September 11, 2001, Reimagined

WTC Attack September 11, 2001

On Tuesday of this week 17 years ago, Hijackers flew commercial airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Passengers and crew were credited with thwarting the terrorist hijackers’ planned attack on the U.S. Capital. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack, in which close to 3000 people were killed, was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in history.

We were fortunate at that time to have great confidence in the leadership of our country; in our intelligence community, the FBI and in law enforcement. There were system failures, particularly in communications. And sure, there was second guessing later about the actions taken in response to the attacks, but while events were unfolding, we trusted in our leaders to see the country through.

George W Bush first hears of WTC attack

Imagine what would happen now under the Trump Administration. The “usual suspects” carry out a devastating attack on a soft target with symbolic importance, like the December 19, 2016, attack on a Berlin Christmas Market — an attack claimed by ISIS.

Who would be blamed for not connecting the dots? Would the Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies — the FBI, the CIA, NSA, DIA — carry sway with President Trump in formulating a measured response?


Who would we bomb, who invade? What new immigration restrictions would be imposed, what internment camps would we open for Muslim-Americans?

What new requirements would be added to the Patriot Act, what more intrusive surveillance on all Americans? What nature of protest would be made illegal? When would martial law be lifted?

The next terrorist attack on American soil is not a matter of if, but when. Determined fanatics willing to die for their cause will usually outwit even a well-managed Department of Homeland Security staffed with highly motivated and trained officers. A bombastic “strongman” equipped with a keyboard and wielding a heavy-handed immigration policy will never be an effective counter to terrorism. A country divided against itself will never be ready, or resilient.

Speical Counsel Named

by David McLaughlin and Andrew M Harri
Bloomberg Politics, May 17, 2017, 3 PM PDT

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is being named special counsel to oversee the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election, the Justice Department said.

The naming of Mueller, who oversaw the FBI during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, comes as the White House is reeling from President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey and allegations that Trump asked Comey in February to end his probe of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn

The FBI’s probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election and potential links with Trump’s campaign has been overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this year recused himself after it was revealed he had not disclosed conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Rosenstein made the decision to name Mueller, the Justice Department told reporters Wednesday. It isn’t clear if Trump had a role in the decision

Mueller, 72, served as FBI director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and was the longest serving head of the bureau since J. Edgar Hoover. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, as the U.S. was ramping up security, he joined then-Deputy Attorney General Comey in threatening to resign if the White House overruled a Justice Department opinion that domestic wiretapping without a warrant was unconstitutional.

Before joining the FBI, Mueller served as a U.S. Attorney in San Francisco and held other positions in the Justice Department. Obama asked Mueller to stay in office two years beyond the normal 10-year term.
____________________________________

So, why a "special counsel," and not a special prosecutor?

According to an article in PBS, the 1977 law that created the role of the “special prosecutor,” placing few limitations on the length, cost or scope of independent investigations, expired in 1999. As a result, that option is effectively off the table, unless Congress reauthorizes the law or passes a new one. Neither scenario seems likely right now, with Republicans in control of Congress and Mr. Trump in the White House.

The decision to appoint a special counsel would normally be made by the Justice Department’s top official, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But Sessions recused himself in March from any DOJ probe involving Trump’s 2016 campaign. Sessions, who served as an adviser to the campaign, made the announcement after several news organizations reported that he failed in his confirmation hearings to disclose his meetings with a Russian official during the election.

A special counsel is an investigator with less freedom than a special prosecutor, and whose investigation could be curtailed or stopped altogether at any time by the Trump administration.

Mueller receives the authority of a U.S. attorney to carry out the investigation. But the rules give the Justice Department’s top official final say over the scope and jurisdiction of the inquiry, and the authority to remove the special counsel essentially at will.

What Next?

Donald Trump's Presidency is just entering its second month and we can say unequivocally that things are as bad and worse than we could've imagined. Trump himself has:

• questioned the integrity of the 2016 election results, claiming without evidence that "millions of people voted illegally" (all for Hillary Clinton, of course), which is why he lost the popular vote,
• maligned the judiciary (not for the first time), because the court decided his Muslim Ban was unconstitutional (thank you, Bob Ferguson, WA AG),
• called the Press "an enemy of the American people,"
• reneged on his pledge to release his tax returns after an IRS audit,
• refused to abide by the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, thus ensuring continued conflicts of interest with his far-flung business interests,
• blasted the Intelligence Community over their reports of Russian hacking of the DNC and interference in the 2016 election,
• impugned the integrity of the FBI after imploring them to "knock down" press reports on Trump team contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign.

In the meantime, under cover of Mr. Trump's "unpresidented" attack on everything and everyone he disagrees with, Republicans are ramming through Mr. Trump's terrible Cabinet nominees, and pushing through and/or repealing legislation that will change a regulatory landscape shaped by progressive principles.

