Glenn Greenwald: Establishment Washington unifies against prosecutions

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Glenn Greenwald
Thursday Jan. 15, 2009 05:53 EST
Establishment Washington unifies against prosecutions

The Washington Post's David Ignatius today does what he does best: serve as the spokesman for Washington establishment's most conventional wisdom in a way that really illuminates what it is:

"To underscore the message, Obama indicated that he would oppose retrospective investigations of wrongdoing by the CIA and other agencies, arguing: "When it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed looking at what we got wrong in the past." This is the kind of realism that will disappoint liberal score-settlers, but it makes clear that Obama has a grim appreciation of the dangers America still faces from al-Qaeda and its allies."

The word "liberal" has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last eight years. All that has been necessarily to qualify is a belief in such radical, exotic and fringe-leftist concepts as search warrants before the Government can eavesdrop on our communications; due process before the state can encage people for life; adherence to decades-old Geneva Conventions restrictions which post-World-War-II America led the way in implementing; and the need for an actual threat from another country before we bomb, invade, occupy and destroy it.

Now added to the pantheon of "liberal" dogma is the shrill, ideological belief that high government officials must abide by our laws and should be treated like any other citizen when they break them. To believe that now makes you not just a "liberal," but worse: a "liberal score-settler." Apparently, one can attain the glorious status of being a moderate, a centrist, a high-minded independent only if one believes that high political officials (and our most powerful industries, such as the telecoms) should be able to break numerous laws (i.e.: commit felonies), admit that they've done so, and then be immunized from all consequences. That's how our ideological spectrum is now defined...http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?source=rss&aim=/opinion/greenwald/