We now have a direct invocation of the Nuremburg Defense against allegations of war crimes in the U.S. government. All protestations and objections to the International Criminal Court -- that the U.S. had the best legal system in the world and was sure to prosecute any violations of the laws of war -- are now seen to be empty and a complete sham.
Today in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Michael Mukasey directly refused to investigate whether the law was violated when -- as the Regime has now confirmed -- waterboarding was used on terror suspects. From Talking Points Memo:
Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) put it to him: since administration officials have disclosed that CIA agents waterboarded three detainees, "are you ready to start a criminal investigation?"
"No, I am not," was the direct answer.
His reasoning was a repeat of his answer to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) last week. The CIA waterboarded those detainees with the authorization of a Justice Department legal opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel. So the Justice Department "cannot possibly" investigate, he said, U.S. employees for an act they committee on the basis of Justice Department advice. Such an action, he explained, would send a message that interrogators could no longer safely rely on that advice going forward.
So here we are. The Regime has a bullet-proof defense: if we issue an opinion that Crime is Virtue, then we can't possibly investigate the Virtuous acts committed under that opinion, because then, in the future, our opinions will be doubted.
Who can investigate this? Congress will not impeach. No one will call for a special prosecutor. There is only one alternative: this new Banana Republic has to be treated like all the other banana republics out there, with no actual judicial system that operates outside the whim of the Leader. The international community must do its duty, and ignore the Regime's refusal to recognize the court, just as it would ignore the self-serving, specious refusals of the minions of any other criminal regime.
Bush, Cheney, Mukasey, the whole rotten clique, TO THE HAGUE!