In the slightly paraphrased words of my astute friend Al Buono, "This is incredibly arrogant and brazenly unconstitutional ... IMPEACH THEM BOTH; NOW! Then fire up the war crimes trials."
Bush Claims Oversight Exemption Too :
The LA Times reports:
"The White House says the president's own order on classified data does not apply to his office or the vice president's.Hat tip yet again to Al.
The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney's office, President Bush's office is not allowing an independent federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national security information.
An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn't specifically say so, Bush's order was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said...."
Related Articles:
- MotherJones.com: Dick Cheney: Check and Balance This!
Quick, forget everything you learned in 5th-grade social studies (or Election) about the three branches of government. You know, the executive, judicial, and legislative. Now it turns out we actually have four branches of government. Like so many of the interesting new things we've learned about how the federal government is really supposed to work, this head-scratcher comes from Dick Cheney....
- NY Times Editorial: White House of Mirrors:
"President Bush has turned the executive branch into a two-way mirror. They get to see everything Americans do: our telephone calls, e-mail, and all manner of personal information. And we get to see nothing about what they do...."
- MotherJones.com: Finally, Some Answers on NSA Domestic Spying?
The Senate Judiciary Committee has made at least nine formal requests for documents regarding the NSA's domestic spying programs, but the Bush Administration has refused to hand anything over. The stonewalling may finally cease now that the committee has voted to issue subpoenas, with Chairman Leahy openly questioning what the Administration has to hide.
A list of the documents Leahy and the committee hope to uncover can be found here. - The Hill's Pundit Blog: � CIA Skeletons, The Mortal Sins of Dick Cheney, The Nobility Of Al Gore
"Soon, CIA Director Michael Hayden will release documents that describe major misdeeds of the CIA in darker days, after General Antonio Taguba went public in The New Yorker with charges of an Abu Ghraib cover-up.
A great and noble debate will begin in America. Revelations about past and current misdeeds will bring into focus what went wrong in the Iraq war, and why opponents of these policies are voices of American patriotism...." - The Hill's Pundit Blog: � Abu Ghraib Cover-up About to Explode
"Gen. Antonio Taguba is one of America’s most respected senior officers, was put in charge of the Abu Ghraib investigation, and has now leveled a series of powerful public
charges that will soon blow this case sky-high.
Gen. Taguba went public early this week in long on-the-record interviews with Sy Hersh reported in his New Yorker piece now on newsstands.
Among other things, Taguba says:
1. He was ordered not to investigate higher-ups in the chain of command, which means
there was (is) a cover-up protecting the highest-ranking Bush administration officials who might have criminal liability.
2. Early in his investigation he was threatened with career retribution if he dared to seek the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
3. After his investigation he was punished by being forced into early retirement.
4. He suggests that Don Rumsfeld might have lied when he testified before Congress, which would be a criminal offense.
5. He details meetings in which Rumsfeld spoke to him in terms that were sarcastic,
rude and unprofessional shortly before Rumsfeld would publicly say how much he
supported the investigation and wanted the truth to come out.
6. He reveals specific acts of torture that are beyond what was publicly known, and videos of Abu Ghraib torture have not been released that provide strong evidence that the crimes of Abu Ghraib were known earlier and far higher up than previously reported.
7. He expresses serious concern that the same forms of torture used at Abu
Ghraib were (are?) also used at Guantanamo Bay, which remains open and the subject of world-wide condemnation.
At some point Gen. Taguba will be called to testify publicly and will prove one of the most explosive witnesses in six years, while investigative reporters and almost certainly congressional committees are currently looking into Abu Ghraib.
The implications of this are enormous because they go to potential perjury and giving false testimony to Congress and investigators, and lead outward throughout the dark side of the Bush years.
There is a high probability that investigation of the Abu Ghraib crimes and cover-up will lead upward to Donald Rumsfeld and his coterie of neoconservative aides and their
shadow CIA run through the Department of Defense.
There is a substantial possibility this leads to the role of Alberto Gonzales on the range of torture issues at the Department of Justice and during his years as White House Counsel.
There is significant possibility this leads to Vice President Cheney, the most aggressive
advocate of what the world considers torture of any senior official anywhere in the free world.
Gen. Taguba should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his honor, integrity and courage throughout this shameful episode and for having the honor to speak out publicly, visibly and unequivocally now.
The stakes are high and the storm clouds are gathering for those who committed, ordered or covered up crimes of torture." - NY Times: Agency Is Target in Cheney Fight on Secrecy Data
- Inmates' Words: The Poems of Guantanamo
The publication of an anthology of works, composed on paper cups by detainees, provides a harrowing insight into the torments and fading hopes of prisoners. - The CIA's torture teachers | Salon News:
"Psychologists helped the CIA exploit a secret military program to develop brutal interrogation tactics -- likely with the approval of the Bush White House...."
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