Lies the government told you by Andrew Napolitano (big screen ebook reader .TXT) 📕

coercively install freedom in a region that had never been exposed to democracy is misguided. Yet, it was clear that Bush wanted to be the first president to deliver freedom to the Middle East and fix a broken region.

Bush, however, did not promote his grand ideas directly to the American people. Instead, Bush continued instilling fear in us and warning of the grave threat that Saddam posed to American security. For example, in a speech in Houston, Texas, on September 27th 2002, Bush stated that Saddam was “the guy who tried to kill my dad,” a former American president. Bush knew that scaring us into going to war with Iraq with statements like these would be much more effective than trying to tell us that installing democracy in Iraq would somehow work and also spill over to the rest of the Middle East.

By late October 2002, Bush’s marketing plan was coming to a close. Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing the president to use military force in Iraq. President Bush, however, continued to plug the war by telling more and more lies. This wasn’t a problem for the Bush administration, however, so long as it created more and more fear. In December 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that Iraq sought to import yellowcake uranium from Niger. In his State of the Union Address on January 28th 2003, Bush reiterated Powell’s claim, stating that “the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein has recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

These claims, however, had been proven false long before the administration sought to pass them off as true. The Niger story was based on forged documents, and an investigation done by the Bush administration in March 2002 indicated that Saddam was not looking to purchase uranium from Africa. Apparently, the administration felt that every little bit of lying would be worth it in the long run.

On March 19th 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and quickly ousted Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration did not plan for the aftermath, or develop a strategy to leave Iraq. Bush claimed that the United States would deal with Iraq in a “logical way,” but his approach to Iraq was anything but logical. We are still in Iraq. More than 4,400 Americans are dead, and there have been over 650,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. More than 2,500,000 Iraqis have fled their country since the U.S. invasion and occupation began.

“Wrong, Terribly Wrong”

The American tragedies discussed in this chapter are not entirely the fault of the American people. We hire government officials expecting them to do the right thing. We want them to do the right thing. We also trust that the government has credible information at hand and takes threats to our freedom very seriously. Yet, this chapter shows that the government constantly lies to us in order to enter and initiate wars. This is a common government practice that we must recognize, and one that must be stopped. It is unacceptable that the government lies to us all the time, about everything. It is dangerous and criminal, however, that the government lies to us in order to send troops into harm’s way.

In The New York Times on July 7th 2009, Bob Herbert wrote an op-ed piece entitled “After the War Was Over,” in the wake of Robert McNamara’s death “at the ripe old age of 93.” McNamara was the Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and he assured Johnson that we had solid evidence of a North Vietnamese attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. He was wrong, and long after the war he admitted that he had been “wrong, terribly wrong” about Vietnam.

We were misled to enter the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II, the Vietnam War, and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We were “wrong, terribly wrong” about Vietnam and Iraq. Herbert pointed out that apologies after wars are over do not bring soldiers and civilians back to life, and stated his “utter contempt” for such apologies. Implicit in Herbert’s view was the necessity to put an end to the lying and to stop nonsensical and irrational wars before it is too late. In terms of war, deception and misinformation kill.

Lie #15

“We Don’t Torture”1

On June 26th 2003, President George W. Bush asserted, “The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example.” No surprise here; President Bush lied. The United States of America is not committed to the worldwide elimination of torture; rather, under Bush, it supported, facilitated, and directly engaged in torture. The United States has tortured people, and will continue to torture as long as Americans overlook and excuse the crimes committed by our government, and as long as Americans accept government deception on torture.

President George W. Bush’s administration used fear mongering to justify its torture policy and restrictions on the due process rights of persons it arrested. Under the cloak of “saving lives” and “dispelling grave threats,” our officials have repeatedly condoned policies that violate international conventions (treaties) regarding the treatment of prisoners, as well as the United States Constitution and federal and state statutory law.

This chapter discusses the Bush administration’s torture policy, but also explains how the federal government, during times of war, severely restricts the rights of all persons except those in the government.

Detention, Habeas Corpus, and the Supreme Court

The Latin phrase habeas corpus literally means “you have the body.” It is a legal action, usually called a “writ,” which means a “right,” through which an individual seeks relief from unlawful detention. The habeas corpus protection is directly guaranteed in the United States Constitution. Article I, Section 9, Clause 2, provides that “[t]he Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” The protection is also codified in the United States Code, under 28 U.S.C. §2242(a), which states the following: “Writs