Andrew Sullivan: Bush Administration Officials Will Be 'Indicted For War Crimes'

Media coverage of the disclosure of the "torture memo" authored by Bush Justice Department official John C. Yoo has been mostly a deafening silence. But on this morning's Chris Matthews' show, someone finally fired a shot. As we mentioned in this morning's liveblog, credit goes to The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, for taking the opportunity to ensure that this matter got out into the televised discourse somehow.

SULLIVAN: The latest revelations on the torture front show the memo from John Yoo...means that Don Rumsfeld, David Addington and John Yoo should not leave the United States any time soon. They will be, at some point, indicted for war crimes.

[WATCH.]

The moment came during a segment on Matthews' show where the panel is invited to "tell him something he doesn't know," though this might be more accurately termed, "something he doesn't know he should talk about." Matthews is hardly alone. Via Sullivan, we are directed to the blog of Glenn Greenwald:

Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:

"Yoo and torture" - 102

"Mukasey and 9/11" -- 73

"Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 16

"Obama and bowling" -- 1,043

"Obama and Wright" -- More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)

"Obama and patriotism" - 1,607

"Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 1,079

I'd also like to quote Greenwald at length here:

Every day, it becomes more difficult to blame George Bush, Dick Cheney and comrades for their seven years (and counting) of crimes, corruption and destruction of our political values. Think about it this way: if you were a high government official and watched as -- all in a couple of weeks time -- it is revealed, right out in the open, that you suspended the Fourth Amendment, authorized torture, proclaimed yourself empowered to break the law, and sent the nation's top law enforcement officer to lie blatantly about how and why the 9/11 attacks happened so that you could acquire still more unchecked spying power and get rid of lawsuits that would expose what you did, and the political press in this country basically ignored all of that and blathered on about Obama's bowling score and how he eats chocolate, wouldn't you also conclude that you could do anything you want, without limits, and know there will be no consequences? What would be the incentive to stop doing all of that?

He couldn't be more right, I'm afraid.

Comments

[burnt]

04:47 PM on 04/10/2008

Although I agree with most of the sentiment about the abuses of power and violations of international agreements relating to torture, I also believe that there needs to be more focus on the inception of the covert policy. By the time CheneyOilCo got their meaty little hands around "extraordinary rendition", escalated and expanded the practice, the CIA had been practicing torture by proxy for 5 years. Presidential directive "PDD 39" was devised and signed by Bill Clinton in 1995... allowing circumvention of the US ratified United Nations Convention Against Torture.

As Senator Hillary Clinton so vocally and "convincingly" assures the American electorate that those same years are the basis of her vast and superior "experience", I would have to assume that she was also involved with the decision. It might behoove an enterprising reporter/blogger to ask the Clinton Campaign about her current position on snatch and torture flights... rendition to foreign countries (or US bases on foreign soil) for "interrogation" and elimination of any semblance of due process... and ask if she supported the decision in 1995.

alienated in Seattle

[CarlyCorday]

03:45 PM on 04/10/2008

The press is Public Enemy Numero Uno, guilty of treason. Television has ONE honest old-time journalist (Olbermann) and it is meaningless to have just one--it causes the "one" to be looked upon as nothing but an "answer" to the well-paid propagandists at Faux News, a guy merely giving his opinions. (And then Olbermann is forced to feed us Britney news, and American Idol, for "good measure," so we don't "mistake" him for a real journalist.)

The public as a whole isn't reading NEWSWEEK from cover to cover, so television IS the cuplrit here. And their response is that we should be getting our news from a VARIETY of sources. Well, people don't do that. They get it from TV. Some not even that. The talking heads on TV have the ball, it is ALL riding on them, and they (especially CNN, with their Cheney-agreeing scud stud Michael Ware and all the rest), are international corporate tools, working for our enemy, knowingly and willingly killing us.

Our "enemy is not "in iraq"! He's right in front of you.

(Hi, Tweety! *wave* Thanks for being so fair toward the Republican viewpoint on your show! Even though they are the extreme minority, already getting their way in everything, while the rest of us LIVE with their dictates, thaaaanks! You sage, salty, fasinating American journalistic figure yoooo...! Read my finger Chris. And stop spitting on me when you talk.)

