Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.
Over the past few years, Congress tried to combat the Bush administration’s routine trampling of civil liberties with laws aimed at boosting the public’s protection. The administration, however, paid little heed to them.
USA Today reported Monday that three Cabinet-level departments — State, Defense and Health and Human Services — failed to appoint civil liberties protection officers and failed to report to Congress last year on how they were protecting basic liberties, as mandated by law. As well, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a White House panel responsible for reviewing government policy, hasn’t met since 2006. Congress revamped the panel’s duties in 2007, but President Bush didn’t appoint anyone to it until August, late in the congressional session. None was confirmed.
Other parts of the administration did a little better. Mike McConnell, the outgoing director of national intelligence, hired a former American Civil Liberties Union attorney to be his civil liberties officer, and although that is encouraging, problems remain.
“You can have the best person in the world in that job, but if you have an administration that is hostile to civil liberties, he gets nowhere,” said James Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, which advocates for civil liberties protection in government.
Although there is a new president in the White House, the Bush administration left its mark on the federal government. The Pentagon, for example, brushed off USA Today’s questions about its failure to obey the law, telling the newspaper it safeguards civil liberties. Considering some of the military’s past actions, such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the allegations of torture at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, such a statement is absurd.
President Barack Obama pledged to ensure that agencies respect civil liberties. Unfortunately, after eight years of the Bush administration, this is yet another area in which Obama has his work cut out for him.
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