therawstory
Turley: Most people abroad will view Bush as a war criminal
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Barack Obama has now been inaugurated as president, and the fear expressed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday night that George Bush might issue last-minute pardons of administration officials involved in torture, possibly including himself, has not come to pass.
However, the torture issue itself is not going to go away so easily. As Maddow also noted, “The calls for a reckoning are growing by the day — and not just from progressives outside the government.”
“Do you think that Obama and his team realized how hot an issue this would become and would stay?” Maddow asked Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley.
“I don’t think so,” Turley replied. “I don’t think the people in that building thought it,” he added, pointing to the Capitol. “I mean, that building is where principles go to die. And they haven’t, because there’s been this groundswell of people saying, ‘Look, you might be able to get away with an electronic surveillance program and say that’s just a crime we’re not going to allow to be prosecuted, but these are war crimes., these are a special category.'”
“I think that the new Barack Obama, the President Obama, is going to find it very hard to go round the world and to say that we’re now again the nation of rules of law,” Turley suggested, “if the first act he commits as president is to talk away from a confirmed war crime.”
“Are we literally looking at a possibility,” Maddow asked, “where administration officials from this [previous] administration cannot travel abroad to the other 145 countries that have signed the torture treaty because they might get arrested?”
“Most certainly,” Turley replied. “The status of George Bush is not that different from Augusto Pinochet. They’ve both been accused of running a torture program. And outside this country, there’s not this ambiguity about what to do with a war crime. … Most people abroad are going to view you not as former President George Bush, they’re going to view you as a current war criminal.”
“And they’re going to view us as an outlaw regime for not arresting him on our own soil,” Maddow remarked.
“I think so, unfortunately,” Turley agreed. “A lot’s at stake.”
(Source)
Bush is a “terrible” skunk man who dont belong in this country,another corrupt
public servant “elected official” who I hate such pig abuse.Bush should been pushed out the jet he flown in the ocean.
impeach!
If My Countries Government does not uphold justice in this matter, then they are no longer my government .
I will not be happy until the US enlisted “Scapegoats”m convicted over Abu Ghraib, are pardoned by Obama, and the entire bush Senior AdmOnistration is executed for the multitude of treason to the US and War Crimes against the world that they are guilty of.
If Obama blocks efforts to impeach Bush, then Obama should be impeached.
I think the main focus should be Yellow Cake and trickery. The Bush family, the Carlyle group, Cheney and Haliburton, war profiteering and over 500 thousand dead Iraqis, many innocent. Lets not forget our own soldiers that have died or been injured or disabled for life. Billions of dollars are completely unaccounted for and the war was so mismanaged that its been a total disgrace. We need to get back to the military supplying the military and not being controlled by monopolies of corporate and government tyrants. Saddam was hung for a lot less. Carl Rove, Bush ,Cheney, Rice, Baker, Bush Sr. Rumsfeld. Tom Delay, and several other republicans.
I’ll believe Bush gets punished in any way, when I see it! After all, his Daddy saw to it that previous court records were sealed.
Give it up Ramos,
The President you worship was a abysmal failure and a war criminal. He is lucky if he gets to keep his freedom in the U.S. and not have to scurry off to South America to avoid prosecution.
Just let it go. Your ideology has failed. Your party has failed. You are chasing the tail of an absurd notion.
Try heavy drinking. At least that might numb your pain.
Ramos:
Your flawed basis:
“Why would you take a terrorist’s word that they were mistreated?
That all those arrested are guilty leads to unfounded and inaccurate conclusions.
Didn’t your Community College offer any logic classes?
OMG! Take a look at this Andrew.
“The United States has failed to block a United Nations treaty on preventing torture, but the country is under no obligation to adopt the new convention at home”. The USSA does not have to abide by the UN’s treaty, Andrew, and Bush didn’t torture any prisoners. Why would you take a terrorist’s word that they were mistreated? I read the e-mails (all of them), and not once was there a reference to torture! These prisoners were and are now being treated humanely. Bush is a good man, much maligned by a partisan block of retards, and has never deserved the horrible, reprehensible treatment that he has received. Why he even commuted US Border Agents’ Ramos and Compean’s unjust sentences, while not signing extensive pardons, like Clinton did. Get a grip on reality and stop this insane campaign, Andrew. We won’t get on with the daunting task of reviving the greatness of our country this way!