Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail
Gandalf Grey
Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail
by Amy Goodman
Karl Rove recently described George W. Bush as a book lover, writing, "There
is a myth perpetuated by Bush critics that he would rather burn a book than
read one." There will be many histories written about the Bush
administration. What will they use for source material? The Bush White House
was sued for losing e-mails, and for skirting laws intended to protect
public records. A federal judge ordered White House computers scoured for
e-mails just days before Bush left office. Three hundred million e-mails
reportedly went to the National Archives, but 23 million e-mails remain
"lost." Vice President Dick Cheney left office in a wheelchair due to a back
injury suffered when moving boxes out of his office. He has not only hobbled
a nation in his attempt to sequester information - he hobbled himself.
Cheney also won court approval to decide which of his records remain
private.
President Obama was questioned by George Stephanopoulos about the
possibility of prosecuting Bush administration officials. Obama said: "We're
still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of
interrogations, detentions and so forth. ... I don't believe that anybody is
above the law. On the other hand, I also have a belief that we need to look
forward as opposed to looking backward ... what we have to focus on is
getting things right in the future, as opposed to looking at what we got
wrong in the past."
Legal writer Karen Greenberg notes in Mother Jones magazine, "The list of
potential legal breaches is, of course, enormous; by one count, the
administration has broken 269 laws, both domestic and international."
Torture, wiretapping and "extraordinary rendition" - these are serious
crimes that have been alleged. Obama now has, more than anyone else, the
power to investigate.
John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has just subpoenaed
Rove while investigating the politicization of the Justice Department and
the political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. Rove
previously invoked executive privilege to avoid congressional subpoenas.
Conyers said in a press release: "I will carry this investigation forward to
its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court. ... Change has come to
Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who blocked impeachment hearings, is at least
now calling for an investigation. She told Fox News: "I think that we have
to learn from the past, and we cannot let the politicizing of the - for
example, the Justice Department - to go unreviewed. ... I want to see the
truth come forth."
Why not take it a step further?
Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who led the charge in Congress for impeachment of
Bush and Cheney, has called for "the establishment of a National Commission
on Truth and Reconciliation, which will have the power to compel testimony
and gather official documents to reveal to the American people not only the
underlying deception which has divided us, but in that process of
truth-seeking set our nation on a path of reconciliation."
Millions have served time in federal prisons for crimes that fall far short
of those attributed to the Bush administration. Some criminals, it seems,
are like banks judged too big to fail: too big to jail, too powerful to
prosecute. What if we apply Obama's legal theory to the small guys? Why look
back? Crimes, large or small, can be forgiven, in the spirit of unity. But
few would endorse letting muggers, rapists or armed robbers of convenience
stores off scot-free. So why the different treatment for those potentially
guilty of leading a nation into wars that have killed untold numbers,
torture and widespread illegal spying?
Which brings us back to Bush and books. Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit
451" is one of the titles in the National Endowment for the Arts' "The Big
Read." This ambitious program is "designed to restore reading to the center
of American culture." Cities, towns, even entire states choose a book and
encourage everyone to read it. In "Fahrenheit 451" (the temperature at which
paper spontaneously combusts), books are outlawed. Firemen don't put out
fires, they start them, burning down houses that contain books. Bradbury
said: "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to
stop reading them." The secretive Bush administration is out of power; the
transparency-proclaiming Obama administration is in. But transparency is
only useful when accompanied by accountability.
Without thorough, aggressive, public investigations of the full spectrum of
crimes alleged of the Bush administration, there will be no accountability,
and the complete record of this chapter of U.S. history will never be
written.
© 2009 The San Francisco Chronicle
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"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in
this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud
of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing
of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to
which we are committed today at home and around the world.
"
-John F. Kennedy, 1961