If no person is above the law, then I would like to see a special federal prosecutor investigate President George W. Bush and many others in his administration for criminally negligent homicide.
The anniversaries of Katrina and 9/11 have made me think again about what is sorely missing in our nation – holding senior federal officials truly accountable for their worst actions, misdeeds, and errors. What has been missing is obvious to many Americans, namely the prosecution of federal employees, particularly political appointees, for their criminal negligence.
And when that criminal negligence results in the deaths of Americans, I say let's impose the death penalty. It is only fair that high level feds who are criminally negligent pay the highest price. Time for accountability. We treat them too much like elites, giving them very high salaries and many perks, including great health insurance and generous pensions. In return, let them be fully accountable for their failures – for their crimes against humanity.
When these public servants fail to foresee otherwise avoidable dangers or are willfully blind to them, then they should pay the highest price when their negligence causes many deaths and injuries. In other words, justice is due when there is a wanton disregard for human life. Often this results because individuals have traded-off their sacred duty to serve the public interest for personal, political, or bureaucratic reasons or rewards. Such federal officials are as guilty as an automobile driver under the influence of alcohol or some drug who kills someone and gets prosecuted for criminally negligent homicide.
Who comes to mind? Let's start with the many feds that did not prevent the totally predicted Katrina catastrophe and the many that utterly failed to provide timely emergency assistance to the thousands of Americans in dire trouble. Then let's think about the many officials that did not prevent the 9/11 catastrophe. And how can we forget the many high level feds that did not kill or capture Osama bin Laden when they had the opportunity. Most important, let's indict all the high level feds that have screwed up the Iraq war by employing a strategy that took no account of what would happen after the initial success to take Baghdad. Many thousands of American soldiers have died or incurred serious injuries because of the blunders by top civilian leaders.
The more you think about it, the worse it gets. How about those officials obligated to protect the public by, for example, ensuring adequate supplies of vaccines? And those that are expected to develop and deploy emergency plans in the event of diverse natural disasters and terrorism attacks? Is it not crystal clear to nearly all Americans that many federal officials have failed to correctly foresee various avoidable threats and dangers and have been willfully blind to them?
What price have they paid? They rarely get fired. Worse yet, most of them are able to leave federal service and make obscene amounts of money writing books or working for business interests. Some even get medals for their clearly failed public service! Whistleblowers who speak out against the negligence are the ones who are treated badly.
We fill our prisons with enormous numbers of conventional criminals, but impose no penalties for "white collar" government officials that cause the deaths of far more people than even serial killers.
To show that I am not alone in this thinking here are what some others have observed:
Katrina brought thinking about criminal negligence to the forefront. Larry C. Johnson, a former federal official, wrote an article titled "Criminal Negligence and Katrina" in September 2005 right after the event, and said: "The provocative title is intentional. Why did the Bush Administration fail to act according to the National Response Plan they created in December of 2004 to deal with an incident like Katrina? What do you do when the words on the paper don't match the action in the field? People are dying today in New Orleans because of the failure to provide immediate aid and are dead in part because of the negligence of Michael Chertoff. That is a harsh judgment, but if you will take time to read the National Response Plan that was signed into effect in December of 2004 there is no other reasonable conclusion." Others also saw the Katrina-criminal negligence nexus, particularly when Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard bemoaned on national TV "Bureaucracy has committed murder."
Mike Whitney wrote: "Once again, we see that the media narrative closely matches the political agenda of the Bush White House obfuscating the widely-acknowledged facts. Katrina was not "a failure of imagination" as the media would have us believe. Rather, it was a blatant act of criminal negligence." Norman Solomon said: "The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week." Ttyler5 who was actually assisting in the Katrina rescue activities wrote at the time: "Nagin, Ebbert and Blanco are guilty of the worst case of criminal negligence in the history of the US, and those of us who are working in this relief effort are gonna see to it they are prosecuted for it." Stanleyg5 wrote this month about the lessons of Katrina: "The first lesson we should have learned is that our government officials can commit criminal negligence homicide and no one is prosecuted." That's the point. That's the problem. And for the final voice of wisdom: "There are people dying and (the U.S. government is) not putting the boats in the water. I think that's criminal negligence. I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation," said actor Sean Penn.
