Anyone who thinks they have all the Answers before they've even heard the Question - is Dangerously Deluded! Real Truth Requires Vigilance, Perseverance and Courage, regardless of Party and who wields Power. Left, Right, Center, Corporations, Government, Unions, Criminals or the Indifferent.
in a move that just might make all of Obama's attempts to sweep the Bush-Era torture under the rug irrelvant, freshly minted Attorney General Holder appears to still seriously be considering the investigation of Torture and War Crimes via a Special Prosecutor.
But the Obama administration is not off the hook. Though administration officials declared that CIA interrogators who followed Justice's legal guidance on torture would not be prosecuted, that does not mean the inquiries are over. Senior Justice Department lawyers and other advisers, who declined to be identified discussing a sensitive subject, say Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has discussed naming a senior prosecutor or outside counsel to review whether CIA interrogators exceeded legal boundaries--and whether Bush administration officials broke the law by giving the CIA permission to torture in the first place. Some Justice officials are deeply troubled by reports of detainee treatment and believe they may suggest criminal misconduct, these sources say. Even if prosecutions prove too difficult to bring, an outside counsel's report could be made public. For his part, Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is still pushing for a "truth commission." In a democracy, the wheels of justice grind on--and the president, for good reason under the rule of law, does not have the power to stop them.
Yet again the simply truth that the President may run the Country - but the Attorney General runs the Justice Department and for the most part - they are and should be independent of each other.
In fact, this may be one of the best ways to address this issue - rather than having anything to do with partisanship, "payback" or retribution - it may in all truth simply be about "Justice". Contrary to the other diary which posits this as some kind of "game", this may exactly the way this case needs to go forward and leave Obama's own hands clean in this investigation and avoid a partisan bloodbath that would derail his agenda for the next three years.
As is discussed by Isikoff in the case of Jane Harmon, the mixing of politics and prosecutions is a highly volatile combination.
Sen. Leahy has run into a complete and total Stonewall with Senate Republicans and is so-far unwilling to persue a "Truth Commission" as a completely partisan event, meanwhile in the House Conyers has already called for a Special Prosecutor.
Holder taking the reins and assigning an independent investigator to get at the truth, no matter who or what it costs is exactly what we need. The DOJ is independent and should STAY independent of policy decisions made at the White House.
Vyan
Update Obama appears now to be backing AG Holder, a point which makes yesterdays discussion of whether or not Obama was violating the UN Convention against torture by blocking an investigation somewhat moot. What I said then was that it was inappropriate for the President to stop the AG from doing his job and that was exactly what appeared to be happening as Rahm Emmanuel and Robert Gibbs both promised "No Prosecutions".
Today seems to be a new day. With Holder learning toward investigations - NOW it would be wrong (and maybe or maybe not illegal) for the President to attempt to squash this. Maybe this was the "Plan" all along - but then again, maybe he heard the footsteps of history drawing close... hard to tell.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Tuesday the United States lost "our moral bearings" with gruesome terror-suspect interrogations and left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who vouched for their legality.
At the same time, Obama said the question of whether to bring charges "is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that." The president discussed the continuing issue of terrorism-era interrogation tactics with reporters as he finished an Oval Office meeting with visiting King Abdullah of Jordan.
Update 3 Watching the Gibb Press conference, there's clearly quite a bit of confusion as to what was said by Rahm yesterday and what the President has said today. I think some of that is cleared up by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Rachel.
The OPR review of the OLC memos is still ongoing and not complete. There had been some noise made that the final report would recommend disbarment of Yoo, Bybee and Bradbury.
The real question in my mind, isn't really the memos themselves but Why they were written and whether the purpose and content was specifically manipulated by people in the White House (Gonzales, Addington) to Cover-Up a Crime already in progress.
Also Cheney is loudly claiming that it was inappropriate that Obama released the OLC memos (Never mind the Court Order that requested them), while not releasing other memos that showed the "Good information" we received from them. Except that the CIA says Cheney claim that he requested the Proof of Effectiveness Memos was never received.
Let me just say again, that those Memos of post-torture claims are useless unless the information was Confirmed as Credible by the FBI, which so far they haven't been. And even if it were - it all would still be a War Crime.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers quietly released the final draft of an extensive report he first unveiled in January documenting the Bush administration’s “unreviewable war powers” and the possible crimes committed in implementing those policies.
In order to determine whether Bush officials broke laws, Conyers has recommended that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor to launch a criminal inquiry to investigate, among other things, whether “enhanced interrogation techniques” used against alleged terrorist detainees violated international and federal laws against torture.
