President Bush must start obeying the law

When the United States signed agreements such as the Geneva Conventions, those rules became the law of the land. President Bush, in order to circumvent these laws, invented a new description of our enemies by calling them “enemy combatants” and said that he could hold them incommunicado indefinitely, even if they were American citizens. The Supreme Court has said that this is outside of the law.

He denied authorizing torture on captives, but when Congress proposed to outlaw it he threatened a veto. When it passed with a veto-proof majority, he signed it but added a memo that said, in effect, that if he felt the need, he would not obey it.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act said that domestic phone surveillance could not be conducted without a warrant. A special court was established by Congress so the administration could do so and quickly get court approval. The president, however, chose to order wiretaps without court approval.

The objection to this action is not that surveillance of al-Qaida is wrong, but that doing so without court approval is illegal.

Our constitutional democracy is a society structured by laws. When these are ignored or circumvented, we cease to be a democracy and our liberties may disappear.

Does the president consider himself above the law? The answer is dangerously clear.

GWYNN HOFFMAN
http://www.star-gazette.com