The Administration and the War on Terrorism
The Washington Post has a piece in today’s edition on the recent discovery of secret CIA prisons. The post reveals the CIA has been “hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe.” The Post would not publish “the names of the Eastern Eurpoean countries involved in the covert program” for the obvious reasons of disrupting counterterrorism operations.
There are obvious and valid reasons for über covert operations. The problem is, the Bush administration’s history has given more than enough reason for distrust: the indictment of Scooter Libby last week provided damning evidence of valid reasons to not trust the administration. Not to lessen the significance of Libby’s indictment, but his alleged crimes are a mere grain of sand in the overall picture.
The renditons and detainee abuse that rose to public awareness many months ago; the purposeful misleading of reasons to invade Iraq; the scandal, corruption, and crime that surround the White House – when mixed together or even held separately, it is impossible to know what to believe, what to question or when to accuse.
As I said previously, a significant problem resulting from the Plame-Wilson matter, and the falsehoods employed to lead us into war, the administration can no longer be trusted. Now, do we accept by default that the CIA operations exposed in the Post are points of concern or acceptable CIA operations?
The answer resides in the fact that the Post ran the piece. The operations could be appropriate, but we are compelled to dig deeper for the truth and in the end that does effect counterterrorism operations. It’s like answering the question, when did you stop beating your wife. And, whose fault is that?
The administration’s answer and defense (valid or invalid) for every event or disclosure is the war on terrorism. Where does that begin and end? Where should it begin and end? And, how much of that should continue to be the autonomous privilege of the president. The Constitution provided Congress the power of declaring war, not the president. It is time for Congress to step in and take control of their responsibilities and limit the power of the president to his constitutionally provided authority. Mabye, yesterday’s demand of a closed session is the beginning.
