Reviewing
Marjorie Cohn's
"Cowboy Republic"
By Stephen Lendman
09 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Marjorie
Cohn is a distinguished law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of
Law in San Diego where she's taught since 1991 and is the current president
of the National Lawyers Guild. She's also been a criminal defense attorney
at the trial and appellate levels, is an author, and has written many
articles for professional journals, other publications, and for noted
web sites such as Global Research, ZNet, CounterPunch, AfterDowning
Street, Common Dreams, AlterNet and others. Her long record of achievements,
distinctions and awards is broad and varied for her teaching, writing
and her work as a lawyer and activist for peace, social and economic
justice.
Cohn's latest book just published,
and subject of this review, is titled "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways
the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law." It provides a thorough, impressive
and incisive account of the most important ways the Bush administration
defied, defiled and weakened the rule of law and by so doing hurtled
the nation toward tyranny. This book is an essential guide to their
lawless record, its threat to the nation and world, and the desperate
need to confront it, challenge it and remove it from office before it's
too late. The stakes couldn't be greater - the fate of the republic
hangs by a thread as well as all humanity if people of conscience fail
to act and swiftly. Cohn's book lays out the problem clearly. The rest
is up to us.
Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus
of International Law at Princeton University, introduces what's to follow
in his brief introduction to Cohn's book. In it, he states the most
important lesson of the disastrous Iraq war is that "adherence
to international law serves the national (as well as) human interest
in time of war." More than at any other time, with the nation at
war, US presidents can practically operate as dictators outside the
normally constraining check and balancing influences of the other two
branches of government, when they choose to use them.
For the past six and a half
years, they've been nowhere in sight, and George Bush took full advantage.
He's defied constitutional and international law with arrogance and
impunity including the Nuremberg Principles defining what constitutes
a war crime. Falk quotes its chief prosecutor, Justice Robert Jackson,
saying ...."the record on which we judge these (Nazi) defendants
today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow." Throughout
our history, pre and post-Nuremberg, this nation broke the "Nuremberg
promise....repeatedly" but never to the degree as under George
Bush. That's the legacy he'll pass to future administrations they'll
have to live with and confront as an obstacle in an attempt to move
ahead. Their job won't be easy.
Introduction
Cohn begins her book with
a definition of "cowboy" applicable to George Bush - one "who
undertakes a dangerous or sensitive task needlessly." Other definitions
refer to someone who's "reckless, aggressive or irresponsible."
Those characterizations pretty much sum up the record of the current
President who won't go down in history like the legendary heros who
won the West and most dictionaries say are "hired hands who tend
cattle and perform other duties on horseback" on the range "where
the deer and antelope play."
Despite our nominal constitutional
protections, Cohn recounts how the history of the country was marked
by abuses of power going back to the Alien and Sedition Acts under John
Adams. They were enacted to stifle dissent in time of possible war,
but, in fact, were used against Republican opponents to deny them what
Jefferson called "the highest form of patriotism" - the right
to dissent.
Our reputed greatest President,
Abraham Lincoln, followed in Adams' tradition during the Civil War.
He suspended habeas and other civil liberties, instituted an unfair
draft, blatantly abused his power overall and functioned ad libitum
as a virtual dictator. Woodrow Wilson was no different, and so was Franklin
Roosevelt, both of whom justified their right to set aside constitutional
protections in time of war. No evidence suggests doing it helped. There's
plenty, however, to prove they weakened the republic making it easier
for future Presidents to take even greater liberties interpreting the
law as they wished. Enter George Bush. Case closed.
Cohn notes that few Americans
understand international law, or the Constitution either, for that matter,
aside from some pro forma words they can recite perfunctorily but not
explain. They also don't know international law is US law as well under
the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. It states all treaties "shall
be the supreme Law of the Land." They include the UN Charter, four
Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture banning any form
of the practice at all times for any reason, and all other treaties
the nation signs. Sadly, Cohn observes, constitutional and international
law "didn't prevent a series of executive branch violations in
the 1960s (under Lyndon Johnson mostly) and 1970s (egregiously under
Richard Nixon) when the executive branch" operated outside the
limits of the law they were sworn to uphold but didn't.
Cohn then gets into the meat
of her important book recounting George Bush's six specific appalling
abuses of power still raging unrestrained out of control and in recent
days got even worse as explained below.
A War of Aggression
International law bans premeditated
aggressive war under any conditions. The UN Charter clearly states a
nation may only use force under two conditions: when authorized to do
it by the Security Council or under Article 51 that allows the "right
of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against
a Member....until the Security Council has taken measures to maintain
international peace and security." In other words, self-defense
is permissible but an unprovoked attack on another nation violates sacred
international law and constitutes what the Nuremberg Charter called
"the supreme international crime against peace."
Clear evidence exists that
the Bush administration intended to attack Afghanistan and Iraq prior
to 9/11. All that was needed (as laid out in 2000 by the neoconservative
Project for a New American Century - PNAC) was "some catastrophic
and catalyzing event - like a New Pearl Harbor" to militarize the
nation and wage aggressive war. On 9/11, the Bush administration got
its wish and "swung into action" by going to war based on
deceit and lies about invalid threats and for reasons other than stated.
Former CIA head of counterintelligence,
Vincent Cannistraro, later acknowledged it was based on "cooked
intelligence." And CIA analyst Michael Scheuer said the agency
was resigned "that we were going to war" and no facts or analysis
would stop it. In addition, an August 6 John Conyers-ordered report
found that "members of the Bush administration misstated, overstated,
and manipulated intelligence with regards to linkages between Iraq and
Al Queda; the acquisition of nuclear weapons" along with other
lies to justify war including so-called WMDs known not to exist years
earlier.
