So the Obama Administration is like a "banana Republic with tinted sun glasses according to that great sage Dick Cheney. As he and other on the far right continue to try to rewrite history and obscure the crimes of the Bush?Cheney Administration more and more of their criminal doings come to light. However, President Obama's reluctance to prosecute or even investigate puts his Administration at risk for being war criminals and accesories after the fact. How can you convict GI's following orders from the Defense Secretary and lable them a "few bad apples" when their commanders sanctified their activity, and then apply a seperate standard to CIA contractors and place them above prosecution? These and more questions are addressed after the fold.
Cross Posted from Idealthoughts
Dick Cheney apparently does not relish the obscurity he help build for himself. He is all over the news calling everything President Obama does a national security disasterwhile defending the Bush/Cheney approach to solving world crisises. That was either them or bomb the hell out of them. His remarks are to even draw the scorn of fellow Republicans which wish he would fade back into his fortress of obscurity. He soon may wish otherwise, and try to retreat back into his fortress, but hopefully he will be getting his just deserts.
Recently President Obama released the long sought after Bush
torture memos. Since then he has faced a barrage</span> of criticism from the right wing for aiding the enemy, even though most of the salient details were already known by al Quaeda. Cheney has been especially critical and now it seems we all know why. Rather then trying to extract that next "ticking time bomb" of information, it seems excessive torture was used for political goals. We have heard the semantic arguments from defenders of torture who would have you believe "it can't be torture because we didn't do this or that." Well kiddies their final argument is BS, Cheney wanted an
alleged link to Sadam Hussien and al-Quaedato help bolster his excuse to engage in an illegal war. That's right, not to gain information on the next eminent attack on the United States and her citizens, but to aide Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush Regime cover for invading Iraq, which had
nothing to do with 9/11 in the first place.
Furthermore of concern, my friend in Canada Mentarch indicates that torture may have been used on children!Is this what we as a nation came to? I didn't and I demand that an investigation begin immediately. Leave it to Keith Olbermann tonight to bring up many salient points so far over looked in these reports, and I will bring up another he completely overlooked. Remember when Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense testified before Congress over the Abu-Ghraib torture scandal? Did he not tell Congress "he didn't know about this" until it basically was reported in the press? Funny that now this has been exposed as a lie in this report by Carl Levine.Rumsfeld himself signed off on the use of torture as early as August, 2002! Didn't know? Keith Olbermann had Janet Karpinshion tonight. You remember her, the Brigadier General in charge of Abu Ghraib who was hung out to dry by Rumsfeld et al. She has said before, and said again tonight that the orders for the torture of those prisoners came from much higher up the chain of command, but in a salient remark noted that Obama does not want to prosecute those CIA members who engaged in torture? What about those lonely GI's that followed orders of CIA contractors and engaged in this torture and are now serving time for this with a loss of all their military careers? If President Obama does not want to allow prosecution of CIA personnel for following orders signed off on by DOJ attorneys, how the hell do you convict these GI's of doing what the Secretary of Defense signed off on along with those DOJattorneys?
I am not forgiving of these actions by either the GI's or CIA. They tortured, in violation of both U.S. laws and international laws, so they are subject to whatever criminal prosecution comes their way. Their was no patriotic calling in their actions. By their actions they became no better then the criminals that behead Daniel Pearle and others after torturing them. As noted by many of the talking heads tonight, President Obama has lost control of this issue, and damnit he should have foreseen this. If he didn't he is not that bright, smart politician we all voted for. President Obama, screw your so called "rainbow coalition" you wish to reach across the isle to form. If Republicans don't want this bit of dirty laundry aired who should care? This is the call of many career criminals during the sentencing portion of their trials. On top of this you promised a transparent open government, yet by protecting the Bush cabal you hide the truth, and although you have a lovely smile, you will not improve this nations standing in the eyes of the rest of the world. Political leaders unlike voters have long memories, and this will always be laid on our door step until we openly, honestly, deal with it. Remember Nuremberg, you cannot make a separate set of rules for us.
Just today Rove, Arlen Specture and Dick Cheney implied the Obama Administration was acting like a Central American banana Republic with tinted sun glasses" for pursuing these crimes any further. Yet again today the news is our National Security Advisor, Condelesa Rice, and Vice President Dick Cheney signed offon these tortures as early as July, 2002, prior to the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel's memos allowing such procedures. In all the books I read and movies I saw, it was those tinted sun glass dictators of South and Central America who were torturing. Yet just this past week, Peru convicted it's former President Fujimori of human rights violations including torture. Whose the banana Republic here? President Obama they tell me you are a brilliant Constitutional scholar and attorney. Your lack of enthusiasm to prosecute criminals makes me think you were asleep in Criminal Law 101. You should know that with all your knowledge of secrets including those declassified that failure to act makes you a war criminal too, and in the eyes of American law, an accessory after the fact. Appoint a Special Prosecutor now!