Information Clearing House
Barack Obama, Torture Enabler
By Ted Rall
America is a nation of laws–laws enforced by Spain.
John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes and Douglas Feith wrote, authorized and promulgated the Justice Department “torture memos” that the Bush Administration used for legal cover. After World War II, German lawyers for the Ministry of Justice went to prison for similar actions.
We’ve known about Yoo et al.’s crimes for years. Yet–unlike their victims–they’re free as birds, fluttering around, writing op/ed columns…and teaching. At law school!
Obama has failed to match changes of tone with changes in substance on the issue of Bush’s war crimes. “We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” he answered when asked whether he would investigate America’s worst human rights abuses since World War II. Indeed, there’s no evidence that Obama’s Justice Department plans to lift a finger to hold Bush or his henchmen accountable.
“They should arrest Obama for trying to impersonate a President,” one wag commented on The San Francisco Chronicle’s website.
Fortunately for those who care about U.S. law, there are Spanish prosecutors willing to do their job. Baltasar Garzón, the crusading prosecutor who went after General Augusto Pinochet in the ’90s, will likely subpoena the Dirty Half Dozen within the next few weeks. “It would have been impossible to structure a legal framework that supported what happened [in Guantánamo]” without Gonzales and his pals,” argues the criminal complaint filed in Madrid.
When the six miscreants ignore their court dates (as they surely will), Spain will issue international arrest warrants enforceable in the 25 countries that are party to European extradition treaties. All hail King Juan Carlos I!
Which brings us to a leaked report by the Red Cross, famous for its traditional reticence to confront governments. Which means that physicians are enjoined to do no harm. Doctors are prohibited by their ethical code of conduct from attending, much less participating in, torture. (What does this have to do with Bush’s lawyers? Hold on. I’m getting there.)
The Red Cross found that CIA doctors, nurses and/or paramedics “monitored prisoners undergoing waterboarding, apparently to make sure they did not drown. Medical workers were also present when guards confined prisoners in small boxes, shackled their arms to the ceiling, kept them in frigid cells and slammed them repeatedly into walls,” reports The New York Times.
“Even if the medical worker’s intentions had been to prevent death or permanent injury,” the report said, they would have violated medical ethics. But they weren’t there to protect anyone but the CIA. They even “condoned and participated in ill treatment….[giving] instructions to interrogators to continue, to adjust or to stop particular methods.” Charming.
Since 1945, at least 70 doctors around the world have been prosecuted for participating in torture. But not Bush’s CIA torture facilitators. Not by this president. Asked to comment on the Red Cross report, a spokesman for CIA director Leon Panetta replied that Panetta “has stated repeatedly that no one who took actions based on legal guidance from the Department of Justice at the time should be investigated, let alone punished.” (There’s the lawyer connection.)
Which is similar to what Obama said about the torturers: “At the CIA, you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering up.” Don’t you just hate being micromanaged when you’re torturing people?
Ah, the great shell game of American justice. You can’t prosecute the torturers because their lawyers advised them that torture was OK. You can’t prosecute the lawyers because all they did was theorize–they didn’t torture anyone. You can’t prosecute the president and vice president who ordered the torture because they have “executive privilege” and, anyway, who would put a head of state on trial? What is this, Peru?
What’s the flip side of a victimless crime? A perpless crime?
It’s a neat circle, or would be if it fit, but drink some coffee and let the caffeine do its thing and it soon becomes apparent that it doesn’t come close. The trouble for the Bushies, and now for Obama–they’re his torturers now–is that lawyers are bound by a higher code than following orders.
Yoo, Bybee, Addington, Gonzales, Haynes and Feith were asked by the White House to come up with legal cover for what they knew or ought to have known were illegal acts under U.S. law, international law, and treaties including the Geneva Conventions (which were ratified by the U.S. and therefore hold the force of U.S. law). Since they don’t deny what they did–indeed, they continue to justify it–their presumed defense if they wound up on trial in Europe would be that they were just following orders.
However, the decision in the 1948 trials of German attorneys immortalized in the fictionalized film “Judgment at Nuremberg” makes clear that a lawyer’s duty is to the law–not his government. And not just his own country’s law–international law.
The Nuremberg tribunal acknowledged that Nazi Germany was an absolute dictatorship in which everyone answered to Adolf Hitler and could be shot for disobeying. Nevertheless, the court ruled, “there were [German] restrictions for Hitler under international law.” Despite his total legal authority within Germany, Hitler “could issue orders [that violated] international law.” Obeying a direct order from Hitler, in other words, was illegal if it violated international law. And German lawyers went to prison for doing just that.