In July, 2002, the New York
Times got access to a highly classified document titled "CentCom
Courses of Action" containing what the Pentagon called a "war
plan" to invade Iraq. It began in earnest as a secret air war in
May, 2002 that by end of August "had become a full air offensive,"
according to the London Sunday Times. British MI 6 chief Richard Dearlove
then revealed the secret contents of the so-called Downing Street memo
based on a July, 2002 Washington meeting where "the facts (to justify
war with Iraq) were being fixed around the policy."
Earlier on September 18,
2001, the administration set off on the road to war with the joint House-Senate
resolution passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF).
It authorized "the use of United States Armed Forces against those
responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States."
Then in October, 2002, Congress surrendered its authority to George
Bush by passing the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United
States Armed Forces Against Iraq to "defend the national security
of the United States against the continuing threat of Iraq." Republicans
and Democrats acted together knowing Iraq posed no threat and that its
action violated the UN Charter.
Cohn explains the real motive
behind attacking, invading and occupying Iraq that by now a bright ten
year old understands. Paul Wolfowitz finally admitted using WMDs as
an excuse was "for bureaucratic reasons" and the one pretext
everyone could agree on. He later had to admit what everyone already
knew. The real issue is oil and the fact that Iraq potentially has more
of the cheap light sweet easily accessible kind than any other country
on earth, including Saudi Arabia. One Wall Street oil analyst calls
the country "the most valuable real estate on the planet"
and the last of the "low-hanging fruit."
Solidifying a huge military
presence in the region is also key with the US well-entrenched now on
106 known sites, including four super bases (with more planned) as large
as small towns and with all their amenities, and a Vatican-sized largest
embassy in the world. The Middle East is where two-thirds of proved
oil reserves are located, and that fact was never lost on present and
prior US planners. Notions of WMDs, removing a dictator, protecting
national security, preventive self-defense, establishing democracy and
conducting a humanitarian mission were all concocted rubbish. Sadly,
it was believed by most people and too many still do, the result of
lots of forced-fed dominant media hyperventilating help round the clock
and on board with the administration to the bitter end for an illegal
venture gone sour.
Along with so many other
violations of international law, Cohn noted the Bush administration
ignored the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
that's part of US law "under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution."
Article I (1) says: "All people have the right of self-determination.
By virtue of that right they (can) freely determine their political
status and (can) freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."
Cohn stated the US had no "legal authority to intervene in the
affairs of the Iraqi people and choose their leadership for them."
The Bush administration set
about doing it in March, 2003. It followed the secret air war it waged
months earlier as a softening up action for the "shock and awe"
to come that the New York Times praised as "almost (having) biblical
power." The entire corporate media also ignored the use of illegal
weapons like depleted uranium, white phosphorous, and cluster bombs
that keep killing and maiming long after the end of battle. In addition,
experimental weapons are freely used, some targeting innocent civilians
to inflict terror, and all intended to subdue a population hostile to
a foreign occupier.
These are "weapons of
mass destruction," stated Cohn. She also cited the Geneva Convention
Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War (Geneva
IV). It calls "willfully causing great suffering or serious injury
to body and health" a grave breach of law. The Bush administration
deliberately flouts the law and "is committing war crimes with
its use of these weapons." The result since March, 2003 alone has
been mass deaths in appallingly high numbers, immeasurable human misery
and suffering, and destruction on an enormous scale - all of which is
still ongoing daily with innocent civilians afflicted most.
Has it made the US and world
safer? Hardly, by any measure and quite the opposite, in fact, according
to an April, 2006 National Intelligence Estimate Cohn quoted. It stated
the Iraq conflict became "a 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding
deep resentment (against the US) in the Muslim world (and) shaping a
new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives." In committing
"the supreme international crime against peace" against two
nations, the US has become "the greatest menace of our times,"
quoting Nuremberg chief Justice Robert Jackson's reference to the crime
of aggression and by implication any nation committing it.
The Torture of Prisoners
Post-9/11, "the gloves
came off" said former CIA Counterterrorism Center chief, Cofer
Black, now part of the paramilitary mercenary operation at Blackwater,
USA operating freely outside the law as thuggish hired guns in Iraq,
New Orleans and coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Cohn noted "Soon
after 9/11, senior administration lawyers wrote memoranda to redefine
and justify torture" along with most everything else they planned
outside domestic and international law. George Bush announced Geneva
Conventions didn't apply to Guantanamo prisoners, and Alberto Gonzales
(as White House legal council) sweepingly called them "quaint"
and "obsolete" in 2002. What they had in mind is anything
goes and that includes torture even though it's widely known not to
elicit useful information. It's also known as an effective terror weapon
and a useful means of social control.
The practice is also abhorrent
and violates at least two US laws - the 1996 War Crimes Act and 1994
Torture Statute. That's along with numerous widely accepted international
ones, even though all too frequently many countries, including so-called
"civilized" ones, don't observe them. We all know what happened
since from the appalling abuses at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and at secret
CIA and Pentagon 'black sites" around the world. They're in countries
known to use torture and are now in league with US agencies doing it
for whatever favors they're getting in return.