It's about TIME!
Following the dismal failure of the Leahy Truth Commission simply because Republicans insisted on covering their ears and eyes to the truth we now - finally - have a congressional call for the Special Prosecutor.
We know now that several high ranking Generals lied to Congress about their knowledge of torture taking place at Gitmo.
On the question of whether the was or wasn't actual torture taking place, that has been settled by the International Red Cross.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.
BTW the organization which makes the determination under Geneva as to whether torture has occures - happens to be the International Red Cross.
We have always known - or should have - that the UN Convention Against Torture (signed by Ronald Reagan) leaves NO EXCUSES for the use of use of torture. None.
No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.M
Excepted from the Conyers Report.
The Bush Administration’s approach to power is, at its core, little more than a restatement of Mr. Nixon’s famous rationalization of presidential misdeeds: “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.” Under this view, laws that forbid torturing or degrading prisoners cannot constrain the president because, if the president ordered such acts as Commander in Chief, “that means it’s not illegal.” Under this view, it is not the courts that decide the reach of the law – it is the president – and neither the judiciary nor Congress can constrain him. And where statutory law or the Constitution itself appear to impose obstacles to presidential whim, creative counselors can be relied upon to reach whatever result the president desires.
This dismissive approach to our system of checks and balances was exemplified when the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, David Addington, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on June 26, 2008. As much as any individual in the Bush Administration, David Addington is considered the architect of the concept of unchecked and unreviewable presidential powers known as the “unitary executive” (in a New Yorker profile, a former Pentagon attorney, Richard Schiffrin, said that he left one meeting with Mr. Addington with the impression that he “doesn’t believe there should be co-equal branches”). Yet when I questioned Mr. Addington about the unitary executive theory of government during our Judiciary Committee hearing, he responded, “I frankly, don’t know what you mean by unitary theory of government.”
It's understandable that some in congress, and even President Obama may be reluctant to repeat the Clinton Snipe Hunts of the 90's with something that appears to be a nothing more than "criminalizing policy differences" - but this is far more than just a differences, it really genuinely IS a War Crime and should be handled as such.
Hopefully this will only be the start of the heat turning up on this issue.
Vyan
Update: 6:36 pm: For those who are skeptical of Conyers ability to accomplish this - please remember that HJC has reached a deal to receive sworn depositions from Rove and Harriet Miers in the DOJ Firing Case. The Bolton subpeona is still making it's way through the courts, but it hasn't "gone away" by a long shot.
Click below to sign the Petition on Democrats.com to support a Special Prosecutor for BushCo.
Attorney General Eric Holder's recent comments have generated a firestorm of reaction - particularly in this now famous exchange between Pat Buchannan and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson.
In this both Buchanan and the host attempt to dictate the terms in which Holder should have been speaking. He can't talk about Racial problems without first attacking the black community for it's own problems, as if those problems exist in complete isolation and just appeared magically on their own in no relation to anything else in America. Dr Dyson attempted to respond amid technical problems.
But what has any of this got to do with what Holder was actually talking about?
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must - and will - lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest President. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.
He is not addressing Black on Black Crime here, and there is no law or requirement - despite what Buchanan believes - that any discussion of race must begin as Black people taking a huge mea culpa as Bill Cosby has recently done, partcularly when he's not just talking about black people and white people.
He is not addressing White Guilt.
He doesn't say here, the it's all White people's Fault or Responsibility - he's simply pointing out that we DON'T SERIOUSLY TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS, certainly not without getting into finger pointing and defensiveness, which is exactly what happened on Hardball.
His point was, that we continue - 50 years after Brown v Board of Ed. - to voluntarily segregate ourselves.
As a nation we have done a pretty good job in melding the races in the workplace. We work with one another, lunch together and, when the event is at the workplace during work hours or shortly thereafter, we socialize with one another fairly well, irrespective of race. And yet even this interaction operates within certain limitations. We know, by "American instinct" and by learned behavior, that certain subjects are off limits and that to explore them risks, at best embarrassment, and, at worst, the questioning of one’s character. And outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak in that there is almost no significant interaction between us. On Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some fifty years ago. This is truly sad. Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race conscious and yet is voluntarily socially segregated.
He didn't specifically say here whether he was speaking about white people or black people - because he was speaking to BOTH!
