Abuse of Executive Power

“The story of how the Bush-Cheney administration rushed to make torture an instrument of national policy in its ‘war on terror,’ and of how it created an international gulag in which to abuse prisoners, is well known. Less remarked on—for reasons that do nobody credit—is the fact that President Obama and his administration have embraced the secrecy and usurpations of power that made possible the Bush-Cheney betrayal of American values. … As former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told the Washington Times this week, differences between the Bush-Cheney White House for which he worked and the Obama administration on these issues essentially are minor.”