Cohn reviewed some of the
laws banning torture including the 1994 Convention Against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment than bans
mistreatment as well as torture. The US is also "party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)" that guarantees
the right to life and prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
She then notes "the most famous anti-torture treaties are the four
Geneva Conventions (of 1949). The first two provide for the protection
of sick and wounded (forces in battle)." The third one defines
who is a prisoner of war "and establishes minimum standards"
for POW treatment. The fourth convention applies to civilians and affords
them protections during war that require they be treated humanely.
All four conventions have
a common thread called Common Article Three. "It requires that
persons taking no active part in hostilities (including the detained)
be treated humanely at all times." War crimes are grave breaches
under Geneva, and the 1996 War Crimes Act provides up to life imprisonment
or the death penalty for persons convicted of committing war crimes
within or outside the US. Administration memos from officials like Gonzales
as well as John Yoo and Jay Bybee (writing for the DOJ Office of Legal
Council) advised Al-Queda and Taliban interrogators were exempt from
these laws "under the President's commander-in-chief powers."
Cohn explained "the Torture Convention permits no such exemption,
even during wartime."
As bad or worse was narrowing
and distorting definitions with Yoo and Bybee writing psychological
harm must last "months or even years" to be torture. Cohn
noted Yoo was the architect of the repressive Patriot Act and domestic
surveillance program. Bybee was later appointed to the US Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit proving lawlessness is rewarded as long as lawbreakers
have friends in high places.
Cohn reviewed how torture
was authorized at the highest level with damning evidence from human
rights organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International
and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They've shown
how widespread it's been in Iraq, Guantanamo and at all secret "black
sites." Human Rights Watch also documented that its use is "systematic"
and known "at varying levels of command" with explicit testimony
proving it.
The human consequences are
devastating and widespread with the ICRC saying as many as 90% of persons
detained were arrested by mistake. Seton Hall University Law School
professor Mark Denebeaux and others analyzed unclassified government
data gotten through FOIA requests, basing their report on evidentiary
summaries from 2004 military hearings. They learned the majority of
Afghan prisoners at Guantanamo weren't accused of hostile acts and 95%
of them were seized by Afghan bounty hunters who "sold" them
to US forces for $5000 per claimed Taliban and $25,000 for supposed
Al-Queda members.
What they endure as a result
is horrific with Cohn detailing how they're treated that's reminiscent
of the Spanish Inquisition or the worst abuses under the Nazis. They
amount to a menu of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal"
acts against innocent people, including women and children.
One particularly appalling
procedure is force-feeding applied to as many as one-third of Guantanamo
detainees and an unknown number of prisoners elsewhere. The practice
is so violent, it amounts to torture. Tubes, at times the thickness
of fingers, are inserted in the nose and thrust all the way down throats
and into stomachs causing extreme pain, vomiting up blood, and even
greater pain when tubes are removed with blood gushing out in the process.
One victim of this practice
described the pain as "unbearable," and attorney Julia Tarver
(representating Guantanamo clients) explained physicians violated their
Hippocratic Oath to do no harm by being a part of it. The 53-nation
UN Human Rights Commission also confirmed in 2006 that "doctors
and other health professionals are participating in force-feeing detainees"
by this method that amounts to horrific torture.
Cohn noted an August, 2004
Independent Panel to Review Department of the Defense Detention Operations
report called the Schlesinger Report. It concluded "Policies approved
for use on al Queda and Taliban detainees (who never got Geneva protection
but should have)....(are also) applied to detainees who did fall under"
Geneva. Another August, 2004 Army report indicated the most extreme
abuses "are, without question criminal."
They're also done "by
proxy" at "black sites" and through the illegal practice
of "extraordinary rendition" with victims secretly sent to
other countries where they disappear into torture-prison hellholes,
out of sight and mind. The Convention against Torture prohibits what's
called "refoulement - expelling, returning, or extraditing a person
to another country where there are substantial grounds to believe he
would be in danger of being tortured." Popular sites include Egypt,
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Ethiopia
and other repressive countries. Cohn quoted a former CIA agent saying:
"If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan.
If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want
someone to disappear....you send them to Egypt."
With the Bush administration
earmarking $63 billion in arms sales or giveaways to client Middle East
countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others, things are guaranteed
to get worse and may become explosive and out of control. Increased
violence will follow deliveries and with it abusive torture and much
more.
On July 19, 2007, after the
publication of Cohn's book, George Bush's arrogance, contempt for the
law and hypocrisy were on display again in one package contained in
another sweeping executive order (EO). According to AP, he "breathed
new life into the CIA's terror interrogation program (aka no holds barred
torture) that would allow harsh questioning of suspects limited in public
only by a vaguely worded ban (signifying none whatever) on cruel and
inhuman treatment."
The order pretends to prohibit
some practices, "to quell international criticism," describes
them only vaguely, and doesn't say what practices are still allowed.
The Bush administration insists its interrogation operation is one of
its most important tools in the "war on terrorism." Bottom
line - ugly business as usual will continue unchanged and unchecked,
except for the doublespeak language signifying only deception from a
President exposed as a serial liar.
Summary Execution and Willful
Killing
Summary executions, or extra-judicial
murders, have long been practiced by past US governments with rogue
agencies like CIA masters of the black art and skilled at covering its
tracks. The Bush regime cares little about subtleties, so its operatives
wantonly and openly engage in this simple way of removing adversaries
even though Cohn stated: "Willful killing is a grave breach of
the Geneva Conventions (and) punishable as a war crime under the US
War Crimes Act."
In the wake of the Vietnam
war and Watergate, Gerald Ford (because of necessity, not conviction)
issued an executive order banning assassinations, but George Bush revoked
it secretly in December, 2001. He established a "special-access
program" authorizing "clandestine Special Forces to snatch
or assassinate anyone considered a 'high value' al-Queda operative,
anywhere in the world."
