I wasn't gonna do anything today but eat popcorn and watch the Abu G show on C-Span3. Really. But the extended break and scattered nature of the hearings were taking a lot of air out of my interest, so I went wandering around the internets looking for different takes on the morning's festivities.
I found something unrelated (well, specifically unrelated) to the mess at the DoJ, but the similarites are glaring in general terms, namely extralegal edicts issued by a recently appointed, politically-oriented administrator designed to obscure truth and stymie oversight.
The Pentagon is going to "unprecedented" lengths (free registration) to keep the truth from Congress:
As of April 19, 2007, no members of the military who are not:
- Bush appointees
- At least at the rank of colonel
can provide information to members of Congress, either in hearings or in personal briefings.
Want to guess who, what, and why?
On the flip
I came across this at TPM Muckraker, via the Boston Globe. Here's the lede:
The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed, according to Defense Department documents.
Oh, yeah - no transcripts. Wouldn't want anybody in Congress to check out the lies that will be told by the preapproved administration spokesbots military brass who have been cleared to talk to them.
Is anyone else seeing the same kind of crap going on at DoJ here?
Because there's more. Lots more:
(the new guidelines)add(s) that all field-level officers and enlisted personnel must be "deemed appropriate" by the Department of Defense before they can participate in personal briefings for members of Congress or their staffs; in addition, according to the memo, the proceedings must not be recorded.
Wilkie's memo also stipulated that any officers who are allowed to testify must be accompanied by an official from the administration, such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his top-level aides. (bolding mine)
"Deemed appropriate"? So either Congress has been doing things like quizzing the Pentagon janitorial staff on national security, or Bushco has an interest in keeping the truth from congress. Pick one.
And anyone who does go before congress, or even talks to a representative, has to have a minder there to prevent unauthorized facts from being divulged. Cue the Faux outrage that congress keeps hampering the war effort by making SecDef Gates go to the Hill for every appearance by every soldier before every committee. Pretty damn good obstruction tactic, eh?
This cannot have any motivation other than obstruction of proper congressional oversight. Even a few troglodytes Republicans smell a Rove rat here;
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress see the move as a blatant attempt to bog down investigations of the war. But veterans of the legislative process -- who say they have never heard of such guidelines before -- maintain that the Pentagon has no authority to set such ground rules.
The article goes on to say that, according to NYU law professor David Golove, there is "no legal basis" for these guidelines whatsoever. It also says that the subpoena power of Congress supercedes any guidelines a Bush stoolie might write up.
Another one of Bushco's Hail Mary passes. They have no legal standing to do this AT ALL, but they do it anyway, with the aim of running out the clock in court. The avenue of forcing congresscritters into issuing subpoenas for everything gives the RWNM its propaganda point of Dems going subpoena-crazy, too.
Oh, yeah, about that Bush stoolie, aka Robert Wilkie:
Let's see, he was an Army brat...used to be Counsel to Jesse Helms (no word on any involvement in the late Senator's interracial paternity troubles), as well as Counsel to Senator Trent Lott. His neocon credentials looked impeccable enough for him to rise to the level of Senior Director of the National Security Council in 2003. We know how objective and sober that group was in 2003. One of his big responsibilities between 2003 and 2005 - Iraq Reconstruction.
Heckuva job, Wilkie.
They'll be getting the lights on any day now.
So of course he got another promotion, this time to Assistant Secretary of Defense for legislative affairs. Except, in Bushworld, "legislative affairs" doesn't mean what it means. It means keeping (a Democratic) Congress out of the loop. Ham-handed tactics preferred, as always.
Wilkie was also the "principal staffer and editor of the national security section of the 2000 Republican Party Presidential Platform," according to his official biography. Wilkie is currently responsible for providing "guidance for centralized direction, integration, and control of DoD legislative affairs and liaison activities with the US Congress," according to a September 2006 Pentagon job description.
"Centralized...control...congress". Sounds, at a glance, like the idea is to facilitate communication with Congress, who, after all, must supply the money for all our grand and glorious Pentagon field trips around the world. Except that Bobby's only been on the job since Sept. 30, 2006, and this is the first time we hear from him - writing guidelines that are specifically designed to gag anyone in the military who might say something unapproved by the Commander Guy.
That is a purely political act, a purely political policy, put in by a purely politically-driven water boy who was approved by the Republicans just last fall.
Can anybody find one dram of support for the troops or furthering of the Great War Effort in this policy?
Anyone?
Goldberg?
Several congressional officials accused him (Wilkie) of attempting to muzzle the military's lower ranks, which are more likely to give Congress an unvarnished opinion compared with the top-level Pentagon brass, who typically seek to further the Bush administration's policies.
DUH. You won't be surprised to learn that Wilkie declined to be interviewed for the Globe article.
There has already been fallout from this unprecedented, legally bogus, obstructionist policy. Mere days after Wilkie wrote up his memo, DoD lawyers interrupted a congressional hearing on the status of training Iraqi troops to forbid three Army officers from giving their testimony. Objecting to the standard practice of recording committee meetings, the DoD lawyers and the testifying officers "stormed out of the room".
Result - information needed by lawmakers to assess the readiness level of Iraqi troops (remember Standup Standdown?) was thwarted, as was any ability to assess the administration's claims of wild success and billions of Iraqi troops anxious to kill Al Qaeda for us.
Mission Accomplished.