Jonathan Turley on a Special Prosecutor for Torture

I have come to absolutely love this guy. He is my role model as a lawyer. He is deadly smart, but unquestionably passionate about the Constitution and the rule of law. He always tells it like it is...when either Keith or Rachel have him on it is a must watch.

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President Obama Violating International Law?

News leaked yesterday (from the wonderful Marcy Wheeler of Firedoglake) that Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. From Think Progress:

Marcy Wheeler digs through the recently-disclosed Office of Legal Counsel memos authored by the Bush Justice Department and finds these startling statistics: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Wheeler concludes, “The CIA wants you to believe waterboarding is effective. Yet somehow, it took them 183 applications of the waterboard in a one month period to get what they claimed was cooperation out of KSM. That doesn’t sound very effective to me.”

What is more Obama has asked us to move on, while morally (in my opinion) repugnant it happens to also be illegal. Think Progress also has a piece that when Obama released the four torture memos he released a statement not to allow prosecutions against CIA agents who engaged in these patently illegal tactics. In an interview the UN Rapporteur on torture, Professor Nowak explains that Obama's immunity grant is a violation of international law. Read the rest of the post here.

Now, it is understandable as a boss that you don't want your underlings (these CIA agents who engaged in torture) prosecuted because of what it might do for morale. But, for us, as Americans we need the Constitution to be followed, to be protected and when it is violated, consequences should follow. If they are not we are bound to repeat the same mistakes. It isn't Obama's decision really it is ours. And we need to make it for him.

Torture Memos

Here is how we entered the dark side, made it legal. Just chilling to read. As I read these memos the one thought going through my head is "they have no idea what they are doing, fucking incompetents." And that is it. Even the second paragraph of the first memo says "Zubaydah has information he is not willing to divulge" and what, torture will make him? That premise has been debunked for centuries. But, these neo-cons thought they could do better. Why? Because they were scared and had no idea what they were doing. So, they decided to make torture legal.

Eric Holder as Attorney General

Eric Holder, as Dick Durbin indicates changes the world with three words: "Waterboarding is torture." Progressives certainly have some gripes with the way some of the administration has come together, etc., but it will be nice to know we no longer live in a world where the United States tortures people - legally. Holder holds his own with this fundamentalist fanatic, John Cornyn, Senator from Texas. He gives him the Jack Bauer scenario (how did this make it through to our venacular) and Holder towards the end kind of chuckles at him, respectfully of course.

The "Dark Side" Began Under President Clinton

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War On Terror Turned Into A War on American Ideals, By Jane Mayer is chilling and masterful. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and one of Ten Bests across most major News papers as well as other major awards of journalism.

I am about half way through and it is so chilling as to curdle the blood and keep you up at night. It makes me not fear the mafia so much or bad neighborhoods or even terrorism, but instead my own country. This is also not a book of opinion, it is a book of journalism. Ms. Mayer is a highly respected journalist with the New York Times and the New Yorker. She is by the way, a masterful story teller.

It goes through much of the sordid details after 9/11 of how we got here, it describes a frightened white house of men who were taken completely by surprise by the attacks. It then goes on to describe the brutal details of how we began to detain Muslim men, torture them and ship them off to other countries surely to be tortured and to participate in that torture. It tells us how we got to Guantanamo Bay and that truly the two men responsible for all of this are Dick Cheney and his assistant, David Addington.

It helps me to see that we were not living in a democracy anymore, we had a weak, intellectually incurious, some said "not very bright" President that was taken advantage by these two men and that this is primarily how we got here. What I found interesting is that the "Dark Side" did not just begin under this regime, however, but surely as the players discuss "there was a war on terrorism before 9/11 and then after 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves came off."

But, a procedure called "Extraordinary Rendition" began under Bill Clinton. It is a procedure where terrorists or shall I say suspected terrorists (this does not seem to mean much anymore) are rounded up in which they are taken to a country outside the laws of the United States, flown in the middle of the night in most cases, gagged and thrown in a body case, until landed. The suspects find themselves in one of several countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, etc. where human rights laws have been disobeyed for centuries, where human rights are not taken seriously and things like the Geneva Convention are not taken too seriously. In a word, the suspects are tortured. This process became a staple of the Bush Administration and is surely still going on, but it began under Bill Clinton.

Granted, the reason it was done was because Clinton would not authorize the CIA to kill Bin Laden. The CIA had been studying Al Qaeda and its terrorist operations and they knew they were serious and Richard Clarke, head of the operations, in charge of counter terrorism for the NSA wanted it done. They went to the White House and asked for it to be done and then it was authorized. Just like that. No legal procedures, nothing.

