http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_nwo149.htm
by Lance deHaven-Smith
Florida State University, Tallahassee
by Lance deHaven-Smith
Florida State University, Tallahassee
American Behavioral Scientist
February 2010
February 2010
from
LEGE
Website
Lance deHaven-Smith is a professor in
the
Reubin Askew School of Public
Administration and Policy at Florida State University in
Tallahassee.
Declaration of Conflicting
Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest
with respect to the authorship
and/or publication of this
article.
Financial Disclosure/Funding:
The author(s) received no financial support for the research and/or
authorship of this article.
|
Abstract
This article explores the conceptual, methodological, and practical implications of research on 'state crimes against democracy' (SCADs).In contrast to conspiracy theories, which speculate about each suspicious event in isolation, the SCAD construct delineates a general category of criminality and calls for crimes that fit this category to be examined comparatively.Using this approach, an analysis of post-World War II SCADs and suspected SCADs highlights a number of commonalities in SCAD targets, timing, and policy consequences. SCADs often appear where presidential politics and foreign policy intersect.SCADs differ from earlier forms of political corruption in that they frequently involve political, military, and/or economic elites at the very highest levels of the social and political order.The article concludes by suggesting statutory and constitutional reforms to improve SCAD prevention and detection.
Antidemocratic conspiracies among high-ranking public officials in the United States and other representative democracies constitute a sensitive and potentially controversial topic for behavioral research.
This may explain why, until recently, social
scientists have focused, instead, on graft, bribery, embezzlement, and other
forms of government corruption where the aim is personal enrichment rather
than social control, partisan advantage, or political power. In any event,
the topic is sensitive because it raises questions about the ethics of top
leaders and suggests that American democracy may be in thrall to
behind-the-scenes manipulations.
Even if research on the issue were to discredit
various conspiracy theories, it could fuel mass cynicism and undermine
civility in public discourse simply by making conspiracy theories a
legitimate subject for public consideration. McCarthyism quite clearly
demonstrated the dangers posed to democracy by unbridled, runaway
accusations of conspiratorial suspicions.
On the other hand, antidemocratic conspiracies in high office do, in fact, happen.
On the other hand, antidemocratic conspiracies in high office do, in fact, happen.
The congressional hearings on Watergate, the
Church Committee’s discoveries about illegal domestic surveillance, and the
special prosecutors’ investigations of Oliver North and Scooter Libby
revealed that public officials at the highest levels of American government
can and sometimes do engage in conspiracies to manipulate elections, wiretap
and smear critics, mislead Congress and the public, and in other ways
subvert popular sovereignty.
Certainly, such crimes and the criminogenic
circumstances surrounding them warrant scientific inquiry, not only to
better understand elite politics but also to identify institutional
vulnerabilities so that protections can be established or strengthened.
The
challenge for scholars is to engage in serious, unblinkered study of the
subject without contributing to mass paranoia or elite incivility.
The popular conspiracy theory literature contributes to mass cynicism because it presents a variety of conflicting suspicions about numerous, seemingly unrelated events, leaving the impression that elite political crime is widespread but unpredictable and therefore incapable of being understood and managed.
The popular conspiracy theory literature contributes to mass cynicism because it presents a variety of conflicting suspicions about numerous, seemingly unrelated events, leaving the impression that elite political crime is widespread but unpredictable and therefore incapable of being understood and managed.
This article examines the conceptual
foundations, political context, and practical implications of research on
state crimes against democracy (SCADs).
The SCAD construct is designed to move beyond
the debilitating, slipshod, and scattershot speculation of conspiracy
theories by focusing inquiry on patterns in elite political criminality that
reveal systemic weaknesses, institutional rivalries, and illicit networks.
The article is divided into five sections.
The article is divided into five sections.
Conceptualizing High Criminality
SCADs
SCADs are concerted actions or inactions by government insiders intended to manipulate democratic processes and undermine popular sovereignty (deHaven-Smith, 2006).
By definition, SCADs differ from other forms of
political criminality in their potential to subvert political institutions
and entire governments or branches of government. They are high crimes that
attack democracy itself.
Although only a few SCADs in U.S. history have ever been officially corroborated, evidence indicates that at least since World War II American democracy has become quite vulnerable to subversion from within.
Although only a few SCADs in U.S. history have ever been officially corroborated, evidence indicates that at least since World War II American democracy has become quite vulnerable to subversion from within.
Examples of SCADs that have been officially
proven include,
Many other political crimes in which involvement
by high officials is suspected have gone uninvestigated or unpunished.
Examples of suspected SCADs include,
The Conspiracy Theory Label
The concept of SCADs was developed, in part, to replace the term conspiracy theory, which, since the 1960s, has been associated with paranoia (Marcus, 1999) and harebrained speculation (Parish & Parker, 2001; Sanders & West, 2003).
Considered as a label, the phrase conspiracy
theory does a poor job of characterizing speculations about political
intrigue, yet the label remains popular because it functions normatively to
protect political elites from mass doubts about their motives and tactics
(see Manwell, 2010). Although not immediately apparent, this function
becomes evident when the label’s surface meaning is compared to its meaning
in use.
On the surface, the term conspiracy theory
refers to a suspicion that some troubling event was the result of a secret
plot, but the term’s usage implies something else.
Not every theory that alleges a secret plot qualifies as a conspiracy theory in the common sense of the term. The official account of 9/11 claims that the Twin Towers were brought down by a team of Muslims who conspired to highjack planes and fly them into buildings. The theory posits a conspiracy, but the theory is not what most people would call a “conspiracy theory.”
Not every theory that alleges a secret plot qualifies as a conspiracy theory in the common sense of the term. The official account of 9/11 claims that the Twin Towers were brought down by a team of Muslims who conspired to highjack planes and fly them into buildings. The theory posits a conspiracy, but the theory is not what most people would call a “conspiracy theory.”
Conspiracy theories of 9/11 claim more than that
the attacks were secretly planned and executed by an organized team.
Most conspiracy theories of 9/11 allege that the
U.S. government itself carried out the attacks or that officials knew the
attacks were coming and allowed them to succeed (see, e.g., Griffin, 2004;
Hufschmid, 2002; Marrs, 2006).
Still, a conspiracy theory is not simply a theory about a government plot. No one considers the (now) accepted accounts of the Watergate scandal or Iran-Contra affair as conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories in the pejorative sense of the term are always counter-theories: that is, they are always posed in opposition to official accounts of suspicious events.
Still, a conspiracy theory is not simply a theory about a government plot. No one considers the (now) accepted accounts of the Watergate scandal or Iran-Contra affair as conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories in the pejorative sense of the term are always counter-theories: that is, they are always posed in opposition to official accounts of suspicious events.
Today’s most popular conspiracy theories
involve,
Conspiracy theorists argue that official
accounts of these events ignore important evidence, contain anomalies and
inconsistencies, and are tendentious in their exoneration of public
officials
Thus, the conspiracy theory label, as it is applied in public discourse, does not disparage conspiratorial thinking or analysis in general, even though this is what the term suggests.
Thus, the conspiracy theory label, as it is applied in public discourse, does not disparage conspiratorial thinking or analysis in general, even though this is what the term suggests.
Rather, the broad-brush “conspiracy theory”
disparages inquiry and questioning that challenge official accounts of
troubling political events in which public officials themselves may have had
a hand.
Deployed in public discourse to discredit and
silence those who express suspicions of elite criminality, the label
functions, rhetorically, to shield political elites from public
interrogation.
The Politics of Silence
The problem with the conspiracy theory label is that it is overly broad in its condemnation of speculation about political intrigue.
The label provides no basis for distinguishing
groundless smears from reasonable suspicions warranting investigation.
History has shown all too clearly that public trust in high officials is
sometimes misplaced.
The normative force of the conspiracy theory label comes in part from the principle in American jurisprudence that suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty. However, the presumption of innocence was never intended to outlaw suspicions. Rather, it calls for suspicions to be tested with thorough and fair investigations grounded by procedural rules for procuring and presenting evidence.
