http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uprjmoSMJ-o
So, the country often credited with the invention of the enhanced interrogation method known as 'waterboarding', is now readying the case against such former Bush Administration figures as Alberto Gonzalez, Doug Feith, and John Yoo. (http://tinyurl.com/cdflbm)
Does the current administration have to be shamed into appointing a Special Prosecutor empowered to investigate the alleged crimes committed at Guantanamo (and god knows where else)? Doesn't our National honor cry out for justice - sought after and enacted by us in our name?
President Obama, your silence on this issue is deafening, your inaction - shameful.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
42 comments:
Obama hasn't been silent, he ordered that Guantanamo be closed and appointed Dawn Johnsen.
YC - but, where is the accountability? Permission was granted and orders given to perpetrate crimes against humanity in our name. If the United States does not take action against those responsible, the world will hold us ALL accountable - and rightly so, if we don't demand that action be taken.
(deep breath)
I think Obama wants to appear judicial, non-partisan and above the fray, even though you could say that this isn't a partisan issue anyway. He also may feel that removing the prisoners from Gitmo was enough, but really, it wasn't. If you think of these crimes as being perpetrated by responsible culpable individuals, not faceless administrations, they might become easier to prosecute (although it was the former administration that set the tone.)
Obama is now embarking on an 8-day tour of Europe, I'm sure it will be rife with press conferences. Hopefully Spain is on the itinerary.
Torturing doesn't Keep America any Safer, because any information gained from this method will be useless. I doubt Obama thinks torture is the way to go either, he's just avoiding the whole subject so as not to appear vindictive or 'soft on terror.'
"We were flailing along
On Gitmo Bay
The fascist hordes
with waterboards
they seemed to say:
We have made our own rules
Now go away...
The staus quo, we'll make it so
On Gitmo Bay...."
WV: quebel (north of Vermol)
FH--foreign prosecution is the best thing that could happen, from a certain point of view. Heart of the problem with Bush's DOJ was it's political bias -- in hiring, firing, and in "counselling." The whole Bush crew were unethical political hacks. They should all be disbarred, IMO. But Obama can't responsibly do anything that looks like retaliation in kind from the other side of the political spectrum. Let the Spanish prosecution play out and prepare to deal with the results.
I would love to see Gonzales (Alberto, of course) go down. He did real harm, on a daily basis, to the justice system. I also would like to see John Yoo's career ruined, but I'm not as fervent about him as I am about Gonzales (A.).
William Haynes is a different story. I need to know more about the charges against him before I form an opinion.
La lucha sigue.
I think the most we can expect to see is some sort of reconciliation commission a la South Africa. Obama isn't so radical as to prosecute folks who came to power via a nominally valid process for discretionary decisions they made that they could claim were done in the national interest, regardless of whether they were wrong; that would simply be too extreme for him, and would face a high risk of failure. It's the same reason that "screaming libbie" Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off of the table. I agree with WT that Obama would conclude that any sort of prosecution would be accused of partisanship. But I think it's possible that his nominal preference for transparency might tip him towards having a forum in which to air out these matters, which could prove cathartic and beneficial.
xoot, thanks for the clarification, we're talking about a very specific Gonzales here.
Put 'em in the comfy chair, I say!
winkingtiger, I haven't met a person yet who could resist the call of the J. Geils Band. :) Welcome back!
As angry as I am about the sins of the Bush administration, I do think prosecution from outside would be good, not just in that Obama would escape looking vindictively partisan, but in that it would re-establish a sense of American accountability to other nations. This is kind of like annointing Rush Limbaugh the head of the GOP and then watching the clubhouse burn down.
Naiive I may be, but I still think Obama has some decency in him, and I'm not that quick to condemn a man who, hands tied and neck deep in dung, has not performed that badly so far. I'm going to slow it down and savor these eight years...
TooS: Doesn't J. Geils have a member named Magic Dick? I just thought i'd mention it... ;-)
I like the idea of the prosecution coming from 'outside' as well (Holder has so much on his plate right now), it doesn't necessarily make Obama look bad.
It seems that the political climate in the current Europe is for Globalization, and it also seems like Obama is hesitant on that score. Perhaps working with the Spaniards on the torture prosecution would be a way of meeting Europe halfway...?
'On the lickin' stick, Mr. Magic Dick!'
This is offtopic, but I was just listening to this strange interview from the 70's with Barry Goldwater.. and I know his book is amongst JMF's favorite things, so if anyone's interested:
http://tinyurl.com/cccj7w
You have to register to listen (it's actually a music site, not a political one), but it's free...
Which member of J Geils was married to Fay Dunaway? I remember a picture of her in their Boston apt., a wall of books behind her. TS Eliot's 4 Quartets was legible . . .
Also, I saw J Geils at Candlestick in 81. George Thorogood opened and kicked ass. Absolutely great set. J.Geils was over dressed, over dramatic and generally boring. Sadly, they looked and sounded like a washed up 70s band. The Stones, by contrast, were excellent.
xootie - I was at that show! I don't remember seeing you, though...
xoot, that was Peter Wolf. I missed that concert, it was during my first year in law school. But a few classmates went. Peter Wolf left J Geils shortly afterwards, so you may have seen the band going under; still, I liked the album that was current at the time, Freeze Frame.
wv: subver
FH: I know I saw you. You looked great.
I think that Stones show was the first time for the cordless fm connections. Remember the stage extensions that ran along the stadium seating? When Keith walked down one side of the stage playing his solo in Sympathy for the Devil, that was me right above him staring in astonishment.
dsg: That song, Centerfold? (or something similar), that was the low point. After George Thorogood, that sounded like junk.
