Massive Illegal Spying and Death Squads Just Another Day in the Despotic Democracy of the Bush Cabal
Bill Lindner
July 18, 2009
Recent reports of more massive illegal spying by the U.S. Government and CIA death squads that reported to and were ordered by Vice President Dick Cheney -- who had no Constitutional authority to do so -- revealed that routine violations of democratic rights through illegal spying and wiretapping both at home and abroad and brazen disregard for the Congressional branch of government were part of the delusional despotic Democracy envisioned by Bush and Cheney.
Despite his wishes of "looking forward," President Barack Obama is going to have no choice but to investigate the reports of Cheney's malfeasance, especially as more revelations come to light. In reality though, it's not up to Obama to decide whether or not an investigation is held. It's up to the allegedly independent Justice Department. Most of what was illegally started by the Bush administration has continued under Obama and his administration.
The renewed calls of 'looking forward' are also coming, as noted by the Daily Kos, from the rats -- Democrats and Republicans in Congress -- that followed their pied piper Dick Cheney wherever he would lead them, whether it was to war or to torture or to destoy the Constitution and now they're trying to avoid falling off of a cliff and into the abyss. It's time to push them over the edge. For those who haven't figured it out by now, there is little difference between Democrats and Republicans. Both major parties are responsible for the destruction of this country.
The Bush administration made it routine to illegally violate every American's rights through illegal NSA spying -- illegal spying that went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, encompassing additional secretive activities that created 'unprecedented' spying powers -- and wiretaps. Little if anything was gained by the illegal NSA spying, but in at least one case, albeit it most likely many cases, the illegal NSA spying was used to blackmail a member of Congress in order to gain political support. The illegal spying program was known as the 'President's Surveillance Program.'
A covert CIA program involving assassinations -- Clinton did it and Obama does it too -- belies the fantasy world the Bush Administration was living in once they decided to allow almost 3,000 innocent civilians to be killed on the morning of September 11, 2001 after the "terrorist" attacks. It reveals the intention of the Bush administration to degenerate democratic processes in the U.S. In July 2008, Seymour Hersh reported that Bush's White House was intentionally exploiting technical differences between defense and intelligence operations so they could covertly pursue 'high value targets' in Iran without briefing Congress. More evidence that Cheney is still in collusion with the CIA can be found in the fact that Dick Cheney had a home built 2000 feet away from CIA headquarters.
Impossible to Determine Exact Nature of CIA and NSA Programs
The President's Surveillance Program came to light -- again -- recently when current CIA director Leon Panetta told Congress that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled members of Congress since 2001. The massive illegal spying program was conducted seperately from the CIA's assassination program. However, most details have yet to be revealed.
So far, Cheney, his 'legal' adviser and later Chief of staff David Addington, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who drafted 'legal guidelines' for the illegal surveillance have refused to be interviewed about the program.
The flurry of press reports following Panetta's revelations still aren't telling the whole story. They appear to be an attempt by the state-sponsored media at damage control, if not the usual outright disinformation campaign, concealing most of the facts of the spying and the death squads and downplaying their actual significance.
The CIA's unidentified program involved some planning and training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year but never became fully operational. It was 'fully operational' for the military. If you look at all of the questionable 'suicides' and 'accidents' of potential witnesses against the Bush administration these past eight and a half years, it's obvious that the program was operational.
It's currently impossible to determine the exact nature of the CIA and the NSA programs, but, as noted by the World Socialist Web Site, the close involvement of top officials of the Bush administration suggest that these activities were significant and extensive. On top of that, when you look at all the egregiously illegal and unconstitutional 'legislation' rubber-stamped through Congress by both major parties, it makes you wonder what kind of program was so atrocious that it had to be kept secret from Congress. As far as the CIA program goes, why was Director Panetta, who was sworn in on February 19 not informed about the program until July?
It indicates that either the CIA and/or military intelligence has gone rogue or that there is an existance of a 'state within a state,' a secret government that has continued functioning to this day, regardless of who is in the White House. In either case, it needs to be stopped now, once and for all. How much more information is being withheld?
You Can't Look Forward Without Looking Back
Naturally, revelations about the illegal spying and CIA death squads resulted in the usual Sunday morning political theater known as 'Meet the Press' being used to try and sway public opinion, among other things. This past Sunday, Senator John McCain was the guest. When talking about accountability, McCain says that investigating would harm our image throughout the world, and that he agreed with President Obama that it was time to move forward and not go back.
