The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/22/07 Section: News

Media Credit: WAITES LASETTER Professor Loch Johnson (left) speaks to the Young Democrats at the SLC Wednesday.

Republicans are using fear to advance their agenda and to rob U.S. citizens of first amendment rights, a University professor told students Wednesday.

Loch Johnson, who teaches international affairs, addressed the Young Democrats and outlined his opinion of an increasingly bold and paranoid Bush presidency.

"Republicans are excessively paranoid about everything," Johnson said. "They have made numerous mistakes because of this."

Johnson drew an analogy between the current Bush administration and the Nixon presidency, primarily in their unlawful utilization of intelligence agencies to spy on U.S. citizens.

Through his participation in an investigation of agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency decades ago, Johnson said he was able to realize the true extent of the damage caused by such surveillance and can draw striking similarities to today.

"This is the most secretive administration I've seen since Nixon, maybe even more so," he said.

Wiretaps violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, illegal torture of foreign prisoners and the malleability of our civil rights under Republican control, Johnson said, are just a few of the frightening activities of our current administration.

"Now it seems anything goes to 'protect America,'" he said.

The students in attendance, rounding 35, also noticed similarities between the two presidencies and expressed dissatisfaction with recent events.

"Rarely have I gotten as upset as I am now," said Payton Bradford, political director of the Young Democrats, concerning the firing of eight U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration.

Bradford said Bush's lack of cooperation in the situation leads him to ask what he has to hide.

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