Justice still perverted: a story that is far too important to allow to die.

An extremely important story that is being ignored is the ongoing story of the Bush Administration turning the the Department of Justice into a political weapon. The eight fired attorneys were a tiny tip of a very large iceberg. The election of Obama has done nothing yet to reverse the damage, or even to stop the ongoing misconduct.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/DOJ-Prosecutorial-Injustic-by-Gail-Sistrunk-090818-411.html

Here are some facts that Sistrunk cites:

-Over 700 elected officials were investigated or indicted since 2001....85% were Democrats.

-The likelihood for those Democratic elected officials, and those around them, to be tried by Republican judges, namely Bush judges, range from 75 - 100%. (The cases are supposed to be assigned at random).

-In many cases, the Federal Prosecutors failed to turn over evidence to the defense or inform the defense of witnesses, a violation of due process.

-Prosecutors threatened to indict family members of defendants in order to secure pleas, and even threatened to take away defendants' children.

-Federal authorities contacted defendant's business associates repeatedly in what appeared to be effort to destroy defendants financially.

-Of those prosecuted, at minimum, there are 26 still in prison and 36 on supervised release.

-Besides poor Donald Siegelman, the list of those convicted under this campaign include http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001343">Paul Minor, http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002211">Judge Wes Teel and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/mississippi-supreme-court_b_96051.html">Judge John Whitfield, http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/Dershowitz071022.pdf">State Sen. Charles Walker from Georgia (pdf file) and many others.

-The 15 percent prosecutions of Republicans show a pattern suggesting that they also had nothing to do with actual justice, but more to do with disciplining disobedient party members. Congressmen Ted Stevens, Mitch McConnell and Jerry Lewis all had either indictments or were being investigated. The trouble disappeared when their voting records turned radically more conservative. One Bush delegate from Alabama is under indictment now after refusing to give false testimony at to a Grand Jury in the Siegelman case.

-Some Bush appointed judges were apparently in on this, and not just a few.

-The Department of Justice is still infiltrated by Bush appointees, who's positions were changed from appointed to civil service. The Deputy DoJ positions between AG Eric Holder and the rest of the DoJ are all actually Bush appointees. Holder is decapitated from the rest of the DoJ.


This means that Republicans have effectively politicized and subverted the DoJ. I think we can trust that those operatives are dug into the civil service, perhaps to foil and inform on investigations of Republicans and certain favored companies or industries. However, given the methodical nature of the whole Republican campaign to capture the department and the courts, I think those deputies may also be there to groom the department for the next Republican president. This is very apparently an attempt for the GOP to own the DoJ.

Importantly, this is not something that will automatically become notably better because we elected Obama. We have to keep attention on this and make sure the DoJ is restored and those people who dared to be in on this are indicted and tried themselves. Also, I suggest that Obama pardon all the political prisoners convicted under the Bush Regime. Just declare that the investigations are suspect.

It's a story that immediately failed to get attention even here, and we should have it in the forefront of our minds. It's at least as staggeringly important as health care reform.

IMO-- the Republican party deserves the death sentence of history for this and its other crimes.

Sorry, I didn't put these on the original post.

http://www.politicalprosecutions.org/

(Watch the video headlining that page, even the first 5 minutes, if you look at nothing else right now.)

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/111th/IPres090316.pdf


I'm beginning to think that there is actually a reason that the DoJ hasn't been investigating the Bush Regime. (Actually, I had this thought after the election, but I am now more certain). Because Bush specifically put Republican/Conservative operatives in place to make damn certain that any investigation would be sabotaged, and her turned them into civil servant positions. That's why Bush did it in the closing days of his regime, and he was very well advised on who to put where to prevent his people from being prosecuted. More than anyone, Holder probably knows this, but I am thinking that every elected official knows this. That's why the promises we are getting are empty.

My prediction? I used to be optimistic about the possibility of all the Bushistas being brought to trial for their extreme crimes. Unfortunately, I don't think it is going to be done.

Not unless extreme measures are taken to uproot Bush appointments from the DoJ. Unless we do this, however, we will be living with a crippled and/or corrupt DoJ for the rest of our lives.

This is a major conspiracy to obstruct justice and in which George W. Bush is directly and publicly implicated. But given the fact that so many Republicans cooperated in such a coordinated way, I think we ought to consider the whole National Republican Party a criminal organization now, and see its propaganda efforts against health care accordingly. I'm not talking about its supporters who are, for the most part, so mis-directed by propaganda that they are totally lost, I'm talking about those actually running the outfit.

