Has Bush become an Unlawful Combatant?

I found this over at the Populist Party, which is "a political party that seeks solutions to our problems through the establishment of a Constitutional Democracy and strict adherence to the Bill of Rights. Your liberty is our goal; governmental form is simply the method to achieving it." While I tend to agree with most of the philosophies of this party, the commentary is sometimes a bit to defamatory for my own personal taste, but they are very passionate about their cause and a good read when you have a few minutes of time.

I honestly have no idea if what is alleged below has really happened in the way detailed or not, or is this just another political bigmouth, looking for attention to spout his opinion or to sell his book or who has an ax to grind? One of the problems with today's political environment and with this concept of Web 2.0 is that anyone can say anything and if said with enough conviction than it must be true. Hell, that is what I am doing now.

What I cannot figure out about this piece is how do we convince our legislators to investigate to determine if this is true or not? How do we get the mainstream media to look for todays Deep Throat, someone who is morally opposed to what is happening in the government, to look into the dark corners and confirm or deny rumors or suspicions like this, rather than trying to report shallow entertainment related news?

Without someone in authority, who has the courage to ask the tough questions, to guide the general public to what is real, and what is fluff or spin, we will never know. Now all that happens is the pundits just blow harder in an attempt to enrage their opponents and motivate their supporters. So ultimately the message and messenger becomes more and more extreme because that is what is getting the attention from the mainstream media. This is the preferred path today, rather than engaging in an actual discussion to determine what is best for the country and working together and cooperating to actually accomplish some good. This would certainly assist us in determining whether the administration is pilfering funds, and not allowing congress to investigate because the chief executive has signed non-binding statement.

I realize that Congress could spend its entire term investigating the improprieties of the executive branch, past administrations included, but maybe that will keep the role of the president limited to their constitutional responsibilities, rather than trying to be the decider against the wishes of the people, or the guy who sells evenings at the White House to top fundraisers.

It would not be shocking if this administration is attempting to pull similar shenanigans that the Reagan administration tried in Central America in the mid to late 1980's. It also seems like a bad idea to implement another plan, which is very similar to a plan that was a public relations disaster and might not have even achieved the desired gains in the first place. For as much as I bust upon the President and Vice-President, I cannot believe they are this stupid. But maybe that is exactly what is going on, who knows?

In my humble opinion it was worth printing the whole article by Dave Lindorff, let me know what you think about it and help me decide.

It was always clear that the $21 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds, most of which disappeared into Iraq (much of it was in the form of bales of $100 bills), didn't just vanish.

Given the number of veterans of the Iran-Contra scandal operating in the Bush White House and Pentagon--many of them convicted felons or unindicted co-conspirators in that baroque criminal scandal from the Reagan presidency--it seemed obvious that such easy cash would end up being funnelled into secret wars and secret military projects, as well as other nefarious activities.

Now we learn from ace investigative reporter Sy Hersh, speaking on CNN that Bush and his criminal crew have been using this illicit, stolen cash to fund covert attacks on Iranian targets, and that much of the money has been going--get this--to Sunni jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda--the very people we're fighting in Iraq!

This is surely taking that old saw, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," to the extreme! First we let Osama Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora, and now we're funding him and his allies, supposedly to attack our new enemy, Iran. It's enough to make you queasy. Osama must be laughing all the way to the bank. First we set him up, when we wanted him to attack the Soviets in Afghanistan. Then he turned on us and attacked us. And now we're back to supporting him again.

No wonder when Congress passed a bill creating an office of inspector general to check on all that vanishing Iraq cash, Bush furtively issued one of his "signing statements" saying that the new inspector would be barred from examining any funds that involved the Pentagon--effectively nullifying the law!

Now, it should be pointed out that under anti-terrorism legislation submitted by the administration and passed into law by the Congress, providing aid to Al-Qaeda or to organizations in any way linked to terrorism is a federal crime and classifies the perpetrator as an abettor of terrorism and even as an "unlawful combatant," subject to loss of citizenship rights, and suitable for rendition to Guantanamo or some other secret torture hell-hole.

I suppose the proper thing at this point would be for some patriotic prosecutor or some general to march into the White House and haul the president off to be waterboarded until he lays out all the details of his treasonous actions. (Sure he is the president and is immune from prosecution, but if he's an "unlawful combatant," none of that applies. The president has declared this to be so.)

For make no mistake: secretly providing money to terrorist organizations that are daily attacking Americans in Iraq, in order to ignite a new war against Iran, especially at a time that the US military is stretched beyond the limit in Iraq, is nothing short of treason. Even viewed in a more minimalist way, absconding with public funds and diverting them to illegal purposes is criminal fraud.

If Congress does not jump on this immediately, its members will have betrayed their oaths and the nation.

These are dangerous times. We are being led by bloodthirsty men drunk with power and the people who are supposed to be standing up to them are afraid to lift a finger.

The time is fast approaching when the only way America's beleaguered and abused troops will be able to defend themselves will be by laying down their arms--or perhaps turning them on their demented leaders.

If this is true then the mainstream media should be ashamed of themselves since they are clearly not doing the jobs. Being a member of the mainstream media means that you are responsible to the citizens of the country to investigate and report on wrong doing. You need to be a bulldog and not except a sound bite for an answer. You need to keep asking questions until you get relevant and valid answers. And you need to find additional sources who will provide information, because activities like the described above will most definitely leave a money trail. Someone will talk eventually, they always do, but only if the right questions are ask in the right manner at the right time. That means asking the same question multiple ways that cannot be misinterpreted or misconstrued by a lawyer. Too much time and money is spent on Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears and Posh Spice since that is what the masses want.

I am unable to ask those questions to people that matter beyond my elected officials, one of which is already known as a lying sack while another is off gallivanting around the country in an attempt to convince the country that he should be president. I am only able to sit here and question what is really happening, and how is this in my best interest as a citizen of this country? Even if it is not true, how is it possible that 21 billion dollars can just go missing? There are too many open ended questions here not to continue to pursue an answer. Even if we as a country don't like the answer. Even if some of the presidents supports agree with this tactic, the question of the constitutionality of these allegations remain unanswered and we the people deserve an answer. But hey, that is just me.