Enough.
Little else is left to say to an administration that:
- Led a country into war on false premises;
- Continues to link the war against terrorism with the war in Iraq when the two had no relationship at the outset;
- Dismisses the Geneva Conventions and holds prisoners incognito for years, without charges or access to legal representation;
- Places detainees on planes bound for foreign countries known for torture and abuse of prisoners;
- Maintains secret CIA prisons on foreign soil;
- Subverts laws guarding the civil liberties of U.S. citizens, including searches of personal records and infiltration of religious and peace groups by the FBI;
- Defers to a vice president who argues for legal exceptions so that U.S. personnel can engage in torture;
- And has, at various times, created mechanisms to plant false news reports domestically and overseas and most recently paid to have stories planted in the Iraqi press.
Where are we headed?
To this deeply disturbing list of human rights abuses and violations of civil liberties add the most recent revelations that President Bush, under the influence of and with the encouragement of Vice President Cheney, personally approved widespread electronic eavesdropping on Americans.
We may not have reached, yet, the “Newspeak” or “telescreens” of 1984, but the level of deception is certainly approaching Orwellian dimensions when a president who casts himself as a champion of global democracy could orchestrate so much that is fundamentally destructive of democracy.
...
Bush tells us that he is protecting us from terrorists. But without even the minimal protection of the secret Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, how do we know what criteria are used to determine national security threats? Who’s there to protect against the temptation to use the technology for political ends? Exactly what, in these days of secret detentions and rendition flights, makes for an enemy of the state?
At what point do we begin to call what’s happening a dangerous abuse of power and demand accountability?
It is time.
As always, read the rest for yourself.
Little else is left to say to an administration that:
- Led a country into war on false premises;
- Continues to link the war against terrorism with the war in Iraq when the two had no relationship at the outset;
- Dismisses the Geneva Conventions and holds prisoners incognito for years, without charges or access to legal representation;
- Places detainees on planes bound for foreign countries known for torture and abuse of prisoners;
- Maintains secret CIA prisons on foreign soil;
- Subverts laws guarding the civil liberties of U.S. citizens, including searches of personal records and infiltration of religious and peace groups by the FBI;
- Defers to a vice president who argues for legal exceptions so that U.S. personnel can engage in torture;
- And has, at various times, created mechanisms to plant false news reports domestically and overseas and most recently paid to have stories planted in the Iraqi press.
Where are we headed?
To this deeply disturbing list of human rights abuses and violations of civil liberties add the most recent revelations that President Bush, under the influence of and with the encouragement of Vice President Cheney, personally approved widespread electronic eavesdropping on Americans.
We may not have reached, yet, the “Newspeak” or “telescreens” of 1984, but the level of deception is certainly approaching Orwellian dimensions when a president who casts himself as a champion of global democracy could orchestrate so much that is fundamentally destructive of democracy.
...
Bush tells us that he is protecting us from terrorists. But without even the minimal protection of the secret Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, how do we know what criteria are used to determine national security threats? Who’s there to protect against the temptation to use the technology for political ends? Exactly what, in these days of secret detentions and rendition flights, makes for an enemy of the state?
At what point do we begin to call what’s happening a dangerous abuse of power and demand accountability?
It is time.
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