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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Diarrhea Dialogue
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on Dec. 15, 2008 For the Standard Today, December 16 issue "Those reports are outrageous," says Ruy Alberto Rondain, lawyer of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, referring to insinuations in media that his client was going to be picked up by US authorities in Los Angeles for money-laundering activities. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dec. 12). It was Tribune columnist Lito Banayo who first raised the issue in his column , wondering if the diversion of the chartered Philippine Air Lines Flight 001 to Osaka, Japan, from its destination, Los Angeles, might have been "a case of the presidential party being alerted by phone that someone among them was going to be picked up by authorities upon landing at Los Angeles airport for money-laundering activities?" "Remember that in the wake of the Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG and so many other Wall Street corpses, the federal anti-money laundering task force may have found the smoking gun documents about the financial capers of someone in the presidential plane. "That would have been a terrible embarrassment, because no one else in the party aboard PAL Flight 001 was important enough to retreat and fly back except the President or her husband�.." Frank Wenceslao, president of an organization called Philippine Anti-Corruption Movement USA, claims in an email to his followers that "President Arroyo, her husband and her children are reportedly barred to enter the US by virtue of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Bush administration's 'No Safe Haven' policy to deny kleptocrats to enjoy the fruits of corruption�." "It is out of protocol (that) Mrs. Arroyo is allowed to come to the US, but not her husband. There is a report that Atty. Arroyo's emergency landing in Japan happened when the presidential party learned (that) his request for (a) US visa wasn't granted, and he really needed (one) for a stop-over in Los Angeles. Mike Arroyo might suffer what happened to Joc Joc Bolante anmd be detained�." Joc Joc Bolante, one recalls, was flying from Seoul (South Korea) to Los Angeles in 2006 when, unknown to him, his US visa was revoked by the US Embassy in Manila, which gave US federal authorities in Los Angeles the right to arrest and detain him. In my article Diarrhea in the Air (Dec. 08), I quoted both Banayo and Wenceslao and noted that both of them did not mention the fact that, "six hours after leaving Manila on a 12-hour non-stop flight eastward towards Los Angeles, the presidential plane would have been inside or near a triangle described by Wake Island, Midway Island and Hawaii, the first two US territories, the third a state in the American Union." "In case of a medical emergency situation � and I have no doubt that Mr. Arroyo needed emergency help � the most logical place to make a stop would have been Honolulu�." Depending on the plane's exact location at the time the decision was made to rush him to hospital, either Wake or Midway islands could have been even nearer. Making an almost 180-degree turn to far-away Osaka "suggests that the party deliberately avoided US territory � for either of the reasons suggested by Banayo or Wenceslao, or for another reason unknown to us. According to the Inquirer story of Dec. 12 , Lawyer Rondain said it was insulting to insinuate that Japanese and Filipino doctors, who attended to the First Gentleman, took part in a 'grand conspiracy' to feign his illness�" That is a non-sequitur. Speaking for myself, I did not insinuate that Japanese and Filipino doctors took part in a grand conspiracy to feign his illness. I wrote, as I quoted above, that "I have no doubt that Mr. Arroyo needed emergency help." What remains unanswered is why the presidential party on board PAL Flight 001 seems to have deliberately avoided US territory, and Lawyer Rondain has not said or written anything that would dispute that or dispel the suspicion that his client indeed faced some unpleasant surprises if he had set foot on US soil. Several of my readers have sent emails noting that Mr. Arroyo was conspicuously absent from the recent Pacquiao-de la Hoya match in Las Vegas. In past Pacquiao matches, he was always there, even occupying a $25,000-per-day luxury suite on one occasion. That's how much Pacquiao's matches meant to him. Perhaps Rondain can hazard an explanation for his absence this time. Apropos this incident, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney was asked by the Inquirer if there was indeed a case for money-laundering filed by US authorities against Mr. Arroyo, To which she replied: "Never heard of it. Sorry, never heard a thing about it." Keep in mind that diplomats are trained in the arts of ambiguity and plausible deniability. The more convincing proof that there is no such case against him would be for Mr. Arroyo to fly to the US again soon, perhaps for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20. This time, no more diarrhea. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org or in acabaya.blogspot.com. