Bush’s ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card
Back in July of 2005, Elizabeth Holtzman wrote a lengthy article for The Nation in which she made the case for how Bush and his top advisors could be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act. She ended the article with this:
Still, calls for the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate possible criminal liability under the war crimes and anti-torture laws can be issued, and members of Congress and the Senate can press for it.
In the final analysis, there is no sure way to compel the government to investigate itself or to hold high-level government officials accountable under applicable criminal statutes. But if the public does not seek to have it happen, it will not happen. Those in the public who care deeply about the rule of law and government accountability must keep this issue alive. Failure to investigate wrongdoing in high places and tolerating misconduct or criminality can have only the most corroding impact on our democracy and the rule of law that sustains us.
About a year later, The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in the Hamdan Case that the Bush Administration had broken rules outline in the Geneva Conventions and that they had broken other international treaties governing the treatment of detainees.
In August 2006, a Federal Judge ruled that Bush had broken wiretapping laws.
If Congress were to call for a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush Administration, they could be made to stand trial for breaking the laws, and the penalties for breaking the laws are substantial. Thom Hartmann wrote much more about this here and here.
So what did Congress do? Last week it passed the Military Commissions Act that gave Bush the power to detain and torture anyone he wants to. But that’s not all, the bill also includes this:
The legislation would narrow the range of offenses prohibited under the War Crimes Act. This would protect civilians (such as CIA interrogators and White House officials) from being prosecuted for committing acts that would have been considered war crimes under the old definition. The change is retroactive to 1997, which means any crimes committed since 1997 would be prosecuted under the new standard, not the old one.
That’s’ Bush’s first “Get out of Jail Free” card.
Look for the next one when Congress reconvenes after the mid-term elections to address the wiretapping problem. This could happen even if the Democrats manage to gain control of one of the houses of Congress. Remember, eleven Democrats voted for the torture bill. If they thought that was okay, they’ll probably think it’s okay to hand out another pass on the wiretapping violations.