Recently, James Zogby wrote the article "Criminal Negligence" in July 2006 because of the military actions in Lebanon, opening with: "Criminal negligence. That is the best face I can put on the Administration's current handling of Middle East policy."
In December 2004, the International Action Center released a statement regarding the enormous number of deaths resulting from the Asian tsunami. Their point was U.S. criminal negligence: "Lack of funding for an inexpensive, low-tech early warning system is simply criminal negligence. ...It is telling that the NOAA was able to get the warning to the US Navy base in the area, but wouldn't pick up the phone and call the civil authorities in the region to warn them. They made sure that a US military base was notified and did almost nothing to issue a warning to the civilian inhabitants who were in the direct path of the wave--a warning that might have saved thousands of lives. This is criminal negligence."
Robert Parry wrote about the 9/11 disaster: "The Bush administration has taken almost the opposite position on its own culpability. Despite a strong case for criminal negligence--beginning with FBI officials and reaching up to the Oval Office--Bush and other senior officials have insisted they have nothing to apologize for." Talk Left made this report in March 2006: "FBI Agent Greg Samit turned the tables on the Government at the Moussaoui trial today during his cross-examination by Moussaoui's lawyers. ...The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 testified Monday he spent almost four weeks trying to warn U.S. officials about the radical Islamic student pilot but 'criminal negligence' by superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop the 9/11 attacks."
In June 2006, Dave Lindorff including the following among the reasons for impeaching President Bush: "Criminal negligence in failing to provide American troops with adequate armor before sending them into a war of choice, criminal negligence in going to war against a weak, third-world nation without any planning for post-war occupation and reconstruction, criminal negligence in failing to respond to a known and growing crisis in the storm-blasted city of New Orleans, and criminal negligence in failing to act, and in fact in actively obstructing efforts by other countries and American state governments, to deal with the looming crisis of global warming."
Wanton disregard for human life – that's what criminal negligence is all about, and by now the names of many former and current federal officials have surely come to you, certainly including President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. And let's not forget or forgive members of congress. Ultimately, prosecution for criminal negligence is the best way to implement accountability for senior federal officials. So the question is "not when" but "if" justice will ever prevail? What a barrier to overcome: the disinterest of the federal Justice Department to pursue criminal indictments.
Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com). His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments. He is Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland.
....and that are usually not addressed, or considered.
1) It is not kind to allow people to act like 'monsters'.
2) The general Public still believes in basic law enforcement, especially when this concerns more serious crimes. When major, hard evidence is ignored, and covered up by not only state/goverment, but also 'lawyers', then the public just will not believe the crime. Usually, as a result, the victims are blames and the crimes projected onto the innocent.
3) If these 'Federal Officers' are not held accountable by those in /with the authority to do so...who will?...who can?
4) You can tell the difference between an employee who is as sociopathic as his boss, and those, (the majority) who are basically good people, and who suffer by being placed in a position where they have to lie and deceive. The fist type 'blooms in his elements'....becomes happy and calm. The latter becomes abusive towards their victims, disturbed and negligent themselves.
by
Katrin R. (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 525 comments)
on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 10:18:38 AM
deaf and dumb as well. Should the Democrats retake the House we may see hearings and investigations commence but with the same party holding all the branches it remains impossible to think that these rascals will be made to pay for their crimes. Bush will undoubtedly, as a last act of his Presidency, pardon them all.......
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 7:29:57 PM
If Clinton had pursued Herbert Walker Bush's criminal actions, the spawn of Bush would not have been electable. A candidate litmus test should include commitment to prosecute Dubya.
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Rob Kall (762 articles, 3850 quicklinks, 321 diaries, 1642 comments)
on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 10:09:25 PM
If the next President was decided only by the left I believe that your litmus test might fly, I love the picture of Bush and Cheney sitting behind bars but, as a realist, must turn away from such a satisfying dream.
I would settle for an administraion that would heal us as a nation......
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 7:19:32 AM
Untimely deaths changes their loved ones, for life.
So, as in "Cape Fear, "Counselor, let us figure out the time due me in prison. You say $10,000?