Let me take a second to paraphrase at least from my own perspective
White People : DO NOT BE AFRAID to speak your mind. Even if you think you might be accused of bigotry, it's better to get it out there and let it be addressed and responded to. Doing so takes Courage as well as trust.
Black people : Don't just LIVE IN YOUR OWN WORLD, get out and mingle. Not just as a way to advance your career and finances, but just to see what everyone else is really about and what they're truly like. Doing so takes Courage, to take the risk that some of your worries and fears about residual racism and covert bigotry might be true - and they might not!.
This is test they we have to take each and everyday, with each and every person - One At A Time - that is where we have been cowards.
In this I speak from personal experience, I'm a black musician who is a fan and performer of Hard Rock Music - and trust me, there are NOT a lot of other black people out their voluntarily getting involved in what many people perceive as "White Culture", particularly Rock. (I know rock isn't "White" Music, but that really is the perception) It takes courage to go out amongst people you have almost nothing in common with and take the risk of facing ridicule and ostrazation for being different - particularly when you are in the vast minority. Just like with anti-trust situations, the Majority always has an advantage even if they don't always recognize it - and that's freedom from fear!.
Eric's point and he was absolutely correct is that outside of work or school we all retreated from each other, into our own comfort zones, into generalities or into statistics as Buchanan has done.
As Pat says, the numbers tell us that young Black men are Seven Times more Violent and Criminal than young White men.
# Lifetime chances of a person going to prison are higher for
-- men (11.3%) than for women (1.8%) -- blacks (18.6%) and Hispanics (10%) than for whites (3.4%)
# Based on current rates of first incarceration, an estimated 32% of black males will enter State or Federal prison during their lifetime, compared to 17% of Hispanic males and 5.9% of white males.
The funny part is the Pat is getting it wrong. (Update:: In fact, most of his numbers came right out of his ass particularly the bit about 45% of black crime being against whites. The FBI Uniform Crime Report doesn't include cross-racial incidents unless it's Murder or a Hate Crime - which is just another name for Domestic Terrorism - and black people are proportionally BY FAR on the receiving end of both... but I digress)
18.6% divided by 3.4% is not 7 - it's only 5.47 to 1, not 7 to 1. (Even if Pat is exaggerating, that's still a significant difference)
But what does that mean really, because if you use the same figures for men and women you get a ratio of 6.2 to 1 - so should Men be more like Women in their criminality as Pat suggests Black's should be more like Whites? Should we walk around in constant fear of men? Should we bash them to "straighten out their act!?"
The thing is, this the per capita number of people who've are likely to be arrested, convicted and imprisoned - not necessarily the accurate number of criminals. The thing that Pat leaves out, is that fact that Law Enforcement continues to specifically Target Black people (believing as does Pat, that they are more likely to be "criminals" is an act of Cowardice!)
The numbers, in general, say one thing: It's takes a personal act of Courage to find out if the generalization is true on a case by case, individual by individual basis.
America has been lacking in that courage.
Pat also ignores the gross disparity in sentencing laws which send black defendants to jail for as much as 100 Times for essentially the same crime, so in many ways we aren't talking about more criminals - we're talking about people being held in prison much, much longer.
Few people have been able to accurately quantify the impact on both profiling and sentencing disparities, but simple logic tells you that if you acknowledge either these factors the simplistic "Blacks are Seven Times more Criminal" argument doesn't pass the smell test.
Let's just go on to point out that it's pretty hard to hold down a job when you've been in prison. It's pretty hard to keep a family together when you can't keep a job. Yes, Black people have a disproportionate number of out-of-wedlock birth's, maybe that's because so many black women have had to learned - the hard way - that their man may not being around all the time, voluntarily or not. Maybe a lot of Black men, knowing the figures and the odds as they are so often drilled into our heads - have for so long simply given up all hope!
"Hope" can be folly of fools when all reality tells you something completely different. Maybe the acendency of Barack Obama to the Presidency will rekindle that "Hope", maybe it will "Keep Hope Alive" and maybe not. We'll see - it's only been a month.
Now, the mistake that black people (and others) make is automatically assuming that anyone who brings up these problems with criminality or other issues - has to be a Racist as has been thrown quite a bit at Pat lately.
That isn't necessarily the case.
Well, ok, it might be the case for Pat and maybe some of the people at the New York Post who can't even apologize without insulting people again - but there are a lot of other people who look at these figures, they look at the poverty, the alcoholism, drug addiction rates and go "Why should I care about these people if they don't care about themselves?"