The team was granted an indictment of Bin Laden in 1998 and for this Bin Laden could be legally tendered to the United States to stand trial, but the CIA was reluctant to give terrorists the due process of American Law. I guess we are too soft over here for other Americans. These 'renditions' began before that, however so the explanation doesn't make much sense. The renditions were authorized by either George Tenet under Clinton, or head of the NSA each and every one of them. At least under Clinton they had procedures.

One such case, I found extraordinary. One of Bin Laden's top lieutenants was captured in Albania. He was actually the top lieutenant's brother named Mohammed Zawahirri. His partner, named Shawki Salama Attiya was captured, others were killed. The captured suspected terrorists were "bound, blindfolded, and taken to an abandoned air base and flown to Cairo." He claims he suffered electrical shocks to his genitals, was hung from his limbs, and was kept in a cell in filthy water up to his knees. Two other suspects were hanged. Another suspect disappeared and was thought to have been executed. Meanwhile what became to be known as the "Albanian Returnees" became a rallying cry for the Muslim world. For we may not know about this, but the Arab and Muslim worlds do.

Jane Mayer goes on to describe what happens next: On August 5, 1998, a month after the Albanian rendition, a London based Arab newspaper published a letter from Bin Laden's top deputy, Zawahiri threatening retaliation against the United States - "in a language they will understand." He warned, that American's message has been received and that the response, which we hope they will read carefully, is being prepared." Two days later, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were blown up, killing 224 people.

This is the fear of all that is happening. When America becomes like the terrorists, engaging in acts that are against our own ideals, we radicalize the Arab world against us. These ideals are not just to be written about, they are to be practiced and they are not just for academics to debate, they are also in place to protect us. We have lost who we are as a people. This is very evident in the current Israeli - Palestinian conflict. This conflict radicalized the Arab world like nothing else, yet we give our unwavering support to a colonialist regime that degrades and humiliates the people of Palestine on a daily basis.

What will become of us after January 20, 2008? Will we continue these outrageous policies of human rights violations or will we see a different future? The jury is completely out on this question.

Navy JAG Andrew Williams Resigns Over Torture

From Think Progress:

Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams, a JAG officer with the U.S. Naval Reserve, recently resigned his commission over the alleged use of torture by the United States and the destruction of video tapes said to contain instances of that torture.

As ThinkProgress reported in December, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, repeatedly refused to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranian military torture. This is his explanation in resigning his commission:


The final straw for me was listening to General Hartmann, the highest-ranking military lawyer in charge of the military commissions, testify that he refused to say that waterboarding captured U.S. soldiers by Iranian operatives would be torture.

His testimony had just sold all the soldiers and sailors at risk of capture and subsequent torture down the river. Indeed, he would not rule out waterboarding as torture when done by the United States and indeed felt evidence obtained by such methods could be used in future trials.
Thank you, General Hartmann, for finally admitting the United States is now part of a long tradition of torturers going back to the Inquisition.

In the middle ages, the Inquisition called waterboarding “toca” and used it with great success. In colonial times, it was used by the Dutch East India Company during the Amboyna Massacre of 1623.

Waterboarding was used by the Nazi Gestapo and the feared Japanese Kempeitai. In World War II, our grandfathers had the wisdom to convict Japanese Officer Yukio Asano of waterboarding and other torture practices in 1947, giving him 15 years hard labor.

Waterboarding was practiced by the Khmer Rouge at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. Most recently, the U.S. Army court martialed a soldier for the practice in 1968 during the Vietnam conflict.

General Hartmann, following orders was not an excuse for anyone put on trial in Nuremberg, and it will not be an excuse for you or your superiors, either.

Despite the CIA and the administration attempting to cover up the practice by destroying interrogation tapes, in direct violation of a court order, and congressional requests, the truth about torture, illegal spying on Americans and secret renditions is coming out.

A Figurative and Public Waterboarding of the Democrats

Glenn Greenwald has an interesting column today: What Happened to the Senate's 60 Vote requirement? That of course was my first instinct and was of course ready to voice my displeasure, but something really stinks about this. Greenwald says: Every time Congressional Democrats failed this year to stop the Bush administration (i.e., every time they "tried"), the excuse they gave was that they "need 60 votes in the Senate" in order to get anything done. Each time Senate Republicans blocked Democratic legislation, the media helpfully explained not that Republicans were obstructing via filibuster, but rather that, in the Senate, there is a general "60-vote requirement" for everything.

