England can get our guys and torture them to find out about the ticking time bomb.

The reason Obama is not investigating torture -- he's torturing, and intends on torturing in the future. Wake up!

and on a related note, another despicable MSM pro-torture column, by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051102668.html

That's what Obama is threatening. He's saying that he would sit on vital information that would protect the UK because he wants to punish them if they disclose the details of how we tortured Mohamed--even though Mohamed himself has already detailed that torture. Is it possible that there is something in those seven paragraphs that is even worse than slicing Mohamed's genitals with a scalpel? That seems unlikely, so it's hard to imagine why Obama would choose to break the law this way.

On a somewhat related tangent, I have put up an Oxdown showing how Brian Ross' reporting over the years about al-Libi has changed. In 2005 and 2007, he said al-Libi had been waterboarded. That makes me wonder of al-Libi's tuberculosis was the result of waterboarding. This sure was a convenient time for the Bushies for al-Libi to die of "suicide".

The country that effectively stopped a terror attack on US bound airplanes might now be obliged to stop sharing intel with us as well. To protect Bush and Cheney?

Why and when did the Obama administration begin referring to the government of the United Kingdom as "Her Majesty's Government" as in HMG? Is this really a letter from the U.S. or a letter from the British government to the High Court?

Just wondering.

This isn't really surprising. Obama is now head of the security state. What the security state does is expand it's power to do what it wants. Whatever the empire requires, the security state delivers. If McCain had won the election, he'd be taking the same position. What's disappointing is that Obama ran on a campaign of transparency and openness in government. But we all know what campaign promises are worth, NOTHING. Just like his pledge that no one was above the law, we see how much Obama meant that one as well. It's Obama that is standing in the way of any investigations or prosecutions of torture. It's Obama that's standing in the way of real progress. We all got duped into thinking he was a progressive, when he's definetly a statist.

This does not bode well for long term accountability. It's as though they think by getting almost as dirty as the last bunch, they can water down the crimes the Bush adm. committed. Sad stuff.

Great post.

I can not believe that Obama is trying so hard to conceal the treatment of these poor bastards that were caught up in the torture machine. I just can not figure out why he is working so hard against the interests and desires of the very folks who elected him. Beats me.

So the Republic ends.

call his (Obama's) bluff. This said by an Obama voter.

...and has for some time that although he may stop the activity of torture, for now (as far as we know), he seems to want to preserve for himself and for future presidents the right to torture. ("Right" used advisedly.)

You say:

"Is this really a letter from the U.S. or a letter from the British government to the High Court?"

I notice there are American spellings ('endeavors' rather than 'endeavours'). Are you suggesting the letter is a British forgery?

Obama made a Devil's Agreement with Bush it seems. I wonder if every president makes those dirty bargains. This explains too why Dick Cheney has been so glib about torture, he knows that Obama's over a barrel about it.

The information will come out sooner or later, just the way the information about what the C.I.A. did in Guatemala and Chile came out. So it looks like our children won't live in an America that tries to live up to its ideals. I wonder then what we're protecting from the terrorists anyway? Consumerism? Crappy Fast Food? Christian Hypocrisy? Mount Rushmore? Air conditioning? What after all are we defending? Star Trek? Pornography? Beer?

What is the motive for these extraordinary legal maneuvers Glenn?

Why is the Obama Administration bending over backwards, and threatening our strongest ally to protect Bush era officials who committed crimes against humanity? Torturers and murderers no less?

An even more urgent question is: Why are we all simply letting it happen?

We've become a nation of torture apologists...Christ, we murdered over 100 fucking detainees during interrogations?

Where is the outrage?

Oh well. So, who's going to win American Idol? Yawn...back to sleep...

O...baaaaaahhhh...ma.

O...baaaaaahhhh...ma.

Neither in the memoranda, nor in any statements of the administration accompanying their release, was reference made to the identity of any foreign governments that might have assisted the United States. Given the declassification of the highly sensitive information contained in the memoranda, the fact that the President refrained from providing any information about foreign governments is indicative that the United States continues to preserve the secrecy of such information as critical to our national security.

.

This sheds an interesting light on the Obama's insistence on asserting State secrets privelege in the US courts as well. Basically it's insisting that the UK follow the US example and regard secrecy as paramount over lawfulness. It's OK to for the US to release information about itslef but to relase information about a 'foreign' government if verbotten.

The CIA has once again used the wiles of sharing top secrets with the POTUS and how my country must manipulate, torture and even kill to keep us safe and the US citizens must not know the truth or we can't keep doing these terrible acts.

If we could just get someone in the M$M like the NYT or WaPo to do a story on this and then have Gibbs questioned about it, maybe we could get Obama's attention.

If Michelle understood what you have just reported, I think she would not be happy and as Barack has said, when Michelle is unhappy, we are all unhappy.

Holder is also a major player. The next time he appears before congress or holds a press conference, he could be questioned on this.

Damn it would be so much easier if we had a fourth estate that was not corrupted and really believed in the role it needs to play when our government is so wrong.