- The arrogance and unrelenting contempt that the Cheney-Bush
administration has for the American people and the people's Congress continuously
verified and on public display, has reached exceedingly dangerous levels.
The administration's contempt for Congress and its controlling Democrats
is unprecedented in the history of this now rapidly failing experiment
in republic-based individual freedom. It is contempt for the very foundation
of our societal achievements, a pilgrims' progress based upon creativeness
and industry collectively enjoyed by a nation that formerly depended upon
rugged individualism and hard work. It is a contempt that places parasitic
bureaucracy and authoritarian government over the rights of individuals
that built this nation and made it great. It is a contempt that grows
daily and feeds upon itself capitalizing upon the treason and cowardice
of the Democratic Party.
-
- The power of Cheney-Bush is magnified not only by the
groveling of despicable, treasonous Democrats in Congress, but also by
the complacency of a fraudulent and non-existent American press and its
highly paid journalistic charlatans. The mainstream press and media have
been so incorporated into the arrogance and public contempt displayed by
Cheney-Bush for what was once the most revered rule of law of this nation,
a rule of law and its former successful implementation that became and
was the envy of all other nations, that our government's self-corrective
piloting is fast becoming impossible. Seemingly overnight, after Clinton
and especially now with Cheney-Bush, our nation and its people are increasingly
hated, despised and feared. We have become the world's fulcrum of international
terror and invasion, horrifically punctuated by the carpet bombings and
mass murder and liquidation of entire cities of defenseless, men, women
and children.
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- It should be clear that by now the hatred, contempt and
fear the international community once attributed solely to our government
leaders, has progressed to where we as a people are the ones now being
hated. What of our "checks and balances?" What about our
"separation of powers?" What ever happened to our world class
ability to correct errant government, never mind a rogue and out-of-control
state run by mass murdering genocidal maniacs? Why hasn't the people's
Congress removed these mass-murdering war criminals from power? Why?
Because Democrats do not wish to jeopardize their chances in the 2008
presidential elections! Just think of what Hillary will do with all the
unconstitutional and tyrannical "laws" created by Cheney-Bush.
Why would any sane American vote for any Democrat ever again?
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- On Wednesday, December 5th, the American Civil Liberties
Union was acting on a filed complaint ordering the release of documents
held by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. Now where
have we heard of that latter bureaucracy before? Wasn't it relative to
criminal Alberto Gonzales' illegal firing of US Attorneys? And speaking
of that gangster with a law diploma from Harvard, has this guy been charged
with any crime yet? There sure are a lot of charges against him to choose
from!
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- According to an ACLU report posted on CommonDreams.org,
"ACLU Calls for Release of Three Secret Torture Memos," the article
opens: "The American Civil Liberties Union is in court today calling
for the release of three documents issued by the Department of Justice's
Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that are believed to have authorized the
CIA to use extremely harsh interrogation methods. The government failed
to identify or provide the memos, which were issued in May of 2005, in
response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the ACLU
requesting information on U.S. treatment and interrogation of detainees."
-
- The article continues quoting an ACLU lawyer: "'This
is yet another example of the government's attempt to bypass legal prohibitions
on torture and while engaging in a cover-up of its illegal conduct,' said
Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.
'These memos must immediately be released to the public and high
level officials must be held accountable for their role in spawning torture
and prisoner abuse.'"
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- The article goes on, "The New York Times disclosed
the existence of the first two memos in a front-page article on October
4, 2007. The Times reported that the first memo explicitly authorized
interrogators to use combinations of harsh interrogation methods including
waterboarding, head slapping, and exposure to freezing temperatures. The
second memo, issued by OLC as Congress prepared to enact legislation prohibiting
'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,' declared that none of the CIA's
interrogation methods violated that standard."
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- Astonishing!!!
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- Here are the words of law from the United States Constitution's
Bill of Rights, Eighth Amendment: Cruel and Unusual Punishment - "Excessive
bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishments inflicted." And then there's the Fifth Amendment:
Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings "No person shall
be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on
a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in
the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in
time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same
offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled
in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private
property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
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- Although the Eighth Amendment specifically forbids cruel
and unusual punishment, and those torture methods used by the CIA definitely
fall under the description of "cruel and unusual," it is really
the Fifth Amendment that makes the case barring torture from any and all
American court proceedings; specifically, testimony based upon even a written
confession can be legally thrown out and excluded in a trial if the defendant
can show that his confession was obtained under duress. Can any legal
scholar dismiss cruel and unusual punishment to obtain information or a
confession as not being the most violent form of duress?
