REINING IN THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY: Conyers 487-page report out today

REINING IN THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY
Lessons and Recommendations Relating to
the Presidency of George W. Bush

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/110th/IPres090113.pdf

In a 487-page report out today recapping Bush’s “imperial presidency,” House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) recommends that “the incoming Administration finally begin an independent criminal review of activities of the outgoing Administration.”

CONTENTS

Reining in the Imperial Presidency:

Lessons and Recommendations Relating to
the Presidency of George W. Bush
Table of Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Preface: Deconstructing the Imperial Presidency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The September 25, 2001, War Powers Memorandum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Critique of John Yoo’s Flawed Theory of Presidential Supremacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Need for a Judiciary Committee Staff Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Section 1 – Politicization of the Department of Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
I. Politicization of the Prosecution Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
A. Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys and other Department Personnel . . 43
B. Selective Prosecution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
II. Politicization of the Civil Rights Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
A. Factual Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
B. Committee Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
III. Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Politicization of the Prosecution Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Politicization of the Civil Rights Division and Voting Rights Enforcement
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Section 2 – Assault on Individual Liberty:
Detention, Enhanced Interrogation, Ghosting and Black Sites, Extraordinary
Rendition, Warrantless Domestic Surveillance, and National Security and Exigent
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
I. Detention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
A. Factual Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
November 2001 Decision to Try Detainees, Including U.S. Citizens, in
Military Commissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
December 2001 Decision to Hold Detainees at Guantanamo . . . . . . . . . 78
The Administration’s Public Defense of Its Guantanamo Policies . . . . . 78
B. The Bush Administration’s Detention Policies in the Courts . . . . . . . . . 81
The President’s Power to Detain an American Citizen Captured in
2
Afghanistan Without Judicial Review (Hamdi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The President’s Power to Establish Military Commissions to Determine
Validity of Detention (Hamdan) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
The President’s Power to Order Detention of Persons Without Access to
Federal Courts – Rasul and Boumediene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The President’s Power to Order the Military Detention of an American
Citizen Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States
(Padilla) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The President’s Power to Order Military Detention of Lawfully Admitted
Alien Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States (al-
Marri) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
C. Committee Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
II. Interrogation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A. Factual Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
December 2001toFebruary 2002 – Determinations That the Protections of
the Geneva Conventions, Including Common Article III, Do Not
Apply to Guantanamo Detainees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
The August 1, 2002 Torture Memorandum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
August 1, 2002 – Waterboarding Approved for CIA Use . . . . . . . . . . . 114
October 2002 to March 2003 – Development of Techniques for Use at
Guantanamo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
John Yoo’s March 14, 2003, Torture Memorandum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Use of Harsh Interrogation at Guantanamo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Migration of Guantanamo Interrogation Techniques to Abu Ghraib . . . 121
Role of High-level Officials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
The Congress and the President Battle over Interrogation Techniques
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Destruction of CIA Waterboarding Videotapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
B. Committee Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Effectiveness of Enhanced Interrogation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Potential Criminal Liability for Destruction of Videotapes . . . . . . . . . . 130
OLC Opinions Concerning Enhanced Interrogation and Potential Legal
Liability Thereto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
III. Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
A. Factual Background for Legal Memoranda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
B. Committee Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
IV. Warrantless Surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
A. The Genesis of the Bush Administration’s Warrantless Surveillance
Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
B. Internal Disagreements as to the Program’s Legality; Disclosure of the
Program by The New York Times in December 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
C. Bush Administration’s Public Statements Concerning Warrantless
Surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
3
D. Concerns About Legality and Effectiveness of the President’s Warrantless
Surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
E. Additional Scrutiny and Legislative Activity in the 110th Congress . . . 161
V. National Security Letters (NSLs) and Exigent Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
A. The Increased use of NSLs Subsequent to 9/11 and the Enactment of the
PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT Reauthorization Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
B. March 2007 Justice Department Inspector General Report and Subsequent
Committee Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
C. March 2008 Justice Department IG “Assessment of Corrective Action”
Report and Subsequent Committee Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
VI. Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Detention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Interrogation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
NSLs and Exigent Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Section 3 – Misuse of Executive Branch Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
