Pundit Country

Good news: It looks like Attorney General Eric Holder’s DOJ has largely cleared them of wrongdoing in the legal ground work that established a torture regime by Bush officials.

Bad news: Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon is proceeding with his investigation of illegal methods of interrogation used by the U.S. military on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. If you remember, Garzon was the judge who used Spain’s ‘universal jurisdiction‘ statute to prosecute Argentina’s former ruler, Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity. If I were the Bush crew, I would plan my foreign travel very carefully for the next few years.

Of all the articles I’ve read about the torture issue and the prospect of investigating and prosecuting those responsible, i don’t think I’ve ever thought of going over to a legal sight to see what the thoughts were there.

Steve Shepard, though, has been writing on the issue and doing it in well reasoned layman’s language. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also right. he hits the nail on the head in regard to Cheney’s admonition that investigating a prior administration in a purely partisan thing to do:

The answer is that when other scandals arose, the administrations involved – and the Congress that was then in session – did not wait for the next administration. They investigated allegations and prosecuted their malefactors themselves. From Abraham Lincoln’s dismissal of Simon Cameron, to Ulysses Grant and the Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872 or the Whiskey Ring of 1875, to the Veterans Bureau scandal of 1923, to the IRS scandal of the 1950s, allegations of wrongdoing were taken seriously by both the Congress and the President serving in the administration that was in office when the allegations were made. In these and many other cases, there was no need for the later administration to investigate, because, as with Watergate, the investigation was either already concluded or in full swing when the next administration took office.

True, not all claims of illegal official conduct are investigated. Yet the serious crimes that become known to the public often are. Only if one administration refuses to start an investigation, must its successor do so. So it is not the Obama administration’s action, but the second Bush administration’s omission, that should be the focus of criticism here.

It’s a great and short little piece and you can read it here.

Related articles

• Cheney vs. Obama: CIA Abuse Probe ‘Political’ (abcnews.go.com)
• Countdown: Jeremy Scahill on Why There Need to Be Prosecutions from Top to Bottom for Torture (videocafe.crooksandliars.com)
• Cheney: Torturers Can Do No Wrong (emptywheel.firedoglake.com)

Both Obama and Bush, when confronted with the horrors of what the CIA and Cheney did to enemy combatants and detainees are repeatedly said that the United States does not torture. Obama’s statement, while hinting that we did in fact torture, never quite goes far enough. He like Clinton facing the Rwanda genocide refused to call what happened by it proper name because the U.S. would be bound to actually do something about it. And that’s the problem.

Until President Obama takes hos oath of office seriously on this matter cannot legitimately say that the U.S. doesn’t torture. he can only say that we don’t do it currently. We haven’t put an end to it. We’ve only put the action on hold until another president decides that it’s again part of the American arsenal. That is why prosecutions are so vitally important. Crime not punished is crime that is not deterred.

Related articles

• Dick Cheney Thinks Examining War Crimes Is The Same As Playing Politics [Waterboard This!] (jezebel.com)
• Dick Cheney Says Harsh Interrogations Kept U.S. Safe From Terror (usnews.com)
• The Washington Post’s Support For Torture, Ctd (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

(h/t The Daily Dish)

“[I]f you genuinely believe in the rule of law, you can’t invoke political expediency as a guide to whether possible crimes should be investigated and prosecuted. And the fact that the Attorney-General has decided to go forward should be seen as very positive sign, because it shows that he is willing to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities even if it is politically inconvenient for the president who appointed him. I have no doubt that the president would prefer to “look forward,” because an investigation and/or prosecution will drive both the CIA and the right-wing media types crazy and because he’s got enough alligators to wrestle with already. But he also promised us that he would end the politicization of the Department of Justice that his predecessor practiced, and Holder’s decision, however inconvenient for Obama, is a reassuring sign that there is still life in the U.S. Constitution,”

- Stephen Walt.

Related articles

• AG Holder Appoints CIA Abuse Investigator (mydd.com)
• Leon Panetta Should Be Fired (delawarewatch.blogspot.com)
• Obama to Let Holder Decide on C.I.A. Investigations (nytimes.com)

Scott Horton of Harper’s Magazine has a short and sweet summary of the CIA documents released just days ago in relation to the CIA-led and Cheney -backed torture program. I still haven’t had the chance to read them, but his summary of it is damning. Particularly this:

The worst is yet to come. Yesterday the CIA released a fresh copy of the report with roughly half of the “case study” discussion now unmasked. But context and placement suggest that the material that remains concealed contains some of the worst discussion of abuse in the report. The heavy redactions start around page 25, and the redactions cover discussion of the origins of the program and the approval process, as well as the discussion of specific prisoners, notably Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. Although cases in which the guidelines provided by the Justice Department were exceeded have been discussed, it’s likely the case that the still blacked-out passages cover instances where Justice gave a green light but the conduct was so gruesome that CIA wants to keep it under wraps. That means we haven’t heard the last of the Helgerson report, and further disclosures are likely.

The more this info gets out to the public, the more demands will increase for Cheney, Yoo, Bybee and the rest to face trial; for their actions. I increasingly doubt the public will get it, but it’s going to be impressive to see how they get around it. They all deserve to go to prison for thr remainder of their lives for what they did in America’s name.

Related articles

• New Report on C.I.A. Prisoner Abuse (nytimes.com)
• Newsweek: C.I.A. Report On Torture To Be Released Next Week (videocafe.crooksandliars.com)
• Did CIA interrogators stage mock executions and brandish a gun and a drill to frighten detainees into giving up information? (althouse.blogspot.com)