The six lawyers about to face charges in Spain didn’t have to worry about Nazi firing squads. They were rank opportunists trying to advance their careers in an Administration that viewed laws as quaint, inconvenient obstacles. Here’s how not scared they are: Feith recently penned an op/ed in The Wall Street Journal daring–double-daring–Obama’s Justice Department to go after him.
“If President Barack Obama and the prosecutors see a crime to be prosecuted, they can act,” Feith wrote.
One can only hope. In the meantime, we’ll always have Spain.
Ted Rall is the author of the new book “Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?,” an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America’s next big foreign policy challenge. Visit his website http://www.rall.com/
© 2009 Ted Rall
(Source)
OK
Lets now get serious about having a public debate on Impeaching Obama.
Who will take the “Oh we can’t, he is our Democrat Savior” side.
I will take the Impeach the New War Criminal side.
All that Obama has done is expose some “progressive” “it’s about accountability” “progrssives.”
Wow! . . .and the fools continue to be fooled. Obviously those who voted for Obama were foolish enough to believe his lies and deciet. Shame on you. And further shame to any Americans (?) who stand up to say that prisoners of terror were mistreated. Disgusting. That’s what you are . . .purely disgusting. Terrorists gained greater access to our country during the lame Clinton years when we let our ‘guard’ down. I suppose that’s what you propose again! Hey, I have an idea! Since you think we should be all nicey-nicey with these horrifying creatures of terror, why don’t you send us the name of your hometown and we’ll point them in your direction. Maybe let them strike a little closer to home for you and see how your protective outlook changes. Wow! It’s that type of mentality that makes me disgusted, truly heart-wrenchingly disgusted, with those who call themselves “Americans”.
all i have to say is IMPEACH HIM IMMEDIATYLY!!!!! i am a young black woman and i feel and i demand him to be impeached immediatly before it is too late please. we need to protest get him out NOW!!! start a protest 1rst ammendment freedom of speech religion and press we have got to be heard. before that freedom is tooken away.
8-9 months in….How are you liking your change now?????
Personally, I am disgusted, outraged and quite pissed off……
Same crap….Different party……You people are hypocrites!!!
Please open your eyes…..
Figure it out soon……..It is almost too late……
How can homosexuals be given more rights than christians, repubilicans, or unborn children.
Homosexuality is wrong and un natural, how can it be a hate crime to not want to associate with that?
It’s o.k. to kill unborn children and to persecute christians, becuase they are too moral and believe that they are accountable to a God that sees and deals justly with thier actions?
Sodomy is illegal in most of the states, yet we give right to psychologically dammaged people to continue in thier condition instead of grants to fund organizations to help homosexuals be cured from their disease.
Why don’t we start legislation to help internet porn addicts, or better yet establish laws to govern the sick perverse forms of already illegal prostitution being pushed by it. If America doesn’t get back to the basics it was founded on it will fall.
Americans use to be known for their pride, honesty, craftsmanship, hardwork, fear of God. Now we are know as lazy and corrupt in almost every way from our churches to our government. Laws were put in place to help protect good and honest people from people who had no selfcontrol or morals of their own. Good, honest people, with morals and a sense of accountability to God, don’t need laws, because they have a personal conviction to try and do the right thing. Greed put America’s economy in this situation, we have to fight once more for values. Value describes an objects worth, but without value an object gets abused and eventually thrown in the trash. What is America’s value??? What is your country worth to you???
His views and moral caracter are un-American and continue to prove is status of citisenship.
He is not American by birth, and his views and agenda do not corespond with any tradional American core values or beliefs. His extreme measures of change have already began to maniplulate or society and also have already caused extreme ramifications of the U.S. as as to what we deem to be socially moral and right.
Without values or country will see utter anarchy. We need values inorder to insure good moral conduct and trust in our leadship and government. Without morals there is no respect for the laws of government which results in higher crime and lack of national pride. This infiltration of immorality is terriorism of the worst kind. He is not a citizen, he not American, He doesn’t even think like an America.
His stimulus package cost us money, his energy plan cost us money, his healthcare plan is an attempt to socialism, and his foriegn policies are driving us further into third world conditions. If he would cancel all non-citizen work visas and allow American citizen to work the employment rate of Americans would go up and other nations would stop having more of our money circulating in them than we do.
As Americans we need to ask our selves, “How did ths happen?”