I. Presidential Signing Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
A. Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
B. The Bush Administration’s Use of Signing Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
The McCain Amendment on Treatment of Detainees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
USA PATRIOT Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Affirmative Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Whistleblower Protections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
C. Committee Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
II. Rulemaking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
A. Factual Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
B. Executive Control by the Bush Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Executive Order 13422: Expanding White House Political Control Over
Rulemaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Greater Specificity and Market Analysis Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Heightened Scrutiny of Significant Guidance Documents . . . . . . . . . . 194
Greater Emphasis on Cost-Benefit Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Greater Role for Political Appointees in the Rulemaking Process . . . . 196
C. Efforts by OIRA to Control Rulemaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Direct Intervention by the Administration to Control Rulemaking . . . . 197
Using Directives and Other Means to Circumvent Formal Rulemaking
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Midnight Rulemaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
D. Lack of Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
III. Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Abuse of Presidential Signing Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
4
Rulemaking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Section 4 – Retribution Against Critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
I. The Leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s Covert CIA Identity and Its Aftermath . . 208
A. The July 2003 Disclosure by the Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
B. The Bush Administration’s Response to the Leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
C. The Libby Indictment and Trial: Evidence of a White House Leak . . . 211
D. Mr. Libby’s Conviction, Sentence, and Presidential Grant of Clemency
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
E. Committee Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
The Leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
The White House’s Response to the Leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
The President’s Grant of Clemency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
II. Retaliation Against Other Administration Critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Military Officers – Including Former General Eric Shinseki . . . . . . . . . 225
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Economic Advisor Lawrence
Lindsey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Army Core of Engineers Chief Contracting Office Bunnatine Greenhouse
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
III. Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
The Leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s Covert CIA Identity . . . . . . . . . . 228
Section 5 – Government in the Shadows:
Executive Privilege, Secrecy, and the Manipulation of Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
I. Executive Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
A. Formal Assertions of Executive Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Pushing the Boundaries Early On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
FBI’s Valerie Plame Leak Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
EPA Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Investigation Into the U.S. Attorney Firings by the House and Senate
Judiciary Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
B. Withholding Documents or Testimony Without Formally Asserting
Executive Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
II. Improper Use of State Secrets and Other Authorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
A. Abuse of State Secrets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Extraordinary rendition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Warrantless Wiretapping Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Employee lawsuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
B. Abuse of Other Authorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
5
FOIA Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Presidential Records Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Vice President’s Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
III. Manipulation and Misuse of Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
IV. Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Expansion of Executive Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
State Secrets Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Abuse of Classification and Other Authorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Manipulation and Misuse of Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Section 6 – Policy Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
1. The Congress and the Judiciary Committee should pursue document and witness
requests pending at the end of the 110th Congress, including subpoenas, and the
incoming Administration should cooperate with those requests. . . . . . . . . . . . 270
2. Congress should establish a Blue Ribbon Commission or similar panel to
investigate the broad range of policies of the Bush Administration that were
undertaken under claims of unreviewable war powers, including detention,
enhanced interrogation, ghosting and black sites, extraordinary rendition, and
warrantless domestic surveillance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
3. The Attorney General should appoint a Special Counsel, or expand the scope of
the present investigation into CIA tape destruction, to determine whether there
were criminal violations committed pursuant to Bush Administration policies that
were undertaken under unreviewable war powers, including enhanced
interrogation, extraordinary rendition, and warrantless domestic surveillance.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Politicization of the Department of Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
4. The incoming Administration should review and consider strengthening the policy
limiting contacts concerning prosecution and enforcement matters. . . . . . . . . . 272
5. The incoming Administration should continue the customary practice of replacing
U.S. Attorneys at the outset of the Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
6. Congress should expand Justice Department Inspector General jurisdiction. . . 273
7. The incoming Administration should improve the Executive Office of
Immigration Review (EOIR) and the functioning of the immigration courts. . . 274
8. The Department of Justice should rescind the policy prohibiting career voting