The normative force of the conspiracy theory label comes in part from the principle in American jurisprudence that suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty. However, the presumption of innocence was never intended to outlaw suspicions. Rather, it calls for suspicions to be tested with thorough and fair investigations grounded by procedural rules for procuring and presenting evidence.
In contrast, the conspiracy theory label is
applied not to categorize a position that will actually be considered but to
shut off argumentation before it begins.
As a practical matter, the label condemns as
hysterical and pernicious almost all speculations about the possible
complicity of political elites in suspicions events.
Given that U.S. elites themselves could become the targets of assassination plots, illegal surveillance, and other conspiracies by their domestic political opponents, their blanket hostility to conspiracy theories seems irrational, for it encourages them to dismiss real dangers and to deny reasonable concerns. It also silences those who believe they have been victims.
Given that U.S. elites themselves could become the targets of assassination plots, illegal surveillance, and other conspiracies by their domestic political opponents, their blanket hostility to conspiracy theories seems irrational, for it encourages them to dismiss real dangers and to deny reasonable concerns. It also silences those who believe they have been victims.
George Wallace suspected, with good
reason, that the attempt on his life during the 1972 presidential campaign
had been engineered by Richard Nixon (Summers, 2000, pp. 406, 473,
526).
Wallace never expressed this suspicion publicly,
but this is why he withdrew his support from Nixon during the Watergate
hearings.
Similarly, by 1968, Robert Kennedy was convinced that JFK’s
assassination had been the work of a conspiracy involving the CIA, but he
did not voice his suspicions publicly while running for president because he
feared it would discredit him politically or get him killed (Douglass, 2008;
Talbot, 2007).
Hence, a useful axiom for scholarly
consideration may conjecture that norms against conspiratorial speculations
in public discourse sacrifice the safety of individual political elites to
protect the legitimacy of political elites as a class.
Still, although thus understandable as an elite defense mechanism, norms against conspiratorial theorizing make little sense conceptually. In disparaging speculation about possible elite criminality, the conspiracy theory label posits as given what actually needs to be falsified empirically, namely, whether democratic processes are being improperly and systematically manipulated by strategically placed insiders.
Still, although thus understandable as an elite defense mechanism, norms against conspiratorial theorizing make little sense conceptually. In disparaging speculation about possible elite criminality, the conspiracy theory label posits as given what actually needs to be falsified empirically, namely, whether democratic processes are being improperly and systematically manipulated by strategically placed insiders.
In the post-WWII era, official investigations
have attributed assassinations, election fiascos, defense failures, and
other suspicious events to such unpredictable, idiosyncratic forces as lone
gunmen, antiquated voting equipment, bureaucratic bumbling, and innocent
mistakes, all of which suspend numerous and accumulating qui bono questions.
In effect, political elites have answered
conspiracy theories with coincidence theories.
Conspiracy theorists have contributed to this disjunctive dispute because they have focused on each suspicious event in isolation. Amateur investigators have developed a large popular literature on the assassination of President Kennedy and a number of other political crimes in which state complicity is suspected or alleged.
Conspiracy theorists have contributed to this disjunctive dispute because they have focused on each suspicious event in isolation. Amateur investigators have developed a large popular literature on the assassination of President Kennedy and a number of other political crimes in which state complicity is suspected or alleged.
The research has discredited official accounts
of many incidents, thus casting suspicion on the government.
But such ad hoc research has failed to actually
solve the crimes under analysis or even to identify the agencies and
officials most likely to have been the perpetrators.
SCAD Patterns
SCAD Research
By delineating a specific form of political criminality, the SCAD concept allows inquiry to move beyond incident-specific theories of government plots and to examine, instead, the general phenomenon of elite political criminality.
Similar to research on white-collar crime,
domestic violence, serial murder, and other crime categories, SCAD research
seeks to identify patterns in SCAD victims, tactics, timing, those who
benefit, and other SCAD characteristics.
These patterns offer clues about the motives,
institutional location, skills, and resources of SCAD perpetrators. In turn,
as SCAD research brings SCAD perpetrators into focus, it provides a basis
for understanding and mitigating the criminogenic circumstances in which
SCADs arise.
For research purposes, the universe of SCADs must include not only those that have been officially investigated and confirmed but also suspected SCADs corroborated by evidence that is credible but unofficial. Although including the latter brings some risk of error, excluding them would mean accepting the judgment of individuals and institutions whose rectitude and culpability are at issue.
For research purposes, the universe of SCADs must include not only those that have been officially investigated and confirmed but also suspected SCADs corroborated by evidence that is credible but unofficial. Although including the latter brings some risk of error, excluding them would mean accepting the judgment of individuals and institutions whose rectitude and culpability are at issue.
Public officials are usually quite reluctant to
allow independent investigations into questions about their own actions or
those of their close associates.
For over a year
after 9/11, the Bush-Cheney administration resisted
and dodged demands for a 9/11 Commission before finally acceding
to pressures from the victims’ families, at which point the administration
gave the commission a very small budget and placed it under unrealistic
deadlines (Shenon, 2008, pp. 25, 29-31, 36-38).
The crimes for which Richard Nixon was forced
from office were not the Watergate break-ins but his efforts to obstruct the
FBI’s investigation.
Nixon also tried to preempt congressional
inquiries by issuing a superficial study from the White House (Kutler, 1997,
pp. 239), as did Ronald Reagan when the Iran-Contra scandal first surfaced
in the media (Hinson, 2010).
Even when purportedly independent investigations are undertaken, they are almost invariably compromised by conflicts of interest. Investigating officers and commissions of inquiry usually include or are appointed by the very officials who should be considered prime suspects. The Warren Commission, for example, was appointed by Lyndon Johnson, who was one of the primary beneficiaries of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Even when purportedly independent investigations are undertaken, they are almost invariably compromised by conflicts of interest. Investigating officers and commissions of inquiry usually include or are appointed by the very officials who should be considered prime suspects. The Warren Commission, for example, was appointed by Lyndon Johnson, who was one of the primary beneficiaries of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Also, a key member of the Warren Commission was
Allen Dulles, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency whom
Kennedy had fired after the Bay of Pigs.
The 9/11 Commission was similarly compromised
(Griffin, 2005; Shenon, 2008). All of its members were government insiders,
and none was a vocal critic of the Bush administration.
Moreover, the Commission’s executive director,
Philip Zelikow, had previously served on
George W. Bush’s presidential transition team, had been
appointed by Bush to the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board,
and had drafted America’s national security strategy following the events of
9/11 (Shenon, 2008, pp. 43-44).
Both the commission’s chair and its executive
director had to recuse themselves from parts of the inquiry because of
'conflicts of interest' (Shenon, 2008, p. 171).
Conflicts of interest also plague agencies that are typically charged with assisting investigations into suspected SCADs. Such agencies usually bear some blame or have some connection to the events in question. Hence, personnel in these agencies are inevitably tempted to conceal evidence that would implicate or embarrass the agencies or their top managers.
Conflicts of interest also plague agencies that are typically charged with assisting investigations into suspected SCADs. Such agencies usually bear some blame or have some connection to the events in question. Hence, personnel in these agencies are inevitably tempted to conceal evidence that would implicate or embarrass the agencies or their top managers.
Both the FBI and
the CIA concealed evidence of
their contacts with Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby (Douglass, 2008, pp.
40-41, 65-66, 144-145, 333-334, 363-368; Talbot, 2007).
Likewise, the Department of Defense appears to
have withheld from the 9/11 Commission evidence that military intelligence
agents had uncovered the 9/11 hijackers’ activities well in advance of
September 2001 (Ahmed, 2005; C. Weldon, 2005).
SCAD Targets and Tactics
A variety of SCADs and suspected SCADs have occurred in the United States since World War II.
Table 1 contains a list of 15 known SCADs and
other counter-democratic crimes, tragedies, and suspicious incidents for
which strong evidence of U.S. government involvement has been uncovered.
For each SCAD or alleged SCAD in the list, the
table includes a brief description of,
In the list of SCADs in Table 1, several
patterns stand out.
