The Gates nomination

Today's hearings on Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense are round one of the post-election fight for the Constitution. I'm probably going to wish it weren't. Because it looks like the Republicans intend to ram the nomination through the Armed Services Committee and send it to the Senate as early as Wednesday (tomorrow).

The Democrats need to fight this nomination, even if they lose. This is the official that will be in charge of the torture gulags run by the Pentagon and also the National Security Agency (NSA), in both cases areas in which we know there are illegal activities going on. The Dems need to use the Gates nomination to highlight violations of law.

But they also need to use this as a first post-election opportunity to focus our lazy media on the seriousness of the problems in the Iraq War. They need to pin Gates down on the prospects for a military attack on Iran, on his position about nuclear weapons proliferation and first use of nuclear weapons, on covert-war activities run by the Pentagon. They need to jam him on the role he played in Iran-Contra. And they need to press him for his views on Rummy's version of military "transformation", on major weapons systems boondoggles like Star Wars and the F-22, and on the state of Army recruiting.

Jason Vest raises some important issues about Gates and the Pentagon in Inheriting a Shambles at Defense Texas Observer 12/01/06:

Hoping to get Gates on the record, some of the stalwarts of the military reform movement—a loose affiliation of analysts, military officers, and journalists who have tried for decades to transform the Pentagon’s culture—have been drafting detailed questions about matters other than Iraq and sending them to the Senate Armed Services Committee. While the chances of getting them asked aren’t great, reformers nonetheless hope that issues like the militarization of space, the continuation of dubious and unnecessary weapons systems, and internal financial oversight reform, among others, will come up in the hearing.

Investigative reporter Robert Perry has been providing details of some of Gates' more dubious activities in the past at his ConsortiumNews.com site in articles by himself and others including Gates Hearing Has New Urgency by Robert Parry 12/03/06 and Robert Gates: Realist or Neo-Con? by Peter Dickson 12/04/06.

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who worked closely with Gates during part of their careers at the CIA, has also been an outspoken opponent of Gates as SecDef. See McGovern's Gates, Hadley: More Of The Same TomPaine.com 11/29/06 and A CIA insider's take on Gates Miami Herald 12/04/06 (also available at Truthout.org).

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