cross-posted at Huffington Post It is being called “a perfect storm of ignorance and enthusiasm.” It seems the only thing we came to fear was getting caught not doing enough, no matter what “enough” meant. The inability to access the morality of the means by which we protect ourselves got us into this mess. The [...]
Tag Archives | torture
Throw Chuck Todd A Lifeline
The minute Mr. Cheney appeared on “Hannity,” you knew something was up. But what? Then, just like clockwork, the Cheney v. the Obama administration talking point started regarding possible torture investigations. The partisan trap was set for the press, which Cheney knew someone would trip. Chuck Todd fell for it. Reducing the subject of torture [...]
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Obama on OLC Lawyers: ‘a decision for the Attorney General’
The New York Times reported on this yesterday, citing Justice lawyers as having a different view than the President on torture investigations. Our position around here is that it’s none of Obama’s business, frankly. The Justice Department has its own purview, in which no president should interfere. Today in his press conference with King Abdullah [...]
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Cheney Resurfaces, But Why?
There is something very desperate in former Vice President Dick Cheney suddenly floating to the top of Sean Hannity’s guest list, like earlier tonight in an “exclusive,” where Cheney made news that he wants the C.I.A. to declassify reports that allegedly prove, according to Cheney, that Bush’s torture policies had positive results. “I find it [...]
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Bill Kristol Doesn’t Care Where Ghul Is
Bill Kristol just won’t let go of his failing argument. This time it’s all about “leftist lawyers” who have a problem with the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and Bush-Cheney torture policy. He also has a problem with DNI director Dennis Blair’s statement on the release of the evidence that George W. Bush systematically tortured people. [...]
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Next Stop Accountability
This statement from Obama’s Justice Department sends bells ringing across this land: After reviewing these opinions, OLC has decided to withdraw them: They no longer represent the views of the Office of Legal Counsel. It really is the height of moral and mental contortions to lay out a plan on how you torture someone who’s [...]
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Statement from Obama on Release of OLC Memos
UPDATE: Here’s a link to the memos (the Times also has them) with three cheers for the FOIA petition from the ACLU. …and on quick inspection of the documents, the redaction rumors are correct, with Obama deserving a lot of credit for allowing the bulk of the information into the light. I said earlier that [...]
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Will Obama Buck his Own Justice Department?
To release interrogation memos that reveal the U.S. tortured under Bush-Cheney, or not, that is the question. Known as the “Bradbury memos,” it was a moment when heroes and villains stood out. One such hero who paid for his principals was Mr. Comey: “We are likely to hear the words: ‘If we don’t do this, [...]
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Burden of Proof is On Obama
–updated– Reagan-era legal eagle Bruce Fein is miffed. He was an Obama supporter on many things, and let’s just say on this one he’s got lots of company. Some of us, as I’ve said before, are less surprised than others at what’s now unfolded. But as supporters of President Obama, in the end it all [...]
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Global Outrage Over Karzai Rape Law Brings Change
President Karzai underestimated the global attention that legalizing rape in Afghanistan would cause. Karzai’s rape law has now been put on hold. Being a signatore of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights means something. Especially when you have the American President calling you out openly, as Barack Obama did by calling Karzai’s rape law “abhorrent.” [...]
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Hannity Hate Speech Sure to Grow as Obama Reaches Out to Muslims
Barack Hussein Obama in Turkey today does what no other American president could do by virtue of his background and who he is. But the sheer act alone of reaching out to this Muslim nation is certain to drive the Hannity hate speech crowd to further ends of division and derision. Even as a new [...]
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There Once Was A Girl Named Karma
Well, I guess if the Congress of the United States doesn’t have the sense of purpose to honor the rule of law, we can always depend on… Spain? Via Scott Horton: Spain’s national newspapers, El País and Público reported that the Spanish national security court has opened a criminal probe focusing on Bush Administration lawyers [...]
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Dick Cheney Ignores that 9/11 Happened on Their Watch
Mr. Cheney’s “stuff happens” economic glibness is getting a lot of attention today, but it’s not what caught my ear. The man who brought us Ahmed Chalabi and Paul Wolfowitz, as well as “Curveball,” with Judy Miller’s greatest hits on WMD pushing the way at the NY Times, thinks Scooter Libby was left “hanging in [...]
Closing Gitmo, New Envoy Appointed
Obama has a Gitmo envoy. A former Bush 43 diplomat, Daniel Fried has a thankless job with overarching challenges. Milt Bearden was on C-SPAN this morning and was asked a question about Gitmo and released prisoners, the latest detainee making news this week for his new roll in raising hell in southern Afghanistan Abdullah Ghulam [...]
Saudi Court Sentences 75-year-old Woman to 40 Lashes
People who are talking about Afghanistan and how we shouldn’t expand our military involvement in that country are ignorant of what women in many of these countries across the Middle East, but also into Central Asia experience. Hell of a deal the Taliban made in the Swat region of Pakistan that imposed Sharia. Meanwhile, the [...]
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