Assassinations
The relatively large number of assassinations in the post-WWII era permits analysis of variation within this MO.
The relatively large number of assassinations in the post-WWII era permits analysis of variation within this MO.
Several patterns contradict the conclusion from
official inquiries that political assassinations in the United States have
been random, with no connections to one another and no involvement of
political elites. First, the range of officials targeted for assassination
is limited to those most directly associated with foreign policy: presidents
and senators.
Most other high-ranking officials in the federal
government have seldom been murdered, even though many have attracted
widespread hostility and opposition.
No vice presidents have been assassinated, nor
have any members of the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Supreme
Court. If lone gunmen have been roaming the country in search of political
victims, it is difficult to understand why they have not struck more widely,
especially given that most officials receive no Secret Service protection.
Why did no assassins go after Joe McCarthy when
he became notorious for his accusations about communists, or Earle Warren
after the Supreme Court’s decisions requiring school desegregation, or Spiro
Agnew after he attacked the motives of antiwar protestors, or Janet Reno
after she authorized the FBI’s raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco?
A second pattern has to do with the particular presidents and senators who have been targeted for elimination, as opposed to the many who have not.
A second pattern has to do with the particular presidents and senators who have been targeted for elimination, as opposed to the many who have not.
Presidents and senators have been targeted only
when their elimination would benefit military and pro-war interests. Because
a president who is killed or dies in office is automatically succeeded by
the vice president, a presidential assassination would benefit military
interests only if the vice president’s background or policy positions were
dramatically better for the military than the president’s.
This situation has existed only twice since 1960
- during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
Unlike Kennedy, who was trying to end the cold
war, Lyndon Johnson was a well-known hawk and pentagon supporter. Similarly,
although Reagan and George H. W. Bush had similar positions on the cold war,
Bush’s background as former director of the CIA gave him much closer ties
than Reagan to the military establishment.
Assassinations and assassination attempts have been carried out against U.S. senators only under similar circumstances.
Assassinations and assassination attempts have been carried out against U.S. senators only under similar circumstances.
The Senate is more important to foreign policy
than the House because it must confirm cabinet appointments and approve
international treaties. However, the death of a single U.S. senator would
almost never cause significant shifts in military action or defense policy
because individual senators are seldom that powerful.
Hence, if the aim were to affect foreign policy,
a senator would be targeted for assassination only in rare instances. This
has indeed been the case.
Just one senator is known to have been
assassinated since 1960, despite the large number of available targets and
the absence of bodyguards. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was murdered
after he had denounced the Vietnam War and had become the Democratic Party’s
frontrunner for the 1968 presidential nomination.
Given the high probability that RFK would have
been elected, his murder was, in effect, a preemptive assassination of a
president-to-be.
The only other senatorial assassinations or attempted assassinations in the post-WWII era occurred in 2001 when Democrats controlled the Senate by virtue of a one-vote advantage over Republicans. In May 2001, just four months after George W. Bush gained the presidency in a SCAD-ridden disputed election, Republican Jim Jeffords left the party to become an independent, and the Senate shifted to Democratic control for the first time since 1994.
The only other senatorial assassinations or attempted assassinations in the post-WWII era occurred in 2001 when Democrats controlled the Senate by virtue of a one-vote advantage over Republicans. In May 2001, just four months after George W. Bush gained the presidency in a SCAD-ridden disputed election, Republican Jim Jeffords left the party to become an independent, and the Senate shifted to Democratic control for the first time since 1994.
Five months later, on October 9, 2001, letters
laced with anthrax were used in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate two
leading Senate Democrats, Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Judiciary
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy.
The anthrax in the letters came from what is
known as the “Ames strain,” which was developed and distributed to
biomedical research laboratories by the U.S. Army (Tarpley, 2005, pp.
311-318).
Thus, aside from the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the only
other time since WWII that senators have been targeted for death was when a
war was about to be fought for dubious reasons and the death of a single
senator could shift control of the Senate to the political party pushing for
war.1
These patterns in assassinations, as well as the patterns across SCADs in general, point to likely suspects and criminogenic circumstances. SCADs frequently involve presidents as either victims or principals, benefit military and military-industrial elites, and employ the skills of intelligence and paramilitary operatives.
These patterns in assassinations, as well as the patterns across SCADs in general, point to likely suspects and criminogenic circumstances. SCADs frequently involve presidents as either victims or principals, benefit military and military-industrial elites, and employ the skills of intelligence and paramilitary operatives.
Conditions conducive to SCADs include periods of
warfare or heightened international tensions, administrations with prowar
vice presidents, and Senates closely divided along partisan lines. SCADs
often appear where presidential politics and foreign policy intersect.
This policy locus could mean that the nation’s
civilian leadership is being targeted by military and intelligence elites or
that military and intelligence assets and capabilities are being politicized
by the civilian leadership, or both.
Political Corruption in American History
Forms of Political Corruption
In addition to directing attention to the general phenomenon of elite political criminality, the SCAD concept allows this particular type of political corruption to be compared to others and placed in historical context.
In modern representative democracy,
political corruption has taken two principal forms (Rogow & Lasswell, 1963).
Examples here include election tampering,
assassination, malicious prosecution, voter disenfranchisement, and unlawful
incarceration.
These forms of corruption are not mutually exclusive, but
they are sufficiently distinct to permit analysis of corrupt behavior in
terms of its origins and aims.
As explained in The Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution was designed to protect,
As explained in The Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution was designed to protect,
“the spirit and form of popular government against the dangers of both pecuniary corruption and antidemocratic corruption” (Federalist 10, Diamond, 1987, p. 669).
Pecuniary corruption, or what the Constitution’s
framers referred to as “perfidious” and “mercenary” public officials, was to
be impeded by elections (Federalist 28, 57), loyalty oaths (Federalist 29,
44), and the threat of impeachment (Federalist 38, 47, 64, 65 66, 77, 84).
Antidemocratic corruption, which the framers
described as “oppressive factions,” was to be impeded by federalism, divided
powers, and checks and balances (Federalist 9, 11, 47, 51). In the
Constitution, both forms of corruption are captured by the term high crimes
and misdemeanors (Federalist 69).
Over the course of American history, the modal form of political corruption has fluctuated between pecuniary and antidemocratic corruption, requiring in each instance significant reforms to counter new kinds of threats and abuses.
Over the course of American history, the modal form of political corruption has fluctuated between pecuniary and antidemocratic corruption, requiring in each instance significant reforms to counter new kinds of threats and abuses.
The main eras of corruption and subsequent
reform are listed and described in Table 2 below.
Because reforms have never been totally
effective, vulnerabilities from earlier eras continue to be problematic even
though they have been mitigated. In this sense, the form and scope of
political corruption have expanded over time. SCADs are a new or more
sophisticated type of corruption that combines antidemocratic and pecuniary
motives of an extreme nature.
SCADs have yet to be adequately targeted for
detection and prevention, although some limited reforms were instituted
after Watergate and Iran-Contra (see Hinson, 2010).
Political Parties
As the framers themselves soon recognized, America’s constitutional framework was vulnerable from the beginning to manipulation by elite conspiracies.
As the framers themselves soon recognized, America’s constitutional framework was vulnerable from the beginning to manipulation by elite conspiracies.
Alliances could be formed between officials in
the different offices and branches of government to undercut the system of
checks and balances.
Once an enduring alliance of legislative, executive,
and/or judicial powers was in place, many procedural limits on oppressive
majorities would be deactivated, and public officials who represented the
dominant faction could then employ the coercive organs of government to
suppress opponents, conceal information, and in other ways handicap the
electorate’s ability to hold representatives accountable.
The archetype of multibranch alliances in American government is the political party, which is essentially an organization dedicated to gaining control of the political system as a whole so that a program can be legislated, executed, and judicially sustained.
The archetype of multibranch alliances in American government is the political party, which is essentially an organization dedicated to gaining control of the political system as a whole so that a program can be legislated, executed, and judicially sustained.