McCain is wrong for several reasons. Our image has already been hurt by political corruption in Washington, and because the U.S. has so far refused to do anything about it. Just because operatives that carried out crimes were 'under orders' does not make them any less illegal. Moving forward and not looking back has been happening since the 1970's, which has resulted in history repeating itself -- though a lot worse this time around -- and moving forward without looking back will inevitably produce the same results. The abuses will continue and worsen over time if we do not look back.
McCain and all the other Republican and Democratic Senators and Representatives like him would prefer to move forward because investigating will reveal more of their complicity in the crimes committed by the Bush administration, as well as those that have continued under the Obama administration. The vast majority of those in Congress have many reasons to fear an investigation, which serves as all the more reason for an investigation.
McCain continued his little charade, saying that the accountability is that people's reputations have been harmed very badly. Senator McCain, that's what they call karma, not accountability. Accountability will not harm America's image. Accountability will improve it. There will be many positive results from airing out and ventilating details of what we already know took place. Millions have died and billions are suffering because of corrupted political malfeasance, struggling with day-to-day survival because of being robbed blind and screwed royally from said corrupted political malfeasance. Accountability will put the criminals in prison where they belong.
Besides, Congress may already know what took place, but the people that they allegedly represent have no idea. As Congress is supposed to represent and be the voice of the people, Congress needs to make the people aware of exactly what took place. Because most of Congress is involved in Bush administration crimes, a lot of information gets purposely omitted or hidden from the American public. If Congress can't do it, We the People can. In addition to needing to know, McCains assurances of being committed to making sure it never happens again are completely meaningless for numerous reasons, including the fact that they're still happening and the fact that Congress has done virtually nothing but lie to the American people repeatedly for the past eight and a half years.
On 'Fox News Sunday,' another infamous Sunday morning political theater show, Senator Dianne Feinstein said that this is a big problem because the law is very clear and she thinks that if the Intelligence Committees had been briefed, they could have watched the program, etc., etc., but that they were kept in the dark, and that's something that should never, ever happen again. She's right. It shouldn't ever happen again -- but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. The question is, what are they going to do about the fact that it happened in the first place since the law is very clear? What Cheney and Bush did -- repeatedly in their eight years -- is commit acts of treason.
It's pathetically comical listening to 'journalists' trying to justify not holding investigations into Bush administration crimes when their justifications have no merit whatsoever. State-sponsored media 'journalists' have advocated that the President is above the law. He's not, despite what our corrupted political system wants you to believe. Most of Congress is just as guilty as Bush and Cheney and it's time to do something about it.
Dick Cheney was a Richard Nixon protege who is responsible for creating scandals bigger than Watergate or Enron could ever dream of being. Cheney learned a lot from Nixon. Cheney's actions reveals a few of the major flaws with our political system: Who and how a President pardons needs to be examined and redefined; 'State Secrets' and 'National Security' have been thoroughly abused these past eight and a half years and that needs to stop; and Cheney is living proof of what happens when you look forward and let politicians get away with their egregious crimes. It's time to change that and it's time to put a limit on how long politicians can 'serve' too.
Who was the Death Squad Planning to Assassinate?
Cheney's rogue CIA death squad program was allegedly going to be used to target 'top al Qaeda operatives' overseas. As noted by Scott Creighton at American Everyman blog, the death squad was going overseas (some of the time), but they weren't going after al Qaeda. So exactly who was Cheney planning to kill and how many times was he successful? Obviously it wasn't Osama bin Laden -- the alleged reason for starting the fraudulent 'War on Terror' -- in addition to the fact that he was a personal family friend of the whole Bush family, bin Laden reportedly, and indeed, in all probability, died in December 2001.
Naturally, officials are trying to say the death squad plans remained vague and were never carried out. CIA Director Panetta canceled the program once he found out about it. However, Cheney and Bush both went after people who contradicted their lies about WMDs -- don't forget about Plamegate -- and a wide variety of other things including 9/11.
A lot of very questionable 'suicides' and 'accidents' of people who might be connected to a possible September 11th setup, prior knowledge, cover up or whitewash -- a British scientist who was causing ripples in the Bush administration's WMD fairy tale, a Washington D.C. madam with connections to Cheney who mysteriously 'killed herself', 14 Bioscientists who 'killed themselves,' including one that the FBI dubiously tried to claim was responsible for mailing anthrax from a government lab, pro football star turned soldier Pat Tillman's questionable death was one of many that happened to our military personnel -- all happened while Bush and Cheney were in office. It appears that the death squad may have been very busy trying to keep Bush administration crimes covered up.
