by Lance Ciepiela
"We have to view this as an opportunity", George W. Bush was quoted as saying on 9/11 and for him and his administration, 9/11 became their "golden opportunity" to wage wars of choice in Iraq/Afghanistan based on "false pretense", without obtaining the required war resolutions from the United Nations Security Council, and, domestically, to eviscerate the Bill of Rights and the nation’s Constitution ["just a God damn piece of paper" Bush Jr was quoted as saying], as "mere impediments" to absolute executive power.
Bush Jr would soon start kidnapping [rendition], detaining [indefinite detention], imprisoning and torturing human beings in custody not charged with a crime and denying such persons their due process of law and habeas corpus [show me the body and evidence].
"Water-boarding, beatings, faked executions, confinement in extreme cold or extreme heat, prolonged enforcement of painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and the defiling of religious articles have been practiced and exposed as routine at Guantanamo, at Abu Ghraib Prison and other US detention sites in Iraq, and at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan".
Bush Jr’s Justice Department reclassified the crime of torture to "enhanced interrogation techniques" and torture became official US policy – a policy which filtered down through the ranks to every Police Department in the United States, where "police brutality" has been re-defined. It appears, as "Enhanced Law Enforcement Techniques", all legal and appropriate under Bush Jr’s Patriot Act, his Authorization to Use Military Force ( AUMF ) and The Military Commissions Act – all these tyrannical, dictatorial and unconstitutional laws, are firmly supported and carried forward by a "forward looking" President, Barrack Obama and the US Congress [Democrats and Republicans alike], thereby assuring that Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and Enhanced Law Enforcement Techniques remain official policy and the "law of the land".
Lance Ciepiela is a retired senior who had an interesting career in government service – a United States Marine Corps veteran, who became interested in restoring the Constitution after he had realized that George W. Bush had attacked Iraq on false pretense and got away with it.