Graham Corroborates Pelosi
FWIW, Greg Sargent’s account of his interview with Bob Graham seems to suggest Graham may have gotten even less in his briefing on torture than Nancy Pelosi did in September 2002.
“I do not have any recollection of being briefed on waterboarding or other forms of extraordinary interrogation techniques, or Abu Zubaydah being subjected to them,” Graham told me by phone moments ago, in a reference to the terror suspect who had been repeatedly waterboarded the month before.
Graham is the only other Dem aside from Pelosi to get briefed in 2002, so they are both in effect asserting that no Dem was briefed on the use of EITs that year. The date of the next briefing was in February 2003.
Graham claimed he would have remembered if he’d been told about the use of torture. “Something as unexpected and dramatic as that would be the kind of thing that you would normally expect to recall even years later,” he said.
[snip]
Graham denied being told about EITs, and argued that the presence of two staff members at the meeting (as indicated in the records) would have made it “highly unusual” for the briefers to divulge such sensitive info. “I don’t recall having had one of those kinds of briefings with staff present,” he said. “That would defeat the purpose of keeping a tight hold” on the info.
Graham, however, was circumspect on what was actually discussed, saying only that “the general topic had to do with detainee interrogations” but didn’t include any reference to EITs or waterboarding.
Click through to see the account of a US Official (remember–the torture briefing list came via the Director of National Intelligence office from the CIA) saying only that CIA records say Graham was briefed on torture. Right. Yes. We know CIA is not vouching for the accuracy of those documents.
Pelosi has said, a variety of times, that the opinions approving some interrogation techniques were discussed, but that they weren’t told the techniques were going to be used or–much more importantly–had been used. [Update: here’s the statement her spokesperson Brendan Daly put out last week: "As this document shows, the Speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002. The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used."] Or to put it very simply for those who still don’t get this, Pelosi has been saying that CIA briefed them on the legality of using torture, but did not admit (and may have specifically denied) that they had used these torture techniques. Pelosi is making a temporal claim as much as anything else.
But Graham is making a much more expansive claim, saying techniques were not discussed in the least.
Now, I can think of two explanations for that (aside from either forgetfulness or deception on one or both of their parts): that Pelosi is remembering learning (according to a confidant) about the waterboarding in February 2003, and her statements reflect that. Or that the Senate intell leaders (Graham and Shelby) really did get a less extensive briefing than the House intel leaders (Goss and Pelosi) in 2002.
And I can think of two reasons for the latter scenario–the Senate getting less of a briefing than the House. After all, in the Senate, the Dems were temporarily in the majority in 2002, which meant Graham would be the senior member of that team, whereas on the House side, Republican Goss was. More interesting, though, is the timing laid out in this old Murray Waas article (h/t Laura Rozen), showing that at precisely the time the Administration was failing to inform Congressional intel leaders about its upcoming plan to torture (June 2002), Cheney was beating up Bob Graham about the leaks that–it appears–came from Richard Shelby.
Early on the morning of June 20, 2002, then-Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla., received a telephone call at home from a highly agitated Dick Cheney. Graham, who was in the middle of shaving, held a razor in one hand as he took the phone in the other.
The vice president got right to the point: A story in his morning newspaper reported that telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency on September 10, 2001, apparently warned that Al Qaeda was about to launch a major attack against the United States, possibly the next day. But the intercepts were not translated until September 12, 2001, the story said, the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Because someone had leaked the highly classified information from the NSA intercepts, Cheney warned Graham, the Bush administration was considering ending all cooperation with the joint inquiry by the Senate and House Intelligence committees on the government’s failure to predict and prevent the September 11 attacks. Classified records would no longer be turned over to the Hill, the vice president threatened, and administration witnesses would not be available for interviews or testimony.
Moreover, Graham recalled in an interview for this story, Cheney warned that unless the leaders of the Intelligence committees took action to discover who leaked the information about the intercepts — and more importantly, to make sure that such leaks never happened again — President Bush would directly make the case to the American people that Congress could not be trusted with vital national security secrets.
[snip]
The private complaint was followed by a very public rebuke.
Later that day, then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer read from a prepared statement: "The president [has] very deep concerns about anything that would be inappropriately leaked that could … harm our ability to maintain sources and methods and anything else that could interfere with America’s ability to fight the war on terrorism."
