Πώς η κυβέρνηση περνά τους μυστικούς νόμους
Από Σων Gonsalves | Μια φορά κι έναν καιρό, μια ομάδα των ομοσπονδιακών πληρεξούσιων πήγε ενώπιον του ανώτατου δικαστηρίου να ανακαλύψει μόνο ότι η ολόκληρη υπόθεσή τους βασίστηκε σε μια ανακλημένη εκτελεστική διαταγή και επομένως ανακινεί.
Αληθινή ιστορία. Ανατρέξτε αυτό. Επιχείρηση καθαρισμού του Παναμά V. Ryan. Την ανακλημένη προεδρική διαταγή έλειψε δικαιολογημένα από οι πληρεξούσιοι. Η ανάκληση δεν εήταν δημοσιοποιημένη ποτέ - ένα παράδειγμα ποιων νομικών μελετητών αναφερθείτε ως «μυστικός νόμος.»
Οι περιπτώσεις όπως αυτήν προκάλεσαν το συνέδριο, στη δεκαετία του '30 και τη δεκαετία του '40, στη νομοθεσία μανδρών που στόχευσε να φέρουν τη διαταγή στη διάδοση των ζωτικής σημασίας κυβερνητικών πληροφοριών, ανάμεσα στη χαοτική πολυπλοκότητα των κρατικών διοικητικών νόμων και της ειλικρινούς κακής ποιότητας αρχειοθέτησης. Το συνέδριο καθιέρωσε επίσης τα καταστατικά για να κρατήσει ένα αυξανόμενο σώμα του μυστικού νόμου στον έλεγχο.
Έτσι φτάσαμε τον ομοσπονδιακό νόμο καταλόγων του 1935, το νόμο διοικητικών δικονομιών του 1946 και το χρυσό κλειδί στην ανοικτή κυβέρνηση (και την εξεταστική υποβολή έκθεσης) - ο νόμος ελευθερίας των πληροφοριών (FOIA).
Εκείνες οι νομοθετικές πράξεις εξηγούν ένα από τα χαρακτηριστικά γνωρίσματα καθορισμού της αμερικανικής κυβέρνησης - η κοινοποίηση των νόμων και των κανονισμών. Η πολιτική φιλοσοφία είναι δύσκολο να καταλαβευτεί. Οι μυστικοί νόμοι είναι η αντίθεση μιας ελεύθερης και ανοικτής κοινωνίας, η οποία εξηγεί γιατί οι πρώτες ΗΠΑ. Συνέδριο που εξουσιοδοτείται που κάθε «νόμος, τάξη, ψήφισμα, και ψηφοφορία () να δημοσιευθεί τουλάχιστον σε τρεις από τις δημόσιες εφημερίδες τυπώνω μέσα στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες.»
Αλλά, ποτέ μυαλό - προς το παρόν - η πτώση των εφημερίδων, και των επιβλαβών επιπτώσεων αυτό έχει για τη δημοκρατική διακυβέρνηση. Πιό ανησυχητικό είναι η αύξηση οι «μυστικοί νόμοι,» λαθραία καλλιεργημένος τα τελευταία χρόνια.
Μιλάμε όλα από τις μυστικές ερμηνείες του ξένου νόμου επιτήρησης νοημοσύνης και τις απόψεις από το γραφείο της νομικής συμβουλής (OLC) στις μυστικές προεδρικές οδηγίες και τις διαταγές ασφάλειας μεταφορών.
Και μην αφήστε τη λέξη «άποψη» να σας ρίξει μακριά. Εάν, παραδείγματος χάριν, είναι «απόψεις» που εκδίδονται από το OLC - όπως τα τώρα κακόφημα υπομνήματα βασανιστηρίων Yoo - εκείνο το είδος «οι απόψεις» είναι δεσμευτικές στον εκτελεστικό κλάδο.
Έτσι, ενώ τα βαρύς-hitters Τύπου της Ουάσιγκτον ανέλυαν τις καρφίτσες και τους πάστορες σημαιών, μια δικαστική ακρόαση υποεπιτροπών έγινε επάνω «Μυστικός νόμος και η απειλή στη δημοκρατική και υπεύθυνη κυβέρνηση».
Among the half-dozen or so witnesses to testify was the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, Steven Aftergood — one of the nation’s preeminent authorities on secret law. What should have been a top-story across the country was rendered invisible by a tsunami of triviality.
Here’s some testimony you probably missed:
“There has been a discernible increase in secret law and regulation in recent years” to the point where “legislative intervention” is required to “reverse the growth.”
