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

Story continues below

advertisement

"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

[GerryS]

It will never happen. Nancy Pelosi and crew do not have the cajones to do diddly squat. They are as guilty of treason and war crimes as the GWB crew! All lying cheating scum

[BPCentrisAmerican]

It will take a special prosecutor like Ken Star with a limitless budget, and prosecution power, for them to be tried at all, than it would be best to do it after the Mayberry Mafia leaves office. I have as little confidence in the current AG as the last 2 ideological Bush loyalists. Evan if they could get a conviction Bush will pardon them. The Libby trial was a classic example of what ideologues these people really are, Libby already knew that he would never serve a day of his sentence, when he purged himself to protect Cheney. What did hurt Libby and something Bush has no control over is that the dam bunch of them are disbarred. It would be difficult for Berkeley to rationalize JohnYoo, as a tenured constitutional law professor with disbarment hanging over his head. I’ve watch Yoo get booed at the LA Book festival, he is completely unapologetic for his role subverting the only document that unites Americans from such diverse ethic backgrounds and faiths, the fact is his profits from it.

The Final Solution was not planned by blood thirsty thugs, on the contrary the legal mines who rationalized the industrialized murder of 11 million people, were highly educated, in many ways brilliant idealist, coolly detached enablers of a radical political agenda.

[Boobaloo]

One can only hope.

If there is any justice in this world, Bush/Chene­y/Condi/Ru­msfeld/Abr­ams/Cherto­ff and about two dozen other treasonous, ZioNeoCons will get to share a cell block in the Hague.

Hope springs eternal.

[meanguy]

'one can only hope'...'hope srings eternal'...i have another quote for you... "dream on, dream on, dream on, dream until your dream comes true'...no matter what you and i feel SHOULD happen, the fact remains that there is ZERO chance that war crimes indictments WILL happen...instead of chasing rainbows, channel the energy into something that CAN happen

[esquire07]

No they will not Andrew. They will all be pardoned and get away with everything. Its all about profit. War crimes, lies and dead US troops ? Who really cares, not the politicians - most of them have their hand in the pot.

Expect many more US troops to die for Oil and Arms profits, and expect the Bush administration to continue with their lies and crimes - just the way it is. The Constitution is dead.

[MaryinMontcoPA]

Note that Andrew said they should not LEAVE the United States...

He's saying that OTHER COUNTRIES will arrest and try them for war crimes. No American President -- even the megalomaniac Cheney/Bush -- can pardon THAT.

If our "representatives" don't do it first -- impeach before January 20, or indict after January 20 -- it is actually possible that the international community SOMEplace will do it in spite of such moral bankruptcy in America.

It would be great if there were that much justice on this planet.

By the way, the professional epidemiologists who published in Britain's The Lancet that easily 600,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in our war and occupation, predominantly by US air strikes. And that was a few years ago! It could easily be 1 million by now, out of an Iraqi population that used to number 25 million. 1 in 25 Iraqi's killed. If the equivalent percent of some 250 million Americans were killed, we would have suffered 10,000,000 killed Americans. That's more than THREE THOUSAND times our 9/11 losses.

[nurseattorney]

Sullivan wasn't talking about IMPEACHMENT or any kind of US charges against the three he named. He's talking international law, and the Hague, and he's probably correct. If any of these three were to show up a country that supports the International Tribunal, they could be arrested and charged for war crimes. Not even Herr Bush can pardon them.

[Moshe]

If we do not vindicate the Rule of Law by prosecuting such blantant, contemptious violations of the law, the Rule of Law quickly collapses.

Those that knowingly broke U.S. and international laws through the practice of torture, kidnapping, and other war crimes, must be punished, no exceptions, no excuses.

That is the only way to send a clear message to the World, that the U.S. is once again a Nation acting under the Rule of Law.

[GenXer]

True

[londubh]

I would be surprised if that happens, but it sure would be nice.

[Spidersweb]

Bush bought property in Paraguay to run and hide from the indictment or will give himself a presidential pardon upon leaving office.

