This Is What Accountability Looks Like

Yesterday the former President of Peru was sentenced to 6 years in prison by the Peruvian Supreme Court. The reason?

He ordered an illegal search.

Supreme Court Judge Pedro Guillermo Urbina ruled that Fujimori had abused his power in 2000 when he ordered a military aide to search the apartment of the wife of Vladimiro Montesinos, Fujimori's former security chief, who was then embroiled in a money-laundering scandal. Fujimori did not deny ordering the search but had said it was part of a nationwide manhunt for Montesinos. Prosecutors argued that he ordered the search in an effort to seize evidence that might have directly implicated him in Montesinos's crimes.

There were no riots in the streets. Peru isn't horribly broken and needs to be healed (mainly because Peru isn't a PERSON, a common mistake of the punditocracy, ascribing their own beliefs onto the nation at large). There is not some unmanageable breakdown of trust between the people and their government. All of the horrors that High Broderists in this country continually say would be unleashed by any accountability have not materialized.

This was a simple case of a chief executive who overstepped his power and authority, and the system of government set up to check these abuses acted in the most proper manner, and justice was actually served. Wht a concept.

Fujimori is actually on trial for additional human rights abuses during his Presidency. And that will be adjudicated in the same manner.

This is a completely foreign concept in America today. When our President engages in an illegal search, the Congress moves to legalize that behavior. When our President abuses human rights, nobody in a position of power stands up to him. When torture is undertaken by this government, members of Congress find out about it and stand silent. Heck, the US Congress has done a better job holding other countries accountable than we have our own.

US lawmakers have voted to stop Burma's rubies and high-quality jade from entering the United States.

The measure, passed by the House of Representatives, tightens sanctions against the junta by attempting to stop gem dealers from laundering their goods in third countries before they enter the US.

The bill, which must be approved by the Senate and president, also tries to stop Burmese leaders using US banks to launder money in third countries.

Democratic Rep Tom Lantos said in a statement: "Burma's generals fund this repression of their own people by selling off the country's natural resources, especially oil and gems, leaving the Burmese people in poverty."

He added that tightened sanctions would "ensure that the United States stands up to these thugs".

What about the lawbreakers inside the White House?

We have mechanisms in this country to achieve accountability. We have a nation of laws that, when properly enacted, can produce incredible results.

It was the nation's first ever electoral vote on Blackwater and it was a massive people-powered grassroots victory over the mercenaries. Every "stop Blackwater" candidate won by at least 63% (results here). It was an an enormous statement to Blackwater: stay out, you are not the kind of neighbors we want in our community. It is also a blistering statement by a very conservative town to reject the Bush world view. Our nation is not better served by having a privatized Army. There is nothing pro-troop about supporting Blackwater.

The United States Congress has a lot to learn from the 500-odd citizens of Potrero. Instead we get free passes from the Democrats. We get pleas that it's time to "move on," that the nation shouldn't have to go through such a wrenching circumstance.

There is a great decay in this country, a nagging feeling that things are simply not right, and it comes right down to accountability. Its absence has us as frustrated and despondent as a nation as I've seen in a long time. The fact is that we have a lot to learn from countries like Peru. And the elites, the chattering class, is trying to whisk right by this and move on to 2008.

The only thing that will put a salve on a large section of this nation is accountability.