December 29, 2007

Down the rabbit hole

Earlier this month, senator Sheldon Whitehouse made a stunning revelation: the president is not legally obliged to follow his own executive orders.

...

Whitehouse raised the issue in the context of the executive order that governs surveillance. As he explained, that executive order is the only thing preventing US intelligence agencies from spying on Americans when they travel abroad. But since the president can ignore that executive order if he chooses, that protection amounts to little. "[U]nless Congress acts," Whitehouse said, "here is what legally prevents this president from wiretapping Americans travelling abroad at will: nothing. Nothing." Of course, Americans would have no way of knowing that their government could wiretap them as they travel abroad, because they have no way of knowing whether the president has modified an executive order without revealing it publicly. On the contrary, since the order appears untouched, Americans would fairly believe they were safe from wiretaps overseas, all because the department of justice's office of legal council ruled the president doesn't have to tell us when he changes the rules.

The executive order governing surveillance may not be the only one that Bush has modified without revealing he has done so. It appears that Bush has also modified the executive order governing the treatment of classified information from its plain text meaning.


And we allow them to get away with this shit.

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