Cheney will join his a-hole buds, Haliburton, in Dubai where there is not an extradition treaty.

Rumsfield should croak before anything haappens or will join Cheney. Or, turn states evidence.

Poor Colin Powell, who has trying to avoid an invasion of Iraq, capitulated to the powers-that-be and did his dog and pony show at the UN. Alas, he is in the freezer.

All of the other neo-cons will be new cons. Hang 'em all and send them to where Hitler and Mussolini reside.

[ashabot]

Don't forget Bush and Cheney. They are also war criminals. Time to clean house.

[DELICIOUS]

THERE ARE 289 MILLION PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DAY THE COWARDS AND CORRUPT BU$H ADMINISTRATION IS PUT ON TRIAL. THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE STREETS, MUSICE PLAYING LOUDLY AND WHOOPS OF JOY WILL ECHO FROM THE MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS ACROSS THE USA!

[Nonamnesiac]

Sullivan is wrong. Torture is not a war crime when sanctioned and committed by Ameicans. Just ask Congress. Intentionally lying the American people into a cowardly war, making treaties without ratification, sanctioning illegal wiretaps of citizens, denial of habeas corpus, intentionally giving huge no-bid contracts to corrupt cronies are not high crimes and misdemeanors according to Congress, so how could American officials have commited war crimes?

The only way Americans oficials can commit war crimes is when we agree we have committed them, regardless of how many are killed and maimed by our actions.

[marthamay]

Ha, now you believe this kook!! Neva gonna happen.

[iamFrank]

Jason,
FEAR MEDIA is all that you will get on your TV’s. (Freedom of Speech) HA, how about freedom of the truth! The Media industry is forcing us to view only their themed agenda. Not one them has an original though left in their heads because the so called Media can not report the news or do not have the balls to do so. (Where are the Ed’s, the Walter’s and Dan’s? They were as brave and fearless as our troops, reporting what was really happening in the world.)
Ratings and circulation is all that the Media industry is worried about, the truth card is only used in the case of emergency. I refuse to get the talking heads that spew out slanted sound bite policies another second of my time.
Yoo, Rumsfeld, Addington, Cheney, Bush and all of the people that are in the background have abused the power and oath of office. If the allegations of our leaders are true about fourth amendment twisted or disregarded to break the laws without limits or ramifications The Congress should be on the chopping block next.

[TLV]

Who killed John O'Neill?
"...John O'Neill was a most -- if not the most -- formidable obstacle in the way of such a cover story. He was not only the world's leading expert on bin Laden, but he was also regarded as a "loose cannon", because of his record of working outside normal channels when normal channels were "blocked". He knew FBI investigations into bin Laden and al-Q'aeda had been shut down in the summer of 2001 and it is extremely unlikely that he would have remained quiet about it. He also knew whether or not Osama bin Laden was capable of inflicting the amount of damage the US suffered on 9/11. In other words, if the conspirators were hoping to spread a Big Lie about Osama bin Laden, they would have had a short list of things they absolutely had to do. Surely, one of the items on that list would be to silence John O'Neill."

http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/02/meet-jerome-hauer-911-suspect-awaiting.html

[meanguy]

maybe bigfoot and elvis did it, then slipped back to that secret island where jfk and tupac are dining with marilyn monroe and lady di...

[ghostsofamerica]

ghostsofamerica See Profile I'm a Fan of ghostsofamerica
FROM YOUR MOUTH TO GOD'S EAR!!!! (yes, I'm shouting here. )


Maybe we could add to the list of names???

Reply Posted 08:22 PM on 04/06/2008



thatvisionthing See Profile I'm a Fan of thatvisionthing

FROM YOUR MOUTH TO GOD'S EAR!!!! (two of us shouting here)

Reply Posted 09:04 PM on 04/06/2008

[TLV]

Meet Jerome Hauer, 9/11 Suspect Awaiting Indictment

http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/02/meet-jerome-hauer-911-suspect-awaiting.html