A look at a few of the reasons Congress and our other elected officials continue to waste our tax dollars, ignore public opinion and keep allowing these blatant travesties of justice performed by the Secretive Presidential Administration in charge of this ‘Democracy’ to continue.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush reportedly issued an order (PDF) allegedly aimed at ‘protecting military secrets’ and ‘sensitive law enforcement’ to the CIA, the DoD, the FBI, the State Department, and his cabinet members severly curtailing intelligence oversight by restricting classified information to only eight members of Congress.
“The only Members of Congress whom you or your expressly designated officers may brief regarding classified or sensitive law enforcement information are the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate” he wrote.
Instead of ‘protecting the United States,’ this order became a tool used by the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Pat Roberts (R-KS) ensuring there would be no serious investigation into how the Bush Administration fixed the ‘intelligence’ in efforts to invade Iraq, or the fabricated documents used to do so.
In January 2003 Roberts was appointed to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee. Convinced that Iraq is harboring both al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction, he embraces a pro-war role, joined by Vice President Dick Cheney and then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
Also calling for war is President Bush, declaring in his State of the Union Address “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Shortly thereafter, it’s publicly acknowledged that the documents used to make that declaration were forgeries.
The Blatant Bush Administration Lies
The Bush Administration continues to insist that they didn’t hear the documents were forgeries until after his speech. Problem is the U.S. Embassy in Rome already had the forged documents for three months.
The bigger problem is that British Intelligence say they gave the documents to Vice President Dick Cheney’s office in early 2002, resulting in Cheney making several visits to the CIA with “questions” about recent Niger to Iraq uranium sales.
In December the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) questioned the Niger claim after the National Security Agency issued a fact sheet on Iraq’s weapons omissions to the United Nations Security Council. The IAEA wasn’t given the documents until the end of February 2003, one year after the U.S. acquired them. Once the IAEA finally received the documents they were able to determine the documents were fakes within several hours.
As noted in the Raw Story article, the Bush Administration’s line on the Niger document raises questions about bewildering incompetence or intentional deception. Given the past track record of this Administration, I’d say it’s the latter.
The Blame Games Begin
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) was the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in March of 2003. He had serious concerns about deceptive intelligence. So serious that he wrote a formal letter to then FBI Director Robert Mueller urging him to investigate the Niger forgeries as part of what he feared to be “…a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq” according to the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh.
Roberts wouldn’t sign the letter written by Rockfeller, reasoning that the involvement of the FBI was inappropriate. Consequently, Rockefeller’s fell by the wayside.
In July of 2003 when he was facing public pressure to investigate the Niger forgeries, Roberts blamed the CIA and defended the White House, in spite of the fact that the CIA didn’t receive the documents until after President Bush gave his State of the Union speech and after the Congressional briefings.
Roberts also figured prominently into warding off questions and investigations into the Weapons of Mass Destruction claims that allegedly led the Bush Administration into invading Iraq. To date, those investigations still haven’t taken place by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
For complete details and all the players in on the blame games (blaming the CIA, Democrats and other opposers of the “war on terror”), how Senior White House officials (Dick Cheney and crew) exposed a CIA operative as revenge, how the Bush Administration used classified documents and smears to divert attention from their intentions to go to war and all the shady tactics of Senator Pat Roberts actions while chairman of the ‘Senate Intelligence Committee’ read the article from Raw Story.
22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress List
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released their third annual report on congressional corruption. Despite the 2006 elections and increased public awareness of ethics issues, several members of Congress continue acting as though federal laws and House and Senate rules don’t apply to them.
Of this years list, at least 11 are under federal investigation and 2 are under investigation by the Senate ethics committee. How much good these ‘investigations’ actually accomplish is probably debatable, since some committees, as mentioned above, are chaired by one-sided or corrupt politicians that are only interested in covering up the truth at the cost of others blood, freedom and rights to satisfy their greed, and to make personal financial gains.
Here is this years list of CREW’s 22 most corrupt members of Congress and the term they’re currently in (click on their names for more information):
- Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) – 6th term
- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – 4th term
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) – 1st term
- Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) – 7th term
- Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) – 7th term
- Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA) – 9th term
- Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) – 3rd term
- Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) – 7th term
- Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) – 14th term
- Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA) – 9th term
- Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) – 15th term
- Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA) – 5th term
- Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) – 13th term
- Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA) – 3rd term
- Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) – 18th term
- Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) – 3rd term
- Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) – 3rd term
- Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) – 14th term
- Rep. David Scott (D-GA) – 3rd term
- Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) – 7th term
- Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM) – 6th term
- Rep. Don Young (R-AK) – 18th term
Dishonorable mentions:
- Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-ID) – 3rd term
- Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) – 1st term
No Justice From the Supreme Court
It’s official: The Supreme Court is involved in letting the injustices, lies and deceptions of the Bush Administration continue (which is a good reason presidents shouldn’t be able to appoint Supreme Court Justices) because of ‘State Secrets.’
