I've been thinking. For a long time I have been saying "too many

[rzemanfl]

people in government are afraid of losing their jobs." Lately, I have been thinking it goes deeper than that. I think, perhaps, in the days immediately following 9/11 a lot of government employees broke some laws, albeit with the best of intentions. Remember the climate of those days. I think they are now being blackmailed by their superiors. "Remember those confidential medical records you left out on your desk so the FBI guys could look at them?" "Remember the perjured testimony you used to get that warrant?" "Remember what you did to that Arab in the back room of the station house?"

Put yourself in the shoes of some thirty-something government employee, who, in the heat of the moment after 9/11 cut some corners. Imagine you are a government lawyer with a wife, two kids, a mortgage and a bunch of student loans who did something after 9/11 that could get you disbarred or suspended, might land your ass in jail, could wipe you out with legal bills and would definitely cost you your job. How pliant would you be? Would you write a legal brief that said torture was okay, or that the President had inherent authority to spy on Americans without a warrant, would you coach witnesses?

[arcane1]

1. "remember the anthrax that we mailed only to Democrats"

"and conveniently never caught the actual assassin?"

[rzemanfl]

2. I don't think your basic government servant types had a role in

that operation.

[acmejack]

3. oh c'mon I'm just hittin stride with good civil servants gone bad!

and then we wired up wtc 1,2 & 7 with explosives and then we programmed a cruise missile to fly to DC and...

In all honesty, in those days every one was moving heaven and earth to whatever they could to ge things right. I know we were all the way back here in Texas with the computer infrastructure, so I am sure there were those things. Do you really think that there is that much of a lack of camaraderie that there would be problem to that extent?

[rzemanfl]

4. Not sure I understand your last sentence. n/t