GOP Senate Committee?
Nothing really new in the New York Times article today entitled, "Report Outlines Medical Workers' Role in Torture"…..
Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” a long-secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded.
…..Facilitating such practices, which the Red Cross described as torture, was a violation of medical ethics even if the medical workers’ intentions had been to prevent death or permanent injury, the report said. But it found that the medical professionals’ role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had “condoned and participated in ill treatment.”
According to Dick Cheney, ever a welcome, respected and deeply honored guest of Establishment Media, President Obama's closing of Gitmo and his rejection of torture, thus ending any medical worker's complicity in such crimes, will make America "less safe." Sometimes I wonder whether The Dickster contracted a brain-cell eating virus down in his dark undisclosed location all those years.
Americans have learned bits and pieces of the horrors of the Bush-Cheney criminal regime…..thanks to a few courageous writers in the midst of an ocean of co-conspiratorial KneePad Media. But the entire ugly saga…..which I followed microscopically from 2002 until our national reprieve in 2009…..has yet to be laid out in all it's Satanic Majesty.
Maybe it never will be.
Aided by the ever-helpful Rubber Stamp Republicans in Congress, as well as the Knee Padders from Corporate-Whores-R-Us Media, George and Dick were able to carry out their extensive crime wave, mostly in secrecy, while Americans only heard flattering stories about an oh-so-resolute Leader, the "Commander Guy war president", who spoke of "mushroom clouds", "dirty bombs", "with us or against us" and how "freedom was on the march".
The question of whether Americans will ever be permitted to learn how dastardly the last administration really was…..has surfaced in the last couple of days….
Senate Republicans are now privately threatening to derail the confirmation of key Obama administration nominees for top legal positions by linking the votes to suppressing critical torture memos from the Bush era.
Reread that sentence to capture it's essence.
Even though the executive branch criminals have left the White House, it seems that Congressional co-conspirators are still having a hard time kicking the criminal habit. The GOP, the no bullsh*t party, the political party of the clear and decisive "up or down" vote (when they're in power)…..is not only refusing a straight "up or down" vote on a number of Obama nominees……..but also blackmailing the President to prevent it.
In effect, Congressional Republican Senators (all 41 of them), have a gun to the heads of Dawn Johnsen and Harold Koh, both Obama nominees…..and are planning to pull the trigger if Obama dares to release the now-infamous "torture memoes."
Senate Republicans are planning to “go nuclear” over the nominations of Dawn Johnsen as chief of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh as State Department legal counsel if the torture documents are made public.
A Republican Senate source confirms the strategy. It now appears that Republicans are seeking an Obama commitment to safeguard the Bush administration’s darkest secrets in exchange for letting these nominations go forward.
Here's what still-criminal Senate GOP'ers don't want Americans to find out about……
On April 2, the Justice Department was expected to make public a set of four memoranda prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel, long sought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy organizations in a pending FOIA litigation. The memos, authored by then-administration officials and now University of California law professor John Yoo, federal appellate judge Jay Bybee and former Justice Department lawyer Stephen Bradbury, apparently grant authority for the brutal treatment of prisoners, including waterboarding, isolated confinement in coffin-like containers, and “head smacking.”
The "coffin-like containers" is especially a nice touch, don't you think? The most creative new torture technique, the one I'm the most fond of, is harnassing your detainee around the neck with a towel and then twirling him around slamming him into walls. Now, that's some torture leadership we can believe in, huh?
It was bad enough, nearly unbearable really, to wade through the criminal sludge of the last administration……but we did it. The last 8 years felt like 20, they moved so slowly. But do we really have to continue to endure the Zombie Dead-ender Republican Gang's ongoing blackmail coverup?
Do we?
Senate Republicans are obstructing justice, as they try to protect the Decider and his Dick from prosecution, and at the same time, they are blackmailing President Obama.
It's painfully obvious…..America needs a Special Prosecutor.
Also…..this is a tremendous read on the subject.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Why would Obama bow to such a silly 'blackmailing' scheme? If the memos are damning releasing them would do nothing but give him more power over the evil repubs.
And is appearing in the 'Daily Beast' really what you call 'surfacing'?
Why would Obama bow to such a silly 'blackmailing' scheme? If the memos are damning releasing them would do nothing but give him more power over the evil repubs.
And is appearing in the 'Daily Beast' without any cited sources really what you call 'surfacing'?
If you are going to talk about mafia style politics I think it would be best to consult with Rham "Dead Fish" Emanuel first…you know just to be fair and balanced.
Blogs are ahead of the main media. I thought you knew that.
I think Obama knows the divisions that will follow the truth being released about Bush-Cheney.
Obama is making some rather big mistakes in the states secret area….he's simply Bush warmed over. So we'll have to see what happens.
And…..there's no question that Democrats know how to practice lowdown politics. But not to the level of blackmailing a president if he doesn't participate in the GOP obstructionistic cover-up of what everyone knows were crimes.
