The news is just now coming out that President Bush has named Judge Michael Chertoff to head Homeland Security. Chertoff headed up the Justice Department’s criminal division from ’01-’03, which is when Bush named him to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Chertoff was put in that position so that he could stop legal challenges against government abuses of power after September 11th. The always-good Counterpunch had an article about Chertoff last year, which points out a variety of terrible things about him, including nuggets like this one:
Chertoff argued to the 4th Circuit that the Court could not order the government to produce its start witness against Moussaoui because (are you ready?) he, the witness, is out of the country at an undisclosed location. True, but the witness is in the custody of the federal government!
The whole article is worth a read to get a sense of Chertoff. He’s basically a little Ashcroft clone who, in the words of Counterpunch, has “big changes in mind for you, me, the courts, and the Constitution.”