Justice
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"In my own time, governments have taken the place of people. They have also taken the place of G-d. Governments speak for people, dream for them, and determine, absurdly their lives and deaths." (Ben Hecht , "Perfidy")

"What an unutterably tremendous thing it is when a man can honestly say: Here I stand in the Name of G-d, I can do no other." (Pierre van Paassen, "The War and the Jew")

"Licensed to Lie" reads like a cross between investigative journalism and courtroom drama. The takeaway is that both Bushies and Obamaites should be very afraid. Over the last few years, a coterie of vicious and unethical prosecutors, who are unfit to practice law has been harbored within and enabled by the now ironically Department of Justice." (William Hodes, Professor of Law Emeritus, Indiana University, coauthor, "The Law of Lawyering" ).

"The greatest human ideal of justice is only as good as the character of those who administer it, existing only if its guardians are devotees to integrity and fairness. Sidney Powell's book is a testament to the human will to struggle against overwhelming odds to right a wrong and a cautionary tale to all - that true justice doesn't just exist as an abstraction apart from us. True justice is us, making it real through our own actions, and our own vigilance against the powerful who cavalierly threaten to take it away." (Michael Adams, PhD, University of Texas-Austin)

There probably is no finer insight of the world of injustice which prevailed in the US a decade ago than Sidney Powell's "Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice."

Much of what she writes and much of what can be deduced from her writing could be applicable in Israel with a change of names and specifics, making this book an important read as Israel's new government is set to make changes in the Judicial system.

The foreword to the book is written by Alex Kozinski, a Ninth Circuit Chief Judge. He recognizes the author as a former prosecutor turned private practitioner , who represented a defendant in one of the high- profile cases discussed in her book. She was called in by the defense team after the client had been convicted.

Kozinzki agrees with Powell in her having more guts than the client and his lawyers in that writing the book, such as she did proves it. Not only calling out prosecutors and former prosecutors who continue to serve in powerful and responsible positions, she is also relentless in criticizing judges before whom she has practiced for years.

The book commences with the suicide of Nicholas Marsh, age 37, a prosecutor who had worked in the elite Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice. Apparently he was deeply affected by the death of the popular Alaska Senator Stevens in a questionable plane crash.

The public saw the tragic suicide as an admission of guilt or shame for his role in hiding exculpatory evidence in the Stevens case. It was a painful demonstration of the stress that being investigated and the specter of prosecution, has on someone.

Stevens had been found guilty by a jury a year earlier, and subsequently he was declared innocent. The prosecutors from the Public Section of the Department of Justice had broken ethical rules, disregarded court orders, and violated constitutional law, while they hid evidence favorable to his defense - called "Brady material." Stevens had been a senator for 45 years and as a result of their actions, Stevens lost his seat in the Senate. An irate Judge Emmer Sullivan's refusal to ignore or excuse the prosecutor's misconduct dealt a whopping black eye to the Department of Justice in the media.

Stevens had publically pledged to advocate tirelessly for new legislation that would require the government to produce "Brady" information for a defendant in every case and to impose clear penalties for any failure to do so.

Next case:

The Enron Barge Case concerned an allegedly sham transaction between Enron and Merrill Lynch to purchase Enron barges. The government maintained that the deal was a sham, and not a real purchase, because Enron orally promised/guaranteed to take Merrill out of the transaction, by buying back the barges or finding a 3rd party buyer within 6 months. Although Jim Brown and the other Enron Barge defendants saw their fraud convictions overturned by the Fifth Circuit, Brown had also been convicted of perjury and obstruction for grand jury testimony regarding his understanding of the transaction.

What ensued from the banal barge transaction became a nightmare for Jim Brown and the other executives at Merrill who were persecuted based on no evidence, under laws that did not support the charges, and by prosecutors who cared more about convictions than justice.

At the conclusion of narrating the Brown saga, Sidney Powell remarks, "The courts and system of justice to which I had devoted my entire professional life - and had wanted to be a part of since I was 5 years old - had failed to rectify the most egregious legal wrong that I had ever personally witnessed." Nearly 200 pages of the book was devoted to the Enron debacle of the 1990s, and in particular the prosecution of Jim Brown of Merrill Lynch.

After 9 long years, Jim Brown was freed, but remained a felon. He had spent a year in prison and was on probation for almost 6years.

It is time to assess present day justice. At 1st glance, it most certainly resembles the past. Even more so, it has grown worse with the emergent less-than-democratic Democrat Party. It heralds a strange phenomenon with billionaires who made their dollars through democracy now embracing socialism and perhaps even communism. In Dennis Prager's terminology, Leftism is not classic liberalism. An examination of the media suggests it is predominantly Left-wing extremism which rules, while justice is abandoned.

"Implicit in studying it, is the realization of the delicate balance between an ordered society, with some restraints on personal freedom and expression, and, on the other hand, a society of complete personal freedom, but also anarchy and chaos. "[Rabbi Berel Wein].

Some conclusions:

[a] Thousands of police cannot, by themselves, stop looting, rioting, and other forms of social mayhem. During the summer of 2020, when President Trump offered to send in the National Guard to restore order, all but one of the Left-wing mayors refused.

[b] As noted above, there is no judge in the world that enters the courtroom without personal prejudices and preconceived beliefs.

[c] Where is the justice in the chaos at the US border? While it was known all year that the US borders were a witness to a crush of humanity at the southern doorstep so overwhelming that even Democratic mayors of their cities were declaring emergencies. Could not the judiciary react?

[d] At this time, the Democrats are seizing every opportunity to impede or eliminate well established Republican norms, going beyond Biden's cancellation of Trump's successful activities. Power corrupts justice. It is obvious that by making it possible for literally millions of illegal immigrants to enter the US Biden will have enlarged his voter base for the future elections.

An Israel National News - Dec. 21, 2022 headline reads, "Ambassador Tom Nides Why the Double Standard ?" by Rabbi Menachem Levine, in which he writes, "I am unwilling to accept that Amb. Nides embraces democratic values for everyone but Orthodox Jews, although it seems like it."

He could also have questioned American interference in the affairs of sovereign Israel. Hardly an act of justice.

Back in 2021, the highly credible NY Post reporter, Miranda Divine had published her book, "Laptop from Hell" which references the possession of Biden's infamous son, Hunter. In bold the introduction states, "Hunter Biden, big tech, and dirty tricks the President tried to hide". This is followed ironically by a quote,

"Corruption is a cancer, a cancer that eats away at a citizen's faith in democracy---It saps the collective strength and resolve of a nation. Corruption is just another form of tyranny." - Joe Biden Kyiv, Ukraine, 2014.

The book consists of 208 pages and 21 Chapters. Now for those of us who are familiar with the New York Post and in particular the reports from Miranda Devine will observe that it contains nothing that has not been previously reported. However, thre is strength in having it all together.

For sure, it leaves one with the feeling that the Biden family has no business running America.

Now with the emergence of the very smart Elon Musk and the records available from the inherited Twitter, justice may win.

Alex Rose, [email protected], was born in South Africa in 1935 and lived there until leaving for the US in 1977, where he spent 26 years. He is an engineering consultant. For 18 years he worked for Westinghouse until age 60, whereupon he became self-employed. He was formerly on the Executive of Americans for a Safe Israel and a founding member of CAMERA, New York [Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in Americaת one of the largest media monitoring organizations concerned with accuracy and balanced reporting on Israel. In 2003, he and his wife made Aliyah and reside in Ashkelon.