Bush legacy: Setting a standard in fear-mongering

[SHRED]

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Excellent article by Richard Clarke.
:applause:
:patriot:

Bush legacy: Setting a standard in fear-mongering
Richard A. Clarke is former head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council

When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place. Not only did its policies misappropriate resources, weaken the moral standing of America, and threaten long-standing legal and constitutional provisions, but the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda.

This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed.

Besides overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his favorite tactic - fear - as a tool to scare Congress and the American people. On one issue in particular - FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) - the president misconstrued the truth and manipulated the facts.

Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.

Simply put, it was wrong for the president to suggest that warrants issued in compliance with FISA would suddenly evaporate with congressional inaction. Instead - even though Congress extended the Protect America Act by two weeks - he is using the existence of the sunset provision to cast his political opponents in a negative light.


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[OneBlueSky]

1. "Setting a standard in fear-mongering" . . . and NOT to improve U.S. security, but . . .

for personal aggrandizement and financial gain for himself and his select coterie of friends and accomplices . . . a more unethical, immoral, and disgusting character trait I cannot imagine . . .

[jonnyra]

2. And dont forget

the million dead and rotting corpses and orphaned children and wounded soldiers and drowned victims in New Orleans also for "personal aggrandizement and financial gain for himself and his select coterie of friends and accomplices". The sick mother fucker in the white house is truly evil as is his whole administration. EVIL! And yet dems act like its just politics...its all too depressing.