Anyone who's interested: very good -- brief yet comprehensive -- article in The Nation that just landed in my mailbox (April 13) about the FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes's victory in El Salvador's recent presidential election. Almost makes you hope people can take on right wing evil and win.
Well, yeah, the Stones are better than the J. Geils Band, but 'Miss You' would've required major revisions to adapt to our friend winkingtiger... no doubt he could've done it, but I was going off the six inch sequined cuff.
My younger brother collected J. Geils records. My personal preferences were 'Bloodshot' and the live one, 'Blow Your Face Out'. They went from a good boogie blues band to t-shirt and blazer pop blechh. I blame Reagan.
xoot, you haven't seen funny clothes and drama until you've seen Iron Maiden. Think Jane Fonda meets Black Sabbath meets Mariah Carey. ;P
As we're talking about J Geils, Hocus Pocus by Focus just came on my iPod. Man, they were weird, but I love 'em.
wv: hemando :-D
WT, I liked the verse you posted, usually if I want to read stuff that good I have to write it myself ;)
An alternate definition of quebel is to escalate a quibble to a rebellion. We get a lot of that here.
WV- chally..."You take Chally and I'll take Chue..."
I'll take Chue, tue. Even if she looks like she could be about 47.
"On Chuy, on Tavo, c'mon Beto."
wv: parri where's tigereyes when you need her?
Thanks Bongo, I mean YC! ;) A quibble may be a rebellion, and a temple may house a temper. Values are subjective, too...
TooS: If you had used "Miss You," I would have had to get up off the floor in order to write again... (Stones Fan Supreme.)
J. Geils band had a song before Centerfold?
J. Geils had songs even before 'Love Stinks'. Remember 'Musta Got Lost' (Somewhere Down the Line)? Or 'Ain't Nothin' But a House Party'? Those got lots of radio play. Or 'Lookin' for a Love (to Call My Own)'? And 'Whammer Jammer' was Magic Dick's showpiece. And they did lots of blues covers like 'First I Look at the Purse' and 'Homework' (I Can't do my Homework Any More...). I'll bet you'd know all those songs if you heard them again.
Did you ever listen to the words to Lookin' for a Love (which was a song by Bobby Womack, who wrote my favorite Stones cover, It's All Over Now)? It sounds more like he was looking for a maid ("someone to fix my breakfast," "someone to do a little housework").
A maid... a man needs a maid. ;)
"spent all my money
playin her half-assed game"
Do I remember that correctly?
TS - I'd like a maid, too. Does that make me a man?
Sorry, that was me. I screwed up my joke. That should have said...
ferret, according to Neil Young:
a pool boy... a ferret needs a pool boy. ;)
xoot, that's my favorite line in the song. It also has a line in there about breakfast in bed...methinks Mr. Womack has a thing about that.
TS, I knew what you meant, but then again, Harvest is one of my favorite albums.
wv: beethomp (what happened when he rolled over and told Tchaikovski the news)
I think that Womack lyric goes:
'She spent all my money
Looking for a fuse'
BTW, Geils' cover of House Party kicks major butt.
On the original Stones recording of "It's All Over Now," Jagger sings "high-class game," but on subsequent live versions he sings "half-assed game." Ten years later he was singing "Star Star." How times change...
And I only mention it because I know how much JMF likes threads about song lyrics. ;-)
I think it just comes down to the difference in temperament between Bianca and Jerry.
my favorite Bobby Womack song "Down on 110th Street." Whenever it comes up on my mp3 player I substitute "O'Farrell and Jones Streets" while I sing along in my head. :)
Sad, sad, sad pining away from your lost youth. I'm gone and all you people can do is think about turntables to play mediocre music on while xootsuit overwrites reminiscences of a couple of bad boy adventures... almost forty years ago!
And you're so bored with yourselves that you can only muster 34 posts over 4 days. Hey but at least you're not being challenged. Yet when I was here, you all would write that many in a day.
And couldn't stay on topic too long. Well how could you? Have any of you read Charlie Savage, Jane Mayer or Phillipe Sands? Let's see...do any of you know how we came to know how to use torture or enhanced interrogation techniques? It's quite a story, and the greatest indictment of torture. I used to summarize Savage's reporting at SF Gate. Did anyone bring Greenwald's perspective?
Well, no you are too busy blogging on the JGeils band (who?) and the speeding and surfing you did twenty years before the internet.
Maybe I'll check back in a month. But I was really expecting an explosion of interesting blogging once I disappeared as you all seemed to think that I was dragging the blog down.
Dad?
It's ok, son. He's just tectched in the head.
Does he always stand on the sidewalk preaching?
I'm sure he does other things too, son.
Does he ever say anything smart?
I'm sure he does. Train a monkey to type, you know . . .
Oh yeah. Some day he'll write Shakespeare's Sonnets!
I had a J. Geils album with a repeating skip in it once. Listening to it was like trying to convince khakjaan that the shiny little pin they stuck in his lapel was not, in fact, an official debate club issue, but a flattened Orange Fanta bottle cap.
So, TS. There will be no debate about it--LaSalle is indeed an idiot that probably fantasizes about having a stalker?
VW: cardect
That wench better leave my Mick alone if she knows what's good for her.
Which wench? My Mick? I knew it. That settles it.You're both gay. Period.
I mean he's always yapping about how famous he is. And of course, if you're that famous you have to have at least one stalker to brag about, right?
I wonder if all those French movies stars he's always slobbering over feel as if he's about to embark on a group stalk as he approaches his "research" for his new novella?
I sure do hope it's a trite bit better than his last piece of brilliance.
excuse me. I meant mite bit better. I think that's what I meant. But the word trite kept coming into my head.
Post a Comment