[snip]
As a result of the White House pressure over the NSA intercept leak in June 2002 — applied through Cheney’s phone call — Graham and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., asked the Justice Department to investigate whether any members of Congress (including themselves) or their staffs were responsible for the leak. Prosecutors and FBI agents later zeroed in on Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who was then the ranking member on Senate Intelligence, as the person most likely responsible for disclosing the information to the press.
The (alleged) Shelby leak provided the Administration with a very convenient excuse–at precisely the time they made the decision to get in the torture business–to withhold legally mandated briefings on torture. But by September of that year, it may have also led the Administration to treat the Senate intell leaders even more cautiously than the House side. So it is possible they chose to give a different briefing to Graham and Shelby.
But the big news should be what it always has been–that the Bush Administration and the CIA did not give the legally required briefing on their covert ops to Congress.
Thanks for the info, EW. But at the end of the day, Congress is not the executive branch.
Congressmen and senators can, and should, be held accountable by the voters.
Members of the Bush Administration need to be made to answer to a special prosecutor.
Dagnabbit EW, you caught me EPUing on the last thread! *g*
So I’ll just have to throw my comment in here too!
In a little noticed “hoisted by his own petard” moment, Crazy Pete Hoekstra’s letter to the DNI and CIA last Friday made what seems to be a “jump the shark” typical Repug illogic leap:
(My Bold)
So, the gist of Crazy Pete Hoekstra’s illogic is that the CIA Torture briefing list is incomplete and inaccurate, but that somehow their MFRs are amazingly complete and accurate.
The fact that both can’t be true seems to escape Crazy Pete Hoekstra entirely.
And for the record (consider this my own MFR *g*), might I suggest that the CIA has always had an institutional bias for not keeping accurate records of things?
Ha! Just minutes in the door and EPUed you!
And I bet the briefings Hoekstra knows about are the ones in 2005 where the CIA lied to Congress, per Mary McCarthy.
And minor typo of Seante should be Senate.
Thanks.
My personal feeling is that Graham is probably the one person in this whole mess who is most likely to tell the truth. I hope he appears if there are hearings aimed at unraveling the notification mess. It would be very interesting for him to have a forum to speak more freely about what happened.
And once again, we see “state secrets” invoked to hide government incompetence.
Can you imagine the prosecution that would have followed if it had been Graham instead of Shelby who leaked? Leaks are okay if you’re a Republican. Just ask Armitage.
Agreed about Graham being truthful if he testified.
These good words about Graham seem ironically to underscore why Cheney would have wanted Graham ‘out of the info loop’. He’d surely have tolerated and subverted a lapdog to his plans.
Where are the famous Graham journals/logs? I am semi joking here, but he used to be literally famous for these. I would be somewhat surprised he doesn’t have a an entry that says “Note to self: heard weird things today- very disturbing – whats up with that?” Or something. Either that or a specific recollection that he thought about making such an entry, even a cryptic one, and didn’t because of the sensitivity of the information.
The fact that he professes to be clueless on this IS fairly noteworthy.
As you say, Graham is famous for his daily notebook(s) and the minute detail he employs in them. For a detail guy like Graham, his forgetfulness and reliance on memory alone is a strange and curious case. Recall also that Graham was quite a rabble rouser in the run up to the war. Then after throwing his hat in the ring for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination, Graham couldn’t pull a 180 fast enough – even chucking his vaunted Senatorship to spend more time with his family. Graham’s association with Bushie Porter Goss does not reflect well on him here either.
Wow, what a catch, EW.
After the past years watching things play out, it makes sense that prior to the activation of the WHIG group in fall 2002, Cheney was using whatever devices he could to defang Congress.
If it hadn’t been the risk of the leak, IMVHO, Cheney would have found some other excuse to freeze out Senators or anyone who didn’t agree with him.
FWIW, Lawrence O’Donnell offers up some skewering psychological insight into Cheney on “Hardball” today.
LOL! In other words, Cheney hasn’t been able to tell the difference between a vital national security secret and his fully uncovered ass from the get go. This really would be hilarious if the consequences of his self-serving inability to tell the difference hadn’t been so tragic.
OMG. This is so scary. I’m about to join the conspiracy theorists.
welcome…
But, but, butt….