"No, ... 50,000 dollars."
"Okay, counselor, let's use that figure. Now 14 years would equal, ... ."
So, ... what do the parents of those who died in Falugah, which the United States is moving out, because they have lost control of it. A young man loses his life over an ignorant move by an ignorant president.
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Dale Hill (58 articles, 0 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 347 comments)
on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 2:12:37 AM
I think there is plenty of blame for all, and we need to focus on what to do, if and when it ever happens again.
If you're going to go after criminally negligent Officials, you need to start with the Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, and the Governor of Louisianna. Nagin failed to follow through on his own city's emergency-response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city. You've probably seen it by now the photo showing 2,000 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town? Several rest or retirement homes refused to evacuate their residents during Katrina and they drown. Governor Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded the remaining New Orleans residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We all know how that plan turned out. There was no emergency food nor water there nor even city police protection. Add to that fact that several Presidential Administrations, not just the Bush Administration, were tasked with strenthening the levee, and were blocked by budget and environmentalists who did not want to strengthen the walls inside of the levee with simple concrete.
Whenever you plan for disasters that you hope never come, they cost money, often lots of money. Common sense approaches are often lost in politics, left and right. But you have to ask yourself? If you were living in a place, that when you looked up. large ships were passing above you on either side. You immediately should realize you are below the water level, and need to put a very large wall up to hold out the water, or you need to build your house like a boat!
The school buses needed to be part of the emergency plan. The Superdome needed to be stocked with water and emergency food, instead of the "for sale" items for the sports fans. And when FEMA and the National Guard wants to pre-position supplies just in case, it costs your state money to do that. Put that into your budget!
I think we need to look for solutions, plan for them,
and Democrat or Republican or anyone else, the politics
be discarded, by all!
by
LordyLordy (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 12:02:21 AM
the world is seldom as simple as we try and make it to be. One might sit in judgement of others so easily when the truth is not as elusive as all that. When levees break school buses become useless, when people are floating dead in the streets findind drivers for those now useless buses becomes problematic. When the local government is overwhelmed by the enormity of the tragedy is it not practical and necesary to turn to the federal government, to FEMA for the aide they are created to provide?
When this length of time has past and trash still litters the streets, 3000 are still missing, so many facts of incompetence at the national level have been uncovered and published, when the white areas of New Orleans are being rebuilt but the poor and black areas are not, when the facts of the Army Corps of Engineers failures to maintain the levees, as is their charged task is so well known, I find your post puzzling and perhaps agendized.......
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 7:25:46 AM
what a shame the people didn't leave when advised to, yes some couldn't, but most could. But they had been through other storms and hurricanes before, they were told to leave and didn't and they survived, the levees always held. They were told once again, "a terrible hurricane is on it's way, you need to leave for you and your family's safety." They had been through it before, the levees had always held hadn't they? This time was different though. They made it through the storm, but the levees didn't hold. This was the tragic event that nobody thought would happen. In all the years through all the storms, the levees always held, but not this time. There is enough blame to go around, local officials, state officials, and federal officials. But nobody was prepared for what happened, why would they be? How many times in our history has an ENTIRE CITY been turned into a giant 14 foot deep swimming pool in a matter of hours? It had never happend before, the levees always held, didn't they.
by
sbaker (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 111 comments)
on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 4:44:27 PM
werent they? For three years , under Georgie's rule, the Corps of Engineers failed to make routine repairs on those levees. Contractors charged with maintenance on certain parts of the levee system had gone unpaid for about the same length of time as well....
Whether intended or not I seem to get that you try to blame the victims...am I wrong (I hope)?
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 7:36:22 AM
All these officials who failed to do the appropriate things in these emergencies were simply appointees chosen for their loyalty to the establishment without regard to their capabilities to perform their jobs. So, just as George W. looked confused, without a clue what to do when he heard about the 9/11 attack, these apointees weren't expecting to be required to do any real work. So they froze up, planned meetings on future dates(convenient for the "team") to discuss the problems, and headed for their favorite rec spots. They were not really negligent, just incompetent.
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Bacchus (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 37 comments)
on Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 11:50:29 PM
