On June 7th, Michael S. Greco, the president of the
American Bar Association, gave a speech at the Commonwealth Club of California entitled "Living Within the Law: Next Steps in the War on Terror".
This landmark, must read speech, podcasted here and transcribed here, is an utterly devastating indictement of the Bush administration.
Now understand. The ABA is the world's largest voluntary professional organization with a membership of over 400,000 lawyers and judges. And Mr. Greco speaks for them. This is huge. The Corporate Media, of course, ignored it completely.
So what do you call 400,000 lawyers (and judges) speaking out against the abuses of the Bush administration? I call it a Good Start.
Highlights of the speech over the jump...
Michael Greco immediately frames it right.
What is the proper balance between national security and individual freedoms? Put differently, will our government preserve our cherished freedoms in the fight against terrorism?
He looks back at our recent history and issues a dire warning.
While foreign terrorism in America is new, grave threats to our national security are not. In the past, faced with such threats, we have managed to prevail against enemies while preserving our freedoms and our adherence to the rule of law.
At times, however, our government abandoned the ideals and principles on which our republic was founded, and in the process we brought shame on ourselves. [...] the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II; the Communist scares of the 1920s and 1950s.
In time, we came to our senses [...] we must demand that our nation strike the proper balance between security and liberty -- so that we do not add to the worst chapters in our history.
He boldly draws a parallel between today's abuses of power and the dawn of the American Revolution.
More Americans now are rejecting fear-mongering and scare tactics as the means of persuasion and basis of decision-making by our government.[...]
My law firm's office in Boston is a stone's throw away from the site of the Boston Tea Party -- the response of Americans to the king's taxation without representation which became a catalyst of the American Revolution. Outrage and disgust of Americans with warrantless searches and invasions of privacy by the king was the match that ignited the American Revolution.[...]
Take the issue of electronic surveillance, for example - today's version of the warrantless searches that led our Founders to start a revolution.
Remember, this is the president of the American Bar Association talking, not some "liberal firebrand".
Like a skilled prosecutor, Greco walks us down an all too familiar list.
Since 9/11, we have witnessed a number of - too many -- disturbing developments in the U.S. government's campaign against terrorism. We have learned about secret prisons, torture of prisoners and detainees, extraordinary rendition of detainees to nations that practice torture, abusive treatment by U.S. personnel, open ended imprisonment without charges or access to counsel, unauthorized intelligence gathering on American citizens, and more. Recent news reports have now brought to light another separation of powers issue: the increasingly frequent use of "signing statements" that the President attaches to duly enacted bills that the he signs into law.
The Prosecution concludes by asking the Jury, We the People, that we reach the only rational Verdict.
When any one branch of government attempts to place itself above or usurp the constitutionally-mandated roles of the other branches, our democracy is threatened.
We have now reached a point where all Americans must ask themselves whether these practices of our government are isolated and unconnected, or whether they form a pattern that threatens the very foundations of the rule of law in the United States.