Department of Orwellian Excesses

[L. Coyote]

Department of Orwellian Excesses
Scott Horton - Jan 8, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002104


A few weeks ago, I testified before the Judiciary Committee in connection with their examination of crimes committed among contractors in Iraq. This was a matter within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. The crimes described, and well documented, notably the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, were horrendous. She had been gang-raped, brutally assaulted, and then imprisoned for fear that she would tell her story to the outside world. In the end, Ms. Jones said she was barely able to escape Baghdad with her life. And where was the Justice Department in all of this? ................

[gratuitous]

1. Well gee whiz

I don't think anyone could have predicted that . . .

Of course, once it's happened (or more accurately, once it has finally been reported to have happened), the Bush administration can't scramble away fast enough from the mess, pointing fingers in every other direction. This is what has become of our country under the Republicans, and what we can look forward to if we're stupid enough to install another Republican administration. And whoever succeeds Bush and his gang had damn well better be looking into their crimes, and prosecuting every last one of them. We failed to end the careers of the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Fred Thompson back in the 1970s, and we're paying for even bigger crimes today. I don't want to be opening the papers in 2033 to find Josh Bolten corrupting the United States again.