[Barbarossa03]

01:06 PM on 04/10/2008

This will probably the reason that the Bush Administration needs to call Marshall Law.

[uvymopkq]

11:51 AM on 04/10/2008

From his radical stance on abortion to his prominence in the corruption scandals that has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media, Barack Obama is not fit to be Senator -- not to mention the next President of the United States.
Obama has declared his presidential intentions, but it is up to well-informed and energetic conservatives like you to spare our nation from the scourge of a far-left President Barack H. Obama.

[Neoconstant]

12:26 PM on 04/10/2008

uvymopkq - you've been posting this same stupid comment on every story on HuffPo, haven't you? I'll challenge you (or anyone else) again to name more than one scandal that BO has been involved in? Come on, name anything besides Rezko! Do you know about Keating 5? About how McCain dumped his first wife & mother of his children at age 45 for a hot, young 25 year old and then "borrowed" from her trust fund to finance his first run for office? Apparently you know very little & only visit here to antagonize BO supporters. Don't worry - soon you'll have 4-8 years to do so b/c BO and the ObamaNation aren't going anywhere...

[CarlyCorday]

03:52 PM on 04/10/2008

You must be mistaken. I know personally that HuffPo monitors almost all comments before allowing them to appear. This kind of folderol would not get past such strict scrutiny.

[Wulfstan]

02:12 PM on 04/10/2008

Yes, Barack Obama is a COMMUNIST. He will nationalize Exxon so that its profits will accrue for the benefit of every American. No more $400 million retirement packages for cronies., thank you.He will also introduce legislation to give MEDICARE for ALL Americans. He will have his Attorney General indict Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice for WAR CRIMES. And Michael Moore will be made Surgeon General.

[sa]

08:19 AM on 04/10/2008

i'm pretty certain bushco
has already effectively nuetered the hague
with the recent ruling about mexico
from the supreme court.

it was trotted out as about
mexicans in u.s.
and their rights against the death penalty,
but all thinking sorts knew it to be
a pre-emtive strike against future war crimes tribunals.
the u.s. could disregard the hague -
it was on the books.

justice is blind in america,
but now it is mute as well.

johnny got his gun.

[whatsmyname]

02:19 PM on 04/10/2008

SA (sa) Thank you for that as it is much more profound than many might realize.... And, yes, when he went after and succeeded in castrating "torts" it further helped his future "dealings." Salute you

[noamjunior]

12:38 AM on 04/10/2008

I wish- but it ain't gunna happen
This is sullivan's biggest blunder since he postulated that conservatives had souls

[querencia]

08:59 PM on 04/09/2008

The argument that other officials have committed war crimes and so therefore it is ok or not worse that current officials are committing them is just soooo wrong.

[ScooterLiddy]

05:53 PM on 04/09/2008

Mother Jones has a handy chain of command guide for the coming War Crime Tribunals.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/03/abu-ghraib-chain-of-command.html

[EbonBear]

04:36 PM on 04/09/2008

I am very, very slowly gaining some respect for Sullivan. He's not there yet but he seems to be gradually waking up. Of course, he'll have a lot to make up for when he does come around but if he's willing to try, I'm willing to give him a chance.

[JRR]

04:22 PM on 04/09/2008

Oh, in case that was a little too sarcastic, I am calling you a bunch of tools for thinking that anybody was outed in the first place. Covert agents do not have their spouses write about CIA sponsored missions in the damn paper. I'm pretty sure that rule number one of being a covert agent is "don't have your spouse write about his/her secret missions in the Washington Post" or something similar to that.

[HeironymousJosch]

04:32 PM on 04/09/2008

Valerie Plame-Wilson WAS outed as retribution for Joe Wilson blowing the whistle about the Bush administration's fabrication of evidence to keep the war drums beating. Nothing is a coincidence. Why was Valerie outed (which she was, there was a trial, not sure if you knew that) immediately following her husbands damning Op Ed then? Can't wait to see what you come up with tiger.

