Accountability for torture moves closer

The Obama administration seems to be sending up a new "trial balloon" about prosecuting the perpetrators of the Cheney-Bush torture program. Other new revelations about CIA lawlessness, including Cheney's pet assassination program, is also reminding us of how risky it is to allow the President and Vice President to operate unencumbered by the law.

I've linked several commentaries below on what this latest round of the slow progress toward holding the torture perpetrator legally accountable. The bottom line really is that the law, including the Torture Convention of 1984 which as a ratified treaty has the same force of law as the Constitution itself, require the Obama administration to seek prosecutions of anyone for whom there is good evidence they broke the laws against torture.

As the commentaries linked below describe, the Sunday morning gasbags were pooh-pooing this whole silly idea that those who committed criminal action in the torture program should be held legally accountable. One more sign of the deep-seated corruption of our broken national press in the United States.


The torture issue isn't going away. The sooner the adminstration submits the whole thing to the normal process of investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators, the better. But it's not going away. No matter how much "Give 'Em Whine Harry" Reid in the Senate and the media priests of High Broderism want it to just go away. If it's such a depressing prospect for them, maybe some of them will just decide to retire and do the whole country a favor.

Links:

Daniel Klaidman, Independent's Day Online Newsweek 07/11/09 (07/20/09 issue). This is the "trial balloon" article.

McJoan, Cheney, the CIA, and Congress: Now What? Daily Kos Diary 07/13/09. McJoan reminds us against what a joke the bold Maverick McCain's alleged opposition to the torture program really is. (My characterization, not hers.) Not that the Democrats as a group were a profile in courage on the issue. But McCain being celebrated by his silly press fans as a bold opponent of torture was one of the more ghastly farces of the Cheney-Bush era.

Digby, Who Will Tell The President? Hulaballoo 07/13/09

Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) Obama on the Afghan Massacre Emptywheel blog 07/13/09

John Amato, Destroying the Furniture: This Week's roundtable gagglers gag on the possiblity of torture hearings 07/13/09

Scott Horton, three posts on his No Comment blog 07/13/09: Will Holder Launch a Torture Investigation?; Is the Lid About to Blow on the Cheney Snuff Program?; Rep. King Calls for Scorched Earth

Glenn Greenwald, The Holder trial balloon: Abu Ghraib redux 07/12/09

Scott Horton, Torture Prosecution Turnaround? The Daily Beast 07/12/09

Digby, Holder Of The Cards Hulaballoo 07/11/09

Joan Walsh, Will Eric Holder do the right thing? Salon 07/11/09

Glenn Greenwald, The new Report on illegal spying is not a real investigation Salon 07/11/09

Susie Madrak, Sy Hersh: Cheney Ran Assassin Ring Crooks and Liars blog 03/12/09

Tags: accountability for torture, torture

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