Bring it On
There is an article in today's New York Times about the way Michael Mukasey has been hedging on waterboarding. The difficulty, according to many experts is, as "Jack L. Goldsmith, who served in the Justice Department in 2003 and 2004, wrote in his recent memoir, The Terror Presidency, that the possibility of future prosecution for aggressive actions against terrorism was a constant worry inside the Bush administration." Another expert points out that future prosecutors "...would ask not just who carried it out, but who specifically approved it. Theoretically, it could go all the way up to the president of the United States; that's why he'll never say it's torture."
I have to say that I am both glad and amazed that the Bush administration is with it enough to worry. That is a good sign. And they should worry, because they should be indicted, at least. I hope that they are, and that, indeed, it does "go all the way up to the president". One of the Attorney General's jobs should be making sure not only that the laws are enforced, but also that the laws are actual laws--not opinions by John Yoo or David Addington or some other
administration apologist. There is an exact definition of what a law is in this country, and it is not the same as a partisan legal opinion.
One of the enraging things about the Bush administration is the way that they have consistently written their own rules, as if governing the nation is like playing a game of stealing the flag, where the stronger team, when it finds itself losing, simply changes the score or the rules until they either technically "win" or wear out the other side (and in fact, George W. Bush, according to Gail Sheehy, was well known among his friends for changing the rules of a game until he could engineer a win -- and isn't that how they won in 2000?). To do such things is not "courage" or "resolve", it is tyranny.
Mukasey and other Bush administration officials clearly believe that they are going to put over the idea that they "might have gone too far", but that their "intentions were good" and they "just wanted to protect the country". In such a way, they plan to avoid paying the price for their choices and decisions. The law deals with this sort of defense. Someone whose car hits another person in a crosswalk might have been too frightened to stick around or might not have even
realized he had hit someone, but the law still prosecutes these crimes, because a responsible citizen is expected to conform to the laws no matter what his emotional state. Same with Cheney and Bush. You or I may suspect that they were indifferent to the idea of torture in their names, or possibly relished it, but we will never know that. We do, however, know that they explicitly and knowingly allowed torture. The law has no meaning if they don't have to pay for these crimes.
The number of times the Bush administration has skirted or broken or changed the laws to suit themselves is enormous and outrageous. We cannot hope to correct what they have done to our country without addressing their lawlessness. If this means retroactive prosecution, I say bring it on. The fact that they are worried means they know that they should have known better--in fact, they did know better. All of them.
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James Madison warned, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
This is what the Bush administration attempted by trying to engineer a permanent rubber-stamp majority in the Senate and House and stuff the Supreme Court with agenda-friendly Justices.
James Madison also warned, “if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty.”
This is exactly what Bush did in pardoning Libby, who had lied about information that could be damaging to Bush and Cheney, and may have talked if not pardoned. This is classic obstruction of justice, and exactly what Madison said was grounds for impeachment. If no one challenges Bush legally then we allow him to be a tyrant.
That includes "White Lies" as well. The whole notion of "Quid pro quo" is to justify the means by a result that will occur in the future and thus this "legacy" will exonerate the action of this administration. The audacity to repeat over and over again in public, especially when the public cannot respond, even after they are proven wrong for a couple of topics it can be rehearsed but with all these lies in the air, there is a yawning credibility gap. It is like Christians justify that rich people will actually go to heaven, even if the bible says otherwise: 'Well he meant the guy specifically, because of his weak spiritual character' or 'this is just a poor translation' or 'he was not asking about himself really and he was actually not rich'. We should better read all the signing statements of all the rich evangelical ministers to receive clarity. The President is against torture (by the press and foreign nationals) but ordered enhanced interrogation techniques to be applied on people that are most likely terrorist or have the wrong last name or are a danger of revealing secrets (by the administration) because then the evil extremist can train themselves how to shut up or come up with all kinds of hooee that can never be tested against reality because it would turn out that torture does not work and the President is just covering up other illegal acts.