[JRR]

06:32 PM on 04/09/2008

Because the article outed her. She outed herself. People, I dont kow what fantasy land you live in, but if you are a secret CIA agent, that means your spouse can not go around telling people he was working for the CIA, especially not in a major op-ed article. Wow, why is that so hard for you numbnuts to understand?

[BHWolf]

05:55 PM on 04/09/2008

And I quote "In fact, pretty much nobody on this webstie has the slightest fuclking clue what they are talking about" You are correct obviously you practice what you preach!

[monty]

03:37 PM on 04/09/2008

How nice that Andrew Sullivan is just starting to see the corruption and criminality we've all been talking about since, oh, 2000. Because before now, Sullivan actually supported these a-holes and their policies to invade Iraq. Too little, too late Andrew.

[ScooterLiddy]

05:50 PM on 04/09/2008

Sullivan has been off the Bush bus since 2004. He voted for Kerry.

[Neoconstant]

12:30 PM on 04/10/2008

Way to go - ditch the party after you've helped set the house on fire. No forgiveness - disenfranchise all Bush 2000 supporters!

[kickbass]

01:11 PM on 04/10/2008

He is still hopelessly naive. When push came to shove on Iraq he totally blew it. I can't see why anyone cares one bit about what he thinks.

Check out this appearance on Real Time (other appearaces are just as bad or worse):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQUEcPuwl9c

Re McCain being qualified to be president:
"Quite remarkably so..." Ugh.
Re al Qaeda being overemphasized by Bush people and in the media:
"It is so complicated, so we should cut them some slack." (paraphrase)

He has nothing useful to say; it's all platitudinous bs.
Idiot.

[TheLar]

02:17 PM on 04/09/2008

I really hope it happens. I'm not optimistic but hopeful. Why, my hope is almost audacious.

[msmaggie]

01:38 PM on 04/09/2008

The lack of intellectual discipline on display here is astonishing. When did wishing make anything so??? Shit, I'm still waiting for Kissinger to be put on trial. Use your head.

[JRR]

04:19 PM on 04/09/2008

Wow, who opened the "common sense" door and let the reality dog in? huss hussh little Huff Po readers, go back to sleep and drift off into that little fantasy land where super secret squirrel CIA agents send their Ambassador husbands on super secret missions and then have them write about it in a major news paper only to be "outed" by an evil cabal, the outing having nothing to do with writing about your super duper secret CIA mission in the freaking Washington Post of course.

That's right, back to sleep now...dream...dream.....

God, I love these Huff Po wackanutjobs.

[EbonBear]

04:31 PM on 04/09/2008

Very good!
Except that...
1) She DIDN'T send her husband. Her job and his being picked were totally unrelated.
2) The CIA themselves confirmed she was a covert agent.
3) Wilson wrote about his own mission which wasn't secret and said nothing about his wife.
4) Everyone knew she existed, they didn't know she was working for the CIA.
5) Libby was convicted in a court of law for obstructing a legal investigation into the outing of Plame.

Yes, I know. "activist judges", "bias", "conspiracy theory".

Gods, I love the rightwingers ability to edit reality to their whims.

[BlueStateMan]

04:42 PM on 04/09/2008

Why is it that neocon troglodytes feel that they've made a point more salient simply by repeating the LIES ad nauseam?

[J E Mugford]

12:45 PM on 04/09/2008

OK, so the US invaded a country because the leader was thoroughly disliked, he tortured people, he invaded other countries, he used "national security" as an excuse to partake in unlawful activities and he used trickery to stay in power......Maybe we should invade ourselves cause that sounds an awful lot like our current administration.

Before we are trusted again, this country must hold Bush, Chaney and others accountable for their numerous crimes. It must be done in public and with aggressive prosecution. Further no pardons should be given. Once we accomplish the prosecution and incarceration of these people, the world will begin to take us seriously again.

[jimmshorts]

01:30 PM on 04/09/2008

Back in 2002 the arguments posed against Saddam to build public annoyance and outrage (with some success internationally) appear to parallel years of Bush administration actions. Further he's rading our coffers not unlike Marie Antoinette adorned a luxurious lifestyle while citizens generally went cold and hungry.

http://www.impeachbush.org/

[john85msy]

10:24 AM on 04/09/2008

Impeach Now!