George Bush, with roguish
intent, turned a blind eye to willful murder, opening the door to mass,
indiscriminate slaughter in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere in the world
he chooses, including targets at home. In occupied countries, it's allowed
the military to operate in so-called "free-fire zones" with
orders to shoot anything that moves. It sanctioned the use of terror
weapons against resistance and civilian targets with casualties in the
latter instance brushed off as "collateral damage."
All Iraq is a "free-fire
zone" even though the Fourth Geneva Convention bans collective
punishment against an occupied people. The results have been horrific
with cities like Fallujah suffering most. The US November, 2004 attack
there killed as many as 6000 civilians, the result of vengeful indiscriminate
assaults against defenseless people who just happened to live there.
In November, 2005 a smaller massacre took place in Haditha where US
Marines slaughtered 24 unarmed civilians "execution-style."
Authorizations for these
and other banned practices come right from the top with troops in the
field likely believing they're licensed to kill by their commander-in-chief,
DOD boss and top Pentagon brass. They're right.
Cohn noted allegations are
that "US troops have engaged in (routine) summary executions and
willful killing (across the country in cities like) Qaim, Abu Ghraib,
Taal Al Jal, Mukaradeeb, Mahmudiya, Hamdaniyah, Samarra, Salahuddin
and Ishaqi" along with British forces doing the same thing in Basra
and southern Iraq where they're based. It's so simple and common a practice
that one US soldier described it as easy as "squashing an ant"
with no greater price to pay for it. The Bush administration and military
command are contemptuous of Iraqis and show it by the huge numbers of
innocent people they slaughter daily. In so doing, they commit the worst
kinds of war crimes along with torture, abuse and neglect discussed
above.
The Guantanamo Gulag
Cohn noted that Amnesty International
described this hellhole as "the gulag of our times." Already
discussed is the fact that most people sent there, and still held, were
innocent bystanders snatched in Afghanistan by bounty hunters able to
cash in on a huge payday at the cost of an innocent human being's freedom.
Cohn explained that holding
detainees at Guantanamo violates US and international law, and the prison
camp itself is illegal. She recounted how "the Gitmo story start(ed)
in 1903, when the US Army occupied Cuba after its war of independence
against Spain." The Platt Amendment, authorizing US intervention,
"was included in the Cuban Constitution as a prerequisite for the
withdrawal of US troops from the rest of Cuba." However, it only
allowed for the right to use Guantanamo Bay "as coaling or naval
stations, and for no other purpose." Franklin Roosevelt then signed
a new treaty with the island state in 1934 for the same purpose with
no provision to use the territory as an offshore prison camp or military
base. Franklin Roosevelt never met George Bush.
Cohn explained it's "no
accident that the Bush gang" chose this spot for its gulag, one
of many offshore. All along, the administration "maintained that
Guantanamo Bay is not a US territory" so US courts and US law have
no jurisdiction there. The result is what Cohn called "indescribable
torture," and she listed some of the barbaric methods used.
She also discussed "due
process" the Bush administration denied all Guantanamo detainees
with the Supreme Court disageeing in Rasul v. Bush. In the decision,
the Court "settled the jurisdictional question" saying the
US exercises "complete jurisdiction and control" at the base
with all aliens held there "entitled to invoke the federal courts'
authority" under their habeas rights. The Court also rebuked the
Bush administration in Hamdi (a US citizen) v. Rumsfeld with Justice
O'Conner saying "a state of war is not a blank check for the President
when it comes to rights of the Nation's citizens."
In response, the administration
established Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) "ostensibly
to comply" with Rasul. They do not as prisoners under them were
only entitled to a "personal representative," not a trained
attorney able to defend their due process rights. Detainees were also
only allowed to see summaries of unsubstantiated classified evidence
against them, requests for witnesses were rarely granted, and their
"representatives" ill-served them in tribunal hearings. As
a result, they got no justice.
Cohn quoted attorney Joseph
Margulies saying: "The CSRT is the first time in US history in
which the lawfulness of a person's detention is based on evidence secured
by torture that's not shared with the prisoner, that he has the burden
to rebut and without the assistance of council." Cohn then added:
"CSRT violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights which prohibits arbitrary detention and guarantees a detainee
the right to be informed of the reason for his detention," the
right to council, to examine witnesses, to call witnesses, and "the
right to the presumption of innocence."
Shamefully, the Republican-led
Congress backed the administration by passing the Detainee Treatment
Act (DTA) in December, 2005. It prevents US courts from hearing habeas
petitions filed after the date of DTA. Cohn explained "the Supreme
Court (then) stepped in again in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld after the Bush administration
charged this man (supposedly bin Laden's driver) with one count of conspiracy
"to commit....offenses triable by military commission." It
held that Congress didn't intend to deny detainees like Hamdan their
right to federal court jurisdiction, and that Geneva Conventions do
apply.
Cohn then reviewed the outrageous
Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, aka "the torture authorization
act." It grants the administration extraordinary unconstitutional
powers to detain, interrogate and prosecute alleged terror suspects
and anyone claimed to be their supporters. In addition, it allows the
President the right to call anyone anywhere in the world an "unlawful
enemy combatant" and empowers him to arrest and incarcerate those
accused indefinitely in military prisons without corroborating evidence
proving guilt.
