The Media Is Again The Last To Get It. But Will Bush Administration Perps?
I take not one freaking iota of satisfaction in having been out well ahead of the mainstream media — as were a goodly number of bloggers — concerning Bush administration excesses, especially its serial abuses of power. The handwriting was on the wall, in some cases writ large in blood, but the MSM was for the most part looking the other way as it had with the Iraq War or was just plain cowardly.
And so you have the sight of the Washington Post editorial board, which gradually shed its once famously liberal mufti during the last eight years, belatedly professing horror in an editorial headlined “Mad Max’s Justice Department” that followed the Obama administration’s release of secret memos by the Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel endorsing those abuses:
“Imagine a place where soldiers are entitled to burst through doors without warrants and citizens can be locked away without trial. Imagine that the leader of this place has the power to silence dissenters and the press and has the right to keep duly elected legislators from having a voice in these matters. Imagine further that he can unilaterally rip up and disregard any treaty he dislikes and that he has been told he is on solid legal ground by a hand-picked circle of advisers.
“This is not some lawless Third World country or dusty fictional outback from a sci-fi movie but the United States of America, as described in a series of newly released Justice Department memos from the early years of the Bush administration.”
A horror indeed, but one in which the WaPo and the MSM were helpmates.
And as much as it pains me to say this as someone who was a part of the MSM for 35-plus years, it certainly puts an unflattering light on some of the big-city papers that are fighting for their survival. As in, they failed their readers concerning one of the biggest stories of the millennium, so should we rue their own failure as viable enterprises when they sold a tainted product?
While the WaPo is to be commended for finally getting with the program (cue sound of one hand clapping), the editorial dares not opine what should be the upshot of the OLC memo dump other than to lamely beseech Attorney General Holder to not follow in his predecessors’ footsteps and play nice.
But the memo dump, combined with the news that the CIA destroyed not just a mere handful of tapes that in all likelihood showed the torture of terror suspects but some 92 in all in an astonishing orgy of evidence shredding that violated a judge’s order, further begs the question of whether perpetrators like John Yoo and Steven Bradbury at Justice and Jose Rodriguez at the CIA will be let off the hook.
There clearly is no interest at the White House in pursuing the prosecution of these perps, let alone David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff and the chief architect of the Bush torture regime, but that is not the point.
Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, convened a hearing this week on the creation of a bipartisan investigation into the abuses and knows that such an inquiry stands a snowball’s chance in Guantánamo Bay unless witnesses are granted immunity.
This raises another set of troubling questions, chief among them whether justice can be served — which is nothing less than providing Americans, and for that matter the world, with a full accounting — if an investigation is hamstrung by handing out go-free cards.
This brings us to the biggest go-free card of the moment, a deal hashed out whereby top Bush aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will waive their claim of absolute presidential immunity and provide depositions and sworn public testimony about the dismissal of U.S. attorneys but will not be asked about their conversations with The Decider.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers called the agreement “a vindication of the search for truth,” but that is hyperbolic and then some. The deal, which grew out of court action to force the aides to respond to committee subpoenas, is worth applauding (cue sound of other hand clapping), but — again — is justice served by providing what on its face will be far less than a full accounting?
Putting it another way: Bush and Cheney gave themselves the powers of a dictatorship, and while a few aides may get sweated, the dictators themselves will be unscathed.
Shaun Mullen is a former The Moderate Voice columnist. Over a long career with newspapers, this award-winning editor and reporter covered the Vietnam War, O.J. Simpson trials, Clinton impeachment circus and coming of Osama bin Laden, among many other big stories. He blogs at Kiko’s House.
12 Responses to “The Media Is Again The Last To Get It. But Will Bush Administration Perps?”
Wow Shaun.
You missed all the fun. You'd a had a blast during WW2 where soldiers are entitled to burst through doors without warrants and citizens can be locked away without trial. Or Korea. Or Vietnam.
Alas you were just born at the wrong time so you have to pick on Bush. I wonder if you will show your outrage at the people who have already been murdered by Barak Obama in Afghanistan. Opps wrong house………sowwwwyyyy.
Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.
Benjamin Franklin
As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Thomas Jefferson.
I don't have enemies to fight. And I have no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years. I want to change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect. . . . Behind every goal I have talked about tonight is a great hope for our country. A hundred years from now, this must not be remembered as an age rich in possessions and poor in ideals. Instead, we must usher in an era of responsibility.
– George Bush accepting the Republican nomination (August 2000)
Newspaper articles about the attacks of September 11, 2001, tell a story of shock, grief, anger and determination. From the moment American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:36 AM, to the collapse of World Trade Center Tower 7 some nine hours later, Americans knew that the world had changed. The attacks of September 11 were the first on US soil in 60 years and newspaper reports tell of their effect on every facet of American society.
As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Thomas Jefferson.
Perhaps he didnt have enemies to fight before he was elected. 911 changed that for all of us. Just as Pearl Harbor changed it for FDR.
If I read the WaPo article right it says these policies were discussed but ultimately decided against. So where was the abuse of power as it relates to warrantless searches, etc?
Here's just one example of Bush's policy breaking Constitutional law.
And I quote something some here may not be familiar with:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
You see, you can lawfully search, if and only if, you have a warrant. The FISA court allowed for surveillance with proper judicial overview since 1978, Bush et al decided they didn't need no stinkin FISA. That broke constitutional law guys.
If so, add your buddies in the current administration too……..
The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.
In a filing in San Francisco federal court, President Barack Obama adopted the same position as his predecessor.
Casual
I couldn't agree with you more. Presidents come and go. The Constitution was built to last.
Obama's justice dept is at least in court pleading the case, That's the correct way, ignoring courts and rule of law is something quite different.
Greenschemes,….did you read the article? US citizens aren't the enemy, circumvention of Treaties and the Constitution is the enemy. The enemy doesn't have a face, it has a practice. Bushco has done more damage to the what the United States stood for than any terrorist I can think of to date.
As for past circumventions of law, WW II was the “good war to fight”. There was a clear enemy. Korea, Vietnam and Iraq…those were trade wars plain and simple. All under the guise of “defeating communism or Al Qaida”. There's always a buzzword for a manufactured enemy when spoils are to be had by the aggressors…almost always rich US businessmen tied deeply into Congress or an administrations pockets..
“but the MSM was for the most part looking the other way as it had with the Iraq War or was just plain cowardly.”~Shaun
*****
With Faux News I'm going with not just looking the other way, but actively diverting the other way. With the others? My vote is on cowardly. Especially CNN. Sorry guys.. The truth is a bitter pill.
However, there is still time to recover, even for the newspapers. The hearings are progressing nicely. News that Rove is now forced to testify under penalty of purjury is very refreshing. If the MSM pays very close attention to the revelations and takes its collective gonads out of the icebox, they could recover their clout just in the nick of time..
GS:
You rightfully, and rightfully indignantly so, bring up the dastardly 9/11 attack.
May I ask you two questions?
If so, where did the 9/11 perpetrators–including its infamous leader Osama Bin Laden– who killed over three thousand Americans come from?
After rightfully attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan, who organized the attack , which country did we invade and occupy?
Still waiting GS….