White House 'Bonesman' leads nation into the dark
By Alexandra Robbins
''My senior year (at Yale University) I joined Skull and Bones, a
secret society,'' President Bush wrote in his autobiography, ''so
secret, I can't say anything more.''
He doesn't have to. He's practically turning the government into a
secret society -- an old-boy, throwback establishment that even holds
its secret spy-court proceedings in an elaborately locked, windowless
room that sounds similar to the Bones' elaborately locked,
practically windowless ''tomb,'' or campus clubhouse.
Bush, a loyal and particularly active member of Skull and Bones, a
mysterious, historically misogynist Yale-based secret society, seems
to have done almost all he can to promote a level of secrecy in
government not seen since the Nixon administration:
* Last month, Bush-appointed Assistant Attorney General Robert
McCallum, a member of Bush's 1968 Skull and Bones class, filed
pleadings in U.S. District Court seeking to extend executive
privilege to any government official in pardon cases; the move makes
information on presidential pardons more secret than it has ever
been.
* After 9/11, without initially telling Congress, Bush assembled a
shadow government assigned to secret bunkers somewhere on the East
Coast. He also tried to cut off some members of Congress from
classified information about the anti-terrorist campaign.
* The USA Patriot Act Bush eagerly signed lets the FBI -- with
permission from a secret Washington ''spy court'' -- view some
customer records; store owners cannot reveal the review
* In October 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft released a memo
encouraging federal agencies to withhold as much information as
possible from the public.
* A month later, just before documents from the Reagan-Bush
administration were to be released, Bush signed an executive order
severely hindering public access to former presidents' records.
* Bush also signed legislation that jails or fines journalists who
publish sensitive leaks, essentially reviving the Official Secrecy
Act that President Clinton vetoed.
Bush has a ''fetish for secrecy,'' Vanderbilt University professor
emeritus Hugh Davis Graham, now deceased, told the National Journal
earlier this year.
Granted, pressing issues of national security merit a level of
secrecy. But security and secrecy are not always necessary
companions, and some of these examples suggest secrecy for secrecy's
sake, such as the pardons and the Reagan documents. Also, a
government that operates in secret prevents its constituents from
holding it accountable and so may be more prone to arbitrariness and
ill-considered conduct. This administration may even be doing itself
a disservice with its excess secrecy, which can cause people to
conjure up much more malicious and elitist scenarios than may
actually exist.
That is what has happened with Skull and Bones, which operates a
powerful alumni network but, despite the lore, does not run a secret
world government, collaborate with Nazis or require initiates to lie
naked in a coffin.
Bonesmen have long helped Bush; he received a fair chunk of his early
business financing from them and turned to them for help when he
needed a job, investors and campaign assistance. Even his baseball-
team purchase involved at least one Bonesman. As president, Bush has
appointed fellow Bonesmen to high-level positions, such as Edward
McNally, the general counsel of the Office on Homeland Security and
senior associate counsel on national security. Yet, although one of
his first social gatherings at the White House was a Skull and Bones
reunion, Bush feigned ignorance when asked recently about
Bones: ''The thing is so secret that I'm not even sure it still
exists,'' he replied.
Is it a coincidence that the federal government suddenly prioritizes
secrecy when a Skull and Bones president is in power? Maybe. But
there's no question that the Bush administration increasingly
resembles the Bones' dark, locked tomb.
Alexandra Robbins is the author of Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and
Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power.
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