Yes Barack Obama should be removed from office, Impeached immediately and all of his policies and views should go with him.
His views and moral caracter are un-American and continue to prove is status of citisenship.
He is not American by birth, and his views and agenda do not corespond with any tradional American core values or beliefs. His extreme measures of change have already began to maniplulate or society and also have already caused extreme ramifications of the U.S. as as to what we deem to be socially moral and right.
Without values or country will see utter anarchy. We need values inorder to insure good moral conduct and trust in our leadship and government. Without morals there is no respect for the laws of government which results in higher crime and lack of national pride. This infiltration of immorality is terriorism of the worst kind. He is not a citizen, he not American, He doesn’t even think like an America.
His stimulus package cost us money, his energy plan cost us money, his healthcare plan is an attempt to socialism, and his foriegn policies are driving us further into third world conditions. If he would cancel all non-citizen work visas and allow American citizen to work the employment rate of Americans would go up and other nations would stop having more of our money circulating in them than we do.
As Americans we need to ask our selves, “How did ths happen?”
Yes Barack Obama should be removed from office, Impeached immediately and all of his policies and views should go with him.
What is this impeach Obama?He is only trying to clean up the mess of the past 8 years of lying to the citizens of this country ,and the world.We can not,and should not be living the my country right,or wrong.If it is wrong .It is WRONG. The Bush/Cheney regime was a total embarrassment to any American who could see beyond thier nose.It sure embarrassed me.
Absolutely as far as I am concerned, but IFP has gone relatively dormant now that Bush/Cheney have crawled back under their rocks (Cheney’s defense of war crimes rant today not withstanding).
Is Impeach for Peace willing to sponsor this?
So far, about 20 different organizations have.
I know Kevin Zeese. He is a very good man and this is a very serious effort..
Complaint seeks disbarment of Bush lawyers
By NEDRA PICKLER – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A coalition of liberal groups filed petitions Monday seeking disbarment of Bush administration attorneys linked to memos on harsh interrogation techniques of detainees.
Complaints were filed against 12 individuals, including former attorneys general John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, said a member of the groups. The complaints filed with bar associations in the District of Columbia and four states — New York, California, Texas and Pennsylvania — say their licenses should be revoked for “moral turpitude.”
“These lawyers misused their license to practice law to provide legal cover for the war crime of torture,” said Kevin Zeese, executive director of VotersForPeace.US and a board member with VelvetRevolution.US, the two groups leading the effort.
Memos by the Bush Justice Department contended that waterboarding — a form of simulated drowning — as well as sleep deprivation and other extreme techniques were legal under U.S. and international law.
The other attorneys who are targets of the campaign are:
_ John Yoo, Jay Bybee and Stephen Bradbury, who worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel
_ Ex-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith
_ Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington
_ Pentagon lawyer William Haynes
_ Former deputy White House counsel Timothy Flanigan
_ and Alice Fisher, former director of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Actually I think modern day republicans are descended from those superior aliens. I think it’s a genetic coding. It’s all carved in stone somewhere I’m sure.
My fellow travelers on the road to justice, I am disturbed over the way hatred for Bush has translated into hatred for Obama. He is not a perfect person, but he is leading us on the way to greater prosperity. Just because we have failed to hold Bush and his evil followers accountable, let us not turn our rage on the very savior of this once great nation.
Let us instead work to ensure that the US will never wage another war of aggression against a weaker, and morally superior foe. As we dismantle our military, let us equip those we have wronged. The Afghanis must inherit our most advanced weapons, we must give our nuclear arsenal to Iraq, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan. We must reduce our internal forces to a small force suitable for national policing. Our navy must be scrapped, or shared among those we have wronged. Only then will we as a nation have atoned for the crimes against humanity committed since that evil day in 1776 when a bunch of upstart rich white men set out on their insane genocidal conquest first of North American, then on the world.
I beseech Obama, the Great Leader to place the US under world rule, in fact to work to place the entire world under the peaceful control of the UN. As justice, the Iraqis and Afghanis should be allowed to rule over the United States, followed by the rule of each and every other nation or people we have oppressed. Then justice will be done.
Instead of impeaching for peace, we should be standing down, surrendering and begging for peace. Instead of being an aloof nation, we should be a subservient one to all those we have wronged. If Obama will not take this only suitable course of action, then we must impeach him for failing the True Cause of Peace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHgyL2oasHM
Phillip J. Berg’s Lawsuit Against Obama: Prediction victory
Impeach Obama
No, no, no Mikael you don’t get it. The Taliban is fighting for the very heart and soul of their religion. We cannot violate their right to worship freely, or to practice their religion as they see fit. When the US sends imperialistic warmongering thugs to tell these poor people how they must live their lives, then we are in the wrong.