It's a legitimate question, and deserves a legitimate answer beyond simply saying "White People Did It To US!" (Well ok, maybe some of them did but those white people are largely gone - what about the people that are here now?)
Sometimes white people just honestly don't understand where black people are coming from with all this (i think legitimate) anger and angst over these GENERATIONAL problems, and we (black people, if you forgot, I'm one of y'all) need to give them an honest chance to let their frustrations out. They're tired of being BLAMED for everything that's wrong in Black America. We have to understand that, we have to have the Courage to trust that simply dealing with that guilt doesn't make someone a "Closet Racist" (They have to ACT on it for that!)
It's not all their fault.
Really, it's not. And the finger-pointing contest is not helping.
Many white people, and frankly most immigrants don't see what Black people's problem is. "Just get over it! My parents/grand-parents had to suffer too" Why can't you just be like us!?. Well the simple answer to that is something that Dr. Dyson was trying to say - but was cut-off by the technical problems. Black people didn't just decide to have seperate schools, and seperate colleges and seperate churches and seperate music and a seperate distinct and unique culture - THEY HAD TO! Everything they did have as Africans, was taken from them by Force - their language, their families and culture. All gone. All destroyed.
Take a second and really think about that.
Now, imagine several dozen generations - literally it has been 400 years since Virginia instituted Race-Based Slavery - and realize we've had a completely seperate a parallel nation going for that entire time. And now, many of you, just want us to just Chuck it all!? simply because that's pretty much what most immigrants do, tamped down their native culture in order to fit more comfortably into the melting pot?
Yeah, but what if 80-90% of your culture - CAME FROM AMERICA? Fact is: We already are Americans. We're supposed to have Freedom Of choice. Think about what's really being asked here when people suggest Black people's real problem - is that they Act Too Black!
If you or your family has immigrated from somewhere else voluntarily, you've already volunteered to join the existing American cultural structure - you already made that choice. Black people didn't. Demanding them to do that now is nothing short of Culture-cide. It's despicable.
But again, this isn't about blame, it's about the future.
Yes, Black people have suffered through both Slavery, Jim Crow and segregation. I'm old enough that is has touch me in my lifetime, some younger people not so much - but they've know there parents did and as most parent do - they tend to pass on down. Everyone needs to understand that this multi-generational trauma does have a lasting impact even today. When you apply pressure to any object it reacts in one of two ways, either it collapses or it explodes into action. Like a leak in a dam or a firehose, the kind of pressure that Jim Crow applied on Black people drove many of them forward to achieve - to excel as did the the Buffalo Soldiers, the Tuskegee Airmen, Benjamin Carver and hundreds of other Black inventors, athletes, musicians and artists from Jackie Robinson, Little Richard, Ray Charles to Jimi Hendrix and yes, even Bill Cosby.
These people burst forward, but not everyone is capable of that. Not Everyone can or will react that way. Many of us were crushed by the experience emotionality, spiritually and mentally and we've continue to pass that on to our children, and to their children. That's not caused by "racism", that's just inertia - like a perpetual motion engine of self-destruction.
It's therefore not that surprising that the cultural artists and musicians who originally inspired us to find alternatives to urban despair have now become immersed in it themselves. We went from Afrika Bambatta and Grand Master Flash giving us "The Message" to T.I., Left Eye (Burning down the House!), the Esst/West Rap Wars and embarassment of R. Kelly and Michael Jackson.
We don't need White people to tear us down anymore, we learned a long time ago to exactly how to do it to ourselves. We do need to face that and change it.
Black culture - as separate as it has been by necessity - has included both the light and the dark, the destroyed and the super-energized. It's going to take more than a single generation to reconcile it's two distinct, and often internally feuding, halves.
Also it's too simple to say either that "White People Made Us this Way" or that "Black people need to clean up their own house".
We made this mess together. America did it. Not just White America, not just Black America - AMERICA! We need to address urban crime, we also need to address profiling and serious sentencing problems. We need to address the meaning of modern day "blackness" and what it means to be An American (Terrorist Fist Bump? Stokeley Carmichael in a Dress?!) and we need to not let our History become an albatross, clouding our future in perpetual guilt, shame and blame.
