First off, NEVER in my WILDEST DREAMS would I EVER have believed this once great country (that I was so proud of as I was growing up) would be in a situation having to send a letter to "ex-KGBers" (those horrible "monsters" from the Cold War era, if you're old enough to remember) that we promise not to torture or kill one of our citizens if they hand him over to us. WE have to tell THEM that? Amazing...
I also find it so outrageous that James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, will not be tried for perjury for lying to Congress. It is so true that there is a two-tiered justice system in the U.S. From Glenn Greenwald:
If I had to pick the most astonishing aspect of this episode so far, it would be that everyone now knows that the Obama administration's top national security official, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, outright lied to the Senate about NSA programs. And yet - as I said on ABC yesterday morning - not only isn't he being prosecuted for that crime - as much of a crime as anything Edward Snowden is accused of doing - but he still has his job. That, of course, is because the "law" does not apply to high-level Washington officials and DC's National Security State is an accountability-free zone.
Wednesday morning, Greenwald says he "will be testifying by remote video, before an ad hoc committee in the House of Representatives about NSA disclosures. It begins at 9:30 am ET and will, I believe, be broadcast on C-SPAN. Following my testimony will be an excellent panel featuring representatives of the ACLU and the Cato Institute on the dangers and excesses of the NSA."
We cannot let these miscreants called "high-level Washington officials" get the better of us. It's our country, and they are answerable to us... if we have the wherewithal to band together and call them to account.