Recently the Supreme Court terminated a lawsuit from a German citizen who claimed he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, endorsing Bush Administration arguments that ‘State Secrets’ would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed. Turning a blind eye to justice, the ‘justices’ rejected the appeal without comment. Must be nice to have friends in high places who can make sure justice turns the other cheek and let unethical, illegal activities continue unabated.
According to OpenTheGovernment.org, the Bush Administration has used ‘State Secrets’ 39 times, enabling the government to withhold documents and evidence from the court system. It’s pathetic when the judicial branch starts getting involved in politics, but it’s even more pathetic how dirty politics have become.
Several Senators and other friends in high places have been helping the Bush Administration all along and need to be held accountable for their actions too. Write to your Senator(s) in Congress and the Senate to let your voice be heard and hold them accountable for these travesties of justice that have gotten completely out of hand.
Now Bush is trying to get retroactive immunity for all the illegal wiretapping performed in “fighting the war on terror” for himself, the telecommunications companies and all those who helped break all the laws and all the secrecy and cover-ups. If everything this administration has done is legal, the parties involved wouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Bush won’t tell anyone what he’s doing or done, nor will he provide any documentation or anything else for that matter. All he’s done is repeatedly lie to the public and placed himself and his incompetent loyal followers above the law and slowly destroyed everything this country ever stood for. If nothing they’ve done is wrong why is everything they do shrouded in deception, lies and cover-ups?
Tis a pity to listen to some of the Senators (especially some of the Senior high-ranking Senators): Democrats this, Republicans that, leftist this, rightwing that….the list goes on and on. Instead of trying to work together to unify this country and watching out for its citizens and soldiers, each political party does what they can to slander the other one, constantly placing blame on others. This presidential administration constantly uses deceptive marketing and prepared propaganda distributed by some of their sleazy “News” sources. It’s no wonder politics have become such a disgusting cluster you-know-what.
It’s time for Congress to stand up to these Hitleresque scare tactics performed by a power hungry dictator and put him and the rest of his gestapo in place while there’s still some shred of democracy left in this country…once again, just as Congress was amending the FISA law (the one they just passed a couple months ago before their summer recess), ominous new warnings about Al Qaeda trying to sneak into the U.S. magically appear, as they always do when Bush wants something…just like the last time they were amending it. The repeated use of scare tactics by this administration has been well documented.
Links to more information
Links to all the above information and a lot more can be found below:
Pelosi Throws In The Towel video and article from DailyKos:
“The choice is this Speaker Pelosi: You can do EVERYTHING you can to end this war and TRULY hold Bush accountable….or you can throw in the towel. You can tell Bush and America that YOU will not continue the war….by not funding it.
You can do EVERYTHING you can to hold Bush accountable for lying us into war…..by Impeaching him and Cheney.
Or you can throw in the towel.
Apparently you have made your choice.
Our only choice now is to try to shame you into doing your job.
Watch the video, read the transcript, check andgarden’s diary on Rahm.”
America Went Shopping While Our Constitution Slowly Burned article from AfterDowningStreet.org:
The author of this article sums it up very nicely and brings up some very good points (these are just a few of them):
“We were to mind-numbed and shopping happy to see that our Constitution was being disassembled piece by piece. The enemy of freedom and democracy was not a foreign terrorist – although they do exist and are a threat. The enemy was our own government.”
The Republicans ignored us. The Democrats told us, get us elected and we will help you. We got them elected and they turned their backs on the American People.
Our President wanted to be a War President. He believed the Constitution was nothing more than “a goddamn piece of paper” and the Vice President ran a shadow government. They believed themselves, and apparently rightly so, above the law. The President claimed that God talked to him personally.
I ask you, who is the real enemy of Freedom and Democracy? Is it not the responsibility of every American citizen to see to it that our elected Representatives and Officials keep their oath of office to uphold and protect the Constitution of our country? This is their sacred duty.”
Senate Intelligence chairman quietly ‘fixed’ intelligence, and diverted blame from White House over Iraq article from Raw Story (originally published August 11, 2005)
Congress Seeks Secret Memos On Interrogation article from The Washington Post
More of your tax dollars hard at work, and a shining example of the morons put in leadership roles by Bush…the White House Homeland Security Adviser defending the use of severe interrogation methods while Bush denies using torture.