section employees from making recommendations as to whether the Department
should object to proposed voting changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
9. The Department of Justice should revise the Federal Prosecution of Election
Offenses Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
6
10. Congress should enact comprehensive election reform legislation. . . . . . . . . . 275
Assault on Individual Liberty: Detention, Enhanced Interrogation, Ghosting and
Black Sites, Extraordinary Rendition, Warrantless Domestic Surveillance,
and National Security and Exigent Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
11. The Department of Justice should reform its Office of Legal Counsel. . . . . . . 276
12. The incoming Administration should close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13. The incoming Administration should require that all persons arrested in the
United States be subject to civilian law enforcement procedures with requisite due
process guarantees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
14. The incoming Administration should end torture and abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
15. The incoming Administration should end the CIA program of secret detention and
abusive interrogation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
16. The incoming Administration should end the Bush Administration’s practice of
the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
17. The President, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, and the Director of the National Security Agency should
implement policies to ensure that there is no “reverse targeting” used under
authorities created by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
18. The President, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, and the Director of the National Security Agency should
implement policies to ensure that foreign intelligence surveillance is limited to
targeted collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
19. The incoming Administration should ensure full implementation of Inspector
General recommendations concerning the FBI’s use of NSLs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
20. The incoming Administration should withdraw the proposed Justice Department
rule on criminal intelligence system operating policies and carefully review and
revise as needed the Attorney General’s guidelines for FBI operations. . . . . . . 283
21. The President should nominate and bring into operation the Privacy and Civil
Liberties Oversight Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
22. The President should renew efforts to implement U.S. obligations under human
rights treaties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
23. The incoming Administration should review and consider modifications to Bureau
of Prisons use of authority under Special Administrative Measures. . . . . . . . . 284
Misuse of Executive Branch Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
24. The President should end abuse of presidential signing statements. . . . . . . . . . 285
25. The incoming Administration should restore rulemaking from the White House to
traditional agency authority consistent with congressional intent and the public
interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
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26. The incoming Administration should make rulemaking more transparent,
understandable, and informative, thereby permitting greater accountability to
Congress and the public. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
27. The incoming Administration should rein in “Midnight” rulemaking, which
implements the priorities of a lame-duck administration even though a new
President has been elected. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Other Incursions by the Executive Branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
28. The incoming Administration and Congress should restore the full protection of
the attorney-client privilege. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
29. Congress should enact press shield legislation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
30. The incoming Administration should limit the ability of Executive Branch
officials to prevent victims of terrorism from recovering for their losses. . . . . 288
31. Congress should pass legislation holding Administration-designated contractors in
Iraq and elsewhere responsible for their criminal misconduct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
32. The Department of Justice should issue guidelines to require transparency and
uniformity of corporate deferred and non-prosecution agreements. . . . . . . . . . 289
Retribution Against Critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
33. Congress should consider legislation concerning the exercise of clemency
involving government officials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
34. Congress should enhance and strengthen protection for Executive-Branch
whistleblowers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Government in the Shadows: Executive Privilege, Secrecy, and the Manipulation of
Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
35. Congress should enact changes in statutes and rules to strengthen Congress’
contempt power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
36. The incoming Administration should establish procedures for asserting Executive
Privilege. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
37. The incoming Administration and Congress should prevent abusive assertion of
the state secrets privilege. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
38. The incoming Administration and Congress should improve the system for
classification and declassification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
39. Congress should consider legislation requiring the President to publicly announce
the declassification of classified materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
41. The President should rescind Bush White House memoranda that significantly
restrict the use and disclosure of non-classified information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
42. The President should place the Office of FOIA Ombudsperson in the National
Archives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
8
43. The incoming Administration should restore the accessibility of presidential
records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
44. Congress should modernize the Presidential Records Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
45. The incoming Administration should clarify the applicability of rules of access to
the Office of the Vice President. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
46. The incoming Administration should eliminate overly restrictive “Gang of 8"
briefings in favor of more effective mechanisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
47. The incoming Administration mandate steps to avoid manipulation and misuse of
intelligence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Why don't they

