May 15 2009

Six Excuses

Shorter Froomkin.

1. Nothing to see here.

Obama: “photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

2. A few bad apples have been dealt with.

Obama: incidents “were investigated — and, I might add, investigated long before I took office — and, where appropriate, sanctions have been applied….[T]his is not a situation in which the Pentagon has concealed or sought to justify inappropriate action. Rather, it has gone through the appropriate and regular processes. And the individuals who were involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken.”

3. No good would come of this.

Obama: “the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals.”

4. We have to protect the troops.

Obama: “In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

5. There will be a chilling effect.

Obama: “Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse.”

6. This is a new argument, not just the same old excuses.

Gibbs: “The President isn’t going back to remake the argument that has been made. The President is going — has asked his legal team to go back and make a new argument based on national security.”

You should read the whole article because Froomkin pretty much shoots down every one of these excuses.

Hat tip Glenn Greenwald, also worth reading (warning, graphic images).

10 comments

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  1. Change?

    Or more of the same?

  2. my apologies in advance for tossing this scripture quote in, mostly b/c you dont know me well enough to know that its something I RARELY do, and Im more buddhist than Ill ever be offical “Christian” but when it comes to quotes about hyposcrisy, theres nothing like Matthew 23. And boy is this ever spot on.

    25″Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

    27″Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

    29″Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

    33″You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

    37″O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'[d]”

    Im truly feeling so sick and betrayed.

    One line from Obama’s book, Audacity of Hope, that stayed with me, ever since I first read it in January 2008, was him tallking about how people would come up to him and beg:

    “Please. Don’t disappoint us, Barack.”

    And he understood.

    Well. 114 days.

    The disappointment is suffocatingly overwhelming.

    “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

    Photobucket

    This is how we honor them, Obama? This?

    …see Greenwald thats linked above by ek…

  3. … that’s probably not major, but it’s been on my mind.

    I think of the leadership in the military.

    I think of who promoted those leaders during the Cheney/Bush years, the Rumsfeld years in particular.

    Those officers didn’t get promoted by Rumsfeld unless they went with his program.  If they didn’t, they got demoted.

    I think of the pictures and the “bad apple” nonsense that’s being put forth.

    I think of those commanders who were responsible for not only allowing, but promoting, these abuses, and how far up the chain of command that goes — and of course it is not in their best interest, is it, for those pictures to be released and questions to be asked.  It is not in their best interest to say anything other than those were isolated incidents and they had no knowledge of them.

    And again I go back to what I’ve been feeling all along.  A bunch of fools waving their arms and yelling at a tsunami, thinking they can hold it back.  They can’t.  This is too big even for their lies.

  4. version of ‘two legs better’ and a definite deal breaker. Seem to be working in Fandomland as cries of support the troops are being issued and the usual he’s just pulling a fake out, one commenter told me Obama doesn’t need to deal with this crap, he’s got to get the credit card rates down for middle class people. The photo’s need to be released, people need to see what is being done. They need to know that you can’t move forward with this kind of lawlessness and inhumanity embedded and hidden under the oldest trick of all national security. Every vicious regime has used this to rationalize their criminality.  

  5. of everyone–from bush/cheney right on down–who were responsible for the planning, authorizing and execution of torture.  

    I want all Congress members who were briefed on torture to see the photos that illustrate exactly how the bush administration interpreted “enhanced interrogation techniques”.

    But, frankly, I’m very ambivalent about the overall benefit of releasing the photos publicly.  On one hand, I believe that we as a nation need to know what was done in our name.  On the other hand, that’s easy for me to say, as neither myself nor any of my loved ones are currently directly in the line of fire like people such as this volunteer working in Kabul who believes that releasing those photos may harm those in her position.

    The people I really want to see the photos are:  All members and advisors of the Obama Administration, all members of the US House and Senate, and the judge and jury sitting on the Torture Trials of bush, cheney, et al.

  6. I want all photos, all files, all orders from everywhere, released, pertaining to this “policy” of torture.

    I imagine most of the troops are feeling used one more time, by those who dishonored their service by sending them to kill/maim/displace over 1,000,000 Iraqis on a pack of lies now believed to have been augmented with false confessions due to torture.

    The troops were put in harms way years ago, & serve all over the globe. They are in no more harm than they`ve ever been or ever will be.

    That “protect the troops” meme they are now bringing up is laughable & is disrespectful to the troops.

    The honor of soldiers, tarnished by the stupid controllers who order them under false pretense, would be partially restored if the troops had any say in the matter of releasing these photos.

    Most of the soldiers have seen more horror that will be with them till they die, so let`s not abuse them again.

    The photos will help get more attention to hopefully provoke at least investigations.

    If on the other hand, the photos are not as bad as the previously released ones, then why not put them out. The troops & their families have been used enough. While waiting for them to come back home, let`s at least get them enough water to drink, some non-electric showers to wash up in, & quit treating them like they might be in more harm. They`ve been in harm`s way for extended repeat rotations. I imagine most of the troops are hoping the citizens back home have enough in them to prosecute those who broke the law, while they are over there protecting the right to have these laws.

    There is no discussion.  

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