Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

Scouring the web for legal news this past week, I happened to stumble across this fascinating article on Slate about all of the Bush Administration scandals and who could be prosecuted for them. I astounded by how many of these scandals could be traced back to top Bush administration officials, including VP Dick Cheney and Bush himself. But interestingly, it seems the most "tangled" of all our characters in this tragedy is someone you might not expect...

I'll go over a few of the highlights of the article, but I recommend everyone to check it out for themselves. We start, as always, at the top:

George W. Bush / Dick Cheney
Scandals Linked to: 3 (Torture, wiretapping, destroying CIA tapes)

The Web Looks something like: George W. Bush suspended Geneva Convention rights for detainees following the invasion of Afghanistan. He also admitted to essentially giving interrogators free reign on how to coerce answers from detainees, and of even secretly approving certain torture techniques. He also secretly ordered the NSA to wiretapp suspects without obtaining warrants, violating both the U.S. Constitution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). Cheney was part of the "principles committee" that met to approve certain torture techniques, such as the infamous "waterboarding" and even physical assault. On wiretapping, Cheney was said to have defended the President's program of warrantless wiretapping when the then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey expressed concern regarding its legality.

Likelihood of Prosecution: Extremely low. As Slate points out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't even talk about impeaching GWB and Cheney.

Harriet Miers
Scandals linked to: 2 (Destruction of CIA tapes, US Attorney firings)

The web looks something like: Miss Miers was one of the first Administration insiders to propose firing all 93 US Attorneys. She talked about the idea early on in Alberto Gonzales' tenure, but he dismissed the idea of a mass firing. Then, taking a page from the Joseph Stalin / Sadaam Hussein guide on rooting out dissenters, had DOJ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson produce a list of the 93 Attorneys ranked in order of who was most loyal to the Administration. In addition, Miers is listed as one of the chief architects behind the destruction of the CIA interrogation tapes, a role for which she is currently being investigated by John Durham of the Connecticut US Attorney's office for possible obstruction of justice charges.

Likelihood of Prosecution: Low-Medium. Like Karl Rove, Miers decided to duck out of a Congressional Subpoena in February 2008 and was thus slapped with a contempt charge by the House. Bush's incredibly broad definition of "Executive Privelage", however, means that Miers may eventually end up avoiding any kind of trial/testimony on her actions.

Alberto Gonzales
Scandals Linked to: 5 (Coercive Interrogation, CIA tapes, DOJ Hiring, DOJ Firing, Wiretapping)

The Web Looks like: And now we have the grand-daddy of them all, Alberto Gonzales. Implicated in every major scandal mentioned in the article, Alberto Gonzales' web stretches far and wide. To make things brief: He was on the war council, was one of the original advocators of using torture on detainees, advocated suspending Geneva rights, instructed the Administration on what to do with the CIA tapes, and deferred to Addington, Cheney and Rove on all of the scandals. On top of all this, he also lied to Congress when summoned to testify on his role in the DOJ firings, claiming he had no idea about the firings when emails showed he was briefed at least twice on them. He claimed that there was no debate about the legality of the warrantless wiretapping, when in fact there was, and played dumb in front of congress, apparently unable to recall "which fibs were which", before (mercifully) resigning from his office. Ah, yes, Alberto Gonzales - perhaps no single person has been as potent a force for subverting democracy and rule of law in the 21st Century as our embattled ex-Attorney General.

Likelihood of Prosecution: Not High Enough. While Gonzales' role on the War Council could land him in big trouble as a War Criminal, the likelihood of him being tried for War Crimes is slim to none. While he can be expressly linked to every major scandal, most accounts of his "service" to this country describe him as simply rubber-stamping whatever David Addington, Karl Rove, or Dick Cheney wanted.

As infuriating as it is to read about the breadth and vastness of corruption in the Bush Administration, it is only more frustrating once you realize that all of these potential criminals will likely never face charges for their actions. In the frenzy to combat extremists and fight the "war on terror", we gave our executive branch carte blanche to suspend civil liberties, violate the rule of law, and subvert democracy - in essence, eroding the very fabric of our society, what holds this country together. The Bush Administration has done more to damage the faith and belief in our democracy than anything Osama Bin Laden could have dreamed of. And that, perhaps, is the most tragic irony.

"It is lamentable that to become a good patriot, one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." ~ Voltaire