Foiled Again
By KEVIN BAKER
NYT Book Review
ENEMIES: A History of the FBI
By Tim Weiner
Illustrated. 537 pp. Random House. $30.
On Dec. 31, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows for the indefinite military detention, without trial, of any American citizen “who was a part of or substantially supported Al Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” This act effectively abrogates the Bill of Rights and removes one of the cornerstones of Western liberty.
But not to worry. In a signing statement, Obama pledged that he would not authorize any such detentions. What a curious position for a former constitutional scholar to take: the promise of one man substituted for the rule of law.
It is just such presidential hubris, Tim Weiner makes clear in his important and disturbing new book, “Enemies: A History of the FBI,” that bears much of the blame for the worst violations of our freedoms in this century.
Contrary to conventional wisdom and Clint Eastwood movies, J. Edgar Hoover did not accumulate his power by barging into the Oval Office with a thick dossier of dirt on each new president and his family. Hoover was indeed a vicious gossipmonger, yet the most damning information he possessed could not be disseminated easily. No newspaper of his time would print it, no radio or television station would broadcast it.
(More here.)
NYT Book Review
ENEMIES: A History of the FBI
By Tim Weiner
Illustrated. 537 pp. Random House. $30.
On Dec. 31, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows for the indefinite military detention, without trial, of any American citizen “who was a part of or substantially supported Al Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” This act effectively abrogates the Bill of Rights and removes one of the cornerstones of Western liberty.
But not to worry. In a signing statement, Obama pledged that he would not authorize any such detentions. What a curious position for a former constitutional scholar to take: the promise of one man substituted for the rule of law.
It is just such presidential hubris, Tim Weiner makes clear in his important and disturbing new book, “Enemies: A History of the FBI,” that bears much of the blame for the worst violations of our freedoms in this century.
Contrary to conventional wisdom and Clint Eastwood movies, J. Edgar Hoover did not accumulate his power by barging into the Oval Office with a thick dossier of dirt on each new president and his family. Hoover was indeed a vicious gossipmonger, yet the most damning information he possessed could not be disseminated easily. No newspaper of his time would print it, no radio or television station would broadcast it.
(More here.)
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