I've been frustrated with President Obama's resistance to investigate and prosecute the numerous war crimes and disgraceful violations of national and international law by the Bush/Cheney administration. Obama's "looking forward" justification for this resistance, however, is akin to looking straight ahead after running over a person in the street. Wouldn't want to "look back"…..simply too messy.
There's no question now that Obama is pro-actively working to protect the Bush/Cheney criminal syndicate from any and all accountability. If Obama's administration continues down this path, and there's no reason to think otherwise, then Obama, himself, will be complicit in the obstruction of justice coverup of the Bush/Cheney crimewave.
Even though it doesn't matter……I understand why Obama is willing to be a co-conspirator with the criminal Bushies. If Obama didn't actively block the release of all the devastating evidence of Bush/Cheney crimes….the public outrage over the sum total of the Bush administration's illegal behavior would undoubtedly lead to a national call for a thorough investigation, and eventual prosecution, of all the co-conspirators.
If you think I'm overstating the case…..spend some time over at Glenn Greenwald's blog site to grasp the full depravity of a lawless American regime.
The evidence against Bush and Cheney is simply overwhelming.
A Watergate-style investigation of the Bushies' blatantly illegal actions would, as they say, suck all the national oxygen out of the Obama agenda. If the rule of law were followed and a full investigation initiated, without doubt, the nation would be riveted by the mountain of criminal evidence revealed daily on our teevee screens and in our newpapers. Obama's first term would be eclipsed and defined by the shocking revelations of criminality by the past administration.
I'm sympathetic to Obama….to a point. Movement conservatism, with the assistance of corporate Democrats, over the past 30 years has led to national catastrophies everywhere we turn. Health care, banking, jobs, energy, climate change, our international stature…..all of the "can't wait to be addressed" issues would have to take a backseat, if the rule of law concerning Bush/Cheney was respected and honored.
In other words….justice is being sacrificed for the sake of a president's political agenda. That isn't change. That's exactly what our country experienced over the last 8 years.
The more that Obama's team covers-up for Bush/Cheney….the more that Obama obstructs and ignores the rule of law pertaining to the Bush/Cheney administration…..the more Obama's administration will become just like the lawless one that preceded him.
It's already beginning to happen.
Take for one example this testimony yesterday by Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder…..
Holder is so frightened by the implications of calling something that was so obviously illegal what it was…..the widespread, illegal, Bush-era wiretapping of American citizens without judicial warrants or FISA Court approval…..he can't even muster enough courage to use the word, illegal….even though he did so before he became the AG.
Obama's Justice Department, much like Bush's Justice Department, is dishonoring the rule of law and eroding it's own credibility, all for the sake of a political agenda that would be delayed, or diminished by doing what is right.
Take yet another example of the rot that is starting to form on the Obama administration. Rather than expose the crimes done in secret by the previous administration, and there are many…..Obama's administration is expanding executive branch secrecy.
Yes, Obama released the OLC torture memos, but not because he wanted to be transparent. He was compelled by a judge to release them. On every other transparency situation, from detainee abuse to warrantless wiretapping, Obama has sought to block the release of incriminating-to-Bush information.
The release of detainee abuse photographs was blocked by Obama with the excuse that military commanders told him it would endanger our troops. Sounds identical to Bush. Not to be confused with openness or transparency, something touted loudly and repeatedly while Obama campaigned.
If basic principles are compromised, in this case government transparency, it leads directly and quickly to stuff like this…
Pentagon wavers on release of report on Afghan attack
WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials are debating whether to ignore an earlier promise and squelch the release of an investigation into a U.S. airstrike last month, out of fear that its findings would further enrage the Afghan public, Pentagon officials told McClatchy Monday.
……Pentagon leaders are divided about whether releasing the report would reflect a renewed push for openness and transparency about civilian casualties or whether it would only fan Afghan outrage and become a Taliban recruiting tool just as Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Never mind that the existence of a couple hundred thousand U.S. military personnel and dozens of U.S military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are an ongoing recruitment tool for the Taliban and are daily fanning Afghan outrage…..never mind all that….now, even releasing a Pentagon report of military wrongdoing must be kept secret.
Maybe every American media source should be restricted from reporting on the fact that we even have troops inside Iraq and Afghanistan….you know, that revealed fact might fan the flames of Muslim and Arab outrage and be used as a recruitment tool by al-Qaida and the Taliban. I mean, is our military really inside those countries if no one knows about it?
America voted for change. Sadly, what we are getting is more of the same.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad to see you are finally realizing that "hope and change" is smoke and mirrors. However I thought that Guantanamo and waterboarding were the biggest terrorist recruitment enhancers. Now you're saying the presence of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are enhancing the recruitment. Which is it?
I thought George Bush's fake Texas drawl was the biggest recruitment tool for terrorists.
We'd still be fighting WWII if we had to play by the "rules" of today. Remember war is war and hell is hell and war is worse. If I was Obama I wouldn't want to review what Bush/Cheney did either, after all the differences between the two parties today is so minute whatever he has investigated is something he's sure to do himself in the next 4 years.
It seems that Steve thinks America is ruled by a King. Perhaps we are.
Rev, there were no war crimes. That trial was held on the internet with 10,000 conspiracy websites and youtube videos working as judge and jury. It was also held by the left media like Olberman and Maddow who continue make money off of ratings held up by people that believe these conspiracies. And fueled by snide remarks by Obama and Pelosi They are just as bad as Nancy Grace and her child kidnapping, rape and murder conspiracies that have no end. It's all about the money and advertisers.