It also annuls habeas for
anyone charged, lets the President decide what constitutes torture,
grants US officials retroactive immunity from past crimes, prohibits
detainees from invoking Geneva rights, allows "unlawful enemy combatants"
and civilians to be tried by military commissions that can impose death
sentences with no right of appeal, makes torture-extracted and hearsay
evidence permissible, sanctions indefinite and secret detentions and
more.
Cohn asked: "So how
unconstitutional is the Military Commissions Act? Let us count the ways.
MCA violates the Suspensions Clause of the Constitution by denying non-US
citizens (and citizens, too) any meaningful opportunity to challenge
the legality of their detention." It also violates Geneva plus
the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Above all, it violates the spirit and
letter of the law and a nation claiming a tradition of respecting it.
No longer under George Bush, who flouts the law openly, but it happened
often earlier as well whenever past Presidents like Adams, Lincoln,
Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Nixon, Johnson, Reagan and others ignored
or twisted the law for political purposes. None, however, did it as
brazenly, openly and systematically as George Bush who as chief executive
believes the law is what he says it is. And never before was Congress
and the courts as willing to go along with him as now.
Cohn quoted a former military
linguist saying "A stench of despair hangs over Guantanamo,"
and one detainee told his lawyer he'd rather die than stay there. Many
have tried taking their lives and a few succeeded. The National Lawyers
Guild, Association of American Jurists, Amnesty International and other
human rights organizations all agree that Guantanamo (and all "black
site" and other torture-prison hellholes) are a blight on the soul
of America, they should be closed, and all detainees held at them released
or charged with criminal offenses "in accordance with international
legal norms."
Spying on Americans
Cohn recounted how on December
16, 2005, the New York Times "unleashed a bombshell" its editors
knew about a year earlier but suppressed at the request of the administration.
It reported "George W. Bush had been secretly spying on Americans
without warrants since late 2001. The next day, Bush confirmed that
he had authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) 'to intercept the
international communications of people with known links to al Queda'
and related terrorist organizations." The operation was called
the "Terrorist Surveillance Program."
Cohn noted "wiretapping
without probable cause or judicial oversight violates both the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Fourth Amendment."
Thousands have been affected by it, and Cohn believes the administration
used the program to target its critics. It's a throwback to "the
bad old days of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover" and his domestic
spying programs begun in the 1940s or earlier. It was used then, later
and now to monitor, threaten and silence Americans (or anyone else)
with "unorthodox political views" meaning they disagreed with
government policies like McCarthy witch-hunts, racial abuse, the Vietnam
war and most everything George Bush does.
The FBI began its COINTELPRO
(counterintelligence program) in 1956 to "expose, disrupt, misdirect,
discredit and otherwise neutralize" political and activist groups
like the American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, Martin Luther King,
and Vietnam war protesters. Richard Nixon later used national security
wiretaps and illegal break-ins to target his political enemies. He had
a long list of them.
Congress responded in 1978
to stop these practices with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) "to regulate electronic surveillance (while also) protecting
national security." The law established the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court (FISC). Its judges are appointed by the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court. They meet in secret "to consider applications
for wiretap orders" when government must convince a judge probable
cause exists to believe the target in question is a foreign power or
its agent. FISA wiretap limitations don't apply for foreign nationals
abroad. "Its restrictions are triggered only when the surveillance
targets a US citizen or permanent resident or when the surveillance
is obtained from a wiretap physically located within the United States.
Also, FISA specifically covers warrantless wiretaps during wartime,"
only for the first 15 days after war is declared, and can't be used
against US citizens.
Nothing deters George Bush,
his Justice Department and compliant spy agencies. As Cohn put it, he
made "and end run around FISA" and now can do it "legally"
as of August 5 with more on that below. Earlier in late 2001, he sidelined
FISC with a secret executive order establishing his Terrorist Surveillance
Program. It authorized NSA to monitor phone and computer communications
of Americans in the US at NSA's discretion - in other words, illegal
warrantless spying on domestic communications of anyone for any reason,
law or no law. Cohn noted Bush (as far as we know) is the first President
to defy FISA since its 1978 enactment. He's now set a shameless precedent
for others later on.
He also ignores the Fourth
Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizure to
protect against police state practices. Cohn explained the Supreme Court
"consistently declared that a judge must determine whether probable
cause exists." George Bush flouts this ruling with impudence and
arrogance. It's of no concern to him that the American Bar Association
and the National Lawyers Guild declared his warrantless surveillance
program violates the law of the land. He believes he's the law and can
do what he pleases.
Alberto Gonzales is a war
criminal marching in lockstep with his boss and continues to shame the
Justice Department he heads. He falsely and criminally maintains Congress'
Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in September, 2001
provided legal justification for warrentless surveillance outside of
FISA. Former Senator Gary Hart called such actions "a repeat of
the Nixon years." Back then, he justified it because of civil unrest
in protest against the Vietnam war. Today, it's the phony "war
on terrorism" and raging ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cohn emphasized
"Bush has already gone far beyond what the Constitution authorizes,
and FISA makes it a crime." At least that was so until August 5.
The Terrorist Surveillance
Program isn't the only secret spying the Bush administration authorized,
but now it's got a Congress-sanctioned warrantless open field to do
it without court oversight at the discretion of the Attorney General
(AG) and/or Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Prior to its August
recess, Democrats and Republicans cravenly caved to the politics of
fear and hastily passed the White House crafted Protect America Act
2007 amending FISA in doublespeak language Orwell would love.
