I failed to mention this week the shocking revelation made by Mr “I can make my own decisions” Alberto Gonzales, our country’s attorney general under the second half of the Bush administration’s reign.
Six weeks ago it was unclear who to point the finger at for foiling the Justice Department’s investigation into the NSA’s secret eavesdropping program, which for years was known only to members of the Bush Administration and a select few members of Congress.
But that all changed this week, when Gonzales, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales admitted to let slip that the president himself shut down the investigation. (video here). The Department of Justice had ordered its over 30-year-old Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to investigate NSA eavesdropping program but as Gonzales explained, The White House denied the OPR access to the materials needed for their investigation — a move that OPR director H. Marshall Jarrett descibed as unprecedented.
Its amazing that Bush and his cronies can rule so ridiculously above the law. But, I guess its easilyi done for a president with a simple enough (selfish) mind to demonstrate this basic rule:
there is no law to lawlessness. another beautiful day to go and mow the law.
Bonus: CIA Blogger Fired for Discussing Geneva Conventions —
Christine Axsmith, was canned from her position at the CIA’s software-development shop where, as Dana Priest reported in the Post online today, she conducted “performance and stress testing” on computer programs. After writing a blog entry titled “somthing like ‘Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong,’ Axsmith lost her top-secret security clearance, her job, and who knows what else.
Needless to say, if the CIA really thinks it can keep anything secret that it leaves unencrypted online, one only need to recall the massive security upgrade that they ordered up years ago (or was it the FBI) and have since scrapped plans as they are so hopelessly behind. Axsmith should sue. She was employed by BAE Systems — a little background Here.
Another lesson: just because something is legal doesn’t make it right. Not to mention, the flipside of that statement.
It’s true — with so many open outlets, bedwetting practically equates to suicide by electrocution. And it wouldn’t smell very good.
I wonder what former CIA chief GHWB has to say about the state of today’s intel org…
Pappy — you there?
When every bed-wetting anti-American liberal is purged from the CIA, it may become effective again. Until then, it’s a den of snakes.
This isn’t legal advice, but Axsmith doesn’t have much standing to sue. Part of the reason the government uses contractors instead of hiring these people directly is that government employees have a host of protections from their employer; private sector employees don’t, especially in little-unionized right-to-work states like Virginia. The First Amendment doesn’t protect Axsmith from being fired by a contractor.