The way out of it is together. With Courage. Eric Holder knows this - we should try a little harder to listen:
As a nation we should use Black History month as a means to deal with this continuing problem. By creating what will admittedly be, at first, artificial opportunities to engage one another we can hasten the day when the dream of individual, character based, acceptance can actually be realized. To respect one another we must have a basic understanding of one another. And so we should use events such as this to not only learn more about the facts of black history but also to learn more about each other. This will be, at first, a process that is both awkward and painful but the rewards are potentially great. The alternative is to allow to continue the polite, restrained mixing that now passes as meaningful interaction but that accomplishes little. Imagine if you will situations where people- regardless of their skin color- could confront racial issues freely and without fear. The potential of this country, that is becoming increasingly diverse, would be greatly enhanced. I fear however, that we are taking steps that, rather than advancing us as a nation are actually dividing us even further. We still speak too much of "them" and not "us". There can, for instance, be very legitimate debate about the question of affirmative action. This debate can, and should, be nuanced, principled and spirited. But the conversation that we now engage in as a nation on this and other racial subjects is too often simplistic and left to those on the extremes who are not hesitant to use these issues to advance nothing more than their own, narrow self interest.
LOOK at what he's saying here - LOOK - it's not about "Us vs Them" - it's not going to be simple or easy, the process may be "akward and painful" (Ya got that right bruthah!)- but we can't afford to turn away and retreat into neutral (seperate and still unequal) corners.
We have to engage each other, not just when we circumstances and proximity force us, but because we want to - we need to.
Vyan
You, love you're "kind" so much And try to pretend, they're all so grand But if you were to travel back "home" Would they kick your ass Back to this "this land"?
...
Gonna take all I can get now For the best life (just) Haven't found it yet
(Chorus) Refugee Refugee (You're) Nothing but a Refugee in Paradise
From all indications even after being out at various inaugural balls until after 1 a.m., newly sworn in President Obama was hard at work on his first day in office.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.
Obama also signed an executive order establishing strict ethics regarding all Administration personnel, banning them from lobbying after leaving their posts, accepting gifts, and freezing the pay of those making over $100,000 (including himself)
Talk about "Taking One for the Team". Following the cease-fire instituted by Isreal in Gaza just prior to his inaugural, President Obama phoned the leaders of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian authority to begin the peace process. He also selected Senator George Mitchell - who helped end the conflict in Northern Ireland with the Belfast Accords - as a special envoy to the middle-east.
Anyone who can solve the problems in Northern Ireland and get the IRA to disarm, can provide a great deal of help for Gaza.
Obama also signed an Executive Order to expedite the processing of Presidential Records and FOIA requests, like those that ACLU has used to under hundreds of cases of Torture. This of course, has already sent the Right-Wing into a Panic. Particularly Rush Limbaugh who has already declared "I hope Obama fails".
LIMBAUGH: What I’m afraid of is that what Obama did with this executive order is actually make it easier for the media to go get Bush documents. Because you know Pelosi and some of the guys over in congress are talking about war crimes trials and charges and so forth. […]
What I’m afraid of is what Obama’s done here is made the gathering of the information for this kind of stuff– This is not American. This is not America. This is not what America does. We don’t– This is Banana Republic kind of stuff.
Not so much for the "renewing" is he?
Elsewhere under the "not exactly Reconciled" column the nitwits on Fox News doubted that Obama actually is the President because Chief Justice John Roberts misread the oath of Office during the Inauguration.
Chris Wallace is the Fox brain donor who actually asked President Clinton why he didn't do anything about the U.S.S. Cole bombing? (Answer: Because the CIA and FBI couldn't agree on who did it! You wouldn't want an American President to use half-baked information and go attack the wrong people would ya, Chris? That would've Sucked!!! I'm so glad that didn't happen, whew..)
The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
You get that Chris?
After a one day delay caused by Sen John Cornyn of Texas, Hillary Clinton was confirmed by the Senate, sworn in as Secretary of State and is now on the job.
Senator Cornyn also managed to stall the confirmation of Attorney General Eric Holder in an effort to get Holder to commit to NOT prosecuting former Bush Officials for War Crimes.
“It could well be there will be a request to delay the markup for a week so those questions can be asked and answered,” Cornyn said. “Part of my concern relates to his statements at the hearing with regard to torture and what his intentions are toward our intelligence personnel who were operating in good faith based on their understanding of what the law was.”
Well, Senator if I remember the Nuremberg Trials correctly "I was just following orders" really wasn't an adequate defense. No one is required to carry out an illegal or immoral order. On Bush's watch more than 40 detainees died in custody as a result of abuse during interrogation.
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions.
""There is no question that U.S. interrogations have resulted in deaths"" said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. ""High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable. America must stop putting its head in the sand and deal with the torture scandal that has rocked our military.""
