36 Al Qaeda Suspects Could Walk—Thanks to Bush

12/28/2005

The War on Terrorism Is in Disarray

Paul Munnis

On top of the illegal wiretapping activity authorized by Bush against thirty-six al Qaeda suspects comes news that their defense lawyers have been handed a possible defense by Mr. Bush.

“This evidence was gathered using illegal wiretaps by the NSA.”

Bingo, 36 cases against al Qaeda could now be contested and thrown out of court. It all comes down to whether or not the NAS info was used to arrest and/or prosecute.

For Mr. Bush, a major defense that he has invoked for himself over his illegal wiretapping has been that the government can use the information to prosecute terrorists. Yet as any defense attorney will let you know, Mr. Bush could be dead wrong. It’s just the opposite. Illegally gathered data can be a reason for clients to walk.

It seems that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Mr Yoo, Harriet Meirs, and other White House lawyers, plus former Attorney General John Ashcroft, all may have given Mr. Bush poor legal advice concerning breaking of the law. If so, they all need to share and take blame even if its just to to cover for the president’s office.

Mr. Bush’s defense against his impeachment may have just collapsed.

Mr. Bush is in growing legal trouble and it is getting worse by the hour.

When Congress reconvenes there is going to be a lot of miserable time spent on this subject for them and for the Bush Administration. It comes on top of a need to finish their work before the 109th Congress ends. The 110th Congress could be forced to become an impeachment Congress. Then the 2006 election follows. Bush could resign in there someplace. Ooops.

Mr. Bush could well have destroyed the GOP over this error. It’s a big deal.

Bush is being portrayed as a pathetic figure over his war-time leadership and in the quality of his presidential leadership decisions. He is accused of not working smart at all. He may have endangered his complete second term in office and he might have endangered all application of intelligence garnered by his illegal NAS operations. He also has exposed his presidency to impeachment. He risks being asked to resign from office and to abort his second term. All this is over Justice Department assurances and what now seems to be poor advice on how to fight the war on terrorism.

As we look back on the Bush presidency we must ask if he did anything right where the use of Intelligence information is concerned? The evidence so far would seem to be that he has failed miserably using the intelligence apparatus at his disposal from the time that he entered the White House. The effects of his policy at running illegal citizen spy operations could nullify the efforts of the involved agencies because he authorized the intelligence gathering apparatus for prosecution purposes. Will the 911 Commission now weigh-in once again on this subject? They might.

The fact that Mr. Bush even has to make a public defense for this action indicates to me that he is not a very good decision maker and that he has not organized his fight against terrorism very well. His staff needs to insulate him from this embarrassment too by protecting his office.

In spite of all the media implants that these gaffs do not hurt the Congressional election efforts in 2006 any politician worth their salt will totally disagree with that. It is terribly damaging. Bush has really blown it this time. He may have left the War on Terrorism in total disarray and could lose it because he didn’t know how to organize his Administration effectively. 

Yet to come are revelations concerning the lack of Congressional oversight of these efforts and why they were not effective in their checks and balance duties. Likely this will show that Congress did not do its job especially in Intelligence Oversight. That exposes senior members of Congress to an early retirement in the fall of 2006. Yes, this is a big deal and it will be determined and played out right after New Year is ushered in.

It appears that possible bad legal advice dates back to John Ashcroft in his first term and in the days following the 9/11 strike when the Justice Department saw an opportunity to use the NAS to spy for them. All of this will come out in due time if it is true. Until then, a lot of newpapers are gong to be carrying headlines with the title: “EXTRA, EXTRA, Read All About It...”

Another sad thing is that Bush is having trouble finding people who will work for him anymore. Reports are that he is in deep staffing trouble. It is said that working for Mr. Bush is now considered a blot on ones resume.