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- Why must Congress now enact a federal statute prohibiting
cruel and unusual punishment when this prohibition is already in our Bill
of Rights?! Is Congress familiar at all with the United States Constitution
that Cheney, Bush and Gonzales have abolished relegating it to just a "goddamned
piece of paper?" Is Congress attempting to rewrite the entire Constitution
because Cheney-Bush ignore it and Congress is unfamiliar with it? It would
seem that not only do we have just "a goddamned piece of paper"
for our nation's rule of law, but also a goddamned stupid, ignorant and
treasonous Congress run by stupid, ignorant and treasonous Democrats as
well!
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- "'Through these memos, the Office of Legal Counsel
created a legal framework that was specifically intended to allow the CIA
to violate both U.S. and international law,' said Jameel Jaffer, Director
of the ACLU's National Security Project. 'It's clear that these documents
are being kept secret not for national security reasons but for political
ones.'"
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- And speaking of The New York Times [nytimes.con] on Pearl
Harbor Day, December 7th, an article
was published relating how the CIA deliberately destroyed vital evidence
related to the ACLU's efforts. The article by Mark Mazzetti, "C.I.A.
Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations," begins: "The Central
Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting
the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody, a step
it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret
detention program, according to current and former government officials.
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- The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting
terrorism suspects - including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A.
custody - to severe interrogation techniques. The tapes were destroyed
in part because officers were concerned that video showing harsh interrogation
methods could expose agency officials to legal risks, several officials
said."
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- Now offered, merely as a point of reference, is the Fourth
Amendment of the Bill of Rights: Search and Seizure "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. [Emphasis mine.]
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- Here's more from Mazzetti's report: "In a statement
to employees on Thursday, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director,
said that the decision to destroy the tapes was made 'within the C.I.A.'
and that they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers
and because they no longer had intelligence value."
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- This is the same four-star Bush servant who earned [?]
both a bachelor and master's degree in American history from Duquesne University.
This is the same Michael Hayden, who at a press dinner was queried by
a reporter concerning illegal searches and seizures and who insisted, repeatedly
I might add, that the Fourth Amendment DID NOT contain the term "probable
cause." Obviously, just following orders and ignoring that "goddamned
piece" of paper has its rewards if you want a position of stature
in the Cheney-Bush administration!
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- Mazzetti continues: "The destruction of the tapes
raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from
Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program.
The recordings were not provided to a federal court hearing the case of
the terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui or to the Sept. 11 commission,
which was appointed by President Bush and Congress, and which had made
formal requests to the C.I.A. for transcripts and other documentary evidence
taken from interrogations of agency prisoners.
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- The disclosures about the tapes are likely to reignite
the debate over laws that allow the C.I.A. to use interrogation practices
more severe than those allowed to other agencies. A Congressional conference
committee voted late Wednesday to outlaw those interrogation practices,
but the measure has yet to pass the full House and Senate and is likely
to face a veto from Mr. Bush.
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- The New York Times informed the intelligence agency on
Wednesday evening that it was preparing to publish an article about the
destruction of the tapes. In his statement to employees on Thursday, General
Hayden said that the agency had acted 'in line with the law' and that he
was informing C.I.A. employees 'because the press has learned' about the
matter."
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- I find it rather curious that the same level of concern
exemplified by the destruction of these two torture tapes, produced, directed
and enjoyed by the CIA goons for their private amusement, isn't on a par
with that used to out and expose CIA supervising operative Valerie Plame
while in her capacity investigating claims of weapons of mass destruction
in Iran and Iraq. And that is precisely the problem with the one-man-rule
of Dick Cheney in this and any other authoritarian rogue state dictatorship
there is no fixed or equally applied standardized rule of law. The
law is changed for the convenience of the dictatorship as needed.
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- Also posted on CommonDreams.com, on Wednesday, December
5th, in a report
entitled "Leahy Plans Contempt Vote" by Even Lehmann and originating
in The Brattleboro Reformer, it begins: "Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
scheduled a committee vote for Thursday to consider whether four White
House officials, including Karl Rove, are in contempt for disobeying Senate
subpoenas.
