"Standard Operating Procedures"

Can't wait for the canary to sing, on the morning of June 20th, when Scott McClellan testifies before the House Judiciary Committee under oath, about what are "standard operating procedures' by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and others, in a host of challenges to the First Amendment, due process, the Eighth Amendment proscription against torture, and international law. So, when the canary sings, remember, he's singing our song.

This administration's flagrant violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996, as well as the American Anti-Torture Act of 2007 won't be the only things on the program. McClellan will be asked to sing, baby, sing about the direct intervention of the executive branch in outing Valerie Plame, as well as attempt to sabotage free elections, and the firing of nine U.S. attorneys who refused to go along with the ride, and the cult of corruption currently occupying our nation's capital..

Indeed, the electronic surveillance program, and the offer of retroactive immunity to telecoms who broke privacy laws, the willful and deliberate mendacity behind the claims in the lead-up to the war, the deliberate neutralizing of the press through a war policy that involved constant micromanaging of newspaper editors by the Defense Department, refusal of the attorney general to admit that waterboarding is torture, only begin to describe the arrogance of this hyperactive executive branch's abuse of power. The do-nothing, take-it-lying-down Congress of five years ago, happily, is changing -- yes, the empire is striking back.

Yes, and while some may say this emperor has no clothes, he's managed to hide his derriere better, and operate with impunity more effectively, than any in recent memory. After all, under this commander-in-chief, the Pentagon has managed to orchestrate the destruction of interrogators' handwritten notes at Guantanamo Bay to preclude those notes from being used as evidence that a detainee's confession might, in fact, have been coerced by what have been euphemistically called "harsh" interrogation methods.

That the military has a "standard operations procedure" which contains instructions for the disposal of what might be exculpatory evidence for those we detain, and plan to bring to a kangaroo war crimes tribunal, is nothing less than obstruction of justice.

So, if you happen to be someone like Omar Khadr, a Canadian Gitmo detainee, who has been forced into confessing that you threw a grenade because one of your interrogators forced you to crawl and bark like a dog, or waterboarded you, and any notes taken, while you were being questioned, were destroyed, how can your attorney prove to a tribunal that your confession was forced? He can't, that's the point.

Over the weekend, more than 50 House Democrats acknowledged that Justice can't deliver justice by calling upon Attorney General Mukasey to appoint an independent counsel to investigate just what criminal liability must visit the upper echelon of the Bush administration for their egregrious architecture of pain and suffering, their initiation, and/or sanctioning, of methods for obtaining information from those we hold as prisoners of war which amount to torture by universal standards.

A technique such as waterboarding, as is widely known, has been banned for generations, and there is no person of conscience who would find sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, and being set on by dogs to be "civilized practices." The recognition by Rep. Conyers for what he calls "an impartial criminal investigation" into these dastardly actions that were paid for by our tax dollars was prompted by recent reports that the highest levels of government were involved in discussing, and recommending, the interrogation techniques in question.

It was Rep. Conyers who, a few years ago, called for issuing articles of impeachment against George W. Bush, a call that went largely unanswered until late Monday when Rep. Dennis Kucinich appeared before the House to recommend 35 articles of impeachment, against the president, a move that was co-sponsored by Florida Congressman Robert Wexler who has been a vocal proponent of accountability from this administration, instrumental in obtaining the prospective testimony of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and who calls the articles "a stunning narrative of offenses that go well beyond previous crimes committed by any U.S. chief executive."

But where is CNN, and the news media, when elected members of Congress plainly, and eloquently, articulate articles of impeachment? Can they be napping in their news vans, or busy with nonstop coverage of "veepstakes?" Yes, the mainstream media is so busy vetting Obama, and anyone he might consider for second in command, that it has lost sight of the fact that no one has yet vetted Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice or, for that matter, the attorney general himself? How much vetting did Donald Rumsfeld or Robert Gatesget ? We all know how vetted John McCain is -- after all, he's vetting himself over, and over -- to hear him tell it, you'd think he put the "vet" in "veteran."

