{"id":330,"date":"2007-08-14T10:31:26","date_gmt":"2007-08-14T15:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/"},"modified":"2007-08-14T10:31:26","modified_gmt":"2007-08-14T15:31:26","slug":"will-torture-bring-down-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Torture Bring Down Bush?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">\u00a0The <em>American Conservative<\/em> posted <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amconmag.com\/2007\/2007_07_30\/article.html\">online <\/a><\/strong>my article from their July 30 issue on why the torture scandal may finish off the Bush administration.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">BREAKING BUSH&#8217;S RESISTANCE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Conservative\u00a0 July 30, 2007<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">by James Bovard<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">From the first days after the Abu Ghraib photos hit the airwaves, the torture scandal has epitomized the worst of the Bush presidency. A timid media, a cowardly opposition party, and a refusal by most Americans to face the grisly facts has contained the damage since 2004. But the web of lies and lawlessness is rapidly unraveling. Leaks, foreign challenges, military officers revolting, and a pending Supreme Court case could set off a tidal wave of revulsion against the administration\u2019s barbaric policies. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">When President Bush was pressed by NBC\u2019s Matt Lauer last September about the use of brutal interrogation methods, he replied, \u201cWhatever we have done is legal. \u2026 We had lawyers look at it and say, \u2018Mr. President, this is lawful.\u2019\u201d But Bush\u2019s legal lackeys also proclaim that the president\u2019s command is the highest law, and U.S. torture has been confirmed by FBI agents, former military interrogators, a DoD Inspector General report, and court cases around the globe. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Denial has been the Bush team\u2019s first line of defense. From early 2005 onward, Bush repeatedly declared that the U.S. does not use rendition\u2014the transport of terror suspects to other countries where they are tortured. He told the New York Times in January 2005 that \u201ctorture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.\u201d Doing so would be a federal crime. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">But the evidence of CIA \u201ctorture taxis\u201d secretly racing around the globe carrying gagged, sedated detainees to some of the most brutal regimes in the world proved too much for Bush to deny. He revised his defense in April 2005: \u201cWe operate within the law and we send people to countries where they say they are not going to torture people.\u201d But then why would the U.S. go to the trouble of kidnapping people\u2014Canadian Maher Arar, who was grabbed at JFK Airport and renditioned to Syria or Australian Mamduh Habib, seized in Pakistan and flown to Egypt, for instance\u2014and turning them over to governments the U.S. has long denounced for using torture? <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">In June, the Council of Europe issued a report condemning the CIA\u2019s exploitation of NATO military agreements to run secret prisons in Romania and Poland where detainees were tortured. The report called for banning \u201cthe Bush administration mindset\u201d that says \u201cif it is illegal for us to use such a practice at home or on our own citizens, let us export or outsource it so we will not be held to account for it.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">While Bush bears ultimate blame for the U.S. embrace of torture, Vice President Cheney\u2019s team often drove the policy. The Washington Post reported on June 25 that starting in January 2002, \u201cCheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive\u2019s will to resist. The vice president\u2019s office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion in U.S. custody.\u201d The Post noted, \u201cCheney and his allies &#8230; pioneered a novel distinction between forbidden \u2018torture\u2019 and permitted use of \u2018cruel, inhuman or degrading\u2019 methods of questioning.\u201d The Geneva Conventions, which are binding under U.S. law, make no such distinction. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The key was a radical new understanding of torture spelled out in an Aug. 1, 2002 Justice Department memo that narrowed the definition to suffering \u201cequivalent in intensity\u201d to \u201corgan failure &#8230; or even death.\u201d Call it a license to almost kill. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Top military experts opposed the redefinition, but a few high-ranking civilian appointees at the Pentagon scorned the veterans. Cheney has been especially enthusiastic about simulated drowning of detainees known as waterboarding even though the U.S. government classified this as a war crime in 1947. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Though neoconservatives have always prided themselves on being more anti-Soviet than God, the U.S. government turned to an unlikely source for inspiration to fulfill Cheney\u2019s vision of shattering detainees\u2019 resistance. After 9\/11, the Pentagon and CIA \u201creverse engineered\u201d many Soviet interrogation techniques that the U.S. had long denounced as torture. Policymakers looked at the \u201cSurvival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape\u201d training American aviators received to endure Soviet interrogation for leads on how the U.S. could break the will of Muslim detainees. A 1956 Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry article entitled, \u201cCommunist Interrogation\u201d described how the Soviets used \u201cisolation, anxiety, fatigue, lack of sleep, uncomfortable temperatures\u201d on their targets. The Bush administration adapted the same techniques at Guantanamo and the secret prisons scattered throughout the world, the New York Times reported last month. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The administration has an almost perfect record in its hearings over detainees at Guantanamo, but officers are increasingly refusing to carry out orders that they consider immoral or unjust. Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, a veteran Marine aviator, resigned from the prosecution of Mohamedou Ould Slahi because the U.S. had tortured the defendant. The Wall Street Journal recently summarized a Pentagon report on this case: \u201cOn July 17, 2003, a masked interrogator told Slahi he had dreamed of watching detainees dig a grave. &#8230; The interrogator said he saw \u2018a plain, pine casket with [Slahi\u2019s] identification number painted in orange lowered into the ground.