GOP threatens to open can of worms

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I’m sure by now everyone has seen this latest nugget from the GOP.

Let’s get this straight; if President Obama and Atty. Gen. Holder investigate Bush administration officials for authorizing torture, the GOP will go back and investigate former President Clinton’s renditions?

This is a can of worms that the GOP cannot win…

First, we need the history behind President Clinton’s renditions.

Beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to this day, the Central Intelligence Agency, together with other U.S. government agencies, has utilized an intelligence-gathering program involving the transfer of foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism to detention and interrogation in countries where — in the CIA’s view — federal and international legal safeguards do not apply. Suspects are detained and interrogated either by U.S. personnel at U.S.-run detention facilities outside U.S. sovereign territory or, alternatively, are handed over to the custody of foreign agents for interrogation. In both instances, interrogation methods are employed that do not comport with federal and internationally recognized standards. This program is commonly known as “extraordinary rendition.”

The current policy traces its roots to the administration of former President Bill Clinton. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, however, what had been a limited program expanded dramatically, with some experts estimating that 150 foreign nationals have been victims of rendition in the last few years alone. Foreign nationals suspected of terrorism have been transported to detention and interrogation facilities in Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Diego Garcia, Afghanistan, Guantánamo, and elsewhere. In the words of former CIA agent Robert Baer: “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear — never to see them again — you send them to Egypt.”

Administration officials, backed by Department of Justice legal memoranda, have consistently advanced the position that foreign nationals held at such facilities, outside U.S. sovereign territory, are unprotected by federal or international laws. Thus, the rendition program has allowed agents of the United States to detain foreign nationals without any legal process and, primarily through counterparts in foreign intelligence agencies, to employ brutal interrogation methods that would be impermissible under federal or international law, as a means of obtaining information from suspects.

Therein lies the problem for the GOP in this game of chicken; the rendition program under President Clinton was not widely used, whereas, the Bush administration not only used rendition, but, instituted clear guidelines and legal memorandums to authorize U.S. troops and the CIA to torture.  But, this is not where this game of chicken ends.  There was President Carter, President Reagan, President George H.W. Bush, President Clinton, and President George W. Bush.

Did President Carter have anything near the authorized torture of prisoners occur during his presidency?  No.  But, let’s look at President Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Iran-Contra affair?  That was purely the conservative icon President Reagan’s fiasco.  Is the GOP ready for that to be once again trotted out to the public with new investigations that could possibly find the link that President Reagan not only knew about it, but, had secretly authorized it?

The invasion of Panama?  That was purely President George H.W. Bush’s fiasco.  You remember it.  That was where the CIA helped to install drug-lord Manuel Noreiga into power, then, in order to secure the right to continue providing security for the canal, invaded Panama and set up another puppet government after ousting the drug-lord President George H.W. Bush helped put into power.  Is the GOP ready for that to see the light of day through new investigations?

After those two memorable screw-ups came President Clinton.  And, guess which agency will take the brunt of the majority of blame?  The CIA.  They are already pissing in their pants over Bush’s torture regime.  You think they want it brought out how under President Reagan they were involved in the human rights abuses that occurred in Latin America?  Or how they helped to try and overthrow Hugo Chavez in 2000?  

You see, while the GOP may wish to try and raise the old “but… but… Clinton did it first”, that isn’t the case, nor, did he preside over the worst abuses.  That distinction goes to the GOP.

So, if I were the Democrats, I would remind Sen. Alexander that while they can surely investigate Clinton, there were two even worse Presidents before him, and, one after — all Republican.