One of their first moves in laying the groundwork for how they planned to operate, was to emasculate the independent Congressional Ethics Committee. After a public outcry, in which even Mr. Trump weighed in, the House reversed that plan. Instead, they appointed our former WA-4 Representative, Richard "Doc" Hastings to head the committee. We all know how conscientious Doc is on that front.

"Hear no evil" Doc Hastings to head up Ethics

At the top of the GOP's ambitious agenda is wiping out healthcare coverage for millions of Americans. Republicans have fought the Affordable Care Act literally from its inception. It goes against their conservative principle of "Every [rich] man for himself." The problem is, while Republicans bitched and moaned about ACA, aka "Obamacare" for eight years, all they did in that time was pass more than 50 symbolic bills to repeal it, apparently in an effort to make their base feel they were doing something other than obstructing everything President Obama tried to do. Now they have to actually come up with a replacement, and hey, it isn't as easy as they thought when they ridiculed the 2700-pages of legislation that accompanied the bill. "Noboby knew that healthcare could be so complicated," Mr. Trump said Monday. Yeah, actually, they did. More than once.

A draft of the House Republicans' bill to repeal Obamacare would replace its subsidies with less generous tax credits, increase the amount insurers could charge older Americans and effectively eliminate Medicaid for low-income adults. These provisions could leave a significant share of the 20 million people who gained coverage under Obamacare without insurance. It's not all bad, however. Taxes on tanning beds would be repealed under the GOP plan, thus ensuring that Mr. Trump can continue his orangeness without undue expense.

Healthcare isn't the only thing the GOP is working to degrade in order to "Make America Great Again." Frankly, it's hard to keep up with everything Congress is doing, even for Congressional Democrats. Collegiality is not on the GOP agenda, let alone transparency, or compromise. You can try following Congress.gov, but you might be better served by following Whitehouse.Leaks.org, a fictitious site I just made up. But there are a lot of leaks.

Without doubt the government agency at greatest risk today is the Environmental Protection Agency -- an agency created by a Republican president, Richard Nixon. His creation of the EPA was not the reason he resigned in disgrace, but republicans, once serious about "conservation," have more and more come to hate the EPA. In an odd turn of events, republicans appreciation for Vladimir Putin has soared. It may be that republicans see environmentalists as today's communists, and they prefer fascism to communism, thus their support of Trump and by extension, Putin.

The environment is high on the list of GOP targets, and not just the "climate change hoax." Republicans employed the Congressional Review Act to scrap the Stream Protection Rule, designed to limit the dumping of mining waste in local waterways. The rule was put in place by the Department of the Interior in the final days of the Obama administration, tightening standards for contamination of water and restoration of streams damaged by mining operations. Joyful miners in Kentucky were sure to be grateful to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for protecting their well-being.

With the installation of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the EPA Americans can expect to see a severe degradation of the Agency's authority and capacity for enforcement of existing regulation, let alone new rulemaking.

As Walter Rosebaum has written in a recent edition of The Conversation,

"Environmental organizations can attempt to mobilize public support and pressure Congress to counteract Pruitt-led revisions of EPA’s organization and rule-making. In particular, increased activism at the state level can be a countervailing force to federal environmental retrenchment."

Activism at the local and state levels seems to be a formula for pressing Congress and, perhaps to a lesser degree, the Administration, on a board range of issues, from freedom of the press to freedom of choice. So, get on your hiking boots and get out there!

A great danger to our country

In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Donald Trump criticized as “fake news” organizations that publish anonymously sourced reports that reflect poorly on him. In a series of Twitter posts, he assailed the FBI as a "dangerously porous agency," condemning unauthorized revelations of classified information from within its ranks and calling for an immediate hunt for leakers.

Hours after the speech, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, barred journalists from The New York Times, CNN, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, the Guardian, and several other news organizations from attending his daily briefing, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps.

Mr. Trump’s barrage against the news media continued well into Friday night. “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth,” he wrote on Twitter shortly after 10 p.m., singling out The Times and CNN. “A great danger to our country.”

Retired Admiral Will McRaven spoke out on this calling Trump’s attack on the media “a threat to democracy." McRaven is currently a chancellor in the University of Texas system.

Trump seems to be trying to distract the public from FBI investigations into Trump's and his staff’s ties to Russia, as well as an unprecedented and prohibited attempt by Trump Chief of Staff Reince Preibus to have the FBI “knock down” the story.

In addition, Trump rejected his own Homeland Security report on his travel ban, again attacking the Intelligence Community.

In an ironic twist, CPAC audience members unknowingly waved Russian Flags with Trump’s name on them. Here’s the picture, just in case you thought this was “fake news.”

Trump supporters at CPAC waving Russian flags with Trump's name emblazoned in gold (of course).

So, given the state of affairs in the Administration, and geopolitical events of immense importance, what is the White House doing? Rescinding the rights of transgender people to use public bathrooms.