Secret Government
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) ,the man I wanted to run for President, has an important op-ed piece in today's Los Angeles Times. In that column, he details what many of us have long complained about: the penchant of this administration to govern in secrecy.
It's a given in our democracy that laws should be a matter of public record. But the law in this country includes not just statutes and regulations, which the public can readily access. It also includes binding legal interpretations made by courts and the executive branch. These interpretations are increasingly being withheld from the public and Congress.
Perhaps the most notorious example is the recently released 2003 Justice Department memorandum on torture written by John Yoo. The memorandum was, for a nine-month period in 2003, the law that the administration followed when it came to matters of torture. And that law was essentially a declaration that the administration could ignore the laws passed by Congress.
The content of the memo was deeply troubling, but just as troubling was the fact that this legal opinion was classified and its content kept secret for years. As we now know, the memo should never have been classified because it contains no information that could compromise national security if released. In a Senate hearing that I chaired April 30, the top official in charge of classification policy from 2002 to 2007 testified that classification of this memo showed "either profound ignorance of or deep contempt for" the standards for classification. [Emphasis added]
Sen. Feingold, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, frankly acknowledges that as a result of the Bush administration's secrecy no one in Congress, and certainly no one in the rest of the country, has any idea of just what "laws" the executive branch is operating under and imposing on us. As a result, there has been no accountability and no oversight by Congress for over seven years.
More troubling, however, is the fact that no one knows for certain just how far the administration has gone in eroding our First and Fourth Amendment rights because everything connected with (for example) FISA is kept so buttoned up that even members of the key committees in Congress are denied access to the information.
...But with changes in technology and with this administration's efforts to expand its surveillance powers, the court today is doing more than just reviewing warrant applications. It is issuing important interpretations of FISA that have effectively made new law.
These interpretations deeply affect Americans' privacy rights, and yet Americans don't know about them because they are not allowed to see them. Very few members of Congress have been allowed to see them either. When the Senate recently approved some broad and controversial changes to FISA, almost none of the senators voting on the bill could know what the law currently is. [Emphasis added]
The executive branch is supposed to execute the laws passed by Congress. Instead, the Bush administration itself is passing laws in direct contravention of the Separation of Powers clause of the Constitution and then keeping those laws secret. Many of those laws violate Americans' rights under the First and Fourth Amendments.
In other words, the President, Vice President and members of the administration have violated their oaths to protect and defend the US Constitution.
Will somebody please explain to me again why impeachment is off the table.
It's a given in our democracy that laws should be a matter of public record. But the law in this country includes not just statutes and regulations, which the public can readily access. It also includes binding legal interpretations made by courts and the executive branch. These interpretations are increasingly being withheld from the public and Congress.
Perhaps the most notorious example is the recently released 2003 Justice Department memorandum on torture written by John Yoo. The memorandum was, for a nine-month period in 2003, the law that the administration followed when it came to matters of torture. And that law was essentially a declaration that the administration could ignore the laws passed by Congress.
The content of the memo was deeply troubling, but just as troubling was the fact that this legal opinion was classified and its content kept secret for years. As we now know, the memo should never have been classified because it contains no information that could compromise national security if released. In a Senate hearing that I chaired April 30, the top official in charge of classification policy from 2002 to 2007 testified that classification of this memo showed "either profound ignorance of or deep contempt for" the standards for classification. [Emphasis added]
Sen. Feingold, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, frankly acknowledges that as a result of the Bush administration's secrecy no one in Congress, and certainly no one in the rest of the country, has any idea of just what "laws" the executive branch is operating under and imposing on us. As a result, there has been no accountability and no oversight by Congress for over seven years.
More troubling, however, is the fact that no one knows for certain just how far the administration has gone in eroding our First and Fourth Amendment rights because everything connected with (for example) FISA is kept so buttoned up that even members of the key committees in Congress are denied access to the information.
...But with changes in technology and with this administration's efforts to expand its surveillance powers, the court today is doing more than just reviewing warrant applications. It is issuing important interpretations of FISA that have effectively made new law.
These interpretations deeply affect Americans' privacy rights, and yet Americans don't know about them because they are not allowed to see them. Very few members of Congress have been allowed to see them either. When the Senate recently approved some broad and controversial changes to FISA, almost none of the senators voting on the bill could know what the law currently is. [Emphasis added]
The executive branch is supposed to execute the laws passed by Congress. Instead, the Bush administration itself is passing laws in direct contravention of the Separation of Powers clause of the Constitution and then keeping those laws secret. Many of those laws violate Americans' rights under the First and Fourth Amendments.
In other words, the President, Vice President and members of the administration have violated their oaths to protect and defend the US Constitution.
Will somebody please explain to me again why impeachment is off the table.
Labels: First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Impeach, Separation of Powers
posted by Diane at 4:06 AM
4 Comments:
We could use more Russ Feingolds, that is certain.
~
I also wanted RF, but I fear he is far too intelligent to run for President.
Russ Feingold has too much integrity, it appears, to be president. But yes, we need more people like Senator Feingold in government.
The fourth branch of government basically was created by Alan Dulles, who thought even Ike didn't have a high enough security clearance to know about it.
Of course, the Republicans- and more than a few DINOcrats- just ate that up, especially when they figured out their dirty deals could be classified, too.
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