MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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U.S. Congress

Let’s make all members of Congress undergo security clearance

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The situation surrounding George Santos—whose identity, even at this late date, we’re still not sure of, what his purpose is, and who exactly is behind installing him in our government—sets me thinking.

Why not make people elected to Congress undergo Top Secret Security Clearance?

Our democracy is in an existential crisis, especially because one of our two major political parties, the Republican Party, no longer believes in democracy, ethics or the norms that have governed our political interactions throughout our nation’s history.

Republicans would, for instance, cede some of our sovereignty to Vladimir Putin, a ruthless dictator and America’s most implacable enemy in the world.

Putin’s gaggle of Russian Oligarchs are busy corrupting political systems around the world.

So, let’s at least answer the question of whether Santos is a Russian Trojan Horse, or whatever it is that he’s up to.

Santos, elected in the 2022 midterms to represent New York’s Third Congressional District, has admitted that he fabricated key details about his biography. As a matter of fact, we don’t know whether his real name is George Santos, since he has gone by so many other different names over the years.

This is the man who House Republican leadership saw fit to appoint to House Science, Space and Technology Committee and the Small Business Committee.

Aspirants to some of the most junior posts in Federal government agencies have to undergo rigorous background checks and security clearances.

So, let’s make all aspiring members of Congress fill out background information. The security clearance for the victors will begin once they’re certified as having won. Members of Congress have the potential to be privy to our nation’s deepest, most sensitive secrets.

We should at least check their fitness to be in proximity of such sensitive information.

A shameful passage

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The United States Supreme Court illegitimately installed George W. Bush as president of the United States after the 2000 elections. Boy George was going to while away his time in office, rewarding friends in politics and the oil and defense industries with rich contracts.

That was why Dick Cheney held those meetings with energy interests behind closed doors. It was as evil a cabal as you could get. They were corrupt and lazy, to boot.

Then, history intervened.

Whatever you believed about the origins and the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the events propelled our nation on a path that altered the course of our history. Every step along the way, when our nation’s leaders had opportunities to chose paths that would strengthen or imperil our nation, they chose wrong.

They chose torture, rather than follow the rule of law. They belittled and denigrated international laws and institutions, rather than harness the goodwill of the community of nations.

The new administration, a legitimately elected president, Barack Obama, bearing a mandate from the people of this country, has begun trying to repair the damage wrought by the last administration. They won’t always make the right decisions. Their steps might be, at times, unsure. But they have one thing George W. Bush never had. Legitimacy.

UPDATE: A special prosecutor should decide the fates of John Yoo, Jay C. Bybee and other memo writers. They should suffer the consequences for violations of international laws that their memos aided and abetted.

All lower level soldiers punished for following orders should have their punishment reduced (because we now know they did not torture on a whim but were, in fact, following orders).

Gen. Geoffrey Miller should be tried for War Crimes.

A Truth & Reconciliation Commission (senior members of the judiciary and the U.S. Congress; governed by strictures of Congressional testimony) should get sworn testimonies of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, George “Slam Dunk” Tenet, and Colin Powell. Their testimonies will be immunized if they tell the truth. Liars should be prosecuted for the wholesale violations of international laws (conventions against torture and the Geneva conventions) that occurred.

All will be consigned to history’s judgment.