It will supposedly close
so-called "communication gaps" but will allow virtual unrestricted
mass data-mining monitoring and intercept of domestic and foreign internet,
cell phones and other new technology as well as transit international
phone call traffic and emails. The Act claims to restrict surveillance
to foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United
States" and will sunset in six months unless renewed. In fact,
the new law targets everyone including US citizens inside the country
if the AG or DNI claim they pose a potential terrorist or national security
threat, and no evidence is needed to prove it. Further, in an election
year, renewal is absolutely guaranteed, possibly with even harsher provisions
added.
In point of fact, this law
allows virtual unrestricted warrantless spying targeting anyone for
any claimed national security reason. It thus renders any notion of
illegal searches and privacy rights null and void. This hellish Act
effectively legalizes illegality by Fourth Amendment standards that
Patriot Act provisions pretty much swept away earlier. This is how things
work in a police state where laws render privacy issues (and all other
freedoms) null and void and everyone is under constant surveillance
and stripped of their rights.
Even without the new law,
however, the administration had in place a menu of past and current
programs that combined amount to "big brother" writ large
and now is getting larger. In May, 2006, it was learned Verizon Communications,
AT & T, and BellSouth provided NSA with telephone and internet communications
flowing into and out of the country having nothing to do with national
security. Cohn quoted the New York Times reporting a senior government
official saying the program confirmed NSA was able to access most all
phone calls in the country. It means everyone is being listened to illegally
so the spy agency knows everything about us from the health of our family
to what toppings we like on our takeout pizza.
Data mining violates the
1986 Stored Communications Act, but there's lots more. The "Bush
gang" secretly collects our most personal information from an operation
called the Terrorist Finance Tracking System. With no court-approved
authorization, they've been accessing records from a huge international
database to examine the banking, credit card and other financial transactions
of many thousands of Americans in the country. It amounts to a secret
end run around bank privacy laws requiring the government to show cause
for why these records are relevant to an investigation.
Still more civil liberties
have been lost the result of Patriot act justice. It targets anti-war
protesters and political activists hostile to Bush administration policies.
The new law makes their actions crimes of domestic terrorism when they're
only, in fact, expressions of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms,
including our most sacred First amendment ones.
Post-9/11, other unconstitutional
speech-related monitoring began as well, including the short-lived Terrorism
Information and Prevention System (Operation TIPS). The idea was to
use civilian informers like postal employees to report "unusual"
neighborhood activities, police-state style. The scheme flopped when
the postal service refused to be spies.
Then, there was the Pentagon's
Total Information Awareness (TIA) renamed Terrorism Information Awareness
to monitor anything about anyone under the spurious cover of it relating
to "terrorism." TIA came under considerable congressional
flack but some or all of its activities continue under new names relating
to other Pentagon projects and initiatives so illegal military spying
continues unabated.
One such program is called
the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) to collect domestic
intelligence by amassing a huge database, again spuriously related to
"terrorism." It focuses on war protesters targeted by police
state monitoring of their constitutional right to freely oppose the
nation's illegal wars of aggression the Bush administration says are
justified to protect against threats to national security. The Pentagon
had second thoughts about it after drawing flack for illegally targeting
peace activists. Its spokesperson called the program's results disappointing
and doesn't warrant being continued as currently constituted in light
of its image in Congress and the media as of last spring.
What's likely is that TALON's
activities are now rebranded and continuing like all the other illegal
intrusive spying known about or still secret. They include those run
by the Pentagon now authorized to operate freely on US soil in the aftermath
of last year's Defense Authorization Act revising the 1807 Insurrection
Act and 1887 Posse Comitas. The change gives the President the right
to deploy the military on US soil in the name of national security or
"war on terrorism." It means, for the first time ever, federal
troops can legally operate inside the country any time George Bush gives
the order.
It gets even worse. On May
30, 2002, John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller revealed sweeping
new surveillance powers for this agency with a wide latitude to spy
more effectively on law-abiding US citizens. The new "diktat"
lets the FBI conduct investigations up to a year without having to show
suspicion of criminal activity. They can target anyone they choose,
peering anywhere they wish into our personal lives, that's none of their
business, to document trips we take, books and publications we read,
internet sites visited, political and charitable contributions made,
meetings attended and more. Anyone seen criticizing the government is
fair game, especially if it relates to the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Another new data mining program
is being used by police and federal authorities in some states. It's
called MATRIX standing for the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Exchange Program.
An ACLU 2004 White Paper explained "it involves not the attempt
to learn more facts about known suspects, but (is a form of) mass scrutiny
of the lives and activities of innocent people.... to see whether each
of them shows any signs of being a terrorist or other (type) criminal."
MATRIX creates a "terrorism
quotient" or High Terrorist Factor (HTF) measuring the likelihood
individuals in the database are terrorists. The ACLU believes the program
is "an effort to recreate the discredited Total Information Awareness
(TIA) data mining program at the state level." It shows the federal
authorities are deep into efforts at all levels to spy on US citizens.
MATRIX is another unprecedented effort to do it within or outside the
law and constitutes a massive invasion of privacy and violation of our
rights in a free society, along with all other post-9/11 unconstitutional
spying invasions by any of the nation's 16 spy agencies.
The Constitution doesn't
specifically mention a right to privacy, but Supreme Court decisions
affirmed it over the years as a fundamental human right. As such, it's
protected under the Ninth Amendment as well as the Third prohibiting
the quartering of troops in homes, the Fourth affording protection from
unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fifth protecting against
self-incrimination. MATRIX and other intrusions enhance Patriot Act
powers allowing them to persist outside of congressional oversight and
judicial review. It's another part of the overall scheme to subvert
the rule of law under George Bush police state justice.