“freedom fighters of teh Afghani Taliban”?
I think you have a skewed vision of what the Taliban is and who they are fighting for.
We need to impeach any government official who will not prosecute those who tortured those poor freedom fighters of the Afghani Taliban in Gitmo and other sites. Perhaps we need to start electing proper presidents for life, drawn from a pool of responsible democrats.
The people vs Obama
impeach Obama
Michael,
If you or someone else sets up a debate/panel discussion about the merits of impeaching Obama vs. impeaching Bush, etc. I would be happy to participate. I do not have any time to organize such a thing.
Mikael,
Agreed. With part of the context being WHY the attempts to hold the most corrupt, illegal Bush Administration failed.
Including the part of Constitutional lawyer and now president Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
That sounds like a fine debate that I will be only too happy to be a part of.
Where, when and with which groups involved in the set up?
As for Den, he is a waste of time, quite frankly. He is one of the “Obama” is not an American crowd who calls for Obama’s Impeachment but has been quite all the time that we pushed for Bush’s Impeachment.
In the Impeachment debate, he has no credibility what so ever.
None.
Den,
Associating with criminals is not criminal in and of itself and it reeks of McCarthyism, which I find rather disgusting.
Obama admitted trying illegal drugs before the election yet won in a landslide so the nation has decided it isn’t relevant.
Do you have any actual impeachable evidence?
Michael,
I think a debate about the relative merits of an Obama impeachment campaign versus one against Bush that did not succeed might be a very good thing.
Mikael
Like I said, public debate, any old time you like.
//;-)>——-
Mikael
The real issue here is partisan protection.
Barak Obama has now committed war crimes. just like GW Bush. Impeachable offense.
Refusal to hold those guilty accountable is Obstruction of Justice- Another Impeachable offense.
The only one involved in emotional haranguing and partisan actions here is those who make all kinds of noises about holding REPUBLICAN presidents accountable
yet refuse to hold DEMOCRAT presidents accountable to the very same standard.
This is not a Dem or Rethug issue. It is a Constitutional and future accountability issue.
You know this.
Once again, all I ask is that people lay out the charges against Obama or any other office holder if there is reasonable call for impeachment.
I have no interest in partisan witchhunts nor emotional haranguing.
Any time Mikael.
lets talk about this in person.
The petition
A PETITION
for
The Impeachment of Senator Barack Obama
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
Whereas: Senator Barack Obama is an admitted Illegal drug user and is believed to have used illegal drugs as recently as November 1999 or more recently. Mr. Obama has maintained contact with other admitted illegal drug users.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/obamaimpeachment/
http://obamaimpeachment.org/
Impeach, expel Barack Obama
This is started already,,,So it true or untrue?
Hi Mikael Obama is liar never supported not going to succeed and he’s another bozo not going to ruin this Country
another abusive,,wastefull spender
The fight is goin to happen..
impeach obama
Right on, Mikael!
I’m not disputing nor supporting calls for Obama’s impeachment. All I am asking is that people lay out the charges instead of simply calling out for someone’s political head based on their particular partisan bent.
Only interested in facts, not emotional baggage.
Mikael,
BTW, sorry I could not make your play but this nurse was working. I heard it was stellar.
Yup, you do know a pain in the a** don’t you?
LOLOL
So when do we start the Impeach Obama campaign?
Mikael, I would be happy to debate you on this. Anytime, anywhere.
In public. I am tired of the cowardice and complicity.
ignore the idiots who spout Michael savage. If that is their source, then they have no credibility, at all.
Den,
Can you elaborate on the impeachable offenses of President Obama please?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJkOz3afFY&feature=PlayList&p=A7E5A4D66DC63A60&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=30
MICHAEL SAVAGE – IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!!! BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!! BEFORE AMERICA IS FINISHED!!
Impeach Obama,,,
If Obama doesn’t pursue the crimes of the Bush administration near and far the world will not pursue democracy or capitalism. The reputation of America under Bush will last forever. The world will not forget. The best response for America to make is to prosecute the Bush administration for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They should also be prosecuted for the crimes they committed against the American people. Until this happens respect for America from the world will not exist and international support will not exist. Thanks to the stupidity of Rumsfeld and the Bush administrations Iran will have nuclear weapons and Iraq will someday be controlled by China.