Bush has no use for Whistleblowers

[ck4829]

A new book may shed light on President George W. Bush's true feelings toward whistleblowers, or at least toward those "leakers" who expose his administration's alleged illegal and questionable activity. According to the former Canadian prime minister's chief of staff, Mr. Bush explained how he would personally handle government leaks. Reportedly, Mr. Bush stated, "If I catch anyone who leaks in my government, I would like to string them up by the thumbs. The same way we do with prisoners in Guantanamo."

Although we can hope he was joking, the context of the statement and subsequent events demand that a hard look be taken at this remark. At the time of the meeting, March 2002, then-Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was in the midst of a whistleblower-exposed public scandal that would eventually sweep his party from power. Mr. Bush was at the height of his popularly, only to experience a similar crippling erosion of his public standing because of both anonymous and public whistleblowers.

It is ironic that Mr. Bush would cite the federal government's mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for metaphorical purposes. At the time, few people other than the president knew how detainees were being abused at the facility. Two years after the start of the Iraq war, conscientious soldiers began to expose the routine torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and the Guantanamo alarms soon followed.

Look at the important truths we have learned from Mr. Bush's administration whistleblowers in recent years: White House officials were caught editing scientific reports on global warming, making $2 billion worth of scientific studies -- documenting the serious effects of climate change -- seem to produce questionable or unclear results. The illegal National Security Administration domestic surveillance program and the CIA's secret prisons in Eastern Europe revealed a systematic trampling upon basic privacy and inherent human rights. Food and Drug Administration officials tried to silence scientists who found severe -- in fact, fatal -- problems with the painkiller Vioxx. Undercover Federal Air Marshals were required to wear easily identifiable attire and follow predictable and obvious procedures before boarding commercial flights. The list goes on, with other major examples of malfeasance being exposed every few months.

http://cjonline.com/stories/110306/opi_clark.shtml

[Rosemary2205]

1. Loyalty is EVERYTHING to *

that whole "with us or against us" thing is for real on a basic deep emotional level for *. He really does view someone's refusal to follow him right off a cliff as a personal betrayal and probably treason. When he says people who dare to disagree with him are "with the terrorists" I don't think that just rhetoric. I think he REALLY feels that way.

[TahitiNut]

3. Personal loyalty is, imho, the false virtue.,

The GOP, indeed, require fealty (a medieval notion) instead of mere 'loyalty.' Their notion of 'loyalty' and 'patriotism' is without principle or ethic - a subordination of values and conscience to some authoritarian construct. I personally abhor dogma, loyalty, patriotism, fealty, and blind partisanship - all of which I regard as an enemy of conscience and individual autonomy. The fundamental evil of fascism (nationalism on steroids) is the subordination of the worth of an individual to the supremacy of the state - the 'nation.' This si an abominable corruption - an inversion of real virtue. For if, indeed, the value of EVERY person is respected, the nation is itself created and nurtured thereby. In no other fashion does a 'nation' deserve to exist.

[progressivebydesign]

2. But he's a major "whistle-ass".

Remember that neat elderly lady that had that in her obituary?