Wiliam Rivers Pitt says…
George W. Bush and his people lied with their bare faces hanging out about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
They lied about connections between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, lied about Iraqi connections to September 11, and further lied about the threat to America posed by Iraq.
They made a decision to invade that had nothing to do with those weapons, and even conspired with their British counterparts to goad Hussein into a war regardless of whether the weapons were there or not.
They used September 11 against the American people to frighten them into a fearfully subservient acceptance of the invasion.
They bypassed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in order to spy illegally on thousands of American citizens.
They leaked classified intelligence information in order to destroy a political foe, and in the process annihilated an intelligence network run by Valerie Plame. That network, it should be noted, was dedicated to tracking any person, nation or group that would deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.
Every time they broke the law, their cronies in Congress manipulated those laws to make the actions taken legal.
Pitt says this is treason, and I agree. Is the president above the law? Is the Republican Congress?
From the 1947 National Security Act
SEC. 601. (50 U.S.C. 421) (a) Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
(b) Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identity of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(c) Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual’s classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned not more than three years or both.
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Tamar 04.07.06 at 4:00
I agree too - so much.
I want to climb aboard a train to Washington with tens or a hundred of thousands of people and stand a vigil dressed in black, linking arms and hands until justice is done … will you come? … and you? and you? …
Frank Paynter 04.07.06 at 5:22
We were just talking about this, Tamar. Not the vigil you propose, but the fact that so many friends are stronger than we, going to places where armies are arrayed against each other, going to prison for their convictions. I googled Charlie Hyder, a man who gave the last 17 years of his life in witness against nuclear weapons. Surprisingly, my old friend Jim Evans turned up in the article. Thousands of people have the strength of commitment to do what you suggest, Tamar, and I have cast my eyes downward for decades, lacking the courage to give up what I have in order to give what I should.
At some point we will all have to go to Washington dressed in black, holding hands, to see justice done. It scares the shit out of me.
Tamar 04.07.06 at 5:44
Yes.
It does scare the shit out of me too - but at that point - it won’t.
Oh and I know what you mean about those strong people. How they inspire!
Doug Alder 04.09.06 at 10:34
The problem is that Bush can, and will, say that he has the authority to declassify any document and that once having done so it is no longer a crime to reveal the contents of that document. In that, he’s right. Your president has the the highest classification rating in the land and the authority to declassify anything. It’s a flaw in your system.