Memo: Attach Bush to torture = make them defend both.
Though Morning Joe doesn't say Bush's name, I think we should, and Democrats will use this to pursue justice and Destroy the GOP. I consider it a great instance of killing two birds with one stone.
More below the fold, and a call to action . . .
Republicans will say this will damage the President's popularity in polls, they will justify and lie and say anything to avoid owning this issue, but the fact is that the law was broken, and I believe this is the beginning of a well timed plan to get the ball rolling now, and then use it against the GOP for maximum effect.
Q: Is sleep deprivation legal or covered under the Geneva Conventions?
Morning Shmo: Uh, yes. Every country has used sleep deprivation, my god, for a thousand years.
My God, indeed. Morning Shmo needs to read less Republican talking points, and more of the Geneva Convention.
"Torture lite" is still torture. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has ruled that sleep deprivation "may in some cases constitute torture." The United States itself has also declared sleep deprivation to be a form of torture, as exemplified in the 2001 U.S. State Department report on Turkey, Israel, and Jordan that lists sleep deprivation among alleged torture techniques.
crimesofwar.org
Republicans are scared, scared shitless. If this investigation was a certain whitewash they wouldn't be defending it, the GOP would not have sent 9 GOP Senators to beg mercy of AG Eric Holder, they would be dismissing it and moving on to their next scare tactic.
But the GOP knows, as I know, how this can be used to destroy them. After 8 years of watching the rats running for cover, I have figured out which holes they run for first.
Morning Shmo: "Remember what happened with whitewater? "
~snip~
"These things expand"
Excuses, excuses.
The GOP and their enablers in the media will tell you that the American public is comfortable with sleep deprivation, torture and other war crimes, as if that somehow makes it legal and okay.
They are scared. Scared of accountability. Scared of having 8 years of criminal behavior by the last Republican Administration dragged into the news cycle on a daily basis. Scared of having to make the choice to defend or disown the Bush Administration. They know it is a losing fight for them either way, and they are scared, and for good reason.
I considered this yesterday at docudharma after learning of AG Holder's decision to name a Special Prosecutor, and I believe the ball has been set into motion, and that ball will roll uphill, all the way to the top.
The main issue here is timing. Why would they waste this story now, if they weren't going to build it up into more later? I suspect that this is exactly and what AG Holder is doing is starting slow now when it is the end of a slow news month in order to build a case that goes all the way to the top.
First of all, I believe that the Republican party is quietly shitting themselves over this. Their concerns give me hope. their fear gives me joy. The fact that already Joe Libereman and other prominent Republicans are already squirming on camera should point out how real this is.
More to the point, I am seeing a pattern in how Obama's administration operates. They start small, and then they hit you. While we fret over the waiting, they are getting ready to nail these people. If the nailing never happens I will be proven wrong, and I will be the Loudest to Yell my head off. Until then, I keep hope alive, and can see the upside to these things.
You see, if Obama lets Holder go after Yoo and Bybee now, it derails everything else, but, if we start with no names low level operatives and let the pressure and evidence build up, we can time the Bigger Investigations to coincide with upcoming elections, and, though that shouldn't be the point, I will gladly take it if that is how they will do it.
Never let a disaster go to waste, eh?
I firmly believe the Obama Administration and their advisors (Axelrod, Rahm, etc) will use a long, drawn out investigation that eventually leads to Bush and Cheney themselves as a way to run against Bush/Cheney in 2010 and 2012, putting the GOP on the defensive and forcing them to defend the most unpopular American Presidency since Nixon/Agnew.
This is one of those odd instances when doing the right thing in accordance with the rule of law and doing somethinng politically advantageous converge. Truly, politics makes strange bedfellows.
Some will call this beginning step too limited, and while I agree, I can envision an expanded investigation that leads higher and higher up the Bush/Cheney chain of command as more and more evidence builds up.
Further, I see the plan to get low level CIA operatives to implicate their superiors, which itself will snowball farther up the line. This is how, if I am correct, most RICO cases are built in order to prosecute organized crime. The irony is quite delicious.
Politically, this will allow President Obama to play good cop to AG Holder's bad cop, as Obama reiterates the independance of the AG's office, which is as it should be before that office was politicized by the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate Administration.
But, the fact is that Cheney's fingerprints are all over this scandal and these crimes, and it is very much in the political interests of the Democratic party to be able to drag Bush/Cheney's crimes into the spotlight, all while claiming the desire to "look forward"
This will force voters to choose between the Democratic party or another version of Bush/Cheney's Republican party, which, in my opinion, the GOP today is still to this day.
So, the GOP will cry, lie, twist the truth, demonize, play the victim, call it a witch hunt, call us fascists, whatever. It is nothing we haven't seen before, so we should not be surprised.
But they are scared, very scared, and for good reason.
If they were not afraid, that would be a reason for concern.
But they are not. Already the Right Wing Noise Machine is on the defensive. That is great for us, as Democrats and as believers in the Rule of Law, but it doesn't mean our job is done. Not by a long shot.
You can contact Attorney General Eric Holder and demand Full Accountability that goes all the way to the top, and Bush/Cheney here
BY MAIL
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
BY PHONE:
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
Office of the Attorney General - 202-353-1555
U.S. DOJ FAX number for AG Holder
FAX: (202) 307-4613
BY E-MAIL
E-Mail the Attorney Generals Office at AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Disclaimer: THIS E-MAIL ACCOUNT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SERVICE OF OFFICIAL, CASE-RELATED OR LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND IS NOT MONITORED FOR SUCH SUBMISSIONS OR FOR OTHER TIME-SENSITIVE COMMUNICATIONS. E-mails with attachments will be deleted because they may contain viruses.
Now the ball is rolling. Let's hope it rolls the Bush/Cheney torture architects, from bottom to top, along with the rest of the Republican party, off into oblivion and towards a place where justice awaits them, and where justice in America can be fully restored.
And while we are hoping, be sure to continue to Yell Louder.
Justice depends on it.
Crossposted at progressiveelectorate.com, docudharma.com and antemedius.com