But, as also noted by Scott Creighton at American Everyman blog, the real tickler of the story is that past and present CIA agents have gone on record stating that al Qaeda is a complete fiction used as justification for targeting key people and areas in the fraudulent 'War on Terror.' Watch BBC's 'The Power of Nightmares' documentary for more information on that. Al Qaeda is a complete fabrication created by the U.S. government. A lot of the militants labeled as al Qaeda by the Federal government today have been trained and supported both with weapons and financially by the CIA. Since the CIA knows that there is no al Qaeda to target -- some 'al Qaeda' leaders were reportedly killed more than once -- who were the real targets and why were they chosen?
Cheney Wasn't Acting Alone. The Approval Came from the President
There is one more question about the death squad that we don't have an answer to yet: What happens when Cheney starts selling out his allies on the death squad to avoid going to prison?
Raising more questions is the fact that because we've been in a state of war against al Qaeda -- the fraudulent War on Terror -- there would have been no need for a secret CIA program that received special legal authorization. The CIA has routinely targeted top al Qaeda leaders by running drones -- the ones that keep killing innocent civilians -- and targeting al Qaeda safe houses.
According to a former CIA counterterrorism chief, Cheney's program involved Americans as targets and went beyond surveillance. He also said that Cheney may have directly ordered the CIA to keep Congress in the dark, but Cheney wasn't acting alone. The approval came from the president. America has been assassinating people for years.
More information on the secret CIA program can be found from Reuters, TrueSlant, Talking Points Memo and Information Clearing House. Information about how the Bush administration implemented its illegal spying program can be found from Psychology Today and information about torture that was carried out before DoJ 'legal' memos were approved can be found from The Raw Story.
Cheney and his ideologues, who had chafed at any legal constraints on executive power broke the law with illegal and pointless surveillance and assassination programs. The Bush Cabal was a threat to National Security with all of their illegal actions. Claims of 'National Security' to keep the Bush administration's crimes covered up makes the Obama administration just as guilty. It's time for some answers and accountability.
As noted by the World Socialist Web Site, the struggle to defend democratic rights and to defeat the reactionary conspiracies of the U.S. intelligence agencies must be taken up by the working class who must demand the full exposure of all the covert operations of the CIA, the NSA and any other U.S. intelligence agencies and demand the prosecution of all those officials responsible for authorizing and directing them, regardless of who they are or what position they hold in the Federal government. Massive illegal spying and death squads were just another day in the despotic Democracy of the Bush cabal. There is already plenty of evidence and there will undoubtedly be more to come.
Despite his wishes of "looking forward," President Barack Obama is going to have no choice but to investigate the reports of Cheney's malfeasance, especially as more revelations come to light. In reality though, it's not up to Obama to decide whether or not an investigation is held. It's up to the allegedly independent Justice Department. Most of what was illegally started by the Bush administration has continued under Obama and his administration.
The renewed calls of 'looking forward' are also coming, as noted by the Daily Kos, from the rats -- Democrats and Republicans in Congress -- that followed their pied piper Dick Cheney wherever he would lead them, whether it was to war or to torture or to destoy the Constitution and now they're trying to avoid falling off of a cliff and into the abyss. It's time to push them over the edge. For those who haven't figured it out by now, there is little difference between Democrats and Republicans. Both major parties are responsible for the destruction of this country.
The Bush administration made it routine to illegally violate every American's rights through illegal NSA spying -- illegal spying that went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, encompassing additional secretive activities that created 'unprecedented' spying powers -- and wiretaps. Little if anything was gained by the illegal NSA spying, but in at least one case, albeit it most likely many cases, the illegal NSA spying was used to blackmail a member of Congress in order to gain political support. The illegal spying program was known as the 'President's Surveillance Program.'
A covert CIA program involving assassinations -- Clinton did it and Obama does it too -- belies the fantasy world the Bush Administration was living in once they decided to allow almost 3,000 innocent civilians to be killed on the morning of September 11, 2001 after the "terrorist" attacks. It reveals the intention of the Bush administration to degenerate democratic processes in the U.S. In July 2008, Seymour Hersh reported that Bush's White House was intentionally exploiting technical differences between defense and intelligence operations so they could covertly pursue 'high value targets' in Iran without briefing Congress. More evidence that Cheney is still in collusion with the CIA can be found in the fact that Dick Cheney had a home built 2000 feet away from CIA headquarters.
Impossible to Determine Exact Nature of CIA and NSA Programs
The President's Surveillance Program came to light -- again -- recently when current CIA director Leon Panetta told Congress that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled members of Congress since 2001. The massive illegal spying program was conducted seperately from the CIA's assassination program. However, most details have yet to be revealed.