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- The move comes after the officials failed to respond
to Leahy's demand last week that they immediately provide testimony and
documents related to an investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee
into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.
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- The officials had previously failed to obey the subpoenas,
which the committee issued last summer.
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- 'They have still not complied with the subpoenas,' said
Erica Chabot, a spokeswoman for Leahy, who is chairman of the Judiciary
Committee. The Thursday vote accelerates the possibility of a legal collision
between the Senate and White House over the president's claim that the
officials are protected by executive privilege."
-
- "Executive privilege," huh? And failed to
obey subpoenas since last summer? Perhaps Leahy's committee should wait
until after Christmas; that is, NEXT Christmas in 2008!
-
- Can you see this nonsense going on during the time of
Nixon, or even for that matter, during the reign of "Slick Willie?"
This is absolutely outrageous! Are Leahy and the Democrats even aware
that Karl Rove has resigned? And where's Gonzales? And what about that
impending book and the revelations by Scott McClellan? Why haven't his
revelations regarding Rove and Libby in outing Plame been taken seriously
and acted upon? And remember how Bush commuted Libby's sentence.
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- Constant and continuing "in your face" violations
of national law and the flipping off of both Congress and the American
people. When will these pompous, arrogant, low-life criminals be held
accountable? Here's a clue!
-
- "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.) on Thursday postponed a vote on contempt resolutions against former
White House adviser Karl Rove and Chief of Staff Josh Bolten after Sen.
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) objected to language in the measures. Committee
rules allow for a one-week delay, so the vote will likely take place next
Thursday. Committee approval of the resolution would trigger a full
Senate vote on the resolutions early next year," reports Susan Crabtree
in her article for The Hill of December 6th entitled "Leahy postpones
contempt vote."
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- Arlen Specter, the Congressional phantom and ghost of
investigations, entered upon his career as a federal investigator for the
Warren Commission, then looking into the assassination of President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was phantom Specter who concocted the ridiculous
single bullet theory of that fraudulent cover-up.
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- Isn't it just the height of Beltway and MSM convenience
that all this CIA dirty laundry is just now hitting the Beltway fan? How
convenient for the Beltway Buffoons to have all this marvelous dirt on
the rotten CIA! And how convenient to have this all out right after the
Monday, December 3rd CIA National Intelligence Estimate exonerating Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Vladimir Putin and
proving again that Cheney-Bush are liars?! The NIE, citing no nukes in
Iran, was immediately refuted by Cheney's stooge Bush and Con-the-Loser
Rice! They don't care what the CIA report presented, because they just
know in their hearts that Iran is very, very evil. Iran is most certainly
THINKING about acquiring nukes in 2015!
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- That's why Cheney and Israel are plotting to bomb them
now! Why wait for the smoking gun and the mushroom cloud? And that's
why it's vital for Cheney-Bush and the MSM to convince US all that we must
act now, and not wait for Iran to acquire even just one nuke in 2015!
And never mind that Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Traety and
Israeldid not. Never mind that Israel has somewhere between 200 and 400
nukes, didn't sign NPT, and has never allowed the International Atomic
Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear activities as Iran has. Israel and
Cheney just know Iran is bad and needs a preemptive attack with real nukes
to avoid the risk posed by Iran's thinking about them!
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- The MSM's striking contrast of on-demand reporting to
defend, apologize and prop up the despicable American dictatorship has
now provided for the added secondary distraction in providing delay and
stall tactics by redirecting America's focus away from the NIE. Cheney-Bush
will need time to work out a way to start World War III. Russia, China
andPakistan would be fools not to act to stop the world's now most dangerous
rogue nation. Perhaps after the sinking of the Fifth Fleet, they will
act against an Iraqi War-weakenedAmerica and Israel to save what will be
left of humanity.
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- Of course, the only blame for the American dictatorship's
successful launch of World War III will now rest entirely on the backs
of the despicable Democrats who support Cheney-Bush's need for time to
construct the needed agitprop for the war with Iran. Only the Democrats
are left to stop Cheney-Bush! Will Democrats act? Will they finally come
through for US and impeach Cheney-Bush? Consider their leadership: Pelosi,
Reid and Leahy. Pogo was right: "We have met the enemy and they is
US!"
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- © THEODORE E. LANG 12/09/07 All rights reserved
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- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
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