Monday, February 23, 2009
Caspar Weinberger: Guilty, but Pardoned
A solid majority of Americans want an investigation into some of the seemingly illegal excesses of the administration of George W. Bush, such as the use of torture, secret prisons and wiretapping without warrants. The question is: What kind of investigation and with what goals? Fortunately, the United States has been around long enough to have established at least three possible precedents. Writing in The New York Times, Scott Shane sheds lists these examples.
Choice #1: A Criminal Investigation
By: The Justice Department or an independent prosecutor
Example: The Iran-Contra Scandal, in which the Reagan administration traded arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages in Lebanon, and then used the profits from the sales to illegally fund guerrilla forces opposed to the Nicaraguan government. Oliver North and other administration officials also altered and destroyed evidence. Televised Congressional hearings revealed a tawdry and arrogant world. Eventually, eleven defendants were convicted of crimes, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and National Security Advisors Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter. Before leaving office, President George H. W. Bush pardoned six of the defendants, including Weinberger and three members of the CIA.
Choice #2: A Non-Criminal Congressional Investigation
By: The U.S. Senate and/or the House of Representatives
Example: The Church Committee which, in 1975, investigated illegal activities by the CIA, the FBI and the NSA, some of which had been revealed during the Watergate Scandal. Chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), the eleven-member committee made a series of recommendations, one of which led to passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that created a secret court to authorize warrants for domestic wiretapping. It was this act that the administration of George W. Bush violated almost 30 years later.
Choice #3: A Non-Criminal Study by a Blue-Ribbon Panel
By: A bi-partisan commission of respected Americans currently outside the government.
Example: The 9/11 Commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The work of the 9/11 Commission was greatly hampered by the Bush administration’s refusal to share information, including access to the ten detainees the administration said were either responsible for the attacks or aware of them.
To Investigate or Not: Four Ways to Look Back at Bush (by Scott Shane, New York Times)
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