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Contributed by Scott Horton
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The Bush Justice Department does have an essential law enforcement mission, though sometimes it seems to behave much more like a criminal syndicate. It warmly embraces the crime of torture as a tool for collecting human intelligencenotwithstanding both its manifest illegality and immorality and the uniform view of intelligence professionals that torture consistently produces corrupted, inherently unreliable information. In so doing of course it is engaged in a fairly primitive game of self-protection. It can?t acknowledge the fundamental criminality of its conduct, so it turns the Justice Department into its consigliere. Three different lawyers in the office of legal counsel have rendered formal opinions giving a stamp of approval to a universal crime. Indeed, this sort of legal dexterity now seems to be accepted as a rite of passage for ?movement? lawyers?a fact which is very revealing of the new character of the ?movement.? It has nothing to do with ideals, and everything to do with personal fidelity. In each of these cases, the opinion boils down to the fundamental principle of the authoritarian state, namely: if the Leader authorizes it, then it must be okay. I can?t wait to see the intellectual conversion that will occur on January 20, 2009, when the opposition party furnishes the Executive. . . .
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Contributed by Ken Silverstein
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I gave a radio interview yesterday during which I extolled the British press for being far more open about the political views of reporters than we are in the States, where everyone pretends that journalists are blank slates, untainted by ideology or belief. The most ridiculous claim of journalistic neutrality I?ve ever heard voiced comes from Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of the Washington Post. He?s so pure he doesn?t vote?in other words, as a friend once remarked, Downie retains his neutrality even in the privacy of his own mind. . . .
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Contributed by Scott Horton
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(Continued from A Minor Injustice.) . . .
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Contributed by Scott Horton
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?I?ve never seen anything quite like this,? remarked a nationally known print journalist in a conversation three weeks ago. ?Everything I?ve been told by the convicted defendants checks out as the gospel truth. And everything I?m told by federal prosecutors who pushed the case turns out either to be an outrageous lie or at least a very serious distortion. And the local journalists who wrote the most about the case all behave like they?re accessories after the fact in a criminal investigation.? . . .
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Contributed by Scott Horton
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To fight aloud, is very brave ?
But gallanter, I know
Who charge within the bosom
The Cavalry of Woe ? . . .
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