Documenting Official Criminality

[SoDesuKa]

We've gotten used to the idea that government criminals can more or less get away with it after they leave office. Accordingly, Bush walks. Rumsfeld walks. Cheney walks. Libby receives an undeserved pardon, and Condoleezza Rice knows she won't be indicted by an American court. Some say that the notion that criminal officials won't be punished began with the Nixon pardon. However, there was indeed a time before such an attitude took hold. And there will likely come a time when justice will once again prevail.

Conspiracies to deprive citizens of their legal rights are felonies. If we're going to restore lawful government in the future, we might begin by documenting official criminality in the present. It may be that people who've held public office for a long time have gotten so used to immunity from prosecution that they're careless about leaving evidence around.

We've been discussing new directions for a movement to recover government by the people. Perhaps some of us could FOIA official records which may not in themselves be evidence of criminality, but might be used as evidence of perjury which hasn't yet taken place. The awareness that somebody politically unfriendly is keeping records may itself encourage public officials to be more law abiding.



Former public official