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject matter Unsubscribe. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to "Diarrhea Dialogue" More Reactions to 'Consuelo's Stimulus' 'The 12 Bad Days of Christmas' 'The Pentagon is Muscling in Everywhere' Dear Tony, When I shared with my International Relations students your article Diarrhea in the Air, not just one student remarked, "That explains why the First Gentleman missed the Pacquiao-dela Hoya match." Everyone knows that Mike Arroyo would never miss a Pacquiao fight. But why did he? I am not a boxing afficionado. I assert that boxing is legitimized violence, and violence is not a badge of civilization. For this reason, I do not watch and never watched boxing. And even if I were a boxing fan, I would not want to watch a Pacquiao match because it is always "glorified" violence. All his (expected) victories were capitalized on by the Gloria Administration to rescue her very serious credibility problem from the lowest possible pit. Pacquaio has always been a willing tool, allowing the First Couple to exploit his victories for their selfish political ends. Noting the importance of the publicity generated by the First Gentleman's appearance in a Pacquaio match, many are now wondering why he missed it. Your two Diarrhea articles provide the only plausible explanation. If even George Bush would not welcome Mike Arroyo, what country will? That is really too bad because we want Jose Pidal out of the country fast. Cheryl L. Daytec, (by email), Baguio City, Dec. 16, 2008 Associate Professor, St. Louis University wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Diiarrhea as an excuse to divert a presidential flight seems fishy, shallow and ridiculous. It is not a fatal disease and it is usually self-limited. Most traveling people carry pills that can effectively stop it. I am also sure that a presidential plane will be equipped with major and minor medical problems that may happen during flight. Besides even commercial planes have several toilets and certainly in a presidential plane the First Gentleman has the priority to use it. I really think that the president and her husband think that Filipinos are stupid and will accept flimsy excuses. This is the pattern of explaining things to us and we should cry out for the truth. I think the people have the right to know the true reason for the diversion of the flight as the people paid for the plane to make that extra trip and for the time spent by the personnel on the trip, including the president. I hope that the journalists will continue to investigate this case until the truth is found. Bart Saucelo, MD, (by email), South Bend, Indiana, Dec. 16, 2008. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I believe Ambassaor Kristie Kenney. Her stay in the Philippines would be just as amusing as the story about Mike being suspect in the USA, if this were true. Kenney's peaceful stay in the RP SHOULD indicate there is cordial relations between RP's first couple and her. Lourdes Ceballos, (by email), Dec. 17, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, a couple of my best friends who are not ordinary workers in a Department in the Executive Office (the White House) said there are talks going on in their Department that indeed the Arroyos are barred to enter the U.S. because of President Bush administration's policy on" No Safe Haven for Kleptocrats." and as person of interest by virtue of United Nations Convention against Corruption. We did not see Atty Mike T. Arroyo's presence in the dream match between Manny Pacquiao and Golden Boy de Hoya in Las Vegas recently knowing as every Filipino knows that he (Mike T.A.) is the number one "fans" of Emanuel Manny Pacquiao. Atty. Ruy Alberto Rondain said, the report in the media that his client Atty. Mike T. Arroyo will be picked up by the U.S. authorities as soon as he landed in Los Angeles Airport is outrageous, then, I ask Atty R.A.Rondain to "convince us" and accompany his client to go to the U.S. with him. If his client M.T.A. do not suffer like what Joc-Joc Bolante did, then, and only then, I will truly apologize for being only wrong and not as a foreign based critics of the First Family. Mike M. Moreno, (by email), Richmond, BC, Canada, Dec. 17, 2008 Chair- Fil-Am Fil-Can Alliance wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, As far as we know, Lito Banayo is a columnist of the MALAYA newspaper. Ramon Mayuga, (by email), Essen Germany, Dec. 17, 2008 (It was the Philippine Daily Inquirer which identified Banayo as a columnist in the Tribune. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: That is quite a challenge you have just posed to the First Gentlemen, Mr. Arroyo! Yes, the Filipino people expect President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Mr.Arroyo to attend the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Routinely, according to accepted Protocol, both would be invited to this very important occasion. If indeed President Arroyo and Mr. Arroyo get the invitation, and only President Arroyo leaves for the U.S. to attend the inauguration, people cannot help wondering what shall have kept Mr. Arroyo from going--unless, of course, his diarrhea recurs. It could be for another reason, of course! Mariano Patalinjug, (by email), Yonkers, NY, Dec. 17, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww It would be out of sync if the truth to why the Presidential plane made a u turn and landed in Japan would come from the FG's lawyer. He wouldn't be earning his keeps then. We, the people have learned to keep up to the double-talk gobbledegooks or whatever it is that comes out of the 'lawyers' mouth. I once heard a boy of 15 or 16 being interrogated by the police when he was caught stealing, and his answers were all plain denials, like: "I did not steal anything; I was only there watching; I do not know, sir". From some dialogs reported in the Newspapers, on 'seemingly similar events in police blotters all over the country and even Senate investigations, we hear and see how "The Filipino" have learned to Lie, even with the truth already bared in their ugliness. This is the most dangerous outcome to the Filipino Psyche - Lying openly even with the bare truth spilling all over the place. Stealing, corruptions all over, killings, and open denials when caught are now daily events. These are newspapers, radio and TV reports. We only read, hear and see them on media - "every-day". What to expect? Are they not obvious? We "talk"? Yes, we do a lot of talking! But they are mostly double-talk! The "Social Cancer" that Rizal wrote about in his 'Noli & Fili' has been with us since his time. But now they reached A level of utter ( ). No doubt each of us will find the right terms. The painful truth, no? Jose Regino, (by email), Zamboanga City. Dec. 17, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Nakakakahiya....We have crooks for leaders. Cynthia Estrada, (by email), Dec. 17, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww To dispel the rumor, the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo must go to USA and let us see if will be arrested or not? Raul Sebastian A. Laman, (by email), Dec. 17, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Well, sir, there is always dengue, broncho-pneumonia, appendicitis, high-blood pressure. I like the word "kleptocrats." Makes my blood boil!!! ...and perhaps partially unclog my multiple arterial blockages. Juan Manuel C. del Prado, (by email), Dec. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Sir Tony, Diplomatic ambiguity is correct. As such, Amb. Kenney would have categorically denied anything. She would even asked people to "Read my lips", like Pres. Bush once said. Not knowing anything or heard of anything is plausible deniability. Robbie Tan, (by email), Dec. 19, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dela Hoya was too weak and seemingly ill prepared that jokes begin to abound that the fight was rigged. Well, the fight was so lopsided. Dela Hoya was a complete disappointment to his fans, and he was not that way at all in any of his fights. Over and after some beers of course guys would joke that he "dropped" the fight and was tasked merely to stay alive. Either it was THAT or Pacquiao was just too good compared to him.The latter is true, Nothing less. The "dream match" turned into Oscar's "nightmare match" and he woke up in the 8th round still in the midst of it and it was no wet dream at all ! The speculation of course is an insult to our champ Manny. The replays say it all -- size didn't matter. Age did to a certain extent, but a super skilled fighter like Manny showed it all, and he did him (Oscar) in. Victor Manalac, (by email), Dec. 21, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, A very Merry Christmas to you and yours and hope things will be better soon. It has been a while since I sent in my comments. It just seem to me much of the same is happening here. I suppose I was expecting an event potentially earthshaking however, the only two things worth noting is the Christmas season and learning that you and your family participated in the demo to make the change and topple Marcos and Estrada. For that, my admiration and congratulations. While the eventual result did not meet expectations, the truth of the matter there exists people power in the Philippines. The force is presently waiting when the time to act has come. That my friend is the sole candle in the wind expatriate like me hang on to in spirit that is. Arroyo can utter mea culpa a thousand times. She would not resign nor feel any remorse within. The rest of the government zombies should start asserting their power and responsibilities to balance the power. Otherwise, things can pretty much remain the same. God bless, Oscar Apostol, (by email), Rocklin, CA, Dec. 24, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to "Consuelo's Stimulus" (Dec. 11, 2008) Dear Mr. Abaya, When you wrote about consuelo de bobo, consuelo de ladrones garapales y sin verguenza, and consuelo de hijos y hijas de la gran jodida p*ta of our country, I was reminded of an encounter between me and my father. Let me share to you the story that in many ways is a symbolic replay of our local as well as national experience. I must have been eight or ten at the time and traveling south when my father pointed out to me that the statue of a lifeless body being cradled by the former Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay at the highway entrance to the Bacolod City Airport was an uncle who used to hide in our house. A few years ago, I had a conversation with my father about it just before he passed away. During one of my visits to Negros I asked him why the statue is no longer there. He looked at me and I saw his lips tightened and his forehead cracked with deep wrinkles. I heard him inhaling and exhaling heavily but he didn't say a word. I did not pursue it. But I was surprised by his demeanor because I know he was very proud of my uncle. And yet, his silence spoke a lot to me, something profound, and something disquieting about how the political 'nobodys' of society stoically communicate to their children their oppression, powerlessness, and pain. The name of my uncle is Moises Padilla, an opposition and defeated mayoral candidate during the 50's whose tortured and bullet-ridden body was paraded in the town square by Gov. Rafael Lacson as an emblematic fate of those who dare to defy him. The governor and some of his private armies were sentenced to death but eventually released. I learned from a minister friend that the statue was blown up by someone. That someone who decided that such a story must not be told again and such memory had to be wiped out once and for all. The City of Bacolod has acquiesced by replacing the statue with the bust of Ninoy Aquino. For more info about Moises Padilla google: (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859540,00.html) (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820089,00.html) Efren Padilla, (by email), Hayward, CA, Dec. 28, 2008 Professor of Sociology and Urban Planning California State University at East Bay wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww THE 12 BAD DAYS OF CHRISTMAS On the first day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me A crazed Justice Secretary On the second day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the third day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the fourth day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs\ And a crazed Justice Secretary On the fifth day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the sixth day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the seventh day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Seven Charter changin' Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the eight day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Eight Roxas cursing Seven Charter changin' Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the ninth day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Nine Villars inserting Eight Roxas cursing Seven Charter changin' Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the tenth day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Ten bishops ranting Nine Villars inserting Eight Roxas cursing Seven Charter changin' Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the eleventh day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Eleven Reds a-purging Ten bishops ranting Nine Villars inserting Eight Roxas cursing Seven Charter changin' Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary On the twelfth day of Christmas Bad Santa sent to me Twelve Eraps comebacking Eleven Reds a-purging Ten bishops ranting Nine Villars inserting Eight Roxas cursing Seven Charter changin' Six Jocjoc lying Five GMAs Four Garci calls Three oil firms Two JDVs And a crazed Justice Secretary! ____________ Cheers! LOI REYES LANDICHO Online Political Humorist Professional Heckler http://www.professionalheckler.wordpress.com wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere In Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber's (website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ) international best-seller "Le D�fi Am�ricain" (The American Challenge, 1967), the famous "think tank" Herman Kahn forecasted that the U.S. will: - move to a post-industrial society (the U.S. is already in it); and - move from a two-party political system to a one-party political system The article below maybe the precursor leading to that one-party system prediction. Pierre Tierra, Great Falls, Virginia, Dec. 22, 2008 The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere. It's time to stop the mission creep. By Thomas A. Schweich Sunday, December 21, 2008; B01 We no longer have a civilian-led government. It is hard for a lifelong Republican and son of a retired Air Force colonel to say this, but the most unnerving legacy of the Bush administration is the encroachment of the Department of Defense into a striking number of aspects of civilian government. Our Constitution is at risk. President-elect Barack Obama's selections of James L. Jones, a retired four-star Marine general, to be his national security adviser and, it appears, retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair to be his director of national intelligence present the incoming administration with an important opportunity -- and a major risk. These appointments could pave the way for these respected military officers to reverse the current trend of Pentagon encroachment upon civilian government functions, or they could complete the silent military coup d'etat that has been steadily gaining ground