I worked on a Post last night that I planned on reviewing and posting to my blog this morning. Unfortunately, I had computer problems and was not able to get my post up until this afternoon.

http://wwwdemocracity.blogspot.com/2009/04/mr-president-you-must-appoint-special.html

I was also looking forward to participating in the various discussions about this issue that I knew would be going on today but I missed all of them, until now!

I'm glad that Glenn has advocated that citizens get involved. That is actually what my blog post was all about. I don't have the legal background to write the wonderfully in-depth pieces that others can do so I think for people like me it's important for us to start calling on our fellow citizens to get involved and to provide them with links to articles and blog posts that will move them to do so.

The last thing I did before going to bed last night was to read the disgusting op-ed by Hayden and Mukasey. I posted a response on the WSJ site but I haven't checked to see if it was included. I also posted a link to that op-ed here in a previous thread. I guess I will now spend some time reading through all the comments here so that I can see what I missed!

By the way I was watching MSNBC and Barry McCaffrey was actually advocating for going after Bush officials much to Pat Buchanan's astonishment.

Check out this hysterical WSJ op-ed by Hayden & Mukasey.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993446103128041.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

After reading the ICRC report and then reading the newly released Bybee memo, it's clear to me why the videos of the interrogation of Zubaydah were destroyed. Because even though Bybee gave these people much more latitude than he should have given, these people clearly went beyond even those overly permissive guidelines. I truly hope someone made a copy of those tapes before they were destroyed and that they will eventually be released.

In the meantime Jay Bybee should be impeached.

Holder also stressed that intelligence community officials who acted reasonably and relied in good faith on authoritative legal advice from the Justice Department that their conduct was lawful, and conformed their conduct to that advice, would not face federal prosecutions for that conduct.

This statement leaves open a lot of room for prosecution.

And in the following statement it looks like this deal is only available to this narrow group of people. It also appears that Holder expects quite a lot of action on torture.

The Attorney General has informed the Central Intelligence Agency that the government would provide legal representation to any employee, at no cost to the employee, in any state or federal judicial or administrative proceeding brought against the employee based on such conduct and would take measures to respond to any proceeding initiated against the employee in any international or foreign tribunal, including appointing counsel to act on the employee’s behalf and asserting any available immunities and other defenses in the proceeding itself.

I just ran across this:

Spanish prosecutors oppose Guantanamo torture probe,/b>

1 hour ago

MADRID (AFP) — Spain's attorney general on Thursday recommended against an investigating magistrate going ahead with a probe of six former US officials over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

Candido Conde Pumpido justified the move on the grounds that six former Bush administration officials cited in the court complaint, reportedly including former US attorney general Alberto Gonzales, did not physically carry out the torture acts which allegedly took place.

Garzon had asked the attorney general's office for its opinion on the case, although he is not bound by it.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5imlmVHymrHEJehVixijRHw5WDTSQ

It should be very interesting to see the kind of self-serving, back peddling comments that will be made by our fearless leaders in Congress today, should anyone bother asking them their views about this NYT story. I hope if anyone sees any of these comments that they will post them here for all of us to ridicule.

And speaking of self-serving comments, did everyone see the interview with Armitage where he said that he hoped he would have had the "courage" to resign if he had known at the time about the Bush administration torture, while at the same time he was calling for no accountability for the torture crimes? It was nauseating.

And in keeping up with my theme today about self-serving comments. Here is a link to my blog piece where I wrote about the interview of Armitage.

http://wwwdemocracity.blogspot.com/2009/04/armitage-against-following-rule-of-law.html

Good comments on the Cohen piece. I hope others will put in their 2 cents too.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/12/opinion/courtwatch/main4937888.shtml

Here's another call for a blue ribbon commission on torture.

Feds Need Torture Commission Now

CourtWatch: The President And Congress Should Set Up Bipartisan Panel To Understand Why Torture Occurred, If It Reached Goals Comment On This Post April 12, 2009 | by Andrew Cohen

[Snip]

Advocates on the left cringe when they hear the "I-word" - to them it smacks of capitulation, another example of government protecting itself from its own misconduct. But what, realistically, do human rights advocates believe is going to happen otherwise? What’s better - years of pre-trial hearings and appeals in a vain effort to bring John Yoo before a jury? Or hauling him in as early as this year, under penalty of perjury, before an inquisitive panel of experts? What’s worse? Hearing Vice President Dick Cheney use torture as a political issue with his dire (but cynically unspecific) warnings about how we are weaker now that we don’t degrade prisoners? Or a nationally-respected panel that has access to classified information, subpoena power, and near-universal heft?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/12/opinion/courtwatch/main4937888.shtml

That's why I'd like to see it posted in that thread. I'd love to see the Obama apologists see it.