\u2019 Three days later, the interrogator told Slahi that his family was \u2018incarcerated.\u2019\u201d Two weeks later, the Journal reported, \u201can interrogation chief visited the prisoner posing as a White House representative. &#8230; He gave the prisoner a forged memorandum indicating that Mr. Slahi\u2019s mother was being shipped to Guantanamo, and that officials had concerns about her safety as the only woman amid hundreds of male prisoners&#8230;\u201d Threatening Slahi, who was also physically brutalized, with the prospect of his mother\u2019s rape was the final straw for Couch. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The torture of David Hicks, an Australian seized in Afghanistan and sent to Gitmo in early 2002, became an international cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre. Hicks, who joined the Kosovo Liberation Army, a terrorist organization supported by the U.S. government, before fighting alongside the Taliban, was sexually assaulted, beaten with a rifle butt, kept in isolation in the dark for 244 days, prohibited from sleeping for long periods, threatened with firearms during interrogations, and psychologically tormented. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">He was one of the first people tried by the Gitmo military tribunals. Though former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once called him one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world, after Hicks agreed to plead guilty to material support of terrorism, he was sentenced to nine months confinement\u2014a typical sentence for a misdemeanor in most states. As part of his plea agreement, Hicks was obliged to declare that he \u201chad never been illegally treated by any person or persons while in the custody and control of the United States\u201d and to swear that his guilty plea was made voluntarily, despite all the beatings he had received. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">From the start of the torture scandal, the Bush team has done whatever it can to suppress the facts and punish truth-tellers. The initial photos from Abu Ghraib would have had far less impact had it not been for a courageous report by Major Gen. Antonio Taguba detailing far worse abuses. Seymour Hersh recently revealed in the New Yorker how Taguba was vindictively forced into retirement by the Pentagon because of the report. Taguba said Rumsfeld deceived Congress in May 2004 when he portrayed himself as a blindsided victim of a leak when testifying shortly after the Taguba report and the Abu Ghraib photos were posted online. Rumsfeld claimed to have not seen Taguba\u2019s report when they met the day before he first testified, even though Taguba had submitted more than a dozen copies to the Pentagon and elsewhere in the military command structure. Doug Feith, who set policy for detainees in Iraq, shotgunned an e-mail around the Pentagon prohibiting officials from reading the Taguba report. Feith also warned that Pentagon officials should not discuss the report with anyone, even family members. One Pentagon consultant declared that the Bush team\u2019s \u201cbasic strategy was \u2018prosecute the kids in the photographs but protect the big picture.\u2019\u201d Suppressing the worst evidence was key. Taguba told Hersh that he had seen \u201ca video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee.\u201d This could not have been spun away as mere college fraternity hazing. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Taguba had been ordered to focus only on the actions of the military police at Abu Ghraib. He could not examine the responsibility of senior officers or the Pentagon for the atrocities he found. Col. Tom Pappas, the commander of the battalion that carried out the abuses photographed at Abu Ghraib, \u201cwas granted immunity in return for his testimony against a dog handler,\u201d as author Andrew Cockburn derisively noted. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The torture regime rests on the notion that anyone labeled an enemy combatant deserves whatever harsh treatment he receives. Combatant Status Review Tribunals are used to confirm the guilt of people sent to Guantanamo as enemy combatants, but the tribunals routinely rely on tortured confessions and hearsay evidence, and almost any allegation can be sufficient to perpetuate detention. Candace Gorman, a Chicago attorney representing two Guantanomo detainees, noted that in one case \u201cthe [tribunal] darkly noted that the prisoner owned a Casio wristwatch (which could conceivably be used to time explosives). \u2026 Karate skills, knowledge of computers and participation in the pilgrimage to Mecca have also been considered factors supporting \u2018continuing detention.\u2019\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year Army veteran who had a pivotal role in gathering evidence for the tribunals, filed a sworn affidavit last month declaring that the process of identifying enemy combatants at Guantanamo was a sham and that officers were pressured to find defendants guilty. Abraham noted, \u201cWhat purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence.\u201d He noted that intelligence agencies refused to divulge exculpatory information that might clear the accused. The Pentagon conducted more than 500 hearings and found almost all the accused guilty, though sometimes a second or third panel of officers had to be summoned to convict. Abraham noted, \u201cIn very few instances would you find very specific information from which you could conclude he was an enemy combatant.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">In June 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration was dead wrong in claiming that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees in the war on terror. The Bush administration responded by railroading the Military Commissions Act through Congress last September. The MCA retroactively pardoned torturers and torture policymakers for war crimes committed after 9\/11, rubber-stamped the administration\u2019s Guantanamo tribunals, and blocked people labeled as enemy combatants from filing habeas corpus petitions in American courts. Bush pushed Congress to speedily pass the act because \u201cas long as the War Crimes Act hangs over their heads, [CIA interrogators] will not take the steps necessary to protect\u201d Americans. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">As part of the procedure for establishing the \u201clegal\u201d limits of interrogation, the MCA requires the president to put in writing his definition of what constitutes \u201coutrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.