Feb 09 2009

Leahy Calls for Truth Commission

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. “truth commission” should investigate Bush administration policies including the promotion of war in Iraq, detainee treatment and wiretapping without a warrant, an influential senator proposed on Monday.

….

“We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past,” Leahy said in a speech at Georgetown University.

“Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened,” he said. “And we do that to make sure it never happens again.”

RUkind’s essay on Truth Commisions for historic reference.

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  1. Arlen replies..

    “If every administration started to reexamine what every prior administration did, there would be no end to it. This is not Latin America,” the Judiciary committee’s top-ranking Republican, Senator Arlen Specter, told reporters last month.

  2. or any commission!  We need a special prosecutor and on with the show!

  3. I just received this e-mail from The Pen:



    Extend Statute of Limitations On Cheney/Bush CrimesMonday, February 9, 2009 2:40 PM

    From: “[email protected]” ([email protected])

    To: [email protected]

    One of the most important recommendations by John Conyers in his 487 page recent report “Reining In The Imperial Presidency” was to extend the statute of limitations on the crimes of Bush and Cheney, to allow a fair opportunity for them to be actually investigated by a real prosecutor.  Of course the Justice Department was entirely derelict in enforcing the law as to them while they were still in office.  To fully preserve and protect the rule of law, the statute of limitations must be extended now.

    And sure enough, just the other day Cheney was out there gloating about how the statute of limitations was expiring on some of their most egregious offenses.  For example, the midnight putsch to institute a regime of illegal wiretapping occurred in early March of 2004, not quite 5 years ago.  We certainly did not expect Alberto Gonzales, who conspired in all of this, to enforce the law when he was attorney general, did we?

    Extend Statute of Limitations Action Page:  

    And while we’re on the subject of Dick Cheney shooting off his unwelcome mouth again, we never expected you to “make nice with terrorists”, Dick, as you so contemptuously smear any alternative to a policy of slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians in foreign countries and destroying their cities.  No, Dick, we expected you to NOT stoop to beneath their level, which has made us all decidely less safe for the future.

    In truth, if we count all our senseless casualties in Iraq, Dick, more died on your watch since than died on 9/11, which you dismally failed to protect us from in the first place in your arrogant insolence.  Or was it deliberate treason, so you could justify your war to seize Iraq’s oil fields?  No, Dick, we were never expecting everyone in the world to “love” us, but we sure could do without a couple extra generations of millions of people bent on mortal revenge.

    By the way, did anyone else catch the story of Cheney throwing out his back moving his OWN boxes?  What is a former vice president doing playing his own moving man, unless all those boxes contained incriminating evidence he would not allow anyone else to even touch?  Must have been a lot of such evidence to throw his back out like that.

    On a happier note, we are pleased to report that Thursday we completed the latest round of shipping of the new “Convict Dick & W” caps, the ones with a little embroidered cowboy hat hung on the “W”, intended to ridicule the original cowboy from Connecticut himself, who always looked about as at home on that fake Crawford ranch as Eva Gabor looked on Green Acres.  So if you have not requested yours yet, you can get one from the return page after you submit the statute of limitations extension action page.

    Extend Statute of Limitations Action Page:

    And on the same return page from the action page above, you can also find the new local county prosecutor lookup, which we are using to call, write and email local district attorneys, asking them to bring murder charges against George Bush and Dick Cheney as urged by Vince Bugliosi.  If any resident of your county was killed a war based on false pretenses, Bugliosi says that district attorney has grounds to bring murder charges.  At the top of all these pages, there is a link to a terrific YouTube video you can watch on this of Bugliosi’s House testimony.

    The local prosecutor initiative is an important long term back up action, intended to keep the heat on at the same time for a special prosecutor at the federal level.

    IMPORTANT NOTE:  We are not asking anyone to file a “formal” criminal complaint yourself.  Common sense tells us that a state prosecutor will only act, in the exercise of their OWN discretion, if they believe there is a non-frivolous case to bring.  But by speaking out, we can let them know there is community support for them to do so.

    It’s a little confusing, though, because war crimes and wars of aggression have no statute of limitations as they fall under “jus cogens,” the supreme rule of the land.  So, they probably are talking about the illegal wire-tapping issue and that may have a statute of limitations about to expire.

  4. Hell yes prisoners were mutilated, physically, psychologically, mentally, but more than that, they were murdered.

    Murdered by multiple small cuts, genitally mutilated by many cuts, is not material to the argument on whether they should be in jail or not, but after being in jail for such a time that they then should be put to death.

    I believe that is the legal penalty for their crimes, under the law.

    You wouldn`t want to break the law, now.

    On the practical side, I prefer to not even debate the question of truth commission or the “let`s move forward crowd”, which are tied up in politics. I want the man in charge legally, to be shown the law, shown where it says he MUST act, & proceed with his investigation & if any, prosecutions, & if it goes to convictions, the proper & legal sentences to the fullest extent of the law. Semantics, politics & preferences have no place in this discussion. I don`t like setting the bar higher & higher that now it`s up to scrotum slicing.

    There really is nothing to discuss about prosecutions, since they both admitted being involved.

    There will be no “truth & reconciliation” until the the whole truth comes out & the country reconciles with the hanging of a past president, a past vice president (who btw, is still delusional about the “past” part), & any others involved in the deaths of any of these renditioned, tortured, ball bounced, frozen, sleep deprived, non combatant combatants, gitmo-ized human beings.

    That`s the law, isn`t it??!!

    The difference between theists and atheists is that the atheists don’t set the theists on fire for refusing to agree with them.

    • OPOL on February 10, 2009 at 01:10
    • #

    I’ve had all the truth I can handle…now I want justice.

    • Edger on February 10, 2009 at 01:38
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    of Cheney and Bush become more and more possible, that we’ll see both of them and most of the GOP as well as some high level democrats start begging forgiveness and LOUDLY supporting the truth and reconciliation commission idea, too…

    Ahem.

  7. with what went down? would not have happened if the Democratic side had at the least told the truth, at the least fought these fuckers. They didn’t they still won’t. The truth they all stand for has nothing to do with the reality of our times and everything to do with politics and money. The least they can do ‘bi-partisanly’ is recognize that the jig is up and save some face and stop with the politics electoral that long ago lost anyone with a brain in their head. Change is a really simple concept and it is without us or within us the only option we have. Instead of us adapting to the pols version of change which is so transparently not change why don’t we the people (bi-partisan) reject any bamboozle that they try to use to keep it where it is. This suks politics suk especially when they twist the results.      

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