If Bob Graham’s recollection corroborates Pelosi’s, then that takes all the fun out of the hyperventilating newsipundits process speculation and we can’t have that….right, Tweety?
A-yep.
Cheney warned Graham, the Bush administration was considering ending all cooperation….Classified records would no longer be turned over to the Hill, the vice president threatened, and administration witnesses would not be available for interviews or testimony.
well, thank Dawg he never followed through with *that* threat.
I mean, Harriet and Rover could be testifying any year now…..
watertiger is upstairs at the Mothership!
Late Night: The Republican Exodus, or “Rush Commands It, Bitches!”
Here’s the part of Graham’s statement that interests me:
I’m guessing he has something particular in mind when he says that. Because, there is a special type of memory we have for very shocking information. You not only recall the information, but you have a vivid awareness of where you were and how you felt at that very moment. He has something particular in mind when he says that.
Now it’s possible he’s simply thinking of how vividly he recalls other shocking information. But – and now I’m thinking like a therapist here – I’m guessing he has a particular moment in mind. I’m guessing there’s another moment for him, a moment when he did realize, fully, that torture was going on. And he realized it with a sense of shock. If I’d been the interviewer (thinking as I do, like a psychologist), I would have asked him, gee…. when did you have that dramatic and unexpected realization? About what was happening to these detainees?
I’ll admit this is a supposition. But honestly I’m betting he had a “torture moment” when the full reality hit him. He recalls where and when it happened. And that’s why he’s so sure that it was not in Sept of 2002.
I hope I haven’t gone too far afield from this thread. It certainly would buttress EW’s point – that the CIA did not duly inform legislators, as they should have. (And I’m fascinated with her theory about that.)
But I sure wish I could ask Graham: When exactly did you have that torture moment? Because, given the way he described that:
there’s a memory there and I’d bet money it’s related to a very specific lightbulb moment.
Yes. I feel it too.
the list of essential questions you mentioned in the previous post should be outlined with follow-up ?s and comments.
Listed by witness and topic
EW and contributors can offer the careful organization the Watergate hearings staff made
Sen. Bill Graham: When exactly did you realize, fully, that torture was going on? Who else was in the room? What were the specific words used and by whom?
I hope the speech and debate clause research is progressing. The state secrets is the obverse. There is a milieu to re-create with respect to the similar appearing response from Sen G and Rep P. Consider the winter 2008 article from Aftergood, or that unattributed version of what looks much like an Olc 2006 way postipsofacto rumination concerning the early theory emanating from the administration on how to make an amalgam of Fisa statutory construct and Aumf. That Graham interview while shaving has been on the internet years. I appreciate his continued discretion in that regard.
~~~ModNote: The above links are direct to PDF-format documents.~~~
I think he had a Heart Attack around that time. That delayed his campaign enough to keep him out.
I’ve said several times that I think Graham quit in disgust about something and he feared/honored the classified nature of what he knew too much to talk about it.
I said 6 months ago that he’s the one who knows what was going on if we can get him to open up. Unfortunately by the time I come home and catch up with all the comments, these threads are too old for anyone to notice. ~sigh~
I noticed! That could be a bonanza come trial time.
I noticed too. And while my noticing is probably not even worth the time it’s taking to type this, I do think Graham has a bigger role to play in untangling this mess.
Senate Judiciary To Review Torture, DOJ OLC (Wed)
May 11, 2009, 6:07PM
“Senate Judiciary has scheduled a hearing for this Wednesday, May 13th, 2009.
“Senate Judiciary Hearing: “What Went Wrong: Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration”
“One expected witness Philip Zelikow crafted a dissenting opinion, which the House Judiciary has requested of State. Sen. Leahy sent a letter to Judge Bybee inviting him to discuss similar issues. “
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsme…..ef=reccafe
I sure hope this hearing will be liveblogged…
Looking at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s website, it appears that the hearing will be webcast. At least there’s a webcast button there.
Also, it appears that C-Span will be streaming the audio from the hearing. It’s the Wed, 10:00 am entry.
It doesn’t appear to be scheduled for C-Span, C-Span2 or C-Span3.
Yes yes, the hearing will be liveblogged.
Yay! Many thnx,
haaa, I thought I was way too late on this one tonight as well! I forgot I had no OT tonight. It usually takes me hours to catch up on all the comments here.
