The Bush Administration refuses to cooperate with or ask for any independent investigation of the leaking of the name of a CIA operative, Virginia Plame, whose husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, was critical of the Bush war stance.
We're not talking about a blow job in the Oval Office, which is not an actual crime, but actual disregard for the life of an American serving their country.
Revealing Plame's identity could very well be a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison -- this is no petty crime or common adultery, it's a felony offense against an American who put their life at risk for their country. This is a reason to investigate if there ever was one and, after all the rhetorical bluster of the Republican party and the Bush Administration about its moral clarity, this refusal to at least look into who put this woman's life at risk is the height of hypocrisy.
How about if we just remove Condaleeza Rice to an undisclosed location and question her for six months without access to an attorney? That's fair, based on the civil liberties record of the Bush Administration -- after all, we wouldn't actually have to arrest her, but just detain her incommunicado, like the Bush Administration treats people.
Bushylvania is not the United States anymore, as our leaders can now accuse people of anything and detain them while simultaneously refusing to have their own actions in the public service scrutinized by an independent objective investigation when a felony has been committed by someone. Let's at least find out who committed the felony.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at September 29, 2003 02:22 PM | TrackBackI agree with you Mitch, there should definitely be an investigation into info being leaked on Plame. But I think you're going the wrong way concerning detainees. While detaining someone who is an American citizen should be followed the the letter of the law, I personally have no problem holding a non citizen who is trying to bring harm to our country and/or it's citizens. So, citizen-----they have rights. Not a citizen----NO RIGHTS.
Posted by: Edgar Fletcher at September 29, 2003 09:20 PMActually, if you read the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it says "no person" not citizens, so everyone is protected:
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The U.S. Supreme Court, up until the current Chief Justice's tenure, has supported the interpretation that aliens are possessed of the same rights to due process as citizens. This was the case in situations involving the right to work and the right to be detained only after due process of law has been carried out, as with the detention of Japanese during World War II -- in that case, the court supported detention because Congress had passed the law calling for Japanese exclusion.
In the case of the Bush Administration, they have acted without any legal foundation for refusing due process to hundreds of people. The issue is, having reduced the protections afforded aliens based on executive caveat, is the United States already pitching into an authoritarian chasm. The fact that the Bush Administration will ignore American standards of justice for others while simultaneously refusing to allow the public to scrutinize its actions is extremely troubling.
And, worse, it is spreading across the country. The sunshine laws that afforded citizens access to the conduct of government are being wiped away, starting with the Bush Administration, which has reduced the Freedom of Information Act to a shadow of its former efficacy while classifying more documents than any other administration, including negotiations between White House officials and energy company executives they used to work with. In my own part of the world, the Tacoma City Council is working to make most of its deliberations secret in the wake of the police chief having killed his wife and himself -- the fact is, government is really screwed up and, if we cannot examine it, the danger of abuses and malfeasance can only increase.
So, I have a huge problem with holding citizens incommunicado (such as the Islamic chaplain who worked at Guantanamo and may have been preparing to blow the whistle on human rights abuses) -- while he is subject to military justice, he should also be entitled to the protections of any potential whistle-blower or we run the risk of the military committing atrocities without fear of punishment -- and of non-citizens who have the basic human right to communicate with their loved ones and, in the United States I grew up in, to speak to a lawyer regardless of their citizenship.
George Bush is the GREATEST !!!!!
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