06.30.06
At last: Addington profile online
Via Dan Froomkin’s column, the profile of David Addington is now online. This is the guy who rammed through all the illegal structures and processes, with Cheney’s backing, either ignoring objections or working around those who would object. He’s the author of the 750 signing statements that are intended to allow Bush to ignore the laws passed by Congress. He’s the one who created the military tribunals that the Supreme Court has clearly denounced as violations of law. Read the profile and marvel that this sort of person was ever given a voice in government. From the profile:
On November 13, 2001, an executive order setting up the military commissions was issued under Bush’s signature. The decision stunned [then-secretary of state Colin] Powell; the national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice; the highest-ranking lawyer at the C.I.A.; and many judge advocate generals, or JAGs, the top lawyers in the military services. None of them had been consulted. . . . According to multiple sources, Addington secretly usurped the process. He and a few hand-picked associates, including Bradford Berenson and Timothy Flanigan, a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, wrote the executive order creating the commissions. Moreover, Addington did not show drafts of the order to Powell or Rice, who, the senior Administration lawyer said, was incensed when she learned about her exclusion.