The Senate approved Mukasey Thursday night despite democratic criticism that he failed to take a principled stance or any stance for that matter on waterboarding. The vote went 53- 40 in favor. Six democrats voted for him and of course the moron "independent" Let's kill everyone Lieberman. All four Senate Democrats who are running for President did not vote because of campaign commitments I suppose. Thus, the democrats along with Bernie Sanders had 44 votes against Mukasey more than enough to prevent it via filibuster. So why didn't they filibuster, the way Senate Republicans have on virtually every measure this year which they wanted to defeat?

Greenwald Continues: Over and over again this year, Republican filibusters were depicted (both by Senate Democrats and the media) as nothing more the routine need to obtain the "60 votes required" for passage of any measure in the Senate. That "requirement" was said to apply to everything, including immigration ("The Senate voted 52-44 for the DREAM Act, but 60 votes were required to end debate"); Iraq withdrawal timetables ("Support is expected to top 50 votes but fall short of the 60 required"); troop leave requirements ("Webb's Iraq bill inches closer to 60 . . . . Winning at least three of those Republicans over could give the Democrats the 60 votes they need"); and warrantless surveillance ("Democratic-sponsored bill failed to reach the 60-vote majority").

It isn't true that there is a 60 vote requirement because Republicans are the only ones willing to impose and Democrats as something as grave as torture will not impose it. An attorney General who is "dead wrong on torture" and who won't even "tell the president that he cannot ignore the laws passed by Congress."

We are not a ruling party (the Democrats that is), we are not even an opposition party. Six years ago, as Greenwald says you couldn't be wrong on torture. Torture was just that - torture. Now, with the Iraq war funding bill on the horizon once again with the Democrats make the same argument. Sorry, here is a blank check because we need 60 votes to do anything.

We are either stuck with the warmongering Republicans or the vacillating spineless democrats. Who said Ralph Nader was wrong? Because I want to have that conversation again.

Countdown: Special Comment - Bush Fired Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin for Asserting Waterboarding as Torture

George Bush should be in jail, not running our country. We must all wake up and participate for our way of life is in jeopardy.

While the Democrats were Caving ABC News Reported the White House Own Counsel Considered Waterboarding Torture: Assclowns

This is shocking. I saw this last night on Olbermann. He discussed it with Richard Wolfe and then John Dean. A high ranking official in the justice department then-acting (2004) assistant attorney general Daniel Levin was so concerned about the administration’s use of waterboarding that he went to a military base near Washington and underwent the procedure himself.

Levin took over Jack Goldsmith when he resigned and immediately began reassessing the administration's interrogation techniques. Levin released a memo that torture was abhorrent. What is even more shocking, Levin was so concerned with "waterboarding" being used and experienced the procedure himself and told the Whitehouse it could be considered torture.

After the experience, Levin told White House officials that even though he knew he wouldn’t die, he found the experience terrifying and thought that it clearly simulated drowning. Of course we know as Glory to the Union pointed out, one cannot simulate drowning, you are either drowning or you are not.

Levin, who refused to comment for this story, concluded waterboarding could be illegal torture unless performed in a highly limited way and with close supervision. And, sources told ABC News, he believed the Bush Administration had failed to offer clear guidelines for its use. Shortly, thereafter Levin was forced out by new AG Alberto Gonzalez.

This post is not meant for Mukasey or for the administration, but is meant for the democrats. When is enough - enough for them. While Feinstein and Schumer were caving this report was being released. Will this change thier minds? Probably not, but it is baffling that an opposition party provides no oppostion whatsoever.

See the ABC report below:

Assclowns of the week: the Democrats

Scorecard on the Mukasey Nomination

Just to add to Glory to the Union's post below, here is the current scorecard on the vote for Mukasey. Patrick Leahy has just announced his opposition to the nomination and could have derailed his confirmation for good. Let us hope.

Lieberman is (of course) for the Nomination of Mukasey

See at Talking Points Memo the chart on who plans to vote for Mukasey as A.G. and who is still undecided. In my mind doing the opposite of Senator Lieberman is a good measure of what one should do. But, here is the reason this neocon wannabe should not be confirmed. Waterboarding is Torture. Torture is unacceptable. Period. There are certain lines we should not cross and this is one of them.

Bush is saying now that if Mukasey is not confirmed, then there will be no Attorney General. Sounds good to me.