Bush found guilty but he'll never pay a price

"The president, just like any other citizen of the United States, is bound by the law."

Except of course, when he isn't. The quote above comes from the latest decision from the federal courts finding the Bush administration guilty of breaking the law with its warrantless wiretapping program. This was the case of the Islamic charity out west where the Bush DOJ inadvertently gave them proof of the crime, although that was never admitted as evidence.

I have to admit that this is a place where I've been bitterly disappointed by the Obama DOJ. I knew he wasn't going to initiate any action to bring the Bush war criminals to justice but I really didn't think he would so fully embrace the state's secret defense in defending them. It's all too depressing so just read Glennzilla's scathing analysis.

Indeed, their stonewalling at one point became so extreme that the court actually threatened the Obama DOJ with sanctions. And what TPM calls the Obama DOJ's "Bush-mimicking state secrets defense" has been used by them in one case after the next to conceal and shield from judicial review a wide range of Bush crimes -- including torture, renditions and surveillance. As the Electronic Frontiers Foundation put it: "In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's."

I have some serious disagreement with Glenn and the strategy being employed by the Accountability Now project he and Jane Hamsher founded, but on this point, sadly, I completely concur.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]