Rarely does an appointee get such a bright red line and clear litmus test! Mukasey confronts a stunning choice!
The Geneva Conventions forbid torture. Our military regulations forbid torture. World religious commandments and the Golden Rule forbid torture. State and federal laws forbid torture.
But George Bush, who blew up frogs with firecrackers and branded frat pledges with hot coat-hangers, likes torture.
So Mukasey has a clear choice: please either George Bush or the rest of humanity.
With his transparent evasiveness and desire to curry favor for advancement, Mukasey only besmirches himself.
Remember that Judge Mukasey may be a scared, scarred man: after one terrorist's trial more than a decade ago, he accepted protection from federal bodyguards that cost $27 million over ten years. That is $2.7 million a year, or 27 bodyguards paid $100K each. That's a lot of money and shows a lot of fear.
If laws were broken, regardless of the subject (wiretapping, torture, etc.), then the guilty parties should be indicted and prosecuted. The advisors/attorneys such as Addington, Yoo and Hadley should also bear responsibility for the actions, particularly if they were formulating opinions, which carry no real weight and are not law.
Ordinary American citizens must follow laws. There are few exemptions for elected officials and no caveats allowed for position or title.
Attorneys who are sworn to uphold the law should know better. The media needs to understand that title does not give privilege also and report accordingly.
But most of all, Mr. Bush must understand that brains are not automatically endowed by virtue of position, title or family.
It is interesting that we often criticize other countries while ignoring our own crimes! All we need is one more administration like this one and we will be able to witness public executions.
Maybe they will hold them in ‘Arenas’ with our hired mercenaries doing the job like the ‘Gladiators’.
Of course, we would have to admit to torture, as the ’subjects’ condition would be a dead giveaway!!
(Pun intended)
The way to correct most of this is to join ‘The World Court’. This will never happen because shortly after joining, a lot of our government officials would probably be facing war crimes charges.
maaaaaaaaaan... if bush and cheney are in the dock like saddam and his cousin... i might have to quit my job in order to be able to watch every second of it live!
You'd save a lot of time and energy typing if you'd just write "I'm a liberal". Then your talking points would already be known and you would have more free time.
The leading GOP contender for the presidency in 1946 was Seantor Robert Taft of Ohio. He was strongly condemned when he criticized the Nuremberg Trials which put the Nazi war criminals on trial for their role in the horror they had wrought upon humanity. Taft feared that in the future our political or military leaders might also be placed in the dock to answer for their policies. Well Mr. Taft can rest comfortably in his final abode because no American leader has ever endured such a fate despite many of their policies easily compared to some of those of the Nazis during that horrific conflict. Hey, apparently that's what being the world's leading superpower is all about. But if I were Bush, Cheney or their Neocon advisors I just might decide to embark on any foreign travels as some country just might duplicate what they did to Gen. Pinochet for the terror his reign did to Chile.
CRUEL & UNUSUAL SOUND FAMILIAR??
This admin should already be up on War crimes and treason charges- in fact by now we should have already carried out their sentences. Which WH staffer would give them up if waterboarded for information regarding their conspiracy? That ONE may be worth it.
I can hardly wait for the trials to begin, that is why I hope all of them are long-lived. I want them to feel some punishment for their actions.
Everytime I read your posts I realize how much I miss them! Keep them coming, will ya??!!!!
They ignored all the laws because they thought that there would be a Republican congress and senate for many years. That is what "Bush's Brain" Rove assured them. He was not such a genius after all, so now the piper has to be paid (hopefully).
I must say that this is the most straightforward and unambiguous declaration of sanity that I have read in quite some time. Bravo.
If someone DIES due to waterboarding then that is murder.
Next might be a cover-up and double crime.
Knowing something does not, as we have observed, mean that the right thing will be done. You have to wonder if sometimes Bush et al delights in such rebellion. In the end his actions and those in his administration take us back to his earlier days in college and post ?graduation. I hope it goes all the way too, and the sooner the better!
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Posted November 1, 2007 | 12:59 AM (EST)