That's 40 War Crimes, all punishable by DEATH, resulting from techniques specifically authorized by George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.
Meanwhile Senator Carl Levin feels that Holder should appoint a Special Prosecutor to look into these issues.
LEVIN: We’re going to try to complete this investigation, at least on the DoD side, Ok. But on the intelligence, the CIA side, that’s going to be up to the Intelligence Committe. I know I suggested to Eric Holder, who will be the next Attorney General despite the delay that took place today, that he select some people or hire an outside person whose got real credibility, perhaps a retired federal judge, to take all the available information, and there’s reams of it.
Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias (who had been mysteriously fired by the Bush Administration for reason no one could explain even under oath) has been chosen to handle Gitmo Prosecutions.
Obama Orders the closure of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, he also signed an order requiring all interrogations to follow the Army Field manual (which prohibits torture), setup an task force to determine the dispensation of current detainees.
Yet another bold step away from the long national nightmare that was the Bush era.
Meanwhile in Texas, the still unemployed former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales shed a tear, while his fellow Bushian former FEMA director Joe llbaugh lamented on how the former President - was just so misunderstood.
Yeah, I guess we all just don't understand how we lost $2.5 Trillion Dollars, 5 Million Jobs and 10,000 American Lives (from 9-11, Katrina and Iraq) on George Bush's watch. We should all really be thankfull...
Justice Has Returned to America with just three simple words - Waterboarding Is Torture!
HOLDER: If you look at the history of the use of that technique, used by the Khmer Rouge, used in the Inquisition, used by the Japanese and prosecuted by us as war crimes. We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam. I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, waterboarding is torture.
Just for the sake of contrast, lets look at how Holder's predecessor answered that same question.
During confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) asked whether Mukasey agreed with the US government’s top military lawyers, who have stated that interrogation techniques such as "waterboarding" (mock drowning), the use of dogs, painful stress positions, and mock executions all violate the humane treatment requirements of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Mukasey replied that the military lawyers’ opinions, while relevant for conflicts "in the past," carry less weight when dealing with "unlawful combatants" today. He then went on to suggest that the humane treatment standards of Common Article 3 do not apply to interrogations of "unlawful combatants."
Hopeless Tool says What?
And what about the "rule of law" and complying with the lawful persuit of truth? For Mukasey - not so much.
Today, Attorney General Michael Mukasey "rejected referring the House’s contempt citations against two of President Bush’s top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey says they committed no crime." Mukasey claimed that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers "were right" to ignore Congress’s subpoenas in the U.S. attorney scandal.
Yeah, because it makes perfect sense for the President to claim executive priveledge on a matter he supposed had nothing to do with in the first place. yeah, Right.
But now with our first real look at new AG Nominee Eric Holder - we have our first glimps that the days of General Road Block may finally be gone.
Not that this is something that that the wingers are going to fully understand.
Even after Holder's unequivocal rejection of torture techniques such as waterboarding and the concept of "Commander-in-Chief" authority to override the law, the constitution and our existing treaties - One Senator just didn't quite understand, the concept of "No, Mean, NO!" seemed lost on him. Now, who could that have been?
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) could not fathom that an Attorney General would reject a practice that both is unlawful and endangers Americans. He tried to get Holder to back off his anti-torture stance by presenting an absurd “ticking time bomb” hypothetical in which thousands of American lives are at stake. “You would still refuse to condone aggressive interrogation techniques?” Cornyn asked. When Holder replied that waterboarding is not the only interrogation method, Cornyn insisted, “Assume that it was”:
HOLDER: I think your hypothetical assumes a premise that I’m not willing to concede.
CORNYN: I know you don’t like my hypothetical.
HOLDER: No, the hypothetical’s fine; the premise that underlies it I’m not willing to accept, and that is that waterboarding is the only way that I could get that information from those people.
CORNYN: Assume that it was.
HOLDER: [Laughs] Given the knowledge that I have about other techniques and what I’ve heard from retired admirals and generals and FBI agents, there are other ways in a timely fashion that you can get information out of people that is accurate and will produce useable intelligence. And so it’s hard for me to accept or to answer your hypothetical without accepting your premise. And in fact, I don’t think I can do that.
A few minutes later, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) identified where Cornyn most likely thought up his torture-is-the-only-option scenario: “I understand Senator Cornyn’s questions. They are questions that anyone who watches Jack Bauer on ‘24′ would ask.”
At long last Jack Bauer's Evil Uncle Ernie is no longer going to be running our Justice Department. It's about freaking time.