Yes, it was Congressman Conyers who said, about two years ago, impeachment proceedings against a president don't need to be completed while he's in office. While, obviously, there isn't enough time to impeach this president within the next five months, Congress would be derelict in its duties of checks and balances were it not to at least begin the process.

Human Rights Watch, and others concerned about our ongoing breach of international law by repudiation of habeas corpus, and insolent efforts to challenge traditional definitions of torture, by secret holding cells, and rumors of detainee ships, say the next president, whether it be Obama or McCain, will have to deal with, and repair, the ravages of abuse of power that this administration leaves behind. Still, no one can escape the irony that the first war tribunals since World War II may, inevitably, come to include as defendants a former president, Mr. Cheney, Ms. Rice, and others who are up to their armpits in deliberate, premeditated, violations of the Constitution, Geneva, and the public trust under the pretext of a "war on terror. "

If you want to find out what Mr. Bush really thinks about terrorists, stay tuned for his pardon of Luis Posada Carriles, the man who blew up the Cuban civilian jetliner, back in 1976, killing all 76 passengers onboard, and who has repeatedly said he would commit more "terrorist acts" against the state of Cuba, and the Cuban people. Guess we don't call it terrorism when we do it.

So, next Friday, we may yet see Scott McClellan fess up about what has been standard operating procedure, for years, in this administration, and watch yet another pathetic attempt by the mainstream media to sweep his revelations under the rug.

We agree with Dennis Kucinich who told Congress, on Monday, that impeachment proceedings must begin if for no other reason than to stop this commander-in-chief from taking his hubris to the next level, and ordering an attack on Tehran, just in time to fix another election.

Follow Jayne Lyn Stahl on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaynelynstahl

Comments

[Cathexis]

I disagree that this president has done an exceptional job of CYA ... more likely, too many are reluctant to acknowledge that we have elected a singularly unqualified, incompetent man who is nowhere near up to the job with which he has been entrusted.

I theorize this is for multiple reasons:

* Some are too afraid that admission of his *incredible* inadequacies will be a victory for "the Opposition." So they will suck it up and live in denial.

* Some cannot deal with the sheer enormity of dealing with such a debacle -- removing an unfit man from the presidency is too huge a matter for them to wrap their minds around. So they live in denial.

* Some are aware the man is unqualfied and fall prey to a knee-jerk reaction of "lowering the bar" for those who are so much less capable. They'd never allow a competent person to make these kinds of errors, but feel brutish coming down on sonmeone who is so clearly incapable of doing what is right.

[hopeless277]

I know this will come as a shock to you, but Nancy Pelosi has exonerated George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney of any and all wrong-doing during their terms as president and vice president. She alone has modified the U.S. constitution so that impeachment is optional. For her, and her alone to decide. In doing this, she has surpassed George W. Bush in his contempt for the rule of law. Scott McC could have pictures of Cheney feeding off the carcases of dead American soldiers and the result would be a resounding silence for the Speaker's office. I lay the deaths of every service member in Iraq as well as the deaths of untold thousands of Iraqis at her doorstep. What committie members may hear from Scott McC does not matter. It is not what we know, it is what we DO ABOUT IT. And until a new speaker is chosen, we will do NOTHING. Nancy Pelosi is a disgrace to America and to the human race. Her name, just like Bush and Cheney, will live in infamy forever. I hope her children appreciate what she has done for them. The children of Iraq do not.

[demfriend]

Bush and Cheney have done everything they can to be impeached. They have rearranged the Constitution to fit their want/needs/desires. They ave obviously lied to get the war in Iraq. They have refused to even meet with those who run the countries we should be talking to. They allowed the people we pay for electricity and fuel to write laws. They have let big pharma rule the prices for drugs. They have let ourselves and our children be poisoned by china a few times with poor regulation. Katrina. The state of health care and the buildings which house the infirm soldiers and the healthy ones. The housing market and now the fuel bills. BUT the blame lays on the steps of the republican and now the democrat congresses in the past ten years also for letting these guys do as they will and have put little or no stops on them. Impeachment should have never been taken of any table and they should have had some accountability instead of "signing statements" and laws passed to keep them from inquiry and injury.