It advanced another step
on July 17, after "Cowboy Republic" was published, when George
Bush issued another of his many presidential "one-man" decrees.
It was titled "Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons
Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq." This unconstitutional
action effectively criminalizes dissent and shifts the nation another
perilous step closer to tyranny. It targets the anti-war movement in
an effort to further weaken and defuse it. It also adds another unconstitutional
layer onto the repressive Patriot Act author, analyst and activist Jennifer
Van Bergen says has been built on to "establish a permanent framework
for repression of free speech and dissent." All "activists
(now) = terrorists" as the administration cracks down hard to control,
suppress and remove all opposition.
In his important and revealing
1980 book "Cracks in the Constitution," Ferdinand Lundberg
stated the US Constitution "nowhere implicitly or explicitly gives
the President (the) power (to make) new law" by issuing "one-man",
often far-reaching" executive order decrees. But, Lundberg explained
"the President in the American constitutional system is very much
a de facto king....(he is) by far the most powerful formally constituted
political officer on earth." He has "vast power (and) stands
in a position midway between a collective executive (like in the UK)
and an absolute dictator."
George Bush proves Lundberg
was right and then some. He's taken full advantage, within and outside
the law, of what Lundberg called the "essence of presidential power....in
a single (vaguely worded) sentence." Specifically, Article II,
Section 1 reads: "The executive power shall be vested in a President
of the United States of America." That simple statement, easily
passed over and misunderstood, means the near-limitless power of this
office is "concentrated in the hands of one man" free to abuse
it if he chooses. Article II, Section 3 then almost nonchalantly adds:
"The President shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed"
while not saying Presidents are virtually empowered to make laws as
well as execute them although nothing in the Constitution permits this
practice.
Presidents also have no authority
to stifle dissent, but that hasn't deterred George Bush. Post-9/11,
former press secretary Ari Fleischer laid out the new "war on terrorism"
rules of engagement saying Americans "need to watch what they say,
watch what they do." It includes showing up for anti-war rallies
and protesting military recruitment. They're now considered "political
terrorist activit(ies)." We're being watched if we go and subject
to future recrimination at the whim of a rogue President and criminal
administration meting out police state justice.
Refusing to Execute the Law
Cohn quoted James Madison
from the Federalist Papers writing: "The preservation of liberty
requires that the three great departments of power should be separate
and distinct. The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive
and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very
definition of tyranny." George Bush proves the truth of Madison's
words. Since taking office, he systematically sought to usurp all governing
powers in his hands under his unconstitutional notion of a "unitary
executive" with the right to claim the law is what he says it is.
It isn't, never was, and never will be under a system of constitutional
law George Bush doesn't recognize in his continued efforts to flout
it recklessly.
Cohn stated: George Bush
"has....asserted unparalleled executive power by putting his stamp
of supremacy on more than one thousand provisions of law (more than
all past Presidents combined) enacted by Congress." He "quietly
attached 147 'signing statements' to 1132 (law provisions) passed by
Congress" even though nothing in the Constitution permits this
practice, and the Supreme Court banned line-item vetoes. He abused his
power to rewrite laws to conform to administration policies and wishes,
and Congress and the courts have done nothing to stop him.
Cohn gave some examples of
this practice. "He issued his most notorious one" in December,
2005 after signing the Detainee Treatment Act that prohibits subjecting
prisoners to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment.
The statement attached declared the administration would interpret the
law "in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of
the President (as a "unitary executive") and as Commander
in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial
power." Cohn's translation: George Bush will do as he pleases,
law or no law. He kept his word in spite of the Supreme Court's ruling
in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld affirming habeas petitions of Guantanamo detainees.
"His gang continues" torturing prisoners in violation of the
Detainee Treatment Act and High Court ruling.
Another egregious example
followed Patriot Act II (the renewal of the Patriot Act in even harsher
form in spite of several new provisions regarding congressional oversight).
George Bush's signing statement reserved for him the right to refuse
to give Congress reports it mandated just as he did regarding previous
laws. Contempt for the law, arrogance and extreme secrecy have been
hallmarks of his administration. This is one of the many ways he shows
it.
Another one came after Congress
enacted a 2003 law requiring the Inspector General in Iraq inform Congress
whenever officials won't cooperate with its investigations. Bush's signing
statement said the IG had no obligation to keep Congress informed. Other
signing statements flouted laws that:
-- Ban US combat troops being
used against Colombian rebels,
-- Forbid uses of military
intelligence that violate the Fourth Amendment,
-- Require retraining prison
guards under Geneva Convention standards of humane treatment,
-- Mandate Iraq civil contractors
undergo background checks,
-- Prohibit firing or punishing
DOE and NRC whistle-blowers,
-- Require more minorities
be recruited for Foreign Service and Civil Service jobs, and much more.
Cohn noted that the Task
Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers
Doctrine of the American Bar Association (ABA) condemned the administration's
use of signing statements as "contrary to the rule of law and our
constitutional system of separation of powers." ABA president Michael
Greco added: "We will be close to a constitutional crisis if this
issue....is left unchecked." Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania professor emeritus Edward Herman warned about the same
thing saying: "The brazeness of Bush's use of (this practice) is
remarkable. But even more remarkable (is that) it fails to elicit sustained
criticism and outrage (anywhere, and as a result) We are in deep trouble
(and getting increasingly deeper)."