So far, Cheney, his 'legal' adviser and later Chief of staff David Addington, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who drafted 'legal guidelines' for the illegal surveillance have refused to be interviewed about the program.
The flurry of press reports following Panetta's revelations still aren't telling the whole story. They appear to be an attempt by the state-sponsored media at damage control, if not the usual outright disinformation campaign, concealing most of the facts of the spying and the death squads and downplaying their actual significance.
The CIA's unidentified program involved some planning and training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year but never became fully operational. It was 'fully operational' for the military. If you look at all of the questionable 'suicides' and 'accidents' of potential witnesses against the Bush administration these past eight and a half years, it's obvious that the program was operational.
It's currently impossible to determine the exact nature of the CIA and the NSA programs, but, as noted by the World Socialist Web Site, the close involvement of top officials of the Bush administration suggest that these activities were significant and extensive. On top of that, when you look at all the egregiously illegal and unconstitutional 'legislation' rubber-stamped through Congress by both major parties, it makes you wonder what kind of program was so atrocious that it had to be kept secret from Congress. As far as the CIA program goes, why was Director Panetta, who was sworn in on February 19 not informed about the program until July?
It indicates that either the CIA and/or military intelligence has gone rogue or that there is an existance of a 'state within a state,' a secret government that has continued functioning to this day, regardless of who is in the White House. In either case, it needs to be stopped now, once and for all. How much more information is being withheld?
You Can't Look Forward Without Looking Back
Naturally, revelations about the illegal spying and CIA death squads resulted in the usual Sunday morning political theater known as 'Meet the Press' being used to try and sway public opinion, among other things. This past Sunday, Senator John McCain was the guest. When talking about accountability, McCain says that investigating would harm our image throughout the world, and that he agreed with President Obama that it was time to move forward and not go back.
McCain is wrong for several reasons. Our image has already been hurt by political corruption in Washington, and because the U.S. has so far refused to do anything about it. Just because operatives that carried out crimes were 'under orders' does not make them any less illegal. Moving forward and not looking back has been happening since the 1970's, which has resulted in history repeating itself -- though a lot worse this time around -- and moving forward without looking back will inevitably produce the same results. The abuses will continue and worsen over time if we do not look back.
McCain and all the other Republican and Democratic Senators and Representatives like him would prefer to move forward because investigating will reveal more of their complicity in the crimes committed by the Bush administration, as well as those that have continued under the Obama administration. The vast majority of those in Congress have many reasons to fear an investigation, which serves as all the more reason for an investigation.
McCain continued his little charade, saying that the accountability is that people's reputations have been harmed very badly. Senator McCain, that's what they call karma, not accountability. Accountability will not harm America's image. Accountability will improve it. There will be many positive results from airing out and ventilating details of what we already know took place. Millions have died and billions are suffering because of corrupted political malfeasance, struggling with day-to-day survival because of being robbed blind and screwed royally from said corrupted political malfeasance. Accountability will put the criminals in prison where they belong.
Besides, Congress may already know what took place, but the people that they allegedly represent have no idea. As Congress is supposed to represent and be the voice of the people, Congress needs to make the people aware of exactly what took place. Because most of Congress is involved in Bush administration crimes, a lot of information gets purposely omitted or hidden from the American public. If Congress can't do it, We the People can. In addition to needing to know, McCains assurances of being committed to making sure it never happens again are completely meaningless for numerous reasons, including the fact that they're still happening and the fact that Congress has done virtually nothing but lie to the American people repeatedly for the past eight and a half years.
On 'Fox News Sunday,' another infamous Sunday morning political theater show, Senator Dianne Feinstein said that this is a big problem because the law is very clear and she thinks that if the Intelligence Committees had been briefed, they could have watched the program, etc., etc., but that they were kept in the dark, and that's something that should never, ever happen again. She's right. It shouldn't ever happen again -- but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. The question is, what are they going to do about the fact that it happened in the first place since the law is very clear? What Cheney and Bush did -- repeatedly in their eight years -- is commit acts of treason.
It's pathetically comical listening to 'journalists' trying to justify not holding investigations into Bush administration crimes when their justifications have no merit whatsoever. State-sponsored media 'journalists' have advocated that the President is above the law. He's not, despite what our corrupted political system wants you to believe. Most of Congress is just as guilty as Bush and Cheney and it's time to do something about it.
