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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Clearly, doing permanent, painful harm to someone's body is torture. Is there any record of that? What happens to a person that has been water boarded? Can they walk away (not out of prison) and live a physically unencumbered life? It seems to me if any investigation is to take place into anything, the first order of business should be "what is it we are looking for"? The pursuit of 'maybe' or 'gray area' seems to be an effort of little value. Why not have a committee to codify what indeed qualifies as torture? That would more productive but would get fewer Congressional faces on TV. A win-win!!
... falls squarely on the shoulders of the news media. Holder should read between the lines and understand that the same organizations that made so much hay out of 9/11, got so blindly behind unconstitutional legislation like the Patriot Act and accepted the "evidence" for war with Iraq so unquestioningly have almost as much to lose as those directly responsible for the plethora of executive branch crimes we're talking about here. Aside from token mentions, the MSM has not barely discussed the issue enough for the public to notice, much less to be outraged. And as you mention, Joan, much of the discussion that did occur was disgracefully colored with the disingenuous commentary of neo-fascists like Liddy and Rivkin. If Holder wants to really gauge the public feeling over this issue, he will have to do so by taking the issue to the people himself; opening a serious investigation and/or handing out some introductory indictments is probably what it will take to bring this issue above a small blip on the news radar. Or even the release of the remaining torture photos... The attention-deficit of the American public (as fostered by the news/noise machine) means that memos just aren't very exciting; direct visual evidence on the other hand will get people's attention.
In short, like Obama on many issues, Holder must spend/invest a bit of political capital on this if he's not just going to bury it... Let's hope he's more willing than his boss to take a bold step or two without knowing there's a safety net beneath him. At least he doesn't have to concern himself with the prospect of a 50-state victory and the title of "Coolest Kid In America!!!", goals which are keeping Black Hoover from even wiping his ass without the explicit approval of Rahm, John Brennan and Larry Summers.
Okay, Holder etal. need to hear public outcry. They can tap my phones, Internet cable, etc. I am all over this but they hear not.
What other way do we have to register our outrage? Obama loves to use the web to TELL us what he wants us to know. Does he use the web to HEAR us, as well?
I am getting cynical again. I got enthused about his candidacy because I thought, "Well, the man can think." I was sure he would be less than I want and than the country needs. He is MUCH less.
Ideas?
The more revelations that serious crimes were perpetrated by Bush/Cheney officials, the less likely it seems that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will do the right thing and criminally prosecute them. Covering up war crimes is a war crime in and of itself, and Mr. Holder and President Obama are becoming accessories after the fact. They don't have the intestinal fortitude or political will to do the right thing. When Obama said there is only one system of justice, he was lying through his hypocritical teeth. The rich (Wall Street CEO's) and politically-privileged (Bush/Cheney officials) are above the law because Obama and Holder put them there--CRIMINAL JUST US. Obama is standing between the angry mob holding pitchforks and torches and his benefactors who are corrupt Wall Street executives proudly protecting them not realizing that he will be the first one to taste justice, and the same situation is developing with respect to Bush/Cheney war crimes and his protection of them.
"The notion that there was no public outrage after the memos is hard to swallow: Certainly in the pages of Salon, and throughout the entire liberal blogosphere, there was plenty of clamor and outrage. I personally wasted my breath multiple times on MSNBC and CNN, debating torture with the likes of G. Gordon Liddy, David Frum and Liz Cheney."
It's an interesting question: where is the outrage, when there is some, seen or heard by those who need to see or hear it?
As you point out, Joan, the public outrage, what there was of it, was soon countered (head off at the pass) by legions of MSM talking heads arguing that "it wasn't really torture" or "it was necessary to save lives from further acts of terrorism" (paraphrasing here). Cue Dick Cheney's public speaking tour. And Rahm's assertion that there would be no prosecutions did its part to make it seem that expressions of outrage would be pointless.
It's hard to accept that real public outrage could be so easily defeated. Maybe there should be a website, outrage.org or something like that, that collects the outrage and sends it to the people who need to hear it. Just a thought.
Thanks for your post, Joan. Keep up the good work.
Joan
Let me suggest just the opposite to conventional wisdom.
I think that the lack of public outrage to the previously released memos indicates that a full-blown investigation would not have the gut-wrenching political storms that pundits predict.
Keeping a secret poisons the soul. Of a person or a nation. Only confession cleanses. Let us separate confession from punishment.
In the way Mandala did in SA. Certainly those lawyers guilty should be disbarred, and CIA personnel dismissed but that is all that I would want to punish.
What is most needed is a clear statement that the level of secrecy should never again be allowed in our democracy. Perhaps Obama needs that reminder as well
This is how you dumbshits got into this mess in the first place.
The ease with which you mistake skin color and slogans for policy. Confuse accents and regionalisms for variations in intellect.
The prior occupant spoke passably fluent Spanish. Their grades were probably even the same, but they'd be hard to compare since BO won't release his. Their speaking abilities off teleprompter are certainly identical.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