Without an investigation, and there won't be one, I will continue to insist that there were, indeed, war crimes. As I said, the evidence is overwhelming.
No conspiracy theories, no tinfoil hats…..just mountains of evidence all pointing in the same direction….Bush/Cheney were war criminals and traitors to their country.
Yes, media will continue to make money doing whatever it is that they are doing…..but that has nothing to do with the mountain of evidence I mentioned. That clear and persuasive evidence is undeniable.
Rev ,you are right there won't be one. Otherwise Dodd and Frank wouldn't be holding court against the banks and there would be an investigation into why they lied to Bush about the condition of F&F and why congress let the economy collapse after the Dems took over. The guys on the hill live by different rules. Obama is learning this.
Warrantless wiretapping is legal.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/16/nation/na-wiretap16
If you want to put Bush in jail for it, Obama's gonna have to go with him.
Obama didn't have to release the OLC memos. He's the President. He could have classified them. He didn't. There will be more coming out about the Bush administration shortly, because Obama's policies are being questioned more and more. He will dribble out info to keep the political focus off of himself. There is NO other consideration from team Obama.
If you're correct, and I'm not saying you are….then we can all scratch the 4th amendment from our copies of the Bill of Rights. We probably have too many rights anyway.
I was listening to an expert last night that was talking about enhanced interogation techniques and how important they were after 911. Millions of lives were saved. Our laws and rights are interpreted between the parties and the politicians and the lawyers like religion has interpreted the Bible. Nothing is set in stone and everything is up for interpretion. Were the taps illegal? It depends on which conspiracy website you look at. Or which witch hunter you are following or who your favorite politician is in Washington.
After reading Joes comments about Olberman and Maddow making money off of their ratings I was curious. I hear O'Reilly bloviating about how his (and FOx in general) ratings blow the other cable news shows away. So I searched the Nielsen ratings and O'Reilly is right, its not even close. So Joe I'm assuming that means there aren't a whole lot of people believing the conspiracy theories. I can't stand watching him for very long but I will give O'Reilly credit, he does have opposing views (even if he does talk over them) on his show. Olberman is boring just because it is everyone that thinks the same way, like a little love fest. Maybe we can resurrect the Whig party, then we'd have a real choice come election time. Or as my dad used to say "Government is fine, as long as you keep the politics out of it".
average….we are either a nation of laws….or men. FISA laws prohibited what Bush did. Existing national laws plus the Geneva and Torture Conventions prohibited torture, including the tactics ordered by Bush. He knew that….and that's why he and Cheney tried to keep it all secret.
That's the starting point……the law as it existed when the deeds were carried out. Everything else is simply self-justification for violating those laws.
If Bush, or anyone for that matter, wants to order things contrary to existing law, then new laws must be passed through our Constitutional system.
If all that is not true….then….we are nothing but another two-bit totalitarian dictatorship.
Wow!
Way to do your research Reverend!
When Reagan agreed to the U.N. Convention against Torutre most of all the articles were agreed to as "non-self executing."
"The United States ratified CAT, subject to certain declarations, reservations, and understandings, including that the treaty was not self-executing and required implementing legislation to be enforced by U.S. courts."
Question:
When were the proper articles pertaining to torture outside the borders of the United States against non-nation enemy combatants ceased on the field of battle implemented into United States Legislation?
Answer:
Well after the actual so-called torture actually was imlemented by an American.
So in fact, NO, The Bush Administration did not commit War Crimes, nor did his admistration break any United States Civil/Criminal Law.
How long is that straw have to be to keep drinking that Kool-Aid, with your head stuck so deep in the sand?
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/101750.pdf
Wow, way to avoid what you want to avoid acknowledging.
As you well know and probably won't ever admit, Ronald Reagan's Justice Department prosecuted, convicted and sentenced a U.S. sheriff to 10 years in prison for waterboarding a prisoner. Waterboarding was considered cruel and unusal by the Reagan administration. Now, you can argue that those rules don't apply to Gitmo detainees, but all that does is skirt the issue, just like Bush did until the Supremes bitchslapped him back into Constitutional reality with their habeas ruling.
And you can parse the Torture Convention wording as well. But the intent of Reagan's signing of that Convention can't be parsed, and that intent was to join other nations in declaring that the U.S. would not endorse or practice torture AND would prosecute those countries that did.
Clearly, the cruelty practiced on Gitmo detainees is torture. No objective person would conclude otherwise…..and that's why Bush/Cheney sought to keep it all secret and cover their asses retroactively by instructing Yoo and the other OLC lackeys to "legalize" the illegal.
When it comes to Kool-aid drinking……Jim Jones, much like neo-cons of today, called for complete trust in him…..even trust that was obviously contrary to common sense and reality. That describes the behavior and foolish cul-de-sac justifications of torture apologists…..but, sorry, it doesn't apply to me, I'll stick with empirical evidence and reality.
Your attempt to split hairs is akin to straining for that knat while swallowing a camel.
Was the sheriff's prisoner a U.S. citizen?
Yep.
No Reverend,
Nobody is saying that Waterboarding isn't torture. Only three detainees were Waterboarded, and the Department of Defense and the CIA claims that very valuable information was gained.
Your Bush Derangement Syndrome is preventing you from understanding that none of what is happending nor, none of what has happend can be tied to the Bush Administration, as far breaking a law.
You could care less about the torture issue, you just want Bush's head on a stick, and you probably don't even know why.