-"Highest Officials In US Goverment In Jeopardy Of Being Prosecuted' (NYT)

[dutch508]

kpete  (1000+ posts)       Fri Jul-11-08 10:30 AM
Original message http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3599907
Red Cross Secret Report: -"Highest Officials In US Goverment In Jeopardy Of Being Prosecuted' (NYT) 
 Advertisements [?]New Book Reveals Existence of Secret Red Cross Torture Report
By Kate Klonick - July 11, 2008, 8:45AM

In a secret report last year, the Red Cross found that the CIA's interrogation techniques were "categorically" torture, a new book reveals.

From the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/washington/11detain.h...

The book, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals," by Jane Mayer, who writes about counterterrorism for The New Yorker, offers new details of the agency's secret detention program, as well as the bitter debates in the administration over interrogation methods and other tactics in the campaign against Al Qaeda.

. . .Citing unnamed "sources familiar with the report," Ms. Mayer wrote that the Red Cross document "warned that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted."


Late Update: The book also reveals new specifics on Abu Zubaydah's waterboarding. Contrary to administration reports that the technique was used "on only three occasions," Abu Zubaydah told the Red Cross that he was waterboarded "at least 10 times in a single week and as many as three times a day."

And there's new info on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as well. "KSM" says he was "kept naked for more than a month" and "kept alternately in suffocating heat and in a painfully cold room."

more at:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/book_...
 

Here they go again...

Dover  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-11-08 10:37 AM
Response to Original message
2. They never mention just WHO will do the prosecuting, however.
 And in what court? 

tridim  (1000+ posts)       Fri Jul-11-08 12:16 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. In 2009 we will have the Presidency, and big majorities in Congress.
 And thus the ability to actually prosecute the criminals in the current regime.

Peace Patriot  (1000+ posts)       Fri Jul-11-08 12:12 PM
Response to Original message
16. LBJ & Nixon slaughtered 2 million people in Southeast Asia with complete impunity 
 (although both were basically drummed out of office--in both cases related to their war crimes, LBJ more directly than Nixon). But they both lived out their lives in peace, not in jail, nor even threatened with it. Reagan was directly complicit in the slaughter of TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers in Guatemala, and, of course, in perpetrating a war on Nicaragua that was expressly forbidden by Congress. He is a "saint" to this day, to our national political (i.e., corporate/fascist) establishment. The Democratic Congress hand-slapped a few of his underlings (who are back in power today).

So, the dysfunction of our legal system, as to presidential/executive branch war crimes, has been evident for a long while. Maybe it will be ultimately to the good that it is so blatant now.

A Democratic House leader saying "impeachment is off the table" is one of the most blatant violations of the U.S. Constitution that I know of. It is equivalent to Bush's "signing statements" and numerous, lawless executive orders. It is mind-boggling--the way Democratic Party leaders' promotion of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting is mind-boggling. The betrayal is so...awful. And it's interesting how at least between elections opinion polls reflect what the American people think of all this: Our Democratic Congress has a worse approval rating than Bush (Bush at about 15% approval, Congress under 10%). As elections approach--by means of polling fraud, or because of the lack of choices--we always end up with close to a 50/50 split, between Dems/Repubs. And it's no wonder. People are just plain bewildered. They try to vote against unjust war, and for lawful and beneficial government--but who's to say what their vote will result in?

Anyway, "our system"--government/political--has become SO illegitimate, and SO completely lacks the "consent of the governed," and is SO completely unresponsive to the will of the people, and has been SO completely lacking in "course corrections" (i.e., the antiwar movement driving LBJ out of the presidential race in 1968, and the "Watergate" impeachment proceedings driving Nixon out of the White House in 1973)--that you get the feeling something's gonna give--crack, collapse. It can't go on like this. Maybe Diebold & brethren (s)electing Obama will let some steam out of the system. I don't think he was their first choice, but apparently he will do. That's what it looks like to me. Then we can all forget about the 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting machines, and play some progressive games for a while, until the Bush Reich comes back at us in 2012. Or, maybe they won't bother--the U.S.A. will be such a hulking ruin by then. Maybe THEN we will be able to restore vote counting that everyone can see and understand--when it doesn't really matter to the global corporate predators who rule over us.

As long as we had transparent vote counting, there was the possibility of a "course correction"--and even if we got bad rulers, this kept them somewhat in check. Now they are completely out of control, and the lawlessness is rampant and completely without consequences. The result will likely be the ultimate "course corrector"--economic ruin. It happened in South America, 1980s to 2000--U.S. supported fascist brutality followed by "free trade." And this--totally trashed economies--DID result in a leftist movement of truly awesome proportions that has swept the continent, and it includes bringing the fascist bastards to justice, who had initially brutally destroyed democracy. The key to this movement: more than a decade of work, by many people and groups, on TRANSPARENT elections.

****ing lunitics.

This is what we have to look forward to under a Obama government.

[Wretched Excess]

by Jane Mayer

I didn't have to read any farther than this.

[Lord Undies]

These little goons, who are all upset about "the rule of law" and "no American is above the law" and "they should be held accountable", sound as if The Law is what they truly hold dear.  Of course, these same little maraca heads don't have a problem at all with everyone picking and choosing which drug laws to follow.

Some "rule of law" is more sacred than others.  Hypocrites.  Idiots.  Scum.

[Chris_]

These little goons, who are all upset about "the rule of law" and "no American is above the law" and "they should be held accountable", sound as if The Law is what they truly hold dear.  Of course, these same little maraca heads don't have a problem at all with everyone picking and choosing which drug laws to follow.

Some "rule of law" is more sacred than others.  Hypocrites.  Idiots.  Scum.

Of course.  Remember Orwell's famous line referring to twits like these?

"All animals are equal; some are more equal than others."

[DumbAss Tanker]

Kewpie doll for Dover.