fund exhaustion date, moved back of where the Trustees had set it, as the time when there would be problems) and simply were anti-Bush.
Look at them now — in addition to the attack-dog routine, they are sending bad bills they know will be, and deserve to be, vetoed. How positive!
1. Grossly overstated, to say the least.
2. Hillary Clinton is more vicious than Nixon and more obscessed with secrecy and power than Cheney. Are you ready for the coming “change”?
Floor yielded.
While analyzing the past ad nauseum, the most important change is seldom noticed.
Nixon was impeached, with Repullican co-operation.
Bush could never be impeached,, because today’s Right is all about portecting thieir own, no matter what. The days of principles were pronounced dead in 2002.
Not that principles are much in style in either party, but at least the Dems always have contingents who have the guts to go agianst their own leadership when they feel it’s justified, regardless of political cost.
The Repubs don’t give a hoot about the Constituion, or the rule of law, when one of their own is in the WH. They’ll help him all they can to fence himself
off from public scrutiny.
That’s another major way the GOP has changed.
I miss the old GOP more with every day.
The new GOP only has empty slogans.
Fiscal responsibility – when it suits them and achieved it by enabling a caste system.economic stratisfication.
Samll government – when it suits them and by shifitng manpower to contractors, without savings on the bottom line.
Cronyism adds new meaning to “government-business partnerships,” the Clinton-Gore phrase.
I know, K. But what’s aimed at Bush is like that which was aimed at
ReaganClenis, though worse, I believe.Cronyism adds new meaning to “government-business partnerships,” the
Clinton-GoreBush phrase.Atleast the Clinton crony’s had a some competence. Please explain Brownie and the KID at NASA rewrite scientists white and technical papers. The PUNK didn’t even have a degree.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/politics/08nasa.html
Small government at it’s best…
Please show an example of Clenis cronyism at this pathetic level.
DLS- I wasn’t a big fan of Reagan’s, but even I can see that he ended up on the right side of history. The country and military was far stronger after his terms in office and it was a big plus that Eastern Europe was liberated.
Not so for this president, who has many in his own party angry at him. I really think the reason he backed off of Iran is that the military would have gone into full revolt if ordered to attack.
Reagan knew the limitations of US force- Bush does not, but has been consistently dishonest with the American public about it.
you can hate a politician’s actions and not hate him personally.
I would agree with this until the Oberfuhrer, American Taliban, Heir and Facist slimebag name calling begins….then all bets are off.
There has never been so much hatred by one group of people in all the years I have been alive on this planet. Oh and lest you call me batshit dumb……that also applies to the Far Right. If…IF the far right was here screaming their meme I would be calling them out as well on their stupidity.
Your “hatred” meme is so tiresome. I haven’t “hated” a politician since Nixon and I had gotten over that before his death.
Shaun my meme is to condemn those who are wallowing in the hate pool. That is a meme someone needs to play. I get so excited of late when I see Doma trying to emerge from her far left stances to strike a moderate approach. She gives me hope.
The days of principles were pronounced dead in 2002.
Actually I think they were pronounced dead around 1996.
I think the final power in our county rests with the people- we have the ability to elect our President and Congress. However both the Prez. and Congress are using whatever means necessary to retain their power. Unfortunately I the “coin of the Washington realm” (the lying, obstruction, etc.) is not to get to the truth but to keep the American public from learning the truth. This takes the power from the American public and gives it to the politicians, who can only hold onto it by doing more of the same. This curtain of obfuscation, obstruction, lies, etc. is truly insidious and if it continues we can not continue to be the great nation our founding fathers envisioned.
STockBoySF
While your comment and sentiment has merits it is also riddled with a huge flaw.
This president and this congress is not less inept or power hungry than any other president and congress in the history of the USA.
The huge difference with this president and this congress is that the internet has exposed lies, hippocracy and double talk practically before it comes out of their mouth.
In times past the good ole boy network of the All powerful press was the watchdog of the Government for the people. The problem was that to even get close enough to smell a story they had to butter up to those they were sent to spy on and report on. The news was less then glowing but it was nothing short of mundane stuff that passed the gossip rounds of DC.
The Press was at the mercy of the politicians because if you as a reporter rocked the boat your editor got a phone call, you were off and someone else was there in your place. Right Shaun?
So enter the internet. A million bloggers from the DC area, digging into everything and anything. Taking each others tidbits of information and processing it at the speed of light. Now we have an entirely new reporting process that has caught Washington DC and this PRESIDENT totally by surprise. They have been extremely slow to react to the power of the internet and a billion reporters.
That will change. I feel that for the first time in history our government will be forced to clean itself up and that will result in
GRIDLOCK beyond imagination because the people sent to do our bidding will be afraid to FART for fear it will be on UTube in 5 minutes.
The internet is the 666 the bible has been talking about for 2000 years. The all knowing, all seeing, ever aware grandmaster D. Able to track you down, to know what your thinking, to tell what your buying, to spy on you and plant listening devices on your mouthpiece to the world.
The filth and scum have always been there Stockboy, it is just now, today the internet has revealed that filth and scum in such a glaring light that we are all repulsed by the NORM that is Washington DC.
Somebody-
That was a hearfelt comment about fhe filth and scum in Washington.
Now, let’s look at your remedy, the Internet and its blogs.
How many comments, porportionately speaking, do you find that genuinely want to discuss a topic, in the honest and polite fashion we would like to see in government? And how many discussions are ruinted by comments thrown in purely to vent personal hatreds?
The Internet has revealed much more than the diry linen in Washingto. It has revealed the dirty linen of the people who elect those in Washington.
Maybe Washington reflects the will of the people only too well.
How is blog commenting behavior any better than the political fights in Washington?
Insults, the assignment of imagined evil motivations to those not in persoanl favor, and wild assertions to enhance the animosity is what often domiates.
.
Are these the people who will clean up Washington?
In some ways, Washington is just a handy scape goat used to avoid looking at our own behavior and asking the fatal question: am I helping civil society or helping to drag it into the mud. by letting my own hatreds fly wild into the world of the Internet?
by letting my own hatreds fly wild into the world of the Internet?
Bingo
Somebody-
Now ask yourself the question, instead of cheating by cutting out part of my sentence to make a false pont.
Then you can say BINGO.
Somebody- a couple good points- DC/politicians have always been this corrupt but the “power of the internet” helps everyone catch them at it. But I believe you overstate both. I believe Bush has stifled the media (and so I’m thankful for the new power of the internet) so he can accumulate power and reward his supporters. Also, are there ANY Democrats holding positions of influence in the Bush Administration? I recall that past Presidents- Republican and Democrats- had the best people advising/doing the work of the government. I think all the important positions (and less important ones, too) have been given to political hacks.
So- a couple good points, but I believe overstated.