Impeachment Prevents Pardons; Whistleblowers Wanted

Impeachment Prevents Pardons
by Bennet D. Zurofsky, Esq.

Let's not forget that each act of illegal surveillance was a felony under the provisions of FISA in effect at the time. Hopefully, whistleblowers will open up about much more than illegal electronic surveillance after January 20, but we should be demanding that the new Attorney General appoint a prosecutor to convene a grand jury to investigate not only the criminal FISA violations but also the numerous other crimes of Bush, Cheney and their underlings and henchmen, especially including their war crimes.

There are so many areas where Bush-Cheney have invoked executive privilege and/or state secrets/national security to deny Congress, the courts, and litigants information that should have been disclosed. I hope it is not vain to believe that the Obama administration will, at the least, bring all of this material into the full light of day and give such litigants as the victims of their extraordinary renditions and torture their day in court.

That assumes, of course, that Cheney, et al, do not have their shredders and hard disk destroyers working overtime to destroy the evidence and the records of their time in office. Of course, that destruction of public records and possible evidence of criminal activity is itself a crime, one that they have apparently already committed with regard to thousands of White House email communications.

Full accountability requires criminal investigation. Indeed, impeachment would be best for that is probably the only thing that could stop Bush from issuing pardons to all concerned, including himself, on the morning of January 20. Congress's abdication of this responsibility remains a great disgrace in our Constitutional history and, even though I would love to see President Nancy "impeachment is off the table" Pelosi sworn in in time to preside at President Obama's inauguration, such a glorious reassertion of its Constitutional powers by the lame duck Congress seems most unlikely.

I also fear that President Obama will decide that investigating the crimes of the Bush-Cheney White House would be too politically divisive an undertaking for his new administration and that, even in the absence of Bush pardons, the criminals will escape all punishment.

I hope that President Obama can be persuaded otherwise. The Bush-Cheney administration was not only incompetent and 100% wrong in almost every decision or action it took, it was also downright criminal under the federal criminal code. Downright criminality at such a high level should not go unpunished. If the American tax-payers are going to fund bodyguards, healthcare and pensions for Bush & Cheney forever, a lot of that should be provided by the criminal justice system under the same harsh terms that Bush & Cheney were the first to demand for those guilty of crimes considerably lesser than their own.

Anyone who cares to forward or publish this email is free to do so.

- Bennet D. Zurofsky