Blinded Justice
A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
12/18/2001
PRESIDENT BUSH SOUGHT to hoodwink the House Government Reform
Committee and the American public last week when he invoked executive
privilege to thwart a congressional investigation of abuses in the Boston FBI office.
But Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who heads the committee, refused the
blindfold and accused the president of ''dictatorial'' tendencies.
Burton spoke for many Massachusetts residents who demand a full accounting of
how the FBI knowingly allowed four local men - two of whom, Joseph Salvati and
Peter Limone, are still alive - to be sent to jail on perjured testimony for a 1965
murder and how mobster James ''Whitey'' Bulger thrived with the protection of FBI
handlers while allegedly killing 19 people during the 1970s and 1980s.
Back then the US Justice Department had the craven habit of deferring to rogue
FBI agents. Now Justice Department lawyers are running interference for an
administration that seeks to enlarge the curtain of secrecy over government
proceedings, whether it covers the government's use of mob informants or plans for
military tribunals to try suspected terrorists.
The motives as well as the methods of the Bush administration deserve careful
attention. The wording of Bush's executive privilege memorandum is so vague that
it could be applied to nearly any criminal investigation or general inquiry.
Congressional access to documents is dismissed as a politicization of the criminal
justice process rather than an important source of unedited information about key
public issues, including government misconduct.
Could the president cite privilege to block attempts by the Government Accounting
Office or Congress to determine which energy industry officials met with Vice
President Cheney to formulate energy policy? It seems that anything goes under the
new executive privilege policy.
Thankfully, members of Congress are willing to stand up to the president.
Representative William Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat and former district attorney,
told the committee that he and his colleagues are not about to relinquish legislative
oversight of the executive branch, regardless of the political climate.
''We all support the administration's efforts to address the current emergency,'' said
Delahunt. ''But we cannot prevail in our fight against foreign tyranny by scrapping
the checks and balances that preserve us from tyranny here at home.''
The president is forcing a constitutional confrontation with Congress. Republicans
and Democrats should join in the defense of accountable and transparent
government, whether on the floors of Congress or in America's courtrooms.
This story ran on page A22 of the Boston Globe on 12/18/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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