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Today's Top News
Feingold's Right on Holding Wrongdoers to Account
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy deserves credit for pressing ahead with his modest proposal to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to review the assaults on the Constitution and general lawlessness of the Bush/Cheney administration.
As Leahy, D-Vt., said at the opening of last Wednesday's Judiciary Committee hearing on "Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry":
"Nothing has done more to damage America's place in the world than the revelation that this nation stretched the law and the bounds of executive power to authorize torture and cruel treatment. The Bush administration chose this course, but tried to keep its policies and actions secret, knowing that they could not withstand scrutiny in the light of day. How many times did President Bush go before the world and say that we did not torture and that we acted in accordance with law?
"There are some who resist any effort to look back at all, while others are fixated on prosecution, even if it takes all of the next eight years, or more, and further divides this country.
"Over the last month, I have suggested a middle ground to get to the truth of what went on during the last several years, in a way that invites cooperation. I believe that that might best be accomplished though a nonpartisan commission of inquiry. I would like to see this done in a manner removed from partisan politics. Such a commission of inquiry would shed light on what mistakes were made so that we can learn from these errors and not repeat them."
That is a reasoned and responsible stance, of the sort we have come to expect from Leahy.
There is no question that the chairman is pushing further into the constitutional thicket than President Barack Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder seem to be willing to go. And there is certainly some merit in borrowing from the wise experiments in accountability initiated by other countries -- especially South Africa, which used such a commission to get those responsible for apartheid-era crimes to acknowledge where the bodies were buried in return for the promise of immunity.
Unfortunately, Leahy's proposal to remove from the table the prospect of prosecution goes against the fundamental American precept that the rule of law must apply to all of us -- even presidents, vice presidents and White House aides.
Justice Anthony Kennedy was correct when he observed, in the Supreme Court decision restoring the writ of habeas corpus that was undermined by the Bush administration and its congressional amen corner, that the Constitution is not something an administration is able "to switch ... on and off at will."
The chairman of the Constitution subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, suggests that it is unwise to simply give up on the prospect of prosecuting lawbreakers.
While Feingold compliments Leahy's initiative and says that "getting all the facts out about what happened over the last eight years is a crucial part of restoring the rule of law," the Senate's most outspoken defender of the Constitution warned against going too far in surrendering the essential tools of the accountability process.
"On the question of immunity, I think we should tread carefully," Feingold told Wednesday's hearing. "There are cases that may require prosecution, and I wouldn't want a commission of inquiry to preclude that. Those who clearly violated the law and can be prosecuted should be prosecuted. On the other hand, the country will really benefit from having as complete a telling of this story as possible, so the ability of the commission to seek immunity for lower level participants certainly needs to be considered. How to do this is one of the complex questions that I hope can be explored in this hearing."
The American Civil Liberties Union agrees with Feingold's view that prosecutions should not be ruled out. The group is urging Holder and the Department of Justice to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct an investigation and, if warranted by the facts, to bring criminal charges against members of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Additionally, the ACLU is calling for the creation of a congressional Select Committee that would work in conjunction with Leahy's truth and reconciliation commission. "(The) combination of both committees would be an effective format for congressional review of Bush administration policies," explains an ACLU statement on the issue, which recalls the important work of a committee headed by Idaho Sen. Frank Church in investigating executive abuses in the 1970s. "The Select Committee would have the ability to allocate the necessary time and resources outside of the day-to-day demands of the standing committee structure. It would also bring together members from the relevant committees with jurisdiction over the relevant issues to share their expertise concerning the programs under review."
Says ACLU Washington Legislative Office director Caroline Fredrickson: "While a truth commission is a valid and admirable suggestion, Congress must go further. Congress' complacent approach to oversight has done our country irreparable harm and legitimized illegal and counter-productive intelligence programs. It's time for Congress to step up in a very real way and assert its role of oversight."
Leahy is not a bad player here.
He understands that there must be a measure of accountability if we are going to renew this country's commitment to the rule of law and to constitutional governance.
The Vermonter is asking the right questions: "(How) did we get to a point where we were holding a legal U.S. resident for more than five years in a military brig without ever bringing charges against him? How did we get to a point where Abu Ghraib happened? How did we get to a point where the United States Government tried to make Guantanamo Bay a law-free zone, in order to try to deny accountability for our actions? How did we get to a point where our premier intelligence agency, the CIA, destroyed nearly 100 videotapes with evidence of how detainees were being interrogated? How do we make sure it never happens again?"
But the answer to those questions must, necessarily, be bolder.
It will take a greater measure of accountability than just Leahy's truth commission to "make sure it never happens again."
The ACLU's Fredrickson is right when she says: "The truth commission is a beginning for Congress to reassert its power, but it must go further."
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16 Comments so far
Show AllThree cheers for Senatory Leahy and Senator Feingold. Give lower echelon whistleblowers immunity for the Commission/Committee hearings, then let the ordinary federal grand jury process restore the rule of law based on the facts as they develop.
Also, it should be noted that when Dana Millbank reported on Senator Leahy's recent Committee hearing session for the Washington Post, the news account of the proceedings (absolutely dripping with sarcasm and scorn) falsely claimed that Senator Feingold opposed Leahy's Truth Commission model.
I am sure a correction will be forthcoming from the beltway's premier paper of record.
Bill from Saginaw
Even though "impeachment (was) off the table", we must make sure indictment and prosecution IS NOT OFF THE TABLE.
Right On ! Pelosi assured that the Dubya Regime's license to steal and murder has no expiration date. Its Dubya's gift that keeps on giving fascists everywhere hope.
Hopefully Leahy and Feingold will put an expiration date on the Dubya Regime's license to steal and murder.
Good for Leahy. Bravo for Feingold. The majority is with you.
Expecting this to actually happen is like expecting the Obama administration to embrace single-payer healthcare. If Feingold thinks it should happen it carries about as much weