by Sandi Crain

Created on: October 02, 2009

Too Many Secrets in Washington

One of my favorite phrases is "evil hides in secrecy" and it's never more apparent than in Washington D.C. today. Going only as far back as 2001, the international reputation of the United States has been destroyed by the secret goings on in the dark halls of government.

Although regime change in Iraq was being planned by think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations long before the events of September 11, 2001, no one bothered to tell us this as our leaders sought to convince the American people that there was actually a correlation between Saddam Hussein and the perpetrators of 9-11. Millions of innocent Iraqis have died because of this deception and millions more have been displaced. The cost of secrecy in this case was just too high.

Then there's the Patriot Act. This massive tome was delivered to congress so quickly after 9-11 that it's suspected it was written before the event. It was then demanded that Congress sign it without having time to read it. The result of this has been a shredding of the rights of the American people. Had the American people been shown what was actually in the Patriot Act we probably wouldn't have allowed it to go through. As it stands now, we're stuck fighting for the return of the rights we have lost and that fight could go on for years. The authoritarian authors of such a draconian policy won't easily give up the power they fought so hard to win.

Torture and extraordinary rendition is another secret that We the People would have benefited from knowing about beforehand . Where is our international standing now that everyone knows that our government literally kidnapped people off the streets and sent them out of the United States to be tortured? These detainees have not had charges brought against them nor have they had the benefit of a defense attorney and many are completely innocent of any crime. I honestly worry that when all is said and done that the United States will take Nazi Germany's place in the history of evil empires.

The United States is supposed to be a nation For the People and By the People. How can it be so if our elected leaders are keeping secrets from us then making decisions for us that are rooted in deception? We need to know what's going on. The excuse that the American people must be kept in the dark for national security purposes is just plain bunk. International spying is so technologically advanced that every leader in the world knows exactly what every other leader in the world is doing at any given time. The only ones who don't know what's really going on are average citizens. It's time we change that.

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