just lock the whole Bush administration up for war crimes, crimes against humanity, high treason and mass murder? Fat chance............ Do you think for a moment that the slick as a used car salesman Obama and his crew would dare cross the NWO thugs?

Why We Have to Look Back By John Conyers Jr. WAPO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR200901...

Why We Have to Look Back

By John Conyers Jr.
Friday, January 16, 2009; Page A19

This week, I released "Reining in the Imperial Presidency," a 486-page report detailing the abuses and excesses of the Bush administration and recommending steps to address them. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. popularized the term "imperial presidency" in the 1970s to describe an executive who had assumed more power than the Constitution allows and circumvented the checks and balances fundamental to our three-branch system of government. Until recently, the Nixon administration seemed to represent a singular embodiment of the idea. Unfortunately, it is clear that the threat of the imperial presidency lives on and, indeed, reached new heights under George W. Bush.

As this report documents, there was the administration's contrived drive to a needless war of aggression with Iraq, based on manipulated intelligence and facts that were "fixed around the policy." There was its politicization of the Justice Department; unconscionable and possibly illegal policies on detention, interrogation and extraordinary rendition; warrantless wiretaps of American citizens; the ravaging of our regulatory system and the use of signing statements to override the laws of the land; and the intimidation and silencing of critics and whistle-blowers who dared to tell fellow citizens what was being done in their name. And all of this was hidden behind an unprecedented veil of secrecy and outlandish claims of privilege.
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I understand that many feel we should just move on. They worry that addressing these actions by the Bush administration will divert precious energy from the serious challenges facing our nation. I understand the power of that impulse. Indeed, I want to move on as well -- there are so many things that I would rather work on than further review of Bush's presidency. But in my view it would not be responsible to start our journey forward without first knowing exactly where we are.

We cannot rebuild the appropriate balance between the branches of government without fully understanding how that relationship has been distorted. Likewise, we cannot set an appropriate baseline for future presidential conduct without documenting and correcting the presidential excesses that have just occurred. After the Nixon imperial presidency, critical reviews such as the Church and Pike committees led to fundamental reforms that have served our nation well. Comparable steps are needed to begin the process of reining in the legacy of the Bush imperial presidency. I consider these three points crucial:

First, Congress should continue to pursue its document requests and subpoenas that were stonewalled under President Bush. Doing so will make clear that no executive can forever hide its misdeeds from the public.

Second, Congress should create an independent blue-ribbon panel or similar body to investigate a host of previously unreviewable activities of the Bush administration, including its detention, interrogation and surveillance programs. Only by chronicling and confronting the past in a comprehensive, bipartisan fashion can we reclaim our moral authority and establish a credible path forward to meet the complex challenges of a post-Sept. 11 world.

Third, the new administration should conduct an independent criminal probe into whether any laws were broken in connection with these activities. Just this week, in the pages of this newspaper, a Guantanamo Bay official acknowledged that a suspect there had been "tortured" -- her exact word -- in apparent violation of the law. The law is the law, and, if criminal conduct occurred, those responsible -- particularly those who ordered and approved the violations -- must be held accountable.

Some day, there is bound to be another national security crisis in America. A future president will face the same fear and uncertainty that we did after Sept. 11, 2001, and will feel the same temptation to believe that the ends justify the means -- temptation that drew our nation over to the "dark side" under the leadership of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. If those temptations are to be resisted -- if we are to face new threats in a manner that keeps faith with our values and strengthens rather than diminishes our authority around the world -- we must fully learn the lessons of our recent past.

The writer, a Democrat, represents Michigan's 14th District in the U.S. House and is chairman of the Judiciary Committee.