As George Washington pointed out in his farewell
address, such parties not only weaken the system of checks and balances by
placing the reins of legislative, executive, and/or judicial powers in the
hands of a single group but also tend, by their very nature, to inspire a
certain “team spirit” that blurs the distinctions among legitimate political
action, unprincipled political tactics, and political criminality.
This became apparent soon after the first
national political party, the Federalists, was organized and gained control
of the legislative and executive branches in the election of 1796.
The Federalists enacted the Alien and Sedition
Acts, which ignored the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and made it
a crime to criticize public officials.
Thomas Jefferson, who in 1796 had campaigned against the Federalists and had been elected vice president, was so troubled by this development that he left Washington and returned home for the duration of his term. The remedy subsequently crafted by Jefferson and Madison to address the Federalist Party was a counteralliance - the Democratic Republican Party - which carried Jefferson to the presidency in 1800.
Thomas Jefferson, who in 1796 had campaigned against the Federalists and had been elected vice president, was so troubled by this development that he left Washington and returned home for the duration of his term. The remedy subsequently crafted by Jefferson and Madison to address the Federalist Party was a counteralliance - the Democratic Republican Party - which carried Jefferson to the presidency in 1800.
Over the next several decades, the parties
developed rules and procedures to regulate the majority and protect the
minority’s ability to be heard.
Although partisan competition did not restore
the full vigor of checks and balances to the constitutional system, it did
prevent any majority, oppressive or otherwise, from permanently evading
electoral accountability.
Political Machines and Administrative Corruption
Still, although partisan competition prevented majorities from escaping the criticism and blocking the electoral appeals of their opponents, it did not totally foreclose the possibility of untoward coordination between constitutionally separated powers.
Rather, it drove factions to search for indirect
routes to the same end. Officials in the executive branch of government at
all levels began to use the powers of their offices to entrench themselves
and their parties throughout the political system.
Their main objective was to capture and
distribute government jobs and other resources.
Political machines proliferated until, toward
the end of the 19th century, public administration scholars and
practitioners professionalized American government by instituting
professional civil service requirements, prohibiting the use of government
resources in political campaigns, and moving to the council-manager system
in local government.
The reforms of the Progressive Era succeeded in partially restoring integrity to elections and emerging principles to U.S. public administration, but they also brought organizational changes that weakened the system of checks and balances in new ways. A new instrument of government, the independent regulatory commission, which combined legislative, executive, and judicial powers in a single unit, was introduced.
The reforms of the Progressive Era succeeded in partially restoring integrity to elections and emerging principles to U.S. public administration, but they also brought organizational changes that weakened the system of checks and balances in new ways. A new instrument of government, the independent regulatory commission, which combined legislative, executive, and judicial powers in a single unit, was introduced.
By creating what became in effect self-contained
mini-governments, such commissions opened the door to a cartelization of the
political system, whereby public power and resources were divvied up and
distributed to various economic, social, and geographic constituencies (Lowi,
1969).
This pattern was repeated with the vast
expansion of federal grants in aid to states and localities under the New
Deal and the Great Society. Policy making and administration were fragmented
into a plethora of separate and distinct arenas where public and private
“stakeholders” could work out mutually acceptable compromises more or less
independent of the larger political process.
The resulting political-economic conglomerates
have been described variously as “iron triangles,” “whirlpools,”
“subsystems,” and “subgovernments” (deHaven-Smith & Van Horn, 1984; McCool,
1998).
The proliferation of iron triangles was accompanied by a new type of pecuniary corruption in which stakeholders in a given policy arena colluded to manipulate legal and procedural technicalities for the benefit of special interests.
The proliferation of iron triangles was accompanied by a new type of pecuniary corruption in which stakeholders in a given policy arena colluded to manipulate legal and procedural technicalities for the benefit of special interests.
Frequently, the stakeholders in question were
corporations and industrial interests - especially railroads, electric
utilities, and oil companies - that were suspected of bribing, hoodwinking,
or otherwise influencing policy makers to gain legal and financial
advantages at the public’s expense.
The earliest example of a suspected manipulation
of this sort was described by Charles and Mary Beard (1927) in their
“conspiracy theory of the Fourteenth Amendment.” (This, incidentally, is
where the term “conspiracy theory” originated.)
According to Beard, legal experts for the
railroad industry pushed for and obtained wording that led the courts to
apply the legal guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment not only to
individual citizens but also to corporations (Beard & Beard, 1927, pp.
111-114).
Eventually, concerns about the growing potential
for these kinds of special-interest abuses in America’s increasingly
fragmented and technical system of government were addressed with
restrictions on campaign contributions and lobbying, financial disclosure
requirements for public officials, public records and open meeting laws, and
other reforms to reduce improper influences in policy making and
administration.
SCADs
The most recent corruption-related development in American government has been the rise of political-economic complexes with the ability to affect the political priorities of the political system as a whole.
For the first half of the 20th
century, American government’s increasing fragmentation was seen by scholars
and practitioners as a positive development that allowed popular
participation in policy making while at the same time preventing majority
tyranny (see, e.g., Dahl & Lindblom, 1946).
The assumption was that oppressive factions
could not exert control over the government as a whole because power,
although less well divided in terms of function (legislation, execution,
adjudication) than it had been before independent commissions and grants in
aid, was now splintered into numerous substantive domains or topics.
In keeping with James Madison’s theory of
faction, with each policy arena dominated by different factions, no faction
or combination of factions would be able to control the government as a
whole, and national priorities would have to emerge incrementally from
“partisan mutual adjustment” among diverse power blocks.
By midcentury, however, scholars and practitioners began to realize that not all policy arenas and stakeholders are equal.
By midcentury, however, scholars and practitioners began to realize that not all policy arenas and stakeholders are equal.
Among stakeholders, corporate business interests
were predominant because they were active and influential in virtually all
policy areas, giving U.S. public policy in general a decidedly procapital
cast relative to labor, consumers, the environment, and other interests (Bachrach
& Baratz, 1962).
Congruently, policy making about national
defense and military action had risen in importance and now influenced all
other policy areas as well.
As President Eisenhower (1961)
warned in his
farewell address, military leaders and armament manufacturers had become a
“military-industrial complex” capable of influencing the entire direction of
American government.
Since Eisenhower’s day, the military-industrial complex has expanded while other, related complexes have formed. Energy, finance, and pharmaceutical interests have grown in influence not simply because of their vast economic assets but also because of their strategic importance to globalizing societies (Klein, 2007).
Since Eisenhower’s day, the military-industrial complex has expanded while other, related complexes have formed. Energy, finance, and pharmaceutical interests have grown in influence not simply because of their vast economic assets but also because of their strategic importance to globalizing societies (Klein, 2007).
Complexes differ from iron triangles in their
command over resources that affect overall societal conditions, mass
perceptions, and political priorities. Falling energy prices can help save a
presidency, as they did in 2004. Military threats can rally support for the
party in power, as happened after 9/11.
Fears of epidemics and biological weapons can
fuel militarism and restrictions on civil liberties, as they did after the
anthrax mailings in 2001.
This ramifying quality heralds a morphologically new type of threat to American governing institutions. Unlike iron triangles, which typically involve narrow economic interests and midlevel policy makers, complexes pose moral hazards for the highest offices of government because their assets can be used to wield dominant control over the national political agenda.
This ramifying quality heralds a morphologically new type of threat to American governing institutions. Unlike iron triangles, which typically involve narrow economic interests and midlevel policy makers, complexes pose moral hazards for the highest offices of government because their assets can be used to wield dominant control over the national political agenda.
The same moral hazards exist for the corporate
and industrial interests that compose the economic side of
political-economic complexes because the national political agenda is the
primary factor affecting the income, importance, and long-term prospects of
the corporations involved.
Anticorruption Policies
Although they need to be strengthened and better enforced, policies for preventing pecuniary corruption are already in place.
In recent years, the main threats from these
forms of corruption have come from innovative schemes to circumvent existing
controls. A good example is how the savings and loan industry was looted in
the 1980s.