Rev thanks for Obama's Chicaga class pic. He looks like he's lost some weight since then.
You are right. We do need a special prosecutor. One to fully investigate our senate and and all of the crooks in washington including Obama and his band of facists. This crew makes Gotti's crew look like boy scouts and Bush and Cheney like amateurs.
Joe Biden is quiet just like Cheney was, I wander what deals he's cooking up for us.
I noticed something about the NY Times piece. It was entirely "Based on statements by 14 prisoners who belonged to Al Qaeda." The Reverend left that out. Must have been an unintentional oversight.
There isn't any chance that Al Qaeda would exaggerate things, is there ? I mean, they'd be completely honest about their treatment by the Great Satan, right ? After all, they are such wonderful examples of humanity.
The statements were based on Red Cross interviews of each of the 14 detainees.
There would be no need for detainees to exaggerate….the "we torture" cat got out of the bag a long time ago.
America's lowest moment.
"no need for detainees to exaggerate."
Right. You, of all people, should be familiar with the value of propaganda.
And how would the detainees know if the torture cat was out of the bag or not ? They're in Gitmo, isolated. Then again, maybe their lawyers told them what to say to get their cases dropped.
"America's lowest moment."
Actually, America's lowest moment was slavery. Second lowest was maybe FDR's internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. But you can go ahead and weep for the post-9/11 treatment of 14 of the sorriest excuses for human beings to come down the pike. I don't lose any sleep over it. I'm more concerned with the treatment of the innocent.
There were some fairly low moments in the Civil War too, Reverend.
And didn't the Brits burning Washington D.C. at one point during the War of 1812?
Or how about the large number of lynchings during reconstruction and afterwards.
Sept. 11, 2001 was a low point too, I think.
And when Lincoln was shot. And Kennedy. And MLK.
Kent State.
I think I could go on all day with lower moments. Are you always so inaccurate?
larry d.,
The reason Obama will bow to the GOP's blackmail is that he needs these people confirmed in order to achieve his agenda and that he is not going to go after Bush and Cheney anyway.
Mr. Christopher,
Yeah, Emmanuel is a loathsome bastard. As a founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, he has helped align the Democratic party to the same moneyed class as the Republicans. He walks in the same swamp as the Republicans.
Mr. Avg joe5,
Ya gotta be kidding.
Mr. King,
I wonder how the NYTimes determined that these prisoners belonged to Al Qaeda. At least some of the prisoners at Gitmo were sold to the CIA for bounty. Yet you are willing to assume that these 14 are not only liars and criminals, but "the sorriest excuses for human beings". Why? Because the government said so. Some libertarian.
I agree that slavery was the worst of sins that our government has allowed. But it predated our government, was not forbidden by law or ethics
of the rest of the world, and did not violate our Constitution. The shame is that it took 90 years to rid ourselves of this crime. FDR's internment of Japanese and other nationalities, while a terrible wrong, had some basis of fact. Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese emperor had spies in this country.
The decision to torture prisoners has no parallel nor excuse. A tortured prisoner will say whatever is necessary to stop the torture. Therefore, there are only two reasons to torture, sadism, and to obtain information that agrees with preconceived beliefs of the torturer for use as propaganda.
Rev,
Thanks for pointing out this extortion. The GOP and many Democrats seem comfortable as accesories before, during, and after the crime of torture.
frank,
The Bush administration sorted out the Gitmo detainees for years. That's why the number of inmates dropped from around 750 to around 200. Bush already released the ones they didn't have substantial evidence against. Those 14 are DEFINITELY Al Qaeda. In fact, those 14 are proud of it. They wear it like a badge of honor.
I'm surprised you partially excused FDR's internment of the Japanese by saying there were spies in this country. That seems inconsistent with your other views. Al Qaeda has spies in this country too. All the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were in this country on 9/11. Whether you agree with the interrogation methods of the Bush administration or not, there was a national security reason for them.
Thanks frank.
To others here…..America has had it's share of "low moments". No question.
However, I can't think of anything worse than LEGALIZING, PRACTICING and DEFENDING torture. That's what happened over the past 7 years, whether opponents disagree, or not. That is what happened and King agrees with that, saying clearly that, "there was a national security reason for" torture.
Interning the Japanese was terrible, ditto the Vietnam crime, and yes, Kent State…….lots of shameful stuff…..but the mainstreaming of torture by American leaders? That's a whole different level of terrible. That's institutionalizing terrible.
Mr. King,
I didn't mean to excuse the internment of the Japanese. But I do understand it. What I don't understand is how one can think that a technique that is known to produce worthless or misleading information, put our own troops at greater danger, renders the subject unprosecutable, serves as an enemy recruitment incentive, removes our moral standing, and makes our nation a criminal enterprise has any place in our national security apparatus.