Graham was an interesting guy. I get the impression of a rare congress-critter with a measure of integrity. I think he saw the viciousness coming and didn’t want to slug it out in the mud with these criminals. Not his style. He also was the first sign I saw of the extortion coming from this group.
JohnJ, I always read your comments!
You mention ‘extortion’. There’s no way that anyone could have ’set up’ Shelby of Alabama to ‘leak’, and then double-whammied him with threats…or is there?
Interesting coincidence — and I’m not being a conspiracy theorist, because I mean it is actually a very interesting and intriguing thing that Shelby is from Alabama. The very state that Alice Fisher had been mucking about with fed prosecutor Leura Canary, wife of a Mr. Canary who’s in tight with K-k-karl Rove.
(I do have a conspiracy theory that Rove, et al, were using the Indian Casinos to move huge sums of money in and out of the US, and fund heaven only knows what sorts of political black ops.)
Not meaning to insult any Alabamans who read and comment, but good grief — Siegelman sent off to 7 years in a penitentiary by the wife of K-k-k-arl Rove’s good buddy? I mean, c’mon… And then the Alabama senator is very likely leaking intel…? Jeez…
What did you mean by ‘extortion’…? (If it is something you can post…)
Naw…nothing implied. It’s just that when you have and use the ability to listen and intercept everything that someone does, says and writes, there is always something you can use to blackmail someone. That doubly applies to a politician. They appear to make Faustian deals as a way of life, whether real or just in the course of letting someone believe what they want to get their support. That’s Politics.
Now someone like Graham, a FLORIDA politician, there HAS to be plenty of stuff to use against him. That is how FLA government operates; for big business by big business and very wealthy families. If you want to actually do any good, you have to deal with the devil, he owns the place.
I look at the way he basically pulled out of politics all together after spending most of his adult life so employed. He truly loved being in Government. Something traumatic happened. I don’t think he would just walk away if he wasn’t forced to.
Now if you have got your tin hat handy, I have a scary/juicy story about 9/11…..
Makes perfect sense that they would use Shelby to leak deliberately for the purposes of shutting up Graham.
Knowing Graham’s so very thorough and meticulous in his note keeping, Graham was extremely dangerous to them, so they minimize him by threatening to shut down cooperation after deliberately leaking. (Rove has used strategically controlled leaks for years, certainly was within the White House’s tool set.)
And they also knew that the DOJ in Shelby’s home state wouldn’t do anything they couldn’t expect with regards to the leak or the threat.
It’s probably a model we may have seen in slightly different versions before, especially the co-opted DOJ component as well as the controlled leak.
I don’t know that Shelby’s leak was a plant. After all he was outed by Carl Cameron, who had gotten the info from him but not used it. Which suggests he really did try to spread the story.
I’m still skeptical; Shelby has gone out of his way to protest representations of his release of information as a leak.
On the off chance that anyone here hasn’t seen it yet, here’s Tom Tomorrow’s take on the “ticking bomb” scenario:
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/05/12/tomo/
You know what’s so funny about “24″ – even though there’s some type of ticking time bomb scenario nearly every episode, and Jack always has to punch someone in the face five times or slug their dislocated shoulder or threaten to remove their life-sustaining IV, there are also long quiet apologetic glances from Jack to whatever Arab/Muslim he has wronged, where Jack is telepathically proclaiming, “I’m sorry I racially profiled you, Arab dude.”
@18 moderator notation, regarding Adobe inc copyrighted portable document format live links included in my post. The first document, from Aftergood, size is 122 kb, wifi download time about fifteen seconds, it is eight pages length.
The second document is at US Department of Justice size 217 kb, 42 pp length, wifi download time about twenty seconds.
lol thanks for the link Frank!
Now – as opposed to during the time of Bush’s Fantasies of Un-Accountable Power – the Goopers really do have a ticking time bomb scenario on their hands.