Corporate leaders who were engaged in far-flung
conspiracies to commit fraud finagled changes in regulatory policies and
enforcement that allowed their frauds to go undetected until their banks had
been plundered (Black, 2005; Calavita, Pontell, & Tillman, 1999). This
special-interest corruption in the finance and banking industry was repeated
little more than a decade later when Enron used its tight connections with
the Bush-Cheney administration to evade controls on energy pricing and asset
accounting (Munson, 2005).
The collapse of Enron and other financial
conglomerates led policy makers to strengthen regulations for monitoring
corporate accounting and holding corporate officers responsible for their
companies’ actions.
Another example of a resurgent type of pecuniary corruption is the new spoils system that has developed around privatization and outsourcing.
Another example of a resurgent type of pecuniary corruption is the new spoils system that has developed around privatization and outsourcing.
Much of the waste and incompetence of military
contractors in Iraq have been attributed to politicization of the
contracting process. In many cases, companies were selected solely on the
basis of their ties to the Republican Party (see Scahill, 2007).
Similarly, in the system of influence peddling
by members of Congress, including Representatives Cunningham, Ney, and
Delay, large government contracts and specific legislation were traded for
cash payments, campaign contributions, jobs for relatives, and access to
corporate planes. Although additional reforms are needed, the procedures for
government contracting, accounting, and earmarking were tightened after
voters gave Democrats a majority in both the House and Senate in 2006.
These examples suggest that once particular types of vulnerabilities have been recognized, the system of checks and balances will eventually be activated if schemes are devised to attack the same weak points in a new way.
These examples suggest that once particular types of vulnerabilities have been recognized, the system of checks and balances will eventually be activated if schemes are devised to attack the same weak points in a new way.
It may be difficult to detect fraud in corporate
accounting, cronyism in government contracting, and influence peddling in
legislative earmarking, but no one doubts that such crimes are possible and
that regulators, investigators, and legislators need to guard against them.
In contrast, the political system’s vulnerability to the newest and deadliest type of antidemocratic corruption - conspiracies in high office to undermine popular sovereignty, often by manipulating national circumstances or priorities - has yet to be widely recognized, much less targeted for corrective action.
In contrast, the political system’s vulnerability to the newest and deadliest type of antidemocratic corruption - conspiracies in high office to undermine popular sovereignty, often by manipulating national circumstances or priorities - has yet to be widely recognized, much less targeted for corrective action.
When suspicious incidents occur that alter the
nation’s objectives, disrupt presidential elections, provoke military
action, or otherwise affect the national agenda, Americans tend to accept
the self-serving accounts of public officials, seldom considering the
possibility that such incidents might have been initiated or facilitated by
the officials themselves.
The role and function of the universally
understood concept of “agent provocateur” is grossly neglected in the idiom
of American political discourse.
This mass gullibility, which itself invites
SCADs, is unlikely to change until SCAD detection and prosecution are
improved.
SCADs and the Politics of National Security
The National Security Apparatus
The connection among SCADs, presidential politics, and the military-industrial complex calls for inquiry into national security policy making. National security policy is developed and implemented by what can be called the “National Security Apparatus.”
The apparatus is composed of all those persons who gather and interpret intelligence, carry out covert, invisible operations (Thorne & Kouzmin, 2010), develop secret military capabilities, are involved in regime change around the world, and formulate and communicate America’s foreign policies.
This includes the offices of the president and
the vice president, the diplomatic corps, the nation’s intelligence agencies
(notably, the
CIA,
NSA, and FBI), top leaders in the military, private
research organizations (such as the RAND Corporation), and certain military
and intelligence contractors.
Significantly, intelligence contractors are
estimated to now account for 70% of America’s intelligence expenditures (Shorrock,
2008, pp. 19-20), leading some observers to speak of an
“intelligence-industrial complex” (Shorrock, 2008, pp. 12-13, 90, 162, 166,
168).
The apparatus originated in World War II and played a critical role in the war effort, particularly with the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs. The advent of nuclear weapons and the cold war made espionage and counterintelligence a national priority.
The apparatus originated in World War II and played a critical role in the war effort, particularly with the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs. The advent of nuclear weapons and the cold war made espionage and counterintelligence a national priority.
From the beginning, the apparatus had a presence
internationally through the diplomatic corps and affiliations with the
intelligence agencies of U.S. allies. But its international reach has been
greatly expanded in recent decades because of America’s growing number of
foreign military bases and its land- and space-based equipment for
surveillance.
The United States has 725 foreign military
bases, and its forces are stationed in 153 foreign nations (C. Johnson,
2004, p. 154), in addition to an untold number of espionage bases.
The organs of national security policy are an “apparatus” in the sense that they are compartmented and disjointed by design (Goodman, 2008, pp. 1-29; Wise & Ross, 1964, pp. 91-128). Organizing national security functions in the aftermath of World War II, officials at the highest levels of the national government recognized the dangers that agencies, shielded by secrecy and armed with lethal capabilities, posed to representative democracy.
The organs of national security policy are an “apparatus” in the sense that they are compartmented and disjointed by design (Goodman, 2008, pp. 1-29; Wise & Ross, 1964, pp. 91-128). Organizing national security functions in the aftermath of World War II, officials at the highest levels of the national government recognized the dangers that agencies, shielded by secrecy and armed with lethal capabilities, posed to representative democracy.
Most of the nation’s offices for intelligence
gathering and covert operations were removed from the armed services and
placed under civilian control. The functions and purviews of different
offices, even those within a single agency, were strictly delineated and
separated in order that each office would have only a partial picture of the
nation’s aims, tactics, weapons, and operations.
This administrative compartmentalization was
intended to protect secrecy and to prevent policy interests, especially
those of the armed services, from distorting intelligence.
However, compartmentalization also facilitates
the misuse of apparatus assets for purposes of domestic politics because it
leaves each component of an operation ignorant of the operation’s principals
and overall purpose.
SCADs and National Security Capabilities
In the first decades after World War II, SCAD targets and tactics evolved in tandem with the skills and techniques of the National Security Apparatus.
The first covert operations of the apparatus
were undertaken immediately after the end of World War II. In the late
1940s, the CIA made secret financial contributions to anticommunist
political parties in Italy, France, and Japan. In Italy, it also bought
Mafia help in keeping communists out of the dock workers’ union.
In the 1950s, it became actively involved in
coups against democratically elected regimes. After these coups, the
apparatus instructed and aided its coup partners in the use of state
terrorism for quelling unrest and opposition (see Blum, 2004; Klein, 2007).
During this period, isolated elements in the apparatus - notably the FBI - began to surreptitiously intervene into domestic political processes to strengthen the public’s resolve in the cold war.
During this period, isolated elements in the apparatus - notably the FBI - began to surreptitiously intervene into domestic political processes to strengthen the public’s resolve in the cold war.
Tape recordings of Richard
Nixon in the White House reveal that the FBI colluded with Nixon to frame
Alger Hiss (Summers, 2000, pp. 70-75).
Hiss was probably guilty of espionage, but the
FBI lacked proof, so Hoover tapped Nixon to interrogate Hiss in Senate
hearings. The FBI then forged documents to match Hiss’s typewriter, and the
documents were sufficient to convict Hiss of perjury. The FBI also fed
secret information to Joseph McCarthy, whose attacks on alleged communists
and communist sympathizers terrorized more-liberal public administrators,
intellectuals, artists, and others.
Not long before the Kennedy assassination, the covert activities of the apparatus had reached a new scale. In 1961, the apparatus planned and executed an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban expatriates it had trained and equipped.
Not long before the Kennedy assassination, the covert activities of the apparatus had reached a new scale. In 1961, the apparatus planned and executed an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban expatriates it had trained and equipped.
After the invasion failed, the apparatus began
working with bosses in the American Mafia to engineer the assassination of
Fidel Castro. In 1963, the apparatus directed a coup in Vietnam that
resulted in the murder of President Diem, who had previously been installed
with the help of the CIA.
From these initiatives, it would have been only
a small step for the assassination capabilities of the apparatus to be
directed at a domestic target.
