Bush Torture = Obama Torture unless War Crimes are Prosecuted

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Crossposted at Daily Kos

     For those who will automatically balk at the Obama = Bush charge, I submit to you the fact that by Geneva Law, if Bush/Cheney is not held accountable for the War Crimes they have committed, than the Obama Administration is complicit in those crimes and guilty of covering them up.

   

The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration’s expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush’s cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama’s cover-up.

NYTimes.com

Bold text added by diarist

 

    The desire to “look forward” does NOT bring justice for the War Crimes that we’re committed by the Bush/Cheney Administration.

    Iraq IS a giant War Crime. That can NOT be looked forward on. It is a FACT.

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    I want Obama to do the right thing on all of the issues facing his Presidency. I hope he succeeds. But accountability is my Number 1 issue, and right now we are living in a world where Corporations try to get away with rape and Politicians can order torture. Without accountability there IS no rule of law. If there are not equal consequences for violating the law, there can NOT be justice.

    Therefore, though I wish this was already addressed by the Obama Administration, I submit to you the FACT that if Obama and his administration does NOT prosecute every complicit member of the Bush/Cheney Administration for the War Crimes that they have committed, then Obama and his administration is complicit in those crimes, and might as well have committed them as well.

     What is worse, the same is true if Obama and his Administration covers up those war crimes, and that is EXACTLY what they are doing right now.

   (T)he Obama administration has repeated a disreputable Bush-era argument that the executive branch is entitled to have lawsuits shut down whenever it makes a blanket claim of national security. The ruling rejected that argument and noted that the government’s theory would “effectively cordon off all secret actions from judicial scrutiny, immunizing the C.I.A. and its partners from the demands and limits of the law.”

    The Obama administration has aggressively pursued such immunity in numerous other cases beyond the ones involving Mr. Mohamed. We do not take seriously the government’s claim that it is trying to protect intelligence or avoid harm to national security.

    Victims of the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including Mr. Mohamed, have already spoken in harrowing detail about their mistreatment. The objective is to avoid official confirmation of wrongdoing that might be used in lawsuits against government officials and contractors, and might help create a public clamor for prosecuting those responsible. President Obama calls that a distracting exercise in “looking back.” What it really is justice.

NYTimes.com

Bold text added by diarist

    The Torture photos that we’re to be released this summer have been pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. Is this a matter of timing on the part of the Obama Administration or worse? I do not know.

    But I do know that Dick Cheney is still operating as if he were Co-President. I do know that the Republican party has learned NOTHING from the failure of all of their policies, foreign and domestic. I do know that the Republican party would like nothing better than to blame Obama and the Democrats for all of the problems our nation faces today, problems caused by the last 8 years of Bush/Cheney policy and Republican rule, and I do know that if this were a Republican Administration and Democrats were guilty of these crimes it would be THE NO#1 story in the country today.

    So what is Obama doing about bringning the Bush/Cheney War Criminals to justice? Attorney General Eric Holder has named Special Prosecutor John Dunham to investigate torture committed by certain CIA members, but has stated that the investigation will NOT go farther than that so far. Why not?

    Part of the reason I supported Barack Obama for Presideent early was based on the fact that he is a Constitutional Scholar who knows and respects the Rule of Law. That is why it pains me to write this diary, because I had hoped that this was a no-brainer and that justice for War Criminals was a sure thing. Whether this is a matter of timing or not, I think it should be stated plainly and without hestitation that the consequences for Obama and his Administration should they NOT prosecute the Bush/Cheney Administration for the War Crimes that they have committed is to share the complicity and guilt for those war crimes.

    It IS against the law if the President does it, and the Vice President, and the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, and anyone else. Otherwise we do NOT have a rule of law, we have a rule of “I say so”, and that IS tyranny, a tyranny that Bush/Cheney would gladly leave behind as their legacy.

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    Whether Obama and his Adminsitration make that their legacy or not is entirely up to them. They can seek justice or they can “look forward” and become complicit and guilty of a cover up, but they can’t have it both ways.

    You can contact Attorney General Eric Holder and demand accountability here

BY MAIL

   U.S. Department of Justice

   950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

   Washington, DC 20530-0001

BY PHONE:

Department of Justice Main Switchboard202-514-2000



Office of the Attorney General
202-353-1555

U.S. DOJ FAX number for AG Holder

FAX: (202) 307-4613

BY E-MAIL

E-Mail the Attorney Generals Office at [email protected]

Disclaimer:     THIS E-MAIL ACCOUNT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SERVICE OF OFFICIAL, CASE-RELATED OR LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND IS NOT MONITORED FOR SUCH SUBMISSIONS OR FOR OTHER TIME-SENSITIVE COMMUNICATIONS. E-mails with attachments will be deleted because they may contain viruses.

