Those same months also included Bush’s executive order to establish the Office of Homeland Security.
Vic Roberts, a perennial Green Party candidate for the Senate in Illinois, describes how the Office of Homeland Security is inherently unconstitutional and unnecessary:
On 10-8-01 President Bush laid the foundation for the Office of Homeland Security with Executive Order 13228, and named Tom Ridge as it’s director; along with instructions that he was to, "review plans and preparations for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government in the event of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and security of the United States Government or its leadership.” Using the “Continuity of Operations Plan” as its foundation the Bush administration, with Vice President Cheney being a major force behind the effort, created a new secret “shadow government.” All of which was done in secret, and without input from Congress. The Bush administration’s preoccupation with “war on terrorism,” and their “secret shadow government,” has made an already inaccessible Washington political elite even more inaccessible. Inaccessible, as personified by Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge when he blatantly defied a US Senate Appropriations Committee’s request that he testify, in regards to the requested $38 billion budget, for the new Bush Executive Order created Office of Homeland Security Agency. In regards to his refusal to testify, Director Ridge justified his actions by basically saying, "the Senate had no authority over him as he was an advisor to President Bush, which exempted him (and the organization he heads?) from any Legislative Branch oversight. Does Director Ridge have so little knowledge of our constitutional government that he does not know that the Legislative Branch is responsible for all federal government spending, or is he merely demonstrating the typical arrogance of power that prevails in the dictatorial Bush Administration? Arrogance of power as demonstrated by the Bush White House when they said, "although Ridge may have a $38 billion chunk of the president’s pending budget, he is not a Cabinet Officer,” and that maintaining his existence on Capitol Hill is an exercise of “EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE.” Under the Bush administration’s dictatorial EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE doctrine, Vice President Cheney and Medicare Director Scully have also defied Congressional subpoenas requesting them to testify before members of Congress…
…One thing we do know about the Bush administration’s Executive Order created secret shadow government is that it is much smaller and more responsive to the President than our present Constitutional Government; we know this because the US Senate, House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and virtually all who are not loyal Bush Republicans have been eliminated from the new government. The most sinister characteristic of this secret government is that it consists entirely of executive branch officials; this is in complete violation of the separation of powers, which our US Constitutional government demands. Not only is the legislative and judicial branches excluded from Bush’s new secret shadow government, but they had no input in developing the new organization; they were not even made aware of the planned new government. The Bush administration’s Executive Order created secret shadow government does not base presidential succession as defined in the Constitution.
The five Supreme Court Judge virtually appointed President Bush has used an Executive Order as the authority to establish a secret military-backed government of unelected officials behind the backs of elected members of Congress. Why are none calling it treason?
In November of 2001, an executive order authorized the use of military tribunals for select terrorists giving the Executive Branch the “exclusive right to identify, try, and even execute foreign terrorists without the constitutional or evidentiary protections ordinarily afforded to defendants in the United States.”
During 2003, Bush issued an executive order that granted immunity for Iraq oil dealings. Truthout reported that the “two-page executive order seemed to completely shield oil companies from liability even if it could be proved that they had committed human rights violations, bribed officials or caused great environmental damage in the course of their Iraqi-related business.” “Mission Accomplished” had been declared by Bush months ago.
Also, this year, under Executive Order 13292, Bush made information on "weapons of mass destruction" and on "defense against transnational terrorism" classified. Jorge Hirsch from Anti-War asserted in 2006 that this order provided cover for a Bush Administration planning war with Iran. "If concrete details about Iran's alleged biological weapons programs were made public, they would be subject to public scrutiny and they would be discredited, as the allegations on Iran's "nuclear weapons program" have been."
By 2004, it was revealed that under a presidential directive dating back to the Clinton administration Bush had reviewed and renewed an order that allowed CIA renditions. This same year, Truthout reported that an FBI email referring to a presidential order authorizing torture had been uncovered.
On January 24, 2007, Bush issued an executive order asserting more power over federal agencies that enforce health, safety and environmental protections. The order expanded on a Clinton executive order. Public Citizen called it “an appalling arrogation of power” and according to Truthout, charged “the White House with claiming more executive will over federal agencies while circumventing congressional oversight.”
Six months later, the administration put out an executive order “interpreting” Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, “as applied to CIA secret detention facilities.”
That same month, July 2007, Bush issued an executive order entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.” Essentially, this order criminalized those who dissented and opposed the war on Iraq.
Professor Michel Chossudovsky click here the executive order on Global Research:
In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act.
The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to "blocking property" of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to "block the property" and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of "Certain Persons" involved in antiwar activities. It targets those "Certain Persons" in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush Administration's "peace and stability" program in Iraq, characterized, in plain English, by an illegal occupation and the continued killing of innocent civilians.The Executive Order also targets those "Certain Persons" who are "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction", or who, again in plain English, are opposed to the confiscation and privatization of Iraq's oil resources, on behalf of the Anglo-American oil giants.
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