In any event, as the apparatus was learning how
to organize conspiracies to murder foreign leaders, the United States
experienced an unprecedented rash of political assassinations and attempted
assassinations.
The targets included,
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the apparatus began to establish
profit-making enterprises, which gave it financial resources beyond the
knowledge and control of Congress.
Many of these enterprises were legitimate
businesses. Perhaps the best example is
Air America, which was the
proprietary airline of the CIA. By the end of the Vietnam War, Air America
had become the largest airline in the world.
The CIA also had front companies or “cutouts” in
many other industries related to its covert operations, especially public
relations, telecommunications, energy, and publishing.
Other enterprises, such as drug dealing, were illegal or extralegal. The CIA first became involved in the drug trade during the Vietnam War. Profits from the illicit activity were used to support paramilitary operations in Laos and Cambodia that Congress had not authorized and about which it was unaware.
In 1980 if not sooner, these newly developed business skills of the apparatus began to be used in domestic politics. An example is the so-called October Surprise in the 1980 presidential election, where the Reagan-Bush campaign is alleged to have made a deal to sell arms to Iran in return for Iran delaying the release of the hostages until after Election Day (Parry, 1993; Sick, 1991).
Other enterprises, such as drug dealing, were illegal or extralegal. The CIA first became involved in the drug trade during the Vietnam War. Profits from the illicit activity were used to support paramilitary operations in Laos and Cambodia that Congress had not authorized and about which it was unaware.
In 1980 if not sooner, these newly developed business skills of the apparatus began to be used in domestic politics. An example is the so-called October Surprise in the 1980 presidential election, where the Reagan-Bush campaign is alleged to have made a deal to sell arms to Iran in return for Iran delaying the release of the hostages until after Election Day (Parry, 1993; Sick, 1991).
The principals who secretly negotiated the
arrangement in Paris reportedly included vice presidential candidate
George H. W. Bush and former intelligence officers Bill Casey
(Reagan’s campaign manager) and Robert Gates.
After the Reagan
administration took office, Casey became director of the CIA and Gates
became assistant director.
The special prosecutor’s investigation of Iran-Contra was precluded by its enabling legislation from revisiting the 1980 October Surprise, which had previously been investigated by Congress. The congressional investigation had cleared Casey and Bush after they produced alibis for the alleged date of the meeting in Paris, but these alibis were later brought into question.
The special prosecutor’s investigation of Iran-Contra was precluded by its enabling legislation from revisiting the 1980 October Surprise, which had previously been investigated by Congress. The congressional investigation had cleared Casey and Bush after they produced alibis for the alleged date of the meeting in Paris, but these alibis were later brought into question.
Given what is now known about Iran-Contra, it
appears likely that the Iran-Contra operation grew out of the October
Surprise agreement. At the direction of President Reagan and with the direct
involvement of Vice President Bush, the apparatus began selling arms to Iran
at highly inflated prices and funneling the profits to the Contras.
The Contras were also brought into the drug
trade and were given assistance in smuggling cocaine into the United States
(Ruppert, 2004; Webb, 1998).
The Crimes of Watergate
The Watergate scandal offers the most detailed picture available of how, why, and by whom the National Security Apparatus can become involved in presidential politics.
The Watergate prosecutions, congressional
investigations, and presidential tape recordings provide a thorough account
of the break-ins and of the efforts by the president and others to cover-up
Watergate’s connection to the administration. This official record has also
been supplemented by the books of several investigative journalists and by
the memoirs of Nixon’s chief of staff Bob Haldeman (1978) and Watergate
burglars Howard Hunt (1974), Gordon Liddy (1980), and James McCord (1974).
Watergate suggests that SCADs are not so much
aberrations within the apparatus as they are predictable turns taken when
national security initiatives intersect with domestic presidential politics.
Nixon considered espionage against partisan opponents to be a normal part of American politics, and he saw nothing wrong with using government resources for this purpose.
Nixon considered espionage against partisan opponents to be a normal part of American politics, and he saw nothing wrong with using government resources for this purpose.
After all, he knew that the government had
targeted him in the 1968 election. After he became president, FBI director
Hoover informed him that, at the instructions of President Johnson, the FBI
had placed wiretaps on the phones in Nixon’s airplane (Gray, 2008, pp.
161-162). President Johnson’s action in this regard implies that he, too,
considered such espionage legitimate.
That Johnson and Nixon were from different
parties but were both able to use the FBI for political espionage indicates
that, by the late 1960s, apparatus capabilities were seen by the president,
the FBI director, and probably others at their level to be resources
appropriate for use in domestic politics.
Nixon and his close advisors believed that the antiwar movement was an attack on the American form of government and that leaking secret or sensitive information to the press, as Daniel Ellsberg had done with the Pentagon Papers, amounted to a treasonous assault on national security.
Nixon and his close advisors believed that the antiwar movement was an attack on the American form of government and that leaking secret or sensitive information to the press, as Daniel Ellsberg had done with the Pentagon Papers, amounted to a treasonous assault on national security.
After the FBI refused to wiretap reporters,
Nixon and his team established the Special Investigative Unit in the White
House to stop information from “leaking.”
This is why the White House staff referred to
Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy as the “plumbers.” Wiretaps were placed on the
telephones of reporters as well as administration officials. Among the
latter was Henry Kissinger, who was discovered to be one of the media’s
sources.
The plumbers engaged in a variety of operations before the Watergate break-ins. They followed Ted Kennedy and tried to discover evidence that would embarrass or discredit him. They burglarized the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding. They recruited thugs to attack protestors and instigate unrest at antiwar demonstrations.
The plumbers engaged in a variety of operations before the Watergate break-ins. They followed Ted Kennedy and tried to discover evidence that would embarrass or discredit him. They burglarized the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding. They recruited thugs to attack protestors and instigate unrest at antiwar demonstrations.
Finally, as the 1972 election approached, Hunt
and Liddy were brought into Nixon’s reelection campaign to handle the
campaign’s security and intelligence activities.
Hunt and Liddy prepared an extensive plan for,
among other things, infiltrating the primary and general election campaigns
of the Democrats, disrupting the Democratic National Convention, and luring
convention delegates into compromising liaisons with prostitutes. Also part
of this plan was placing wiretaps on two telephones in the headquarters of
the National Democratic Party and searching through the files in the office
of the Democratic Party Chairman.
The plan was recognized at the time to be risky
and illegal, but it was approved by top officials in the White House and by
the Committee to Re-elect the President.
Although Watergate is remembered as simply a single, botched burglary almost entirely unrelated to the CIA and FBI, it was more plausibly part of a much larger initiative involving various apparatus components. When the Watergate break-in was being investigated by Congress, staff found reports of more than 100 burglaries in the D.C. area that were similar to Hunt and Liddy’s operation against Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist (Summers, 2000, pp. 392, 524, Note 22).
Although Watergate is remembered as simply a single, botched burglary almost entirely unrelated to the CIA and FBI, it was more plausibly part of a much larger initiative involving various apparatus components. When the Watergate break-in was being investigated by Congress, staff found reports of more than 100 burglaries in the D.C. area that were similar to Hunt and Liddy’s operation against Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist (Summers, 2000, pp. 392, 524, Note 22).
The plumbers had broken into Fielding’s office
in search of information needed by CIA profilers for preparing an analysis
of how to “break” Ellsberg emotionally.
The other burglaries in the D.C. area similarly
targeted the offices of physicians and psychiatrists whose patients were
Nixon’s opponents or their wives. This MO is consistent with one of various
forms of psychological warfare practiced by the apparatus, which had
conducted years of psychological research to learn how to psychoanalyze
people from a distance, identify their psychological conflicts, and create
pressures in their lives to produce emotional breakdowns (Marks, 1979).
Hunt and Liddy may have been just one
compartment in a larger assemblage of operatives who were conducting
psychological warfare against many of Nixon’s “enemies.”
This would explain why “Deep Throat” (deputy
director of the FBI Mark Felt) told Bob Woodward that almost the entire law
enforcement wing of the national government was involved in the Watergate
operation and cover-up and that bugs had been placed in the homes of
Woodward, Bernstein, and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee.