Every day the news on Torture gets clearer, and worse, for the Republicans.
tick-tock
4 Bush-OLC Memos released showing shockingly irresponsible legal work and twisted reasoning behind ‘re-interpreting’ the Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions – betraying a Shameful Scheme to ‘Green Light’ Torture through Twisted Reasoning, and simultaneously Claim to be in Compliance with Statutory Law, too.
tick-tock
Bybee One and Two amount to nothing less than Bush’s Policy of Torture – Intended to defraud the Geneva Conventions and Deceive the Military and Lawmakers into Believing that Extraordinary Circumstances Voided Statutory Law for those Loyal to the UE. Bush’s Claim after 911 – backed-up by his Lapdog Sociopath Lawyers – was that Some Humans don’t deserve Basic Human Decency as defined, and agreed to, in Statutory Law.
tick-tock
Bush Waterboards Zubaydah – presumably as the CIC/Pres/UE – *on his own* – without telling Congress. Statutorily – that’s Torture and a War Crime – which, at one time, was Memorialized on Video Tape.
tick-tock
The Member Briefings Report on the History of Torture Briefings comes out. While there are many questions yet to be answered about the Briefings, the Dems have all indicated that they either didn’t know that Waterboarding/Torture had Already happened, or when they did find out that Waterboarding/Torture was happening they raised Questions and Objections.
tick-tock
The Goopers who attended the Member Briefings? What did they do when they heard Bush Confess to the War Crime of Waterboarding? What did they do?
tick-tock
The 2004 CIA IG Report is coming out. It says that Torture, specifically Waterboarding, was neither Effective nor Safe. That’s the last we’ll hear of Cheney telling US how it is.
tick-tock
May 28 – the pictures that will Leave No Doubt.
tick-tock
It couldn’t be any Clearer that Bush and Cheney are heading for a Trainwreck on Torture. The only real question in the interim is – Why aren’t the Goopers jumping off?
Time is running out…
here’s more big news;
yet both the cia AND the fbt KNEW there was NO link, EVERYONE knew there was no link
this HAD to be called down from the top SINCE everyone in BOTH of these agencies knew with no doubt THERE WAS NO LINK
that’s the elephant in the room, these agencies were tasked with gathering information the agencies themselves knew did not exist, this is the ONLY reason you have policies of torture, to gather FALSE information
the mcckatchy article goes on;
they were informed in no uncertain terms there was no link, cheney instituted his house of pain for one reasn, to create information he knew was fasle
And yes, we have to stop getting lost in the small stuff. Important points.
1) Our gov’t used torture, violating our constitution and the Geneva conventions.
2) The president and vice president pressured the cia to use these methods despite evidence of protest. (mild but consistent evidence).
3) The pres. and v.p ignored concerns and found ways to go around and manipulate people to go along. They used a variety of strong arm tactics and coercion to force compliance in violating the law.
4) Cheney stated that the president knew and signed off on the program.
This is where we need to continue to focus our rage. What often happens is that we feel just as powerless as congress did…parallel process, and so we start to rage against the ones we feel we can impact, instead of the true perpetrators who fight back so furiously, and so effectively that “giving up” and becoming distracted is the preferred and hoped for outcome by the perpetrators. We, the people are as susceptible to the techniques as congress was.
One of my new jobs will be working with vets who have complex ptsd, the families, and the kids of those who served in war. I can’t help but think about how this will complicate their treatment and recovery. As this continues to spill out it creates an incredibly invalidating environment for the vets who were misled about the war, and then led astray as they dealt with their captors. The high suicide rate was absolutely a warning about the trauma and the invalidation. This is a huge betrayal to those people who were willing to risk life and limb for the sake of their country. The impact of this is going to complicate recovery and integration for years to come. Really, this too is on the shoulders of these criminals at the top of the chain.
TheraP at 17, I absolutely agree with your point about that statement. There is more.
This makes me so sad, but at the same time, it really validates a lot of what we know about human nature.
You know EW, I have one “other” thought here which may be out-in-left-field. Porter Goss is a “spooks of spooks” kind of guy and a Bush-Cheney guy to the highest order, if in fact he was Operation 40 membership…
What is the possibility the CIA, in briefing a former spook, used “spook language” irt torture which would have been clearly understood by Goss in terms of the “to what extent of actions” inference on policy but was intended to be missed by Pelosi? Yet, the spooks in the room knew what they were saying and made their notes reflect such. This way, CIA can state Pelosi was briefed, Goss backs it up and then Pelosi comes back with essentially a, “Hold on, wait a minute…”extent” was not clear to me.”
Spooks have subtle language with depth of “extent” and “intentions.”
