[A-List] A Gestapo Administration

["James Daly" <james.irldaly@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http:www.middleeast.org/mernew.htm

The remarkable thing about this article beyond the truth-telling and
the starting title is that it comes for a major former Republican
insider who held ranking positions in government and was a senior
member of the Republican Conservative think-tank community.
---------------------------------

Bush's Witchhunt Against Truth-Tellers

A Gestapo 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 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.

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 (sic) 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 (sic) 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?

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has
contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate
economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University
of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of
The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts@xxxxxxxxx

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01022006.html

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