Cheney's Family Jewels

While lying media whore Ann Coulter dragged Chris Matthews and Hardball into the gutter today on MSNBC, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was busy tackling serious issues.

Giving Coulter a platform to spew her hateful rancor – thinly and disingenuously disguised as “humor” – is as inappropriate as allowing Noah Wiley to speak about heart disease on a panel sponsored by the American Medical Association. Shame on Chris Matthews.

Meanwhile, Blitzer showcased one of the most fascinating and historically important developments in Washington since the Pentagon Papers: the publishing by the CIA of an internal expose entitled “Family Jewels.” Prompted in large part by Freedom Of Information Act requests, Jewels is a detailed accounting of cold-war era CIA excesses from the ‘50s through the ‘70s.

Though many details are still forthcoming, such excesses included employing the Mafia to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, providing materials and assistance to domestic law enforcement, spying on domestic anti-war demonstrators and spying on domestic journalists who published sensitive government data.

Recall that the CIA is prohibited from operating domestically - the exclusive turf of the FBI.

Significant about this publication is the weight it gives those who have been screaming for decades that the CIA was involved in dirty and illegal deeds, and the shadow it casts over those increasingly ridiculous deniers who all along claimed that the CIA was a lily-white tower of patriotic virtue.

In other words, this tome is yet another example of how our nation does wrong while trying to maintain the illusion of doing right. This alone should underscore how crucial it is for dissent and criticism to play a central role in government and politics, because sadly, denying citizens their constitutional rights by placing them under illegal surveillance isn’t a thing of the past. The recent warrantless wiretapping scandals are proof. So is Dick Cheney.

As recently as this week Vice President Cheney claimed he was not subject to laws governing how the Executive Branch compiles and stores official communications…because he does not consider himself part of the Executive Branch! At least not today.

Setting aside the fact that Dick Cheney doesn’t want investigators and historians to read his emails and memos because they would reveal damning evidence of his blatant dishonesty, malicious temperament and disastrous incompetence, Cheney would rather insult the intelligence of the American public by claiming that he is above the law rather than complying with it.

While the CIA's Jewels are a chilling confirmation of the excesses of power and the ease with which the institutions of government can be co-opted into actions that are un-American, unpatriotic and against everything we say we stand for, Cheney’s malevolent authorizations of surveillance, rendition, unconditional detention and torture (the very same dirty laundry that the CIA is now admitting) are the most recent embodiments of power run amok.

The CIA did a great service to the nation by releasing this unflattering information. Hopefully it will motivate Congress to hold the Executive Branch accountable for its actions. Because until we hold our so-called leaders accountable for their misdeeds, nothing will change. Thanks to Cheney, the first step will be forcing the Bush Crew to comply with the law instead of holding themselves above it. Because few things are more disgraceful than leaders who hold themselves above the law. And as history confirms, few things are more dangerous.

- JT Compton

v