Hightower Lowdown

If a top government official takes a principled stand against Bush's executive excesses but the media ignores this action, did it happen?

Twice in recent months high-ranking insiders have declined to play the Bushites' "Go-along-to-getalong" game, but neither got much coverage. One is Robert Grenier, head of the CIA's counter-terrorism center. This respected officer, who rose to the agency's top terrorism post after an extensive career as a clandestine operative in Pakistan and the Mid-East, was appalled by much of what the Bushites are doing. Rather than be silent, Grenier expressed his misgivings internally, opposing secret prisons, extraordinary rendition, and the use of such forms of torture as "waterboarding" (strapping prisoners to a board and plunging them into a pool of water until they almost drownthen doing it again).

But the Bushites want "Yes Men," not constructive criticism, so they simply sacked Grenier. They've also tried to dishonor him, whispering that he was fired for not being "aggressive" enough. But, as one of his predecessors bluntly said, "It is not that Grenier wasn't aggressive enough, it is that he wasn't 'with the program.'"

The other dissident is U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of the 11 members of the FISA court that's supposed to approve any spying on U.S. citizens by our foreign intelligence agencies. Robertson was deeply distressed that Bush's warrantless domestic spying was legally suspect and had compromised the work of FISA. Rather than participate in the ongoing sham, Robertson quietly resigned from FISA on December 19.