Against Truth-Tellers

January 2, 2006
Bush's Witchhunt Against Truth-Tellers
A Gestapo Administration
http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts01022006.html
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@yahoo.com