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in authorizing the break-in at the Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Offices and then covered it up, another violation. Of course, Nixon was pardoned by Gerald Ford, but that act again shows that in the US governmental system former presidents can be subjhect to prosecution for illegal behavior while in office. This is not an inconsequential issue, as the Bush administration has sought indemnity from prosecution from most of tyhe natyions of the world as a high priority during hie period in office. Obviously, that would not have been sought unless they recognized they were at risk of being prosecuted once they were out of office. Further, they would not have fear of potential prosecution, unless they recognized that what they were doing could indeed be interpreted as illegal conduct by others.

Bush, who is not a lawyer by training, education or occupation, has had his legal judgement overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on several occasions. He purposefully had "black sites" built outside of US territory in order to avoid having to abide by US laws in the treatment and prosecution of alleged terrorists and enemy combatants. That is the background to the Guantanamo prison in Cuba and other secret facilities in other countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Similarly, Bush has attempted to give himself the right to suspend habeas corpus for the persons of his choice. Obviously, these are attempts to avoid traditional US law and US court jurisdiction. If he were not president, these actions would most assuredly result in immediate arrest and prosecution for intentionally attempting to subvert the law.

Unfortunately, it is not only the US which has pursued torture of suspects. Of course, many undemocratic regimes have long used depraved techniques, but America being the oldest continuous republic and democracy, it gave credance to use of torture by many other countries. In other words, America provided a bad example that has been followed by others. In some cases, actual terrorists have felt justified in copying American torture techniques on American hostages. Clearly, once George W. Bush is out of office, his depraved pursuit of torture will require concerted effort to banish from American interrogation techniques. Torture has been shown to provide highly unreliable information (victims tend to say whatever they think the interrogators want to hear) and it compromises the integrity of our legal system and our society in general. The use of torture under Bush is similar to his Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strikes in that it presumes we are incapable of wrongdoing and assumes that whoever we say is a terrorist is guilty without trial.

Among the worst of the practices authorized by Bush is the killing of persons supposedly knon to be terrorists, even if they are unarmed and not representing a danger to anyone. Clearly, this is behavior that represents the thinking of people who consider themselves to be above the law. If it is nominally illegal, the officials would change the definition of the words in order to permit it. It is all a matter of perspective. Morality is relative to who, where and when. If someone known to be an good official servant gets in trouble, that person is removed from potential consequences, because he/she was acting under vague orders to use harsh techniques and followed them in good faith. Thus, in the worst cases, it amounts to legalized nurder. That is what George W. Bush has wrought.

Learn more about this author, Robert C. Sage.
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