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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"If, as Obama so casually admits-'we tortured some folks'-then we have to prosecute some folks too"
..............."If, as President Obama so casually admits, 'we tortured some folks,' then we have to prosecute some folks, too." We can all come up with good excuses for why we haven't prosecuted anyone. But, we're still obligated to do it. I'm glad that the New York Times will no longer equivocate and prevaricate when it comes to calling torture "torture," but their unwillingness to take a stand was nothing compared to our government being unwilling to take a stand. Looking back, it didn't even buy President Obama any good will. At best, it prevented a war with the Intelligence Community that no sensible president would welcome. But being afraid, however sensibly, is not a legal excuse for allowing violations of the law to go unpunished.
The "landscape" may have "shifted" under the feet of the New York Times, but it will surely shift under the current administration once posterity goes to work. Future generations will not give a single shit why it might have made some sense not to prosecute people in the middle of one of biggest financial collapses in our country's history, nor will they care about Obama's rhetoric about bringing the country together rather than tearing it apart. All they will want to know is why we allowed people to torture folks and get away with it.
more:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/8/9/232026/0769
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/03/1318195/-The-law-President-Obama-did-not-faithfully-execute
In February 2010, Scott Horton pointed out that the while legal action against members of the Bush torture team would be an extremely difficult task, in this case the prosecutors would have one major piece of evidence in their favor:
http://harpers.org/blog/2010/02/does-dick-cheney-want-to-be-prosecuted/
To be sure, Bush and Cheney proudly owned up to their roles in creating the regime of detainee torture they described as "enhanced interrogation techniques:"
"I'd do it again to save lives," he added.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Back in February 2010, Dick Cheney bragged to ABC's Jonathan Karl, using almost the exact same terms:
In that same ABC interview, Cheney explained why he was daring Attorney General Eric Holder to either charge him or, through inaction, essentially bless a torture program conducted by the United States of America:
(It is worth noting that former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice came up with a defense worthy of Richard Nixon. As she explained to a group of her angry students at Stanford University, "The United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture, and so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.")
As a horrified Horton responded in amazement:
MUCH MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/03/1318195/-The-law-President-Obama-did-not-faithfully-execute
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Some days I'm ashamed to be an American.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)when we threw them all out of office, starting with investigations which would have brought witnesses, victims of the torture to the public consciousness. Many Americans don't know we were that evil because it has all been kept so quiet.
Investigations would have changed that, the corporate media would have had no choice BUT to cover the prosecution of elected officials and their underlings for TORTURE.
Moving forward from war crimes, hasn't placated the war criminals in terms of this President, they now have the arrogance to BLAME HIM for their crimes. That should have been expected.
AND we should have allowed the other countries, Spain eg, to go ahead with their torture prosecutions of Bush's gang, instead we actually intervened and pressured them not to do it.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Marr
(20,317 posts)Look Forward©.
johnnyreb
(915 posts)Overseas
(12,121 posts)KG
(28,753 posts)leftstreet
(36,117 posts)ColesCountyDem
(6,943 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)There are plenty of worms in that can and some of them have (D) behind their names.
neverforget
(9,437 posts)Guaranteed.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Did they think they were in an episode of Dallas? FFS!!!!!!
Octafish
(55,745 posts)slipslidingaway
(21,210 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,458 posts)people who enabled, legalized and promoted torture...er maybe he didn't?
Thanks for the thread, kpete.
JEB
(4,748 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)You are just making Obama look bad.
Where are the Obama defenders? Am I the first and only? Yeeeeha!!
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The PTB told Americans to go ____ themselves. We did it, didn't we?