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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSenator Durbin took an oath, hundreds of thousands died
By Charles Davis
http://m.aljazeera.com/story/2013711112155573372
Loyalty can kill
On April 25, 2007, Durbin took to the Senate floor to reveal a shocking secret: As a member of the Intelligence Committee during the run-up to the war in Iraq, he knew the Bush administration was lying."
"I would read the headlines in the paper in the morning and watch the television newscasts and shake my head because, you see, just a few hundred feet away from here in a closed room, carefully guarded, the Intelligence Committee was meeting on a daily basis for top-secret briefings about the information we were receiving, and the information we had in the Intelligence Committee was not the same information being given to the American public," he said.
....
The thing is, the only thing that stopped Durbin from breaking his oath was not any law, but his own cowardice (Durbin later excused his behaviour by saying that he could have been kicked off the Intelligence Committee or been sent to the prison he wants Snowden housed in).
leveymg
(36,418 posts)It's broken.
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)no collection of secret opinions changes that
leveymg
(36,418 posts)I can see how, in the not-too-distant future, a US Attorney could characterize such sentiment in an announcement like this:
The deceased is known to have repeatedly expressed anti-law enforcement and anti-judicial sentiments. He has posted anti-government statements on extremist web sites. This gave analysts reasonable articulable suspicion that the defendant poses a threat to the United States, and all legal requirements were followed in his targeting, including a Presidential tasking order, and ultimate demise by remotely-operated drone.
merrily
(45,251 posts)they are the ones that say when the Constitution is being violated or not.
We're screwed and no one is going to save us unless we do it ourselves, but not many seem to get that.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)If you can find an honest politician from Chicago, they will likely be a tourist.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)This is the Oath that Senators take before entering office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Quite obviously Durbin considers himself more important that the country.
merrily
(45,251 posts)knowing Bush was lying and not telling the public that?
byeya
(2,842 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)Even if that were the only mistake he ever made--and it isn't--it would be enough.
BTW, Durbin is also wrong to say Snowden has committed a crime. The Constitution requires a presumption of innocence, and opportunity to confront witnesses and defend, a jury trial, etc. etc. etc. before anyone in government has a right to declare that someone is criminal. He took an oath to defend the Constitution. That includes the Bill of Rights that says Snowden is entitled to all those things.
Paper Roses
(7,473 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)It's not like we're talking about stuff that matters to the bigwigs in Washington DC.
"Money trumps peace." -- George W Bush, Feb. 14, 2007
ElsewheresDaughter
(24,000 posts)Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)Hydra
(14,459 posts)I remember how many people told me that illegal orders were not followed in the US.
Staying silent during the planning of war crimes? Should we have even bothered with Nuremberg? It makes us look like total hypocrites now.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)Yes, and I'm talking about the congress members that violated their oath to defend the constitution when they voted for the Patriot Act, as well as Bush and Obama and the NSA.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Since he expressed support for cuts to social security, among other things.