The Bush administration's history of blocked investigations

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The Bush administration's history of blocked investigations

Tj Templeton, POAC editor



For the people of this country to be free from tyranny, we the people must hold our leaders accountable for the actions they take. When questionable practices by the executive become apparent, it is the duty of our elected representatives in Congress to investigate these actions. Unfortunately since the republicans control all branches of government, this process is broken. The same party that had no problem launching fruitless investigations into the dealings of a Democratic president (Whitewater, travel-gate, file-gate, etc etc.) is completely unwilling to pursue investigations that the overwhelming majority of Americans are calling for. This is the administration that spent more money investigating Monica Lewinsky than they did the 9-11 tragedy. We know what they are willing to investigate, now let’s look at what they refuse to investigate.

· President Bush personally blocked inquiries into NSA warrantless domestic phone tapping program. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Senators internal investigators wanted to look at the role justice department lawyers had played in drafting the program. Mr. Bush had refused them security clearance. Originally it was said that the program was a response to 9-11. It’s since been learned that the U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to court papers filed in New York federal court on June 23. Sources: Think Progress and Andrew Harris, Bloomberg.com

· The Bush administration tried to block the creation of the 9-11 Committee. Not only did the White House oppose formation of the Commission, but resisted providing the Commission with the time and resources it needed to carry out its work. Time Magazine reported last year that the White House "brushed off" a request by Commission Chairman Tom Kean to boost the investigation's budget by $11 million, even though the Commission stated it could not complete the investigation without the funds. One would think that if the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history occurred on your watch, that you would want to investigate the events leading up to it to prevent it from happening again. Source: Center for American Progress Bush even prevented the committee from having access to their own notes.

· 9 billion missing in Iraq. No investigation . Six congressional committees are investigating the United Nations Oil-for-Food (UN) scandal, yet not a single Republican committee chairman will call a hearing to investigate the mishandling of $9 billion dollars by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has requested a Federal Grand Jury Investigation and California Democrat Mike Thompson is the chief sponsor of the War Funding Accountability Act which would have Congress review the accounting every three months. Certain other Congresspeople are refusing to investigate this theft of $9 billion, doesn’t that make them accessories to the crime? Source: Corpwatch.org

· Bush blocked the investigation into the nation's worst power blackout in history, back in 2003. The Bush administration consolidated the investigation into the nation's worst power blackout, saying that the usual industry watchdog group would forgo its independent probe and work with The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), an industry-sponsored group . Source: H. Josef Hebert , Associated Press

· White House Blocks Pentagon/AIPAC Spy Investigation An FBI investigation into suspected security breaches involving Pentagon officials and Israel is unlikely to result in prosecution of senior figures following pressure from the White House, according to people familiar with the case. The investigations came to light in 2004, when officials confirmed reports that a mid-level analyst at the Pentagon, was the subject of an FBI inquiry into whether he passed classified information to an Israeli diplomat in Washington and to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential lobby group. Source: Guy Dinmore © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004.