   

    You can Contact President Barack Obama’s White House to demand accountability here

    CALL The White House at 202-456-1111 and E-Mail the WH here

    Please urge President Obama, AG Holder and the White House to do the right thing, and pursue justice and accountability.

I HOPE for the best, Mr. President, and I HOPE for justice.

Also crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com

47 comments

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  1. Either we have equality under the law in our rights AND consequences, or there is no justice.

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  2. rule of law or do we not?

    no justice, no peace.

    thanks MoT for staying on top of this.

    .

    (ps I might get rained out today… stupid comcast. just in case… Hold down the fort!!)

  3. ….since 1/20/09 ? by US controlled forces? At least in the hundreds maybe in the thousands, who knows?

    As well as covering up Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld/Rice war crimes. Obama has the deaths of many innocents as a part of his growing legacy.

  4. It just goes to show… we ARE the vanguard here.

  5. The fact is that Obama doesn’t want to do the right thing. He has not and will not change the way (the fruadulent way) that The United States thinks about and formulates U.S. Foreign Policy and War Policy.

    Unlike FDR, General/President Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and the early Bill Clinton years, Barack Obama actually believes in the insane idea of “preventative War” (starting Wars on non-existant speculative acts that never occurred ) – the very thing which we charged Nazi Germany over for as their greatest crime.  Obama has accepted the whole neocon spoonfed “War on Terror” frame (U.S. War OF Terror), where we just go about shooting everything that moves first and then worry about who got killed sometime later .. all at taxpayers expense. He thinks despite, 9 failed years making the problem worse than it was before, that Afghanistan is a “War of Necessity”.

    If Obama truly wanted to change U.S. Foreign Policy, why then did he ignore the whole 2008 Election mandate thing, and bring back into power Bush’s own loyal hand-picked Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, to continue prosecuting all these Wars?  Robert Gates was a man also involved in the illegal and treasonous Iran-Contra enterprise in the 1980s.  This was Obama’s phony idea of “change“.

    So, don’t expect Obama to do the right thing and ever prosecute Bush-Cheney for anything.  He will happily cover-up all of their human carnage and War Crimes because he himself emdorses the exact same concept of policy, and has been continuing them — albeit with less bellicose rhetoric promoting it.  Bush and Cheney cannot ever be seen as criminals, otherwise Obama himself would have to discredit the policies that he is actively pursuing.

    The Secret Renditions continue.

    The Torture (contracted out) continues.

    The Foreign Occupations continue.

    The Drone Bombing attacks continue.

    The Military violence continues.

    The use of Private Contractors and Mercenaries (who are above all Laws) continue.

    The Wars continue.

    And….Military attacks (plus CIA provocations) against both Iran and Venezuela are not ruled out, and still very much on the table.

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    That is the Obama legacy.

    He came.

    He saw, and

    He changed nothing (except his underwear).

    • TMC on October 26, 2009 at 22:21

    on other business that was more important than dealing with the band of “Obama can do no wrong” stalkers. I went back over just a few minutes ago to answer two of the more egregious hypocrites. Truthfully, I am very nearly finished with DK. If it weren’t for you and one or two others, I would have deleted the site from my bookmarks and not look back

    Thank you all for your comments.

  6. There are millions of Americans for whom the crimes of the Bush Administration are way too serious to blow off, for whom prosecution absolutely must occur.

    I am one.  

    Federal Law must be enforced as it is the only thing that keeps our presidents and vice-presidents from going too far.  We certainly had little or no check and balance from the Democratic Congress in 2007/08. What is left but the Law?  

    Willingness to enforce our laws is a prerequisite for any public office, especially the presidency.  Torture is a Federal Capital Crime.  I really like Obama, but if he fails to prosecute or to demand that AG Holder prosecute, I will be fighting against his re-election.

    I’ve been a Democrat for 45 years, but I’ll be damed if I’ll tolerate failure to enforce Federal Laws.

    SIGN the PETITION

    calling for Prosecution

    http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

    .

    • TMC on October 27, 2009 at 06:48

     We demand that Obama adhere to the rule of law, restore Constitutional rights and bring those who broke the law to justice. Bruce Fein, a conservative Constitutional lawyer who wrote the Clinton articles of impeachment, made the case to simultaneously impeach Bush ans Cheney on Bill Moyer’s Journal on 7/13/07. Again on the Journal of 5/1/09, Fein argues that torture and its prosecution is NOT a political issue.

     

    Fein argues that President Obama, as head of the executive branch, is charged by the Constitution with enforcing the law, and must therefore pursue the allegations.

    The man is one of my heroes.

      9 months in office, Obama has continued some of Bush’s worst policies that Democrats were screaming about a short year ago. There is barely a whimper now about FISA, telecommunications surveillance and the Patriot Act. The silence about torture is deafening.

      I want the country that I was born in, that I took an oath to defend with my life, back. One of ways to do that is for the President to do what HE took an oath to do, protect and defend the Constitution.

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