What to do? I don't know yet. I hope Holder is thinking of something, but I'd think his office and home are bugged.

Thanks so much for posting this. I had no idea that 85% of those 700 prosecuted were Democrats. I hope KO or Rachel picks this up. I wonder why Talkingpointsmemo hasn't publicized this, since they did a lot of work on the politicization of the Justice Department, but I have not seen any reference to these numbers.

Here are some other facts:

-The prosecutions were concentrated in swing states where the votes for president in the previous two elections had been within three percent.

-Even though assignment of cases to federal judges is, purportedly, done by a mechanism that ensures random assignment, somehow these cases went overwhelmingly to Republican judges, and overwhelmingly to Bush-appointed Republican judges.

-. . . and, more telling, it turns out that the overwhelming number of Republican, Bush-appointed judges these went to had membership in the same ultra-Conservative organization: The Federalist Society.

-Most prosecutors Bush appointed were also Federalist Society members.

-In most cases, probationary sentences these judges gave almost always went beyond 2008, implying that they were keeping the defendants under control until Bush was out of office.

Look at the scope, preparation and coordination of this! It was a widespread, long-term, coordinated conspiracy involving many conservative Republicans. Karl Rove appointed co-conspirators as prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers. Then, in a style befitting the Bolsheviks, they targeted key political enemies: Remocrats and unfaithful Republicans. Rove was careful to target nobody too big to draw too much national attention and let the pattern be seen. There were a few like Siegelman, but who outside of Alabama was really paying attention to that? Mostly they were judges, staffers of candidates, and local politicians. These victims were investigated and a crime was tailored to them. Then they were indicted, and friends, family and coworkers were hounded relentlessly and threatened with arrest until they "gave evidence." The so-called judges conducted the trials in such a way that juries were likely to convict.

If anything began to look funny about it, the Republican propaganda arm presented it as just more examples of Democratic corruption being uncovered.

It is final proof to me that none of the attacks on rights and liberty, none of the promotion of gun rights as something "transcendent," none of the rise of Conservative Media Show hosts has been haphazard. If it had ever been, the parts have now been drawn together and coordinated.

I've been generally very skeptical about conspiracies. I mean, I think Oswald shot JFK. But this one is quite real, ongoing and dangerous.

The only way to find out what really was going on is to depose the secretaries to Rove and all the principal actors involved. It is the secretaries and assistants who know where all the bodies are buried and usually aren't as adept at lying about they know.

Discussion I attended in Pittsburgh. At this thread I did on it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6321311

"Also on the panel, Gail Sistrunk, with Project Save Justice, who have put out the film http://ww.politicalprosecutions.org ">The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove, spoke on the other cases of "people who were crushed during the Bush era with the help of the FBI, which she referred to as the Federal Police, who, as a judge once said, used tactics like the KGB. "The world should be outraged that we hold Americans in prison who have not violated the law!" She mentioned Paul Minor, Charles Walker and Wes Teel:"

this story would make it back to the front pages where it belongs.

. . . suppose those guys, in their position, make just one "error," that results in the case being thrown out. If the case fails because of some kind neglect, and it gets thrown out of court, that Bush official cannot be tried for those crimes again.

Now, maybe that's not his motive, but say he does investigate and prosecute the Bushistas. If one of them is successful, that would be good, but we still have a badly damaged and ethically compromised DoJ, with personnel who really must be replaced.

Protests at the DoJ might help. Blogging on it and agitating as much as possible until even the conservative propaganda machine has to deal with it, those would be two things.

...we need to look forward!

... In about 6 years. When a plane crashes into the Capitol Dome. When a Democratic president calls a special session of Congress. And only Democrats attend. Because the GOP stages a walkout. And a USAF plane crashes into the Capitol Dome. And wipes out nearly all national-level Democrats. And John Roberts swears-in "emergency President" Giuliani or Palin. And we are told that "Al Qaeda sympathizers" have infiltrated the USAF and military, and there must be a military purge of non-Christianists. And a new Congress is hand-picked by Dick Cheney...

Nahhh. Can't happen here.

When the covert ones have been working so well. Yes, 2006 and 2008 elections were setbacks, but ruining the DoJ practically assures that the major Republican scandals under Bush will not be investigated. Meanwhile, a major part of the voting public remains ill-informed, in denial, or alienated, and the Democratic officials in power now look to be evasive and inadequate to the challenge, including, I'm afraid, Obama.