(Seashell, if you are reading, I left you a comment in the last post which is epu’d by now. Many others might enjoy the links and quotes too.)
For the record, Porter Goss, as an elected official, with his CIA background, should have never been allowed to fill the House Intel Com Chair capacity, due to conflict of interest and the “hoodwink” potential his leadership from that venue could present to Congress. His leadership probably played a key role in weakening the balance of powers if he operated more as an elected spook than a congressman.
Now that is an intriguing theory. And it sure seems right to me! Makes a nice fit in the puzzle.
@42: I’d say a constant simmer is what’s needed here. I personally would like to see the public at large “engaged” but not enraged. As for those doing the heaving lifting, those here and others, I’d prefer to see all rage focused like a laser on dogged determination to not let go of this till it’s all out, all investigated, and the worst perpetrators have been dealt sentences.
Naturally we all have our moments of wanting to tear our hair out or feeling like our head’s going to explode or like white hot rays could shoot from our bodies, but in general I love to see that all placed into an effort, which may take us years. (That’s why I plead with anyone who might be reading and is in a position to rec’d Marcy for a MacArthur Fellowship to please do so ASAP. I’ve placed my bets. And my bets are on EW and this group.)
Isn’t there a controversy about Shelby dealing with helicopters and misappropriation during this time, a ripe peach of blackmail for the Chenostra?
wavpeac – Real Leaders inspire through Courageous, Up-Front Personal Example, which is then Validated by the Men and Women who Follow those Leaders.
‘Bosses’ – like Bush – otoh, don’t Lead from the Front by Courageous Personal Example.
Instead, what Bosses like Bush do is Drive from the Rear – Making Bargains, Writing Contracts – ‘trading’ their Positional Authority (as the Boss) in the form of ‘protection’ for Acts of Personal Loyalty by his ‘dirtied-in’ Middle-Level Henchpeople – that just happen to Violate the Law – at the ‘expense’ of the ’suckers’ on the front lines.
“Don’t worry about Leaking Plame’s CIA Identity, Dick, I’ve got you covered with my UE Declassification Authority and my ability to Compartmentalize Anything incriminating.”
“Oh! Don’t you worry your pointy little head about those poor little person-less Moslems, Bybee, there’s a Judgeship in this for you.”
“Now, all of you Telephone Companies just give it up – I want All of your Information – and I’ll get your asses some Immunity, too.”
“Hank, stop your silly fretting! Just have the Banks cook the books, and then I’ll get you a Big Windfall!”
For the last eight years – All of US – have been the suckers. We’ve been kept in the Dark, while Bush secretly did his deals with ‘those in the know’ – the Neocon Cabal of Colluders – Telling US, for instance –
“She’s fair game…” “The Enhanced Procedures are Legal and Safe…” “You don’t have anything to worry about if you haven’t done anything wrong…”
As you well know from your work, and ianapsych, Abuse almost always involves a Power Differential between the individuals – the classic One-Up/One-Down mode of ‘relationship.’ The physically stronger – the wealthier – those with Positional Power – Play Games to Take What They Want, and tell the Victims that ‘they brought it on themselves.’ That’s Bybee One and Two, in a Nutshell, imvho.
Bush has No Leadership Qualities to Speak Of – he’s always been an Empowered Bully and a Clever ‘Boss’ who Does Deals in Secret with Willing Colluders – whom he protects from Accountability to the Law by mis-using his “Inherent Powers” – and then he dumps the ‘cost’ on the suckers.
But, like any Abuser, he’s clever enough to ‘know’ he has to ‘keep up appearances’ – like the Appearance of the Rule of Law, for instance. So, Bush dirties-in Cronies and Loyalists – Secretly ‘politicizing’ the people/functions most important to Giving the Appearance of the Rule of Law – OLC, DoJ, PIN, etc, all the while cleverly disguising Beating-Up the People and Stealing from the Treasury.
Truly, the last eight years for US has been an Authoritarian Nightmare at the Hands of the Bush “Loyalty Wins When You’re In” Cartel.
And, I agree with you completely – it’s going to take Years to recover the People’s Trust in Government.
Thanks so much for the backstory, Marcy. You’ve really bring the cloak-&-dagger to life here (isn’t the razor held mid-air a nice touch — you can just see the Bromo-Shave drying on Bob Graham’s chubby cheek!).
The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com