Government Abuse of Power an Established Routine

What is power? Depending on the situation, one can compile many interpretations of the matter.

What initially comes to mind when one hears the word ‘power’ varies. It all depends on what the responding person thinks.

“Electricity,” English teacher Mr. Andy Good said.

“Strength,” history teacher Mr. Paul Kochanasz said.

“What initially comes to mind when I hear the word ‘power’ is someone or something having the ability to influence or affect somebody or something else,” conspiracy theories teacher Mr. Sean Gaston said.

“Power is when we have every justification to kill and we don’t. That’s what the Emperor said. A man steals something, he’s brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for his life, he knows he’s going to die. And the Emperor…pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go. That’s power, Amon. That is power,” Oskar Schindler said, from Steven Spielberg’s 1993 movie adaptation Schindler’s List, played by Liam Neeson.

During the years after 9/11, “the United States government has been known for illegally kidnapping, torturing, and detaining ‘anyone, including Americans as “enemy combatants” without charge,’” the American Civil Liberties Union said.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency also has access to its own secret prison camps, located in Eastern Europe, that “violate international standards.” But why is it necessary for our government to have access to such camps, if it isn’t trying to repeat the actions of a dictator?

Also, during George Walker Bush, Jr.’s presidency in December 2005, the National Security Agency was reported to be wiretapping telephone calls without a warrant. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the program, and in August 2006, a Detroit federal judge came to the verdict that the National Security Agency was “both unconstitutional and illegal.” The Sixth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals revoked the judge’s decision, because they discovered the plaintiffs could not certify they were actually being wiretapped but the court “did not rule out the legality of the program.”//

In October 2007, the ACLU filed an appeal, but the Supreme Court denied it in February 2008.

On 17 June 1972, members of President Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) were arrested after evidence of them breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate complex, wiretapping the government’s phones, and stealing top-secret documents came to light in May 1972. Five men showed up at the building once they realized their wiretaps were unsuccessful, but, before they could install a new and improved microphone, a security guard caught them once they “noticed someone had taped over several of the building’s door locks.” In August of the same year, Nixon swore in his speech that no one in his staff was ever involved in the break-in. But if that was not the case, then why did he pay the prowlers hundreds of thousands of dollars days after the break-in?/

In a nutshell, while the process of impeachment ensued, Nixon resigned 9 August 1974.