The only encouraging things are that Republicans are in a shrinking demographic that could practically be called a niche. However, it's more radical elements are exiting the party to join groups that are more militant with no attachment to the political process. They actually have little faith in their politicians, and if Obama's approval ratings are falling, they will have a hard time finding a candidate with approval ratings of greater than 40 percent.

What needs to be done is they need to try Rove and the prosecutors and judges for conspiracy to commit false prosecutions, or some other major felony charges. Obama needs to pardon the people targeted under Rove's campaign, Democrats and Republicans.

The Pentagon is stacked with lunatic fundamentalist Christianists (most famously Gen. Jerry Boykin, but there's a sizeable number of others). When GOP demographics deteriorate so critically that a "permanent minority status" is undeniably ensured (if it isn't already), do these Far Right apocalypticists simply "fade away" or resign themselves to powerlessness, when they're already Pentagon generals? Have they shown any record of acquiescence yet? (Or are they, as Krugman noted this week, anticipating a "comeback"?)

Who puts a check on such nutjobs when the DOJ itself is too scared to reverse many Bush policies? When the State Dept & Pentagon itself are stacked with (in Seymour Hersh's words) "sleeper cells"? When virtually the entire media is still so slanted-right that Obama dare not be less than Bush-lite?

Old reliable Far Right Likud is in power in Israel. What prevents rogue Pentagon Christianists with helping stage, for example, the bombing/destruction of Temple Mount for the purposes of blaming Iran? When Israel "retaliates in self-defense" against Iran, and OPEC predictably repeats the 1970s oil embargo, raising U.S. oil prices to $10 ($14? $18?) per gallon/gasoline, does that restore a sufficient base of U.S. Far Right support for "emergency Pentagon takeover" from an "illegitimate President" (not necessarily Obama -- they tried to deny legitimacy to Bill & they will certainly do it to Hillary)? Military coups do not rely on majority popular support -- that's partly the point of them: 40% is enough.

Don't covert and overt go hand-in-hand?

Fundamentalist Christianity is really a new phenomenon. It goes back to the 19th century, but what really made it a power in American politics, no doubt in my mind, is the Cold War. The fear of nuclear war, the worldwide "good vs. evil" aspect of it, and the resemblance to death by hydrogen bomb to hell-fire and all that.

I would hope that the further we get from the Cold War, the more fundamentalism is going to weaken. In judging what those "Christian Soldiers" in the Pentagon are up to, we have the same problem that the CIA had with the Soviet Union: they found it impregnable for infiltrating and spying. They had no intelligence, no information. The CIA, and other Cold Warriors simply made up what the Soviets were up to from their own worst fears and guesses. As a result, they were constantly wrong and caused extreme damage all over the world because almost all they were fighting against a make-believe plan of world conquest.

We shouldn't make the same mistake about the fundamentalists in the Pentagon. What you are giving there requires not just a few generals, but cooperation of many. There is nothing in the Bible that supports somebody starting the Apocalypse for God. In fact, many fundamentalists would probably see that as quite blasphemous. In other words, there's no reason to believe they will agree on that plan.

That's different from the DoJ. It is pretty clear what plan they were carrying out when they fell from power. I infer that as Plan B, they will prepare the DoJ for the next Republican presidency, while staving off prosecutions of the Bush Administration.

As for whether these guys in the Pentagon will fade away as the Conservative base shrinks, I doubt it. I think the Republican party will become more radical, which will cause anyone with any sense to abandon it. It will also lose membership as a result of current members who don't think it's radical enough, causing it to at least give lip service to stupidly radical ideas just to keep those members.

But I think its remnants are going to be dangerous for some time. Maybe some led by current military, or current CIA, or contractors.

I could see too many flaws in the scenario you give. For one thing, I can't see the Arabs calling an embargo on the US anymore. They need the cash too much. Of course, if the dollar declines enough . . . but if that happens we'd have the equivalent of an embargo anyway.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=761

Act One. Cowboys of the Apocalypse.

How fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews are combining forces to breed a perfect red cow with the intention of initiating the apocalypse. Ira talks with cattleman and minister Clyde Lott, and with New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright. (17 minutes)

investigations is taking that much longer. But they must not let this pass. This Nazi style purging of political enemies is just too blatantly anti-democratic to allow to go unpunished.

I said some time ago that the Republicans have shown a "facility for the techniques of totalitarianism". This clearly shows their predilection for totalitarianism (if the election of 2000 didn't establish it beyond all doubt).


recommended, bookmarked.