Robert Parry: Democrats Legalize Bush's Crimes

from Consortium News:



Democrats Legalize Bush's Crimes

By Robert Parry
June 20, 2008


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap “compromise” is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law.

In other words, in the guise of rejecting Bush’s theories of an all-powerful presidency that is above the law, the Democratic leadership cleared the way for the President and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

So, why should anyone assume that the new legislative edict demanding that the President obey the law will get any more respect than the old one, which established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 as the “exclusive” means for authorizing electronic spying?

It wasn’t that Bush and his team didn’t understand the old law’s language; they simply believed they could violate the law without consequence, under the radical theory that at a time of war – even one as vaguely defined as the “war on terror” – the President’s powers trump all laws as well as the constitutional rights of citizens.

Essentially, Bush was betting that even if his warrantless wiretap program was disclosed – as it was in December 2005 – that he could trust his Republican congressional allies to protect him and could count on most Democrats not to have the guts to challenge him.

His bet proved to be a smart one. After the New York Times revealed the warrantless wiretaps 2½ years ago, Congress took no steps to hold Bush accountable. Before the 2006 elections, Pelosi declared that Bush’s impeachment was “off the table.”

Then, on the eve of the August 2007 recess, the Democratic-controlled Congress was stampeded into passing the “Protect America Act,” which effectively legalized what Bush had already done and expanded his spying powers even more.

After that law was passed, U.S. news reports mostly parroted the White House claim that it “modernized” FISA and “narrowly” targeted overseas terror suspects who might call or e-mail their contacts in the United States. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/062008.html

I had to laugh when someone put up and e-mail from Obama saying he would follow the law and he was against illegal wiretapping, knowing all the while it would be LEGAL because he was voting yes all along. The empty suit strikes again. He is better than Pelosi and Reed how?

The law says that we each must enjoy equal protection of the laws... and forbids ex-post-facto law. Ergo, an ex-post-facto law that forbids equal protection is doubly illegal. If the courts have integrity they will strike this down with contempt the moment it comes under their review.

:shrug:

and they were hamstrung. Being informed they were now complicit. They are equally guilty of war crimes as any of the leading assholes of the administration. Especially Pelosi and Hoyer. That's how FISA bills get passed. That's why impeachment is off the table. Too much shit would come out and some of it would get on the Democratic leaders.