Nor were Nixon’s political crimes necessarily limited to burglaries, wiretaps, and dirty tricks. Nixon’s surrogates may have also murdered U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
Nor were Nixon’s political crimes necessarily limited to burglaries, wiretaps, and dirty tricks. Nixon’s surrogates may have also murdered U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
Charles Colson, one of Nixon’s main political
advisors in the White House, hinted as much in taped conversations with the
president (Kutler, 1997, p. 194).
Furthermore, Liddy (1980, pp. 207-210) reports
in his memoirs that in 1972 Colson instructed Hunt and him to prepare a plan
for assassinating Jack Anderson, an investigative journalist. Although
Anderson’s murder was called off, Hunt and Liddy were quite willing to
perform the operation and viewed it as a reasonable assignment.
For that matter, shortly after the Watergate
burglars were arrested, Liddy (1980, pp. 257-258) told John Dean that he
would understand if he, Liddy, were slated to be killed; he asked only that
the hit occur someplace other than at his home, where his wife and children
might come to harm.
One death that a grand jury suspected had been
arranged by the White House was that of Dorothy Hunt, Howard Hunt’s wife,
who was killed in an airplane crash not long after she had begun
blackmailing Nixon to provide financial support for the Watergate burglars
during their incarceration (Kutler, 1997, p. 474).
Limited Reforms After Watergate
Ironically, Watergate revealed not only how national security operations can become enmeshed in presidential politics but also how reluctant public officials are to acknowledge and confront the conditions that permit this.
The Watergate investigations exposed the crimes
of high-ranking public officials, and a number of officials went to jail.
But few changes were made to the organization,
procedures, or oversight of national security agencies even though they had
been quite willing to go along with Nixon’s crimes. In the aftermath of
Nixon’s resignation, the Church Committee hearings on the CIA uncovered many
illegal and illegitimate activities by the apparatus, including
assassinations of foreign leaders, coups, collaboration among state agents
with criminal organizations, illegal domestic surveillance, and more.
They also turned up evidence of CIA and FBI
involvement in U.S. domestic politics, including not just Watergate and the
dirty tricks of Donald Segretti but also the secret provision of funds to a
wide range of civic organizations and the use of illegal wiretaps and agent
provocateurs against the civil rights and antiwar movements (C. Johnson,
2004; Wilford, 2008; Wise, 1976).
Nevertheless, the congressional investigators and special prosecutors never seriously considered the possibility that the National Security Apparatus was engaging in domestic assassinations and other high crimes.
Nevertheless, the congressional investigators and special prosecutors never seriously considered the possibility that the National Security Apparatus was engaging in domestic assassinations and other high crimes.
The suspicion was voiced by others; for example,
Bernstein and Woodward (1974) speculated in their book on Watergate that
Nixon might have been behind the attempted assassination of George Wallace.
But public officials were seemingly unwilling to take their suspicions this
far; the post-Watergate reforms targeted isolated abuses of power rather
than the general problem of elite political criminality in the national
security state.
This allowed criminal tendencies revealed by Watergate to continue developing. Even as Nixon was departing, he drew additional politicians and intelligence professionals into his network of unprincipled partisans. Alexander Haig became Nixon’s chief of staff, and he brokered the deal between Nixon and Gerald Ford for Nixon’s pardon (Woodward, 2006).
This allowed criminal tendencies revealed by Watergate to continue developing. Even as Nixon was departing, he drew additional politicians and intelligence professionals into his network of unprincipled partisans. Alexander Haig became Nixon’s chief of staff, and he brokered the deal between Nixon and Gerald Ford for Nixon’s pardon (Woodward, 2006).
Haig later played a role in Iran-Contra when he
approved weapons sales to Iran not long after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration (Kornbluh
& Byrne, 1993). George H. W. Bush had been a frequent visitor to the Nixon
White House after Nixon had picked him to be chairman of the Republican
National Party.
Ford appointed Bush as the director of the CIA despite Senator Church’s strong objection to a politician serving in that position.
Ford appointed Bush as the director of the CIA despite Senator Church’s strong objection to a politician serving in that position.
Although Bush was CIA director for only one
year, he became enormously popular in the apparatus because he kept the
CIA’s secrets and protected the CIA professionals from exposure and
prosecution in the aftermath of Watergate (Bowen, 1991, pp. 41-58).
When Bush pardoned the Iran-Contra conspirators after losing his reelection bid in 1992, he effectively condoned the apparatus’s growing criminality. In fact, less than a decade later, many of the people implicated in Iran-Contra returned to positions of power in the Bush-Cheney administration. Cheney himself had been indirectly involved in Iran-Contra.
When Bush pardoned the Iran-Contra conspirators after losing his reelection bid in 1992, he effectively condoned the apparatus’s growing criminality. In fact, less than a decade later, many of the people implicated in Iran-Contra returned to positions of power in the Bush-Cheney administration. Cheney himself had been indirectly involved in Iran-Contra.
In the 1980s, Cheney was a member of Congress.
Serving on the House Intelligence Committee, he had been briefed on aspects
of the Contra program, and he had been a vocal defender of the Iran-Contra
project when it was first investigated by Congress (before an independent
prosecutor was appointed).
Others directly involved or associated with
Iran-Contra who returned to power with Bush- Cheney included,
The Bush-Cheney Administration
Another SCAD besides Watergate where national security considerations became enmeshed with presidential politics was the “outing” of CIA agent Valerie Plame (Wheeler, 2007).
Shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the
president changed long-standing policy to allow the vice president to
declassify state secrets (Rich, 2007).
A few months later, after Joseph Wilson
challenged the administration’s claims about Iraq seeking to acquire uranium
in Africa, the vice president informed his aid Scooter Libby of Plame’s
status. Libby then leaked this information to the press and to others in the
administration who also leaked it to the press.
These circumstances suggest that Libby was
following the orders of the president and the vice president, but Libby
alone was indicted, and only then for committing perjury when he denied
having leaked Plame’s identity to reporters.
Without a confession from Libby
implicating
Cheney and Bush, no one was willing to take action against either the
president or the vice president, both of whom appear to have been part of a
criminal conspiracy to expose the identify of a covert agent in a time of
war.
In any event, the circumstances and White House actions in Plamegate are very similar to those in the Nixon administration’s efforts to discredit Daniel Ellsberg.
In any event, the circumstances and White House actions in Plamegate are very similar to those in the Nixon administration’s efforts to discredit Daniel Ellsberg.
In both cases, the presidents were misleading
the public about their foreign policy motives and initiatives, their
credibility was threatened by whistleblowers who took their stories to the
New York Times, they responded by using national security assets (operatives
for Nixon, and information for Bush) in an effort to undermine the
whistle-blowers’ credibility, and when the underlings who had carried out
their criminal schemes were apprehended and prosecuted, they put their
reelections ahead of all considerations of loyalty and culpability, denied
all knowledge and involvement in the crimes, and let their minions take the
full blame.
The criminality of the Bush-Cheney administration is also similar to Nixon’s in another respect.
The criminality of the Bush-Cheney administration is also similar to Nixon’s in another respect.
Just as the Watergate break-ins were simply the
tip of Nixon’s criminal iceberg, Plamegate was only one small element in a
much larger pattern of political lawlessness.
Much evidence indicates that, in addition to
outing Valerie Plame, the Bush-Cheney administration manipulated and
distorted intelligence to,
There is also circumstantial evidence that the
Bush-Cheney administration may have somehow been involved in 9/11.
The administration ignored many warning signs
that,
Evidence also indicates that the Pentagon was
hit by a missile rather than a passenger plane and that Flight 93 was
exploded at high altitude.2
SCAD Detection and Prevention
The first step toward SCAD detection and prevention is facing up to the nature and magnitude of the threat.
