Yes. The USG abandoned the rule of law and its principles on many occasions over the existence of the nation. Some of the most egregious breaks in the morals & laws include what transpired and continues to transpire at Gitmo.
But No. These political leaders are never held accountable and many are still held in reverence and reappointed by succeeding administrations or given lucrative jobs espousing propaganda on the TeeVee and other media outlets.
Case in point. Oliver North:
Recently:
Fox's Oliver North Pushes Long-Debunked WMD Conspiracy Theory To Justify The Iraq War
During an America's Newsroom segment on the 10-year anniversary of the Iraq war, North explained why he thought the war was "worth it," saying: "We got rid of a brutal despot who used chemical and biological weapons against his own people. Weapons of mass destruction that he probably exported to Sudan before we got there."...
Full article:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/03/20/foxs-oliver-north-pushes-long-debunked-wmd-cons/193152
Fox's Oliver North Attacks Obama Over Visit To Boston For Marathon Memorial Service
Fox News host Oliver North is attacking President Barack Obama for visiting Boston to attend a memorial service for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, suggesting that his visit could hurt the bombing investigation.
North wrote on his Twitter account: "How many law officers were pulled off the marathon massacre investigation to provide protection for Obama in Boston?"...
Full article:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/18/foxs-oliver-north-attacks-obama-over-visit-to-b/193682
In the past:
Allegations of involvement with drug traffickers
Allegations were made, most notably by the Kerry Subcommittee, that North and other senior officials created a privatized Contra network that attracted drug traffickers looking for cover for their operations, then turned a blind eye to repeated reports of drug smuggling related to the Contras, and actively worked with known drug smugglers such as Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to assist the Contras.[18] Most Contra associates found guilty of trafficking by the Kerry Committee were involved in the supply chain (ostensibly for "humanitarian goods," though the supply chain was later found to have serviced the transport of arms), which had been set up by North. Organizations and individuals involved in the supply chain under investigation for trafficking included the company SETCO (operated by large-scale trafficker Juan Matta-Ballesteros), the fruit company Frigorificos de Puntarenas, rancher John Hull, and several Cuban Exiles; North and other US government officials were criticized by the Kerry Report for their practice of "ticket punching" for these parties, whereby people under active investigation for drug trafficking were given cover and pay by joining in the Contra supply chain. In addition to the Kerry Committee's investigation, the Costa Rican government of Nobel-Prize winner Óscar Arias conducted an investigation of Contra-related drug trafficking, and as a result of this investigation, North and several other US Government officials were permanently banned from entering Costa Rica....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_North#Allegations_of_involvement_with_drug_traffickers
Rex 84
Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was an alleged secretive "scenario and drill" developed by the United States federal government to suspend the United States Constitution, declare martial law, place military commanders in charge of state and local governments, and detain large numbers of American citizens who are deemed to be "national security threats", in the event that the President declares a "State of National Emergency". The plan states, events causing such a declaration would be widespread U.S. opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad, such as if the United States were to directly invade Central America.[1][2][3][4][5] To combat what the government perceived as "subversive activities", the plan also authorized the military to direct ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels.[6]
Rex 84 was supposedly written by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who was both National Security Council White House Aide, and NSC liaison to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and John Brinkerhoff, the deputy director of "national preparedness" programs for the FEMA. They patterned the plan on a 1970 report written by FEMA chief Louis Giuffrida, at the Army War College, which proposed the detention of up to 21 million "American Negroes", if there were a black militant uprising in the United States.[1][7] Existence of a master military contingency plan (of which REX-84 was a part), "Garden Plot" and a similar earlier exercise, "Lantern Spike", were originally revealed by journalist Ron Ridenhour, who summarized his findings in an article in CounterSpy.[8]
Transcripts from the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987 record the following dialogue between Congressman Jack Brooks, Oliver North's attorney Brendan Sullivan and Senator Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the joint Senate-House Committee:[9]
[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?
Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?
[Senator Daniel] Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that?
Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation.
Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.
Conspiracy theorists believe that exercises similar to Rex 84 have happened in the past.[10] For example, from 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of over 100,000 persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
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