\u201d The Senate Intelligence Committee insists that the new standards be reviewed by the Justice Department and that the review be provided to Congress. But the Bush team is refusing to divulge the Justice Department\u2019s verdict on Bush\u2019s latest revised definition of non-torture. The Washington Post noted, \u201cLawmakers will be asked to accept Bush\u2019s assurance in the executive order [on new interrogation standards] that the program has been deemed lawful.\u201d In the meantime, the CIA enhanced interrogation program remains in limbo despite Bush\u2019s tub-thumping during the congressional election season about such interrogation \u201ctools\u201d were needed immediately. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Thus far, the Democrats have been among the least of Bush\u2019s torture travails. From the time the first Abu Ghraib photos appeared, Democrats have portrayed themselves as the Party of Virtue that could never condone such indignities, but they have controlled Capitol Hill for six months and not issued a single subpoena on interrogation practices. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">On June 19, Democrats had the perfect opportunity to showcase their superior values. The Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on the nomination of John Rizzo to become general counsel for the CIA. Rizzo, a 30-year CIA veteran, was acting general counsel in 2002 when the new torture rules were put in place and gave the CIA\u2019s approval to the Bush administration\u2019s 2002 redefinition of torture. Yet, as the New York Times noted, \u201cno member of the Senate Intelligence Committee directly challenged the agency\u2019s secret detention or harsh interrogation practices.\u201d Only Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced opposition to his confirmation. \u201cAffable and calm, Rizzo rolled a pen between his fingers as he issued parsimonious replies to the five Democrats and two Republicans present,\u201d the Washington Post reported. \u201cDapper, white-haired and bearded, he resembled a slimmed-down Santa Claus in civilian dress more than Hollywood\u2019s version of a CIA consigliere.\u201d Rather than following Bush-style interrogation guidelines, the senators apparently assumed that groveling was the best means to get the truth. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The Supreme Court may show a bit more resolve, prompted perhaps by Abraham\u2019s affidavit. It had ruled in early April that it would not hear an expedited challenge to the MCA, but on June 29, the Court reversed itself and announced that it would hear two cases challenging the new law. Its decision was the first time in 60 years that the Court had reversed itself on granting a hearing to a case. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The MCA cases could provide a far brighter official spotlight on torture than ever before. Aziz Huq of the NYU Law School observes that the case will likely reveal how Gitmo hearings \u201crelied on evidence gained by torture and abuse and how few safeguards they have against error.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">Bush torture policies were made in darkness by people who assumed that they would forever remain secret. As evidence leaked out, much of the world has been revolted at the U.S. government\u2019s barbarism, but most Americans remain oblivious. The Supreme Court case could change that overnight. If the MCA is struck down, the get-out-of-jail-free card that the White House and Congress provided to torturers and their enablers will be null. And the Supreme Court cannot endorse the use of tortured confessions without destroying its own credibility. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">The Bush administration was able to punish Taguba, muzzle Hicks, intimidate Congress, and browbeat much of the media, but its luck may have run out. The president\u2019s approval ratings were his body armor against the torture revelations, but he is losing his immunity to criticism at the same time that CIA and military interrogators fear losing the de facto legal protection the president provided them since 2001. With each court or congressional battle, the administration is forced to embrace new absurdities or issue more falsehoods, and the number of people who could save their skins or their honor by telling the truth may now outnumber the diehard defenders of absolute executive power.\u00a0 ______________________________________________ <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><font color=\"#000000\">James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy and eight other books<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0The American Conservative posted online my article from their July 30 issue on why the torture scandal may finish off the Bush administration. BREAKING BUSH&#8217;S RESISTANCE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Conservative\u00a0 July 30, 2007 by James Bovard From the first days after the Abu Ghraib photos hit the airwaves, the torture scandal has epitomized the worst of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Will Torture Bring Down Bush? - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Torture Bring Down Bush? - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0The American Conservative posted online my article from their July 30 issue on why the torture scandal may finish off the Bush administration. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Will Torture Bring Down Bush? - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Will Torture Bring Down Bush? - James Bovard","og_description":"\u00a0The American Conservative posted online my article from their July 30 issue on why the torture scandal may finish off the Bush administration. BREAKING BUSH&#8217;S RESISTANCE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Conservative\u00a0 July 30, 2007 by James Bovard From the first days after the Abu Ghraib photos hit the airwaves, the torture scandal has epitomized the worst of the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2007-08-14T15:31:26+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Will Torture Bring Down Bush?","datePublished":"2007-08-14T15:31:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/"},"wordCount":2501,"commentCount":15,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/","name":"Will Torture Bring Down Bush? - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-08-14T15:31:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/will-torture-bring-down-bush\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Will Torture Bring Down Bush?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}