Recently, many mainstream scholars and
journalists have concluded that American democracy is becoming increasingly
corporatist, imperialistic, and undemocratic (Bacevich, 2005; Dean, 2007;
Goldsmith, 2007; Greenwald, 2007; C. Johnson, 2004; Klein, 2007; Mayer,
2008; Savage, 2007; Shorrock, 2008; Wolin, 2008).
However, mainstream authors have seldom
considered the possibility that authoritarian tendencies in American
politics are being systemically engineered by top-ranking civilian and
military officials. Rather than thinking in terms of high crimes, their
diagnoses have blamed abstract institutional weaknesses or isolated failures
of leadership.3
In contrast, the upshot of the foregoing analysis is that SCADs are surface indications of a deeper, invisible level of politics (Kouzmin & Thorne, 2010) in which officials at the highest levels of government use deception, conspiracy, and violence to shape national policies and priorities.
In contrast, the upshot of the foregoing analysis is that SCADs are surface indications of a deeper, invisible level of politics (Kouzmin & Thorne, 2010) in which officials at the highest levels of government use deception, conspiracy, and violence to shape national policies and priorities.
This sub-rosa manipulation of domestic politics
is an extension of America’s duplicity in foreign affairs and draws on the
nation’s well-developed skills in covert operations. Through its experience
with covert actions, the National Security Apparatus has developed a wide
range of skills and tactics for subverting and overthrowing regimes,
manipulating international tensions, and disrupting ideological movements.
The United States, or more specifically
presidential administrations, uses these skills in combination with visible
foreign policies to maximize the impact of both the visible and invisible
sides of their efforts.
To the extent that policy makers are called to justify their covert actions and other deceptions, they do so by asserting that public opinion, both domestic and international, is a critical battlefront in conflicts between democratic capitalism and its ideological and military opponents.
To the extent that policy makers are called to justify their covert actions and other deceptions, they do so by asserting that public opinion, both domestic and international, is a critical battlefront in conflicts between democratic capitalism and its ideological and military opponents.
Although
the implications of this policy for popular control of government are seldom
examined, the policy itself was and is no secret.
As an assistant secretary of defense said in
response to claims that public opinion had been manipulated during the Cuban
missile crisis,
News generated by actions of the government as to content and timing are part of the arsenal of weaponry that a president has in application of military force and related forces to the solution of political problems, or to the application of international political pressure.(Wise & Ross, 1964, pp. 297-298)
Richard Nixon put it more bluntly.
In claiming that the president has the power to
break the law when protecting national security, he said,
“Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal” (Frost, 1977).
U.S. capabilities for covert operations enter the nation’s domestic politics
as SCADs in at least two ways.
Sometimes, the process is rather haphazard.
In Watergate, for example, the Nixon administration was using covert-action
skills domestically in legitimate matters of national security when it
diverted these skills, first, to attack Daniel Ellsberg and perhaps other
political enemies and, subsequently, to gain advantage in the 1972
presidential election.
Generalizing from this example, covert-action
capabilities can end up being exploited for SCADs because the officials who
control these capabilities are operating in an intensely political
environment, and they occasionally succumb to temptations to use their
national security powers for personal or partisan advantage.
The idea that SCADs are opportunistic gambits in
presidential politics was the conclusion reached in the official
investigations of both Watergate and Iran-Contra.
On the other hand, several SCADs for which evidence of government involvement is unofficial but nevertheless credible point to elaborate planning by enduring networks of strategically placed insiders pursuing a combination of bureaucratic, ideological, and economic objectives. The assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, and the attempted assassination of George Wallace, all benefited Richard Nixon and served the interests of military and military-industrial elites.
On the other hand, several SCADs for which evidence of government involvement is unofficial but nevertheless credible point to elaborate planning by enduring networks of strategically placed insiders pursuing a combination of bureaucratic, ideological, and economic objectives. The assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, and the attempted assassination of George Wallace, all benefited Richard Nixon and served the interests of military and military-industrial elites.
Furthermore, arranging these shootings and
pinning them on patsies would have required many operatives, extensive
resources, and a variety of skills.
Similarly, if the attacks of 9/11 were executed
or somehow facilitated by U.S. public officials - as much evidence suggests
- a number of agencies would have had to have been involved, including
elements of the Department of Defense, the CIA, and the FBI.
Reforms for SCAD prevention and detection should address both of these etiological scenarios.
Reforms for SCAD prevention and detection should address both of these etiological scenarios.
The potential for SCADs to be committed
opportunistically in presidential politics can be reduced statutorily by
mandating procedures for investigating election problems, defense failures,
assassinations, and similar incidents.
As it stands, events with profound implications
for the nation and the world are left to be investigated on an ad hoc basis;
procedures for controlling crime scenes, inventorying evidence, interviewing
suspects, interpreting evidence, overseeing the investigative process, and
reporting findings are developed on the spot in the aftermath of the
tragedies, when the nation is in shock and the perpetrators may be covering
their trail.
Public officials or their agents lost,
discarded, or destroyed,
Reducing American democracy’s vulnerability to
manipulation by military and intelligence elites will require amendments to
the U.S. Constitution to strengthen the role of Congress and the public in
national security policy making.
In particular, revisions are needed to the
constitutional procedures for declaring, fighting, and ending wars (Bacevich,
2005; Byrd, 2004; Dean, 2007; Fisher, 2004).
SCADs usually draw on the skills of covert
action and are often connected to secret foreign-policy objectives, from
discrediting dissidents and stopping leaks to fabricating intelligence and
provoking wars. The United States has become extensively involved in covert
operations overseas because the nation’s leadership is no longer adhering to
the Constitution’s requirements governing military action.
The last military action for which Congress
issued a declaration of war was World War II. Since then, the introduction
of nuclear weapons has made Congress reluctant to authorize the kind of
uninhibited aggression that a declaration of war might unleash.
However, the Constitution contains no process
for authorizing limited wars or for ensuring that Congress can end such wars
at its discretion. In large part this is why the role of Congress and the
president became so muddled during the Vietnam War. The failure of the War
Powers Act to correct this situation was demonstrated all too clearly after
2006 by legislative-executive conflict over the occupation of Iraq.
Social science can play a critical role in furthering this reform agenda by bringing behavioral research to bear on antidemocratic corruption in American government.
Social science can play a critical role in furthering this reform agenda by bringing behavioral research to bear on antidemocratic corruption in American government.
The potential for SCADs is large because elite
political conspiracies are difficult to detect and investigations are in the
hands of the very people who actually need to be scrutinized. However,
social scientists have the requisite conceptual resources, methodological
skills, and scholarly independence to make antidemocratic corruption
visible.
Once it is rendered visible, it will no longer
be tolerated.
Notes
Also suspicious was the death, a year later, of Democrat Paul Wellstone, one of the few senators to criticize the congressional authorization for military action against Iraq. Wellstone was killed in an airplane crash. See Arrows and Fetzer (2004).
A large and growing literature challenges official accounts of the events of 9/11.
See, for example, Griffin (2004, 2005), Hufschmid (2002), Paul and
Hoffman (2004), and Tarpley (2005). There is also a “9/11 Truth Movement,”
which is producing a detailed studies of 9/11 issues and anomalies.
For example, see
www.911truth.org,
www.911scholars.org, and
www.911essentials.com.
Institutional weaknesses that have been cited include the large role of lobbyists and corporations in campaign finance, increasing partisanship because of an evenly divided electorate, gradual growth of the U.S. military presence around the world, and the superficial character of television as a medium for public discourse.
Leadership failures that have been blamed
include opportunistic responses by political elites to terrorist threats,
exaggerated fears of terrorist attacks, and politicization of intelligence
gathering and interpretation to support ideological positions.
An important exception to this mainstream
failure to think in terms of high crimes is (Neal
S.) Wolin (2008), who argues
that American democracy is becoming deeply corrupt. But even in Wolin’s
account, America’s corruption is more moral than criminal.
He says that
elites and masses alike have lost sight of democratic values because they
have become preoccupied with material rewards and imperial ambitions.
Hence, Wolin calls for a renewed ethics of
democratic citizenship, not heightened vigilance against criminal
conspiracies in high office.
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