The law of the land means
nothing to George Bush and his band of rogues. He keeps finding new
ways to subvert it such as unilaterally abrogating treaties and "courting
nuclear disaster." Cohn noted he "thumbed his nose at our
obligations under the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)"
that's the "supreme law of the land under the Supremacy Clause
of the Constitution." His abuses of power also include:
-- claiming the right to
develop new type nuclear weapons,
-- refusing to eliminate
present ones,
-- reserving the right to
test new nuclear weapons that will release radiation into the atmosphere,
-- abrogating the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty,
-- rescinding the subverting
the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention,
-- refusing to consider a
Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty that would prevent more nuclear bombs
being added to present stockpiles,
-- provokingly challenging
Russia and China by planning to situate misnamed missile defense systems
(intended for offense, not defense) near their borders to give the US
a nuclear first-strike advantage,
-- spending more on the military
than all other nations combined with more large increases planned,
-- being the only nation
opposed to the 2001 UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Small
Arms,
-- Refusing to join 155 other
countries as of February, 2007 in signing the 1997 Land Mine Treaty,
-- supplying rogue states
with sophisticated weapons likely to be used aggressively (and $63 billion
more of them earmarked for selected Middle East ones), and
-- claiming the unilateral
right to wage preventive wars of aggression under the Orwellian doctrine
of "anticipatory self-defense" using first-strike nuclear
weapons.
These are the reckless acts
of a rogue President claiming to be above the law. Cohn has other ideas
stating "The Constitution is unequivocal. It is George W. Bush's
job to enforce, not to rewrite, the laws Congress has passed."
Thomas Jefferson was also unequivocal in what he wrote in the Declaration
of Independence:
"That to secure these (unalienable) rights (of Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness) Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form
of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
(for) their Safety and Happiness."
Conclusion
In response to growing public
opposition to the Iraq war, George Bush committed 50,000 more troops
with no set timetable for their drawdown or withdrawal. Even worse,
he stepped up rhetoric against Iran, pointing to a possible enlargement
of the Middle East conflict that will be catastrophic for the region
and US if it happens.
The Iraq war alone is an
illegal act of aggression and supreme international crime against peace.
Along with growing numbers in the public, those serving in the military
have a duty to disobey orders that violate international and constitutional
law. In addition, the Democrat-led Congress is obligated to "convene
a nonpartisan independent inquiry" to investigate prewar manipulated
and distorted intelligence. Cohn believes high government officials
should be held to account up to and especially George Bush and Dick
Cheney.
She noted that DOJ regulations
"call for the appointment of an outside special counsel when (1)
a criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted, (2) the
investigation or prosecution of that person or matter (within DOJ) would
present a conflict of interest for the Department," and (3) it's
in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel because
a criminal investigation of the administration is essential.
From what's already known,
the evidence pointing to criminal wrongdoing (recounted above) is overwhelming
and demands action even though leading Democrats are conspiratorially
involved and should be held to account as well. Those found guilty (in
both parties)should be prosecuted. If US courts opt out, the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague should step in and act as it's mandated
to do. Although the US is not a signatory, it should move ahead anyway
in the name of humanity and grave threat it faces if it won't. That's
the current condition and danger. The world can't wait for niceties
or hoped for change that won't happen unless forced.
The ICC was established in
2002 (by the 1998 Rome Statute) as a permanent world tribunal to prosecute
individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. They
were defined by the 1945 Nuremberg Charter drafted by the US and its
main WW II victorious allies to try Nazi war criminals. The court was
mandated to step in and adjudicate in the kinds of high US officials'
law violations now in question, demanding redress. With world approval,
it should act in defiance of the American Servicemembers Protection
Act of 2002 - aka the Hague Invasion Act authorizing the President to
send in the Marines to rescue any American the ICC detains. He'll be
hard-pressed to do it if he and Dick Cheney are shackled inside ICC
cells where they belong, and not a moment too soon.
Cohn mentioned other prosecutorial
options as well. Under the principle of "universal jurisdiction,"
every country has the authority to charge and prosecute anyone committing
grievous crimes of war or against humanity. None so far have acted,
it's unlikely a single one will be so bold, and that's why the ICC was
established to act for them.
The shameless Democrat-led
110th Congress has defied the electorate and ignored its call for action
as well. The public demands what it has constitutional authority to
do - cut off all funding for two illegal wars of aggression and end
them. In defiance, Congress continues funding open-ended wars with only
disingenuous lip service paid to troop drawdowns and withdrawals. Further,
the Bush administration continues building a case for war against Iran,
with no just cause or legal standing for it, and Democrats are rolling
over in support shamelessly and dangerously.
Cohn ends her important book
with an impassioned plea to "stop the Cowboy Republicans"
while there's still time. She points out what's needed and clear. In
the 1970s, Congress only ended the Vietnam war after "tens of thousands
of people marched in the streets" against it, and a near-insurrection
was seen possible inside the conscript military. The anti-war movement
today is large but tepid by comparison, and the military is all-volunteer
making the job harder.
Nonetheless, the need is
urgent as the fate of a shaky republic and all humanity hang in the
balance. "Bush's hubris affects us all," Cohn noted ominously.
A way must be found "to demand truth, justice, and accountability
from the Cowboy Republicans....insisting the Bush gang be held to account
for its high crimes and misdemeanors." People must demand an end
to war and occupation and act to prevent another one. What better reason
is there than "Our lives....those of our children (and all humanity)
depend on it."
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also, visit his blog site
at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to the Steve Lendman News and Information
Hour on TheMicroEffect.com Saturdays at noon US central time.
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