June 24 (LPAC)--The lead editorial of the New York Times on Sunday, entitled "White House of Mirrors," begins as follows: "President Bush has turned he executive branch into a two-way mirror. They get to see every thing Americans do: our telephone calls, e-mail, and all manner of personal information. And we get to see nothing about what they do.... Vice President Dick Cheney sets the gold standard, placing himself not just above Congress and the courts but above Mr. Bush himself." The last half of the editorial concentrates on a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee held last week on the nomination of John Rizzo, the man charged with safeguarding the Constitution at the Central Intelligence Agency, as the CIA's deputy general counsel or acting general counsel who was nominated as general counsel more than a year ago.

As the editorial continues: "When he was asked his view of the administration's infamous decision to define torture so narrowly that it allowed widespread abuse of prisoners, he merely said the policy was 'overbroad' for the circumstances... Mr. Rizzo also refused to say whether the United States had ever sent a prisoner to another country knowing he would be tortured.... Incredibly the lies and secrecy shrouding this administration are not enough for Mr. Rizzo. Sounding an awful lot like Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, he told the senators, "Far too many people know far too much." The Times concludes: "Governments have to keep secrets, but this administration has grossly abused that trust, routinely using claims of national security to hide policies that are immoral and almost certainly illegal, to avoid embarrassment, and to pursue Mr. Bush's dreams of an imperial presidency."