Unsurprisingly, secret law really became entwined with the government during the Cold War. But today, “secrecy not only persists, it is growing. Worse, it is implicated in fundamental political controversies over domestic surveillance, torture, and many other issues directly affecting the lives and interests of Americans.”
The law that governs espionage activity has been re-interpreted by the FISA Court, the specific nature of which has not been disclosed to the public?
In August 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union petitioned the court on First Amendment grounds to make public those legal rulings, after redacting classified information. The court denied the ACLU petition, claiming it didn’t have the expertise to decide what information should be redacted.
The denial was issued despite it being evident “that there is a body of common law derived from the decisions of the (FISA court) that potentially implicates the privacy interests of all Americans. Yet knowledge of that law is deliberately withheld from the public. In this way, secret law has been normalized to a previously unknown extent and to the detriment, I believe, of American democracy,” Aftergood testified.
Other areas of concern: “there appears to be a precipitous decline in publication of OLC opinions in recent years … In 1995, there were 30 published opinions, but in 2005 there were 13. In 1996, there were 48 published opinions, but in 2006 only 1. And in 1997 there were 29 published opinions, but only 9 in 2007.”
“One secret OLC opinion of particular significance, identified last year by Sen. Whitehouse, holds that executive orders, which are binding on executive branch agencies and are published in the Federal Register, can be unilaterally abrogated by the President without public notice.”
Such orders mean “Congress is left with no opportunity to respond to the change and to exercise its own authority as it sees fit. Worse, the OLC policy … implies a right to actively mislead Congress and the public.”
Here’s something else that’s been waaaay underreported. As of January 2008, the Bush administration has issued 56 National Security Presidential Directives on a range of national security issues. Most of those directives have not been disclosed. “Texts of the directives or descriptive fact sheets have been obtained for about a third of them (19),” Aftergood testified. Only the titles have been obtained on 8 of the directives and absolutely no information is available for 10.
Congress has also gotten in on the action, having “participated in the propagation of secret law through the adoption of classified annexes to intelligence authorization of bills, for example.”
Aftergood concluded his testimony, rightly observing that “it should be possible to identify a consensual middle ground that preserves the security of genuinely sensitive national security information while reversing the growth of secret laws.”
That’s why he’s pushing for the passage of the State Secrets Protection Act – S. 2533 — which aims to balance conflicting interests of secrecy and public disclosure.
“The rule of law, after all, is one of the fundamental principles that unites us all, and one of the things we are committed to protect. Secret law is inconsistent with that commitment.”
Of course, whenever someone points out how civil liberties have taken a back-seat in the name of “national security” under Bush, what’s the typical response of true believers?
They call talk radio, blog and write letters-to-the-editor about how “liberals” and “leftists” aid and abet terrorists with a naive insistence that America’s political leaders adhere to quaint luxuries like long-established Constitutional freedoms.
The old saw — “loose lips sinks ships” — has been replaced by another now familiar brain-dead mantra: “if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” But the metastasizing growth of secret law pulls the rug out from underneath that flimsy argument. And for obvious reason: you can’t know what you don’t know.
See More:USA NewsHave Your Say: How the Government Is Passing Secret Laws
Please note, only selected comments will be published.
Or discuss this report in our our new forums
One Response to “How the Government Is Passing Secret Laws”
-
WeStillSleepin!?
Posted: May 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm | Link to this
Free Newsletter
Loading ...Related News
- US denies breaking torture laws after memos exposed
- White House Can Keep Its Secrets - For Now
- Secret drug company payments to doctors remain legal in 48 states
- Democrats Want to See Torture Memo
- The CIA’s open secrets
Email This Page To A Friend
Latest Headlines
- Burma ‘to allow in all aid workers’
- After Gitmo: The Government’s Responsibility
- Iraqi TV station says U.S. troops killed cameraman
- How the Government Is Passing Secret Laws
- Is Amsterdam turning into a prudish backwater?
- Here Come the Trials: A Military Commissions Cheat Sheet
- Criminal DNA left unchecked for 13 months
- Olmert to U.S.: Impose naval blockade on Iran
- DU Shells Used by U.S. Worse Than Nuclear Weapons
- U.S. Soldiers Did ‘Dirty Work’ for Chinese Interrogators
More Breaking News
Archive
There will be no election, The Patriot Act will be FULLY inforced, and we will be living under Busche & Military Law in the very near future and Walmart will be the only thriving store as it will be ran by the secret soon to be open government!!