“White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend also dismissed objections to the CIA program yesterday, saying during an appearance on CNN that al-Qaeda members are trained to resist harsh interrogations. She said that “we start with the least harsh measures first” and stop the progression “if someone becomes cooperative.”
“If Americans are killed because we failed to do the hard things, the American people would have the absolute right to ask us why,” Townsend said.”
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): Chairman of the Senate Cover-up Committee article from Think Progress
The Neverending Saga of Phase II article from The Nation
Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq article from Wikipedia
Intel Coverup article from Raw Story
Copy of Directive (PDF) ordered by President Bush from Think Progress
Court nixes man’s suit claiming torture by CIA article from MSNBC News and The Associated Press
The Military Drills of September 11th: Why a New Investigation is Needed article (with extremely thorough documentation) from Global Research Canada
War on Iraq: The Mega-Lie Called the “War on Terror”: A masterpiece of Propaganda article from AlterNet:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie … The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state.” –Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945″
Bush Regime article from SourceWatch:
“Characterized by blatant disregard for fact, willful deception even of themselves, and a fierce determination to impost their rule, globally and nationally, without regard to law, the U.S. Constitution or the principles contained therein.”
9/11 Truth: The 9/11 Cover-Up article from RINF.com
Six Years After 9/11: A Nation Dissatisfied With The ‘War On Terror’ article from Final Call News
Bush Jr.’s Skeleton Closet article with lots of links and information
Multiple letters detailing the relationship between George Bush and Kenneth Lay (Enron, Bush’s biggest political campaign contributor) from The Smoking Gun
Iraq War: What a Crock Of — Bush lies, violations of our constitution, military-industrial complex article from The American Chronicle
United States Congress
United States Senate
House Panels Reject Appeal on Eavesdropping article from The New York Times
Former Reagan aide: FISA update ‘does nothing’ to reign in Bush’s spy powers article from Raw Story
As Hillary Runs for the White House, Consider Bill’s Refusal to Explore Bush I Scandals article from AlterNet:
“President Clinton made clear he saw historical truth as less important than his hopes for Republican cooperation on his domestic agenda. But this willingness to sweep major scandals under the rug left the White House back door ajar for a restoration of the Bush Family dynasty a half dozen years later — with disastrous consequences for the American Republic.”
Political Fact-Check Web Sites article from Infotoday.com
From the State Department, All the News for Inquiring Minds article from The Washington Post:
“Fox News, launched with such high hopes 11 years ago as the “fair and balanced” network, apparently hasn’t lived up to its billing. CNN never had a chance. The other networks? Please. No citizen could dare trust the agenda-driven print media — The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times — to figure out, let alone accurately tell, the “real” story.
But now the State Department is in the blogosphere, and says it “offers the public an alternative source to mainstream media for U.S. foreign policy information.” The blog, launched last week and called “Dipnote,” is “taking you behind the scenes.”
Would the conservative or liberal media give you that insight? Hardly”
Ray McGovern: Bush, Oil and Moral Bankruptcy article from Counter Punch – The truth is out there. Can we handle it? article:
“On Sept. 23, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski warned pointedly:
“If we escalate tensions, if we succumb to hysteria, if we start making threats, we are likely to stampede ourselves into a war [with Iran], which most reasonable people agree would be a disaster for us…I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq.”
“The Bush policy toward the Middle East is at the same time consistent with, and a marked departure from, the U.S. approach since the end of World War II. Given ever-growing U.S. dependence on imported oil, priority has always been given to ensuring the uninterrupted supply of oil, as well as securing the state of Israel. The U.S. was by and large successful in achieving these goals through traditional diplomacy and commerce. Granted, it would overthrow duly elected governments, when it felt it necessary-as in Iran in 1953, after its president nationalized the oil. But the George W. Bush administration is the first to start a major war to implement U.S. policy in the region.”
The Great Iraq Swindle: How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury article from Rolling Stone Magazine:
“How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins — he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq.”
Stanford Students, Faculty Protest Rumsfeld’s Appointment To On-Campus Think Tank article from Crooks and Liars:
“We view the appointment as fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested inquiry, respect for national and international laws, and care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed,” the petition reads.”
An Exit Toward Soul-Searching – As Bush Staffers Leave, Questions About Legacy Abound article from The Washington Post
Report Says War On Terror Is Fueling Al Qaeda article from Yahoo! News / Reuters:
“A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a “fundamental re-think is required” if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.
He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a “disastrous mistake” which had helped establish a “most valued jihadist combat training zone” for al Qaeda supporters.
“Going to war with Iran,” he said, “will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region. Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs.”
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