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06/11/2003 Archived Entry: "'Accountability missing...'"
'Accountability missing...'
I'm beginning to think that American journalists have all been hypnotized, and columnists like Rupert Cornwell from the Independent are the only ones still in full charge of their own brains. Why do the Brits see the obvious, while their American counterparts completely miss the point?
The administration has led the country into an unprovoked war against a sovereign foreign state for reasons that were certainly overstated and quite possibly deliberately mendacious. It has mistreated detainees after Sept. 11 with a disregard for basic civil rights that worries the inspector general of President Bush's own justice department. But look not to Capitol Hill for remedies.Those committees, with their sweeping subpoena powers? As they say in polite New York circles, "fuggeddaboutit." First of all, the Republicans who control the White House also have majorities in both chambers of Congress -- and thus in the committees of Congress. If push comes to shove, Republican senators and representatives will make sure that no great embarrassment befalls a popular Republican president and his senior officials. And the latter know it.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld deals with questions in the manner of an aged bull, idly swatting away flies with his tail on a warm summer day. Or take John Ashcroft, the attorney general, who on the very day the inspector general's report appeared, breezily informed the house judiciary committee that he wanted even more draconian powers to fight terrorism. A Justice Department spokesman commented, apropos of the report, "We make no apologies for using every legal measure to protect the security of the American people." There you have it: national security, in whose name all is permitted, nothing has to be explained, and no one need provide a serious account of their behavior.
Replies: somebody speaks up.
Word, Blah.
Posted by Diogenes @ 06/11/2003 04:10 PM NY
