NYT op-ed: Bush Is Not Above the Law

[DeepModem Mom]

Op-Ed Contributor
Bush Is Not Above the Law
By JAMES BAMFORD
Published: January 31, 2007
Washington

LAST August, a federal judge found that the president of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution. Had the president been an ordinary citizen — someone charged with bank robbery or income tax evasion — the wheels of justice would have immediately begun to turn. The F.B.I. would have conducted an investigation, a United States attorney’s office would have impaneled a grand jury and charges would have been brought.

But under the Bush Justice Department, no F.B.I. agents were ever dispatched to padlock White House files or knock on doors and no federal prosecutors ever opened a case.

The ruling was the result of a suit, in which I am one of the plaintiffs, brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil Liberties Union. It was a response to revelations by this newspaper in December 2005 that the agency had been monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act....

***

Last Aug. 17, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the United States District Court in Detroit issued her ruling in the A.C.L.U. case. The president, she wrote, had “undisputedly violated” not only the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, but also statutory law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Enacted by a bipartisan Congress in 1978, the FISA statute was a response to revelations that the National Security Agency had conducted warrantless eavesdropping on Americans. To deter future administrations from similar actions, the law made a violation a felony punishable by a $10,000 fine and five years in prison....

***

To allow a president to break the law and commit a felony for more than five years without even a formal independent investigation would be the ultimate subversion of the Constitution and the rule of law. As Judge Taylor warned in her decision, “There are no hereditary kings in America.”

(James Bamford is the author of two books on the National Security Agency, “The Puzzle Palace” and “Body of Secrets.”)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opinion/31bamford.html

[babylonsister]

1. Nom, Rec'd, to the moon! Scathing and justified. Wow! I hope OUR reps read this! nt

[brer cat]

4. Let's all send it to them!

Although in my case it will do no good...GA (R of course).:-( I will just get a form letter about how wonderful it is that they support our wonderful pResident *.

K&R

[babylonsister]

6. I live in TX so I feel your pain, and mine. nt

[brer cat]

8. We just have to keep on keeping on, I guess.

Some day they will learn. I send their cheery emails into the trash.

[Nay]

11. I live in VA, feel the same pain.

The idiots around here won't figure it out even after they've been dragged to the workhouse as slave labor.

The fact that this has been going on for 5 years and Bush is not in jail, nor has he even been approached by the police, indicates to me that he is indeed "above the law."

[Drum]

2. Kickin'!

:kick:

[BuyingThyme]

3. Remember back when the law wasn't relegated to

the page opposite the editorial page?

[brer cat]

5. I can remember when it was on front page.

DU?

[Solly Mack]

7. Is Bush still in office after breaking the law and violating the Constitution?

"LAST August, a federal judge found that the president of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution."

Then he is above the law.


When Bush breaks the law, are his crimes ignored by the criminal justice system?

"Had the president been an ordinary citizen — someone charged with bank robbery or income tax evasion — the wheels of justice would have immediately begun to turn.The F.B.I. would have conducted an investigation, a United States attorney’s office would have impaneled a grand jury and charges would have been brought."

Then he is above the law.

Is the Justice Department refusing to act - for whatever reasons - against Bush when he breaks the law?

"But under the Bush Justice Department, no F.B.I. agents were ever dispatched to padlock White House files or knock on doors and no federal prosecutors ever opened a case."

Then he is above the law.



"No one is above the law" makes for crowd pleasing speech-making and feel good cheerleading but until someone proves otherwise....Bush is above the law.

[originalpckelly]

9. If the republic survives, this time it will have to be a constitutional amendment...

so that no President will be able to even conceive of weaseling out from under the letter of the law.

[Maraya1969]

10. Can he be indicted after he leaves office? That would be great fun.

[indepat]

12. GWB is, has been, and will continue to be above the law until Congress fulfills it constitutional

authority, power and duty to stop what is illegal, unconstitutional, and inhumane instead of aiding and abetting such. ;)

[Philosoraptor]

13. I beg to differ NYT.

Show me once instance where bush isn't above the law.

[Edweird]

14. Not only is he above the law

he's a smug arrogant little shit about it. He's poking us in the chest while asking "whaddaya gonna do 'bout it?"

[bdamomma]

23. he is, he is just giving us all the middle finger salute.

he has no respect for anyone. He is mentally unstable, can we escort him out of the WH now.

[mmonk]

15. Until he is stopped, he is.

[emald]

16. my kids asked me why the president can lie

can you imagine? Why can the president lie. Amazing. He breaks the law, brags about it, lies with malice, smashes the constitution with his lack of understanding and ruins our country's reputation. Breaks the law over and over and lies. He is above the law, has been for years. Seems if you are part of the ruling families that crime and immorality are your due. What a joke.

[Irishonly]

19. Teenagers are amazing

I don't know how old you children are but I am a proud mom of a 16 year old. Her friends know I am as politically active as I can be so every once in a while I get questions fired at me. I answer as best I can and then tell them to put their brains to work, stop listening to the MSM and read. Whether they actually followed through or not, I will probably not know but some were going to write to Senators Boxer and Feinstein as well as the representatives. My daughter attends school in a different city.

My daughter and her friends were in 4th grade during the Clinton impeachment. My husband and I never went into details only that President Clinton was accused of lying under oath about his marriage. They have never been stupid kids. At the time I don't think they knew about all of the particulars but the word affair came up in discussions.

I had to tell them I couldn't answer all of their questions yesterday. The consensus of her friends is to take him out of the WH in chains and handcuffs and they don't care about the "oath" factor. I was asked why people ignore all of this pResident's lies while they got so upset with Clinton "hooking up" with another woman.

It's a very confusing time for our young people. How Congress reacts and what it does either by doing their jobs or ignoring the outrage of their constituents may have more consequences than what I ever imagined. Most teens see the world in black and white and I think we "old people" need to be talking and talking. These kids are scared to death. So far they aren't living in fear of the draft. You should have seen the look on their faces when I explained to them no everyone got a deferment.

I will stop now. I am writing a novel.:blush:

[spanone]

17. I can't wait till these people are not only imprisoned as the criminals they are, but

but are put on trial in a world court for fucking up our entire world.

[bdamomma]

24. I wonder if those other countries have their lawyers or high courts

ready to ponce on * could they do this? All this talk about Iran is getting Europe very nervous.

[gratefultobelib]

18. Some of us are saying it doesn't do any good to send this kind of info to our

representatives, but we can't stop trying. My new goal is to try to send SOMETHING to SOMEONE every day!

[BigBadJohnny]

20. Why Bush Tried To transfer The American Ports

I have many facets forming my belief that Bush (And Chaney, Rumsfeld) should be impeached, removed, and imprisoned. The phone/e-mail violations are among the least serious, in my view, although they may be the most useful for prosecution.
Far more serious, The Wilson/Plame disclosure, and the utilization of Halliburton, a Bush/Cheney, family company for several generations.

I write for Xomba, and several other outlets. I have spent considerable time researching the Bush, Cheney, Prescott Bush/Halliburton connection. I view it as an obvious and shameful conflict of interest.
Democratic Underground readers may find the following article of interest:


Why Bush Tried To transfer The ports

[newyawker99]

27. Hi BigBadJohnny!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[cassiepriam]

21. Yes he is.

Until this sociopath has some consequences, he is above the law.

[quiet.american]

22. Alright, Bush is now Felon-in-Chief as far as I'm concerned. Enough of "the decider." n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Holy crap, it's by Bamford!! This guy knows the NSA like no one else.

Glad to see he's taking a lead role, not just the editorial, but especially the lawsuit.

[lpbk2713]

26. How true, this.

The BushCo regime has been caught in so many lies and dirty deals they should all be indicted under the RICOH Act.

[AikidoSoul]

28. Everyone should read the Puzzle Palace by Bamford --even DUers would be taken aback

-- even though the book was written more than a decade ago.

Even in the 80s there was widespread surveillance with satellites, high powered super computers, and word recognition software that was used widely by NSA and its contractors.

People involved with this activity were stationed at listening posts all over the world to collect data.

I first heard about this in the early 80s from a cocaine smuggler from the FL Keys (he had been to prison and I met him afterwards through artist friends. This was NOT a business relationship!!)

It was later verified when a close family member worked for one of the contractors (to DoD and NSA) and spent years in various locations all over the world. Some of the locations were secret and it was forbidden to even tell family and friends where the sites were located. Mail went to APO addresses.

Finally part of the snooping story came out in 2000-2003 when CBS News reported about the spying allegedly done by the network of spy stations known as "ECHELON". European companies accused the U.S. of industrial spying and espionage.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/07/05/world/main212130.shtml

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/02/24/world/main164465

network.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/19/world/main544558.shtml

Even then these systems were capable of gathering billions of messages per hour.

It wasn't long before computing power and technology enabled the networks of surveillance to be developed to such a high level of sophistication that it becomes very scary to realize that this power is in the wrong hands.

One wonders if it's even possible for the technology to EVER be in the "right" hands.

Technology will kill us because it will be abused for greed and power.

There's no higher wisdom being employed to use it well.

Maybe only the Goddess should have that power.

Kind of reminds me of the Garden of Eden myth.

Good editorial at the NYT

K & R

[moodforaday]

29. That was when they pulled JonBenét Ramsey's supposed killer

out of the hat, the one who turned out not to be the killer after all, but he stayed on the news 24/7 for three weeks straight. That same day! Here's Thom Hartmann:

JonBenét Died - And Bush Lied?
by Thom Hartmann

I was on the air doing my radio program two weeks ago when the story came down the wire that the killer of JonBenét Ramsey had been captured in Thailand just hours earlier. I opened the microphone and said words to the effect of, "Today there must be something really awful going down for the Republicans. Maybe Rove really will be indicted. Maybe Cheney. Maybe some terrible revelation about Bush. And if there isn't, today will be the day they'll toss out the unsavory stories - like gutting an environmental law or wiping out pension plans - that they don't want covered."

Apparently it was worse than I'd imagined.

That same morning - just hours after the JonBenét information hit the press and just after I got off the air - it was revealed that US District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor had ruled that George W. Bush and now-CIA Director Michael Hayden had committed multiple High Crimes, Misdemeanors, and felonies, both criminal and constitutional. If her ruling stands, Bush and Hayden could go to prison.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0829-21.htm