Dick Cheney was a Richard Nixon protege who is responsible for creating scandals bigger than Watergate or Enron could ever dream of being. Cheney learned a lot from Nixon. Cheney's actions reveals a few of the major flaws with our political system: Who and how a President pardons needs to be examined and redefined; 'State Secrets' and 'National Security' have been thoroughly abused these past eight and a half years and that needs to stop; and Cheney is living proof of what happens when you look forward and let politicians get away with their egregious crimes. It's time to change that and it's time to put a limit on how long politicians can 'serve' too.
Who was the Death Squad Planning to Assassinate?
Cheney's rogue CIA death squad program was allegedly going to be used to target 'top al Qaeda operatives' overseas. As noted by Scott Creighton at American Everyman blog, the death squad was going overseas (some of the time), but they weren't going after al Qaeda. So exactly who was Cheney planning to kill and how many times was he successful? Obviously it wasn't Osama bin Laden -- the alleged reason for starting the fraudulent 'War on Terror' -- in addition to the fact that he was a personal family friend of the whole Bush family, bin Laden reportedly, and indeed, in all probability, died in December 2001.
Naturally, officials are trying to say the death squad plans remained vague and were never carried out. CIA Director Panetta canceled the program once he found out about it. However, Cheney and Bush both went after people who contradicted their lies about WMDs -- don't forget about Plamegate -- and a wide variety of other things including 9/11.
A lot of very questionable 'suicides' and 'accidents' of people who might be connected to a possible September 11th setup, prior knowledge, cover up or whitewash -- a British scientist who was causing ripples in the Bush administration's WMD fairy tale, a Washington D.C. madam with connections to Cheney who mysteriously 'killed herself', 14 Bioscientists who 'killed themselves,' including one that the FBI dubiously tried to claim was responsible for mailing anthrax from a government lab, pro football star turned soldier Pat Tillman's questionable death was one of many that happened to our military personnel -- all happened while Bush and Cheney were in office. It appears that the death squad may have been very busy trying to keep Bush administration crimes covered up.
But, as also noted by Scott Creighton at American Everyman blog, the real tickler of the story is that past and present CIA agents have gone on record stating that al Qaeda is a complete fiction used as justification for targeting key people and areas in the fraudulent 'War on Terror.' Watch BBC's 'The Power of Nightmares' documentary for more information on that. Al Qaeda is a complete fabrication created by the U.S. government. A lot of the militants labeled as al Qaeda by the Federal government today have been trained and supported both with weapons and financially by the CIA. Since the CIA knows that there is no al Qaeda to target -- some 'al Qaeda' leaders were reportedly killed more than once -- who were the real targets and why were they chosen?
Cheney Wasn't Acting Alone. The Approval Came from the President
There is one more question about the death squad that we don't have an answer to yet: What happens when Cheney starts selling out his allies on the death squad to avoid going to prison?
Raising more questions is the fact that because we've been in a state of war against al Qaeda -- the fraudulent War on Terror -- there would have been no need for a secret CIA program that received special legal authorization. The CIA has routinely targeted top al Qaeda leaders by running drones -- the ones that keep killing innocent civilians -- and targeting al Qaeda safe houses.
According to a former CIA counterterrorism chief, Cheney's program involved Americans as targets and went beyond surveillance. He also said that Cheney may have directly ordered the CIA to keep Congress in the dark, but Cheney wasn't acting alone. The approval came from the president. America has been assassinating people for years.
More information on the secret CIA program can be found from Reuters, TrueSlant, Talking Points Memo and Information Clearing House. Information about how the Bush administration implemented its illegal spying program can be found from Psychology Today and information about torture that was carried out before DoJ 'legal' memos were approved can be found from The Raw Story.
Cheney and his ideologues, who had chafed at any legal constraints on executive power broke the law with illegal and pointless surveillance and assassination programs. The Bush Cabal was a threat to National Security with all of their illegal actions. Claims of 'National Security' to keep the Bush administration's crimes covered up makes the Obama administration just as guilty. It's time for some answers and accountability.
As noted by the World Socialist Web Site, the struggle to defend democratic rights and to defeat the reactionary conspiracies of the U.S. intelligence agencies must be taken up by the working class who must demand the full exposure of all the covert operations of the CIA, the NSA and any other U.S. intelligence agencies and demand the prosecution of all those officials responsible for authorizing and directing them, regardless of who they are or what position they hold in the Federal government. Massive illegal spying and death squads were just another day in the despotic Democracy of the Bush cabal. There is already plenty of evidence and there will undoubtedly be more to come.
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