below the radar screen of most Americans and the media. While serving the State Department in several senior capacities over the past four years, I witnessed firsthand the quiet, de facto military takeover of much of the U.S. government. The first assault on civilian government occurred in faraway places -- Iraq and Afghanistan -- and was, in theory, justified by the exigencies of war. The White House, which basically let the Defense Department call the budgetary shots, vastly underfunded efforts by the State Department, the Justice Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to train civilian police forces, build functioning judicial systems and provide basic development services to those war-torn countries. For example, after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Justice Department and the State Department said that they needed at least 6,000 police trainers in the country. Pentagon officials told some of my former staffers that they doubted so many would be needed. The civilians' recommendation "was quickly reduced to 1,500 [trainers] by powers-that-be above our pay grade," Gerald F. Burke, a retired major in the Massachusetts State Police who trained Iraqi cops from 2003 to 2006, told Congress last April. Just a few hundred trainers ultimately wound up being fielded, according to Burke's testimony. Until this year, the State Department received an average of about $40 million a year for rule-of-law programs in Afghanistan, according to the department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs -- in stark contrast to the billions that the Pentagon got to train the Afghan army. Under then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Defense Department failed to provide even basic security for the meager force of civilian police mentors, rule-of-law advisers and aid workers from other U.S. agencies operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, driving policymakers to turn to such contracting firms as Blackwater Worldwide. After having set the rest of the U.S. government up for failure, military authorities then declared that the other agencies' unsuccessful police-training efforts required military leadership and took them over -- after brutal interagency battles at the White House. The result of letting the Pentagon take such thorough charge of the programs to create local police forces is that these units, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, have been unnecessarily militarized -- producing police officers who look more like militia members than ordinary beat cops. These forces now risk becoming paramilitary groups, well armed with U.S. equipment, that could run roughshod over Iraq and Afghanistan's nascent democracies once we leave. Or consider another problem with the rising influence of the Pentagon: the failure to address the ongoing plague of poppy farming and heroin production in Afghanistan. This fiasco was in large part the result of the work of non-expert military personnel, who discounted the corrosive effects of the Afghan heroin trade on our efforts to rebuild the country and failed to support civilian-run counter-narcotics programs. During my tenure as the Bush administration's anti-drug envoy to Afghanistan, I also witnessed JAG officers hiring their own manifestly unqualified Afghan legal "experts," some of whom even lacked law degrees, to operate outside the internationally agreed-upon, Afghan-led program to bring impartial justice to the people of Afghanistan. This resulted in confusion and contradiction. One can also see the Pentagon's growing muscle in the recent creation of the U.S. military command for Africa, known as Africom. This new command supposedly has a joint civilian-military purpose: to coordinate soft power and traditional hard power to stop al-Qaeda and its allies from gaining a foothold on the continent. But Africom has gotten a chilly reception in post-colonial Africa. Meanwhile, U.S. competitors such as China are pursuing large African development projects that are being welcomed with open arms. Since the Bush administration has had real successes with its anti-AIDS and other health programs in Africa, why exactly do we need a military command there running civilian reconstruction, if not to usurp the efforts led by well-respected U.S. embassies and aid officials? And, of course, I need not even elaborate on the most notorious effect of the military's growing reach: the damage that the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and such military prisons as Abu Ghraib have done to U.S. credibility around the world. But these initial military takeovers of civilian functions all took place a long distance from home. "We are in a war, after all," Ronald Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, told me by way of explaining the military's huge role in that country -- just before the Pentagon seemingly had him removed in 2007 because of his admirable efforts to balance military and civilian needs. (I heard angry accounts of the Pentagon's role in Neumann's "retirement" at the time from knowledgeable diplomats, one of them very senior.) But our military forces, in a bureaucratic sense, soon marched on Washington itself. As military officers sought to take over the role played by civilian development experts abroad, Pentagon bureaucrats quietly populated the National Security Council and the State Department with their own personnel (some civilians, some consultants, some retired officers, some officers on "detail" from the Pentagon) to ensure that the Defense Department could keep an eye on its rival agencies. Vice President Cheney, himself a former secretary of defense, and his good friend Rumsfeld ensured the success of this seeding effort by some fairly forceful means. At least twice, I saw Cheney staffers show up unannounced at State Department meetings, and I heard other State Department officials grumble about this habit. The Rumsfeld officials could play hardball, sometimes even leaking to the press the results of classified meetings that did not go their way in order to get the decisions reversed. After I got wind of the Pentagon's dislike for the approved interagency anti-drug strategy for Afghanistan, details of the plan quickly wound up in the hands of foreign countries sympathetic to the Pentagon view. I've heard other, similarly troubling stories about leaks of classified information to the press. Many of Cheney's and Rumsfeld's cronies still work at the Pentagon and elsewhere. Rumsfeld's successor, Robert M. Gates, has spoken of increasing America's "soft power," its ability to attract others by our example, culture and values, but thus far, this push to reestablish civilian leadership has been largely talk and little action. Gates is clearly sincere about chipping away at the military's expanding role, but many of his subordinates are not. The encroachment within America's borders continued with the military's increased involvement in domestic surveillance and its attempts to usurp the role of the federal courts in reviewing detainee cases. The Pentagon also resisted ceding any authority over its extensive intelligence operations to the first director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte -- a State Department official who eventually gave up his post to Mike McConnell, a former Navy admiral. The Bush administration also appointed Michael V. Hayden, a four-star Air Force general, to be the director of the CIA. National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley saw much of the responsibility for developing and implementing policy on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- surely the national security adviser's job -- given to Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, Bush's new "war czar." By 2008, the military was running much of the national security apparatus. The Pentagon opened a southern front earlier this year when it attempted to dominate the new Merida Initiative, a promising $400 million program to help Mexico battle drug cartels. Despite the admirable efforts of the federal drug czar, John P. Walters, to keep the White House focused on the civilian law-enforcement purpose of the Merida Initiative, the military runs a big chunk of that program as well. Now the Pentagon has drawn up plans to deploy 20,000 U.S. soldiers inside our borders by 2011, ostensibly to help state and local officials respond to terrorist attacks or other catastrophes. But that mission could easily spill over from emergency counterterrorism work into border-patrol efforts, intelligence gathering and law enforcement operations -- which would run smack into the Posse Comitatus Act, the long-standing law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement. So the generals are not only dominating our government activities abroad, at our borders and in Washington, but they also seem to intend to spread out across the heartland of America. If President-elect Obama wants to reverse this trend, he must take four steps -- and very quickly: 1. Direct -- or, better yet, order -- Gates, Jones, Blair and the other military leaders in his Cabinet to rid the Pentagon's lower ranks of Rumsfeld holdovers whose only mission is to increase the power of the Pentagon. 2. Turn Gates's speeches on the need to promote soft power into reality with a massive transfer of funds from the Pentagon to the State Department, the Justice Department and USAID. 3. Put senior, respected civilians -- not retired or active military personnel -- into key subsidiary positions in the intelligence community and the National Security Council. 4. Above all, he should let his appointees with military backgrounds know swiftly and firmly that, under the Constitution, he is their commander, and that he will not tolerate the well-rehearsed lip service that the military gave to civilian agencies and even President Bush over the past four years. In short, he should retake the government before it devours him and us -- and return civilian-led government to the people of the United States. Thomas A. Schweich served the Bush administration as ambassador for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan and deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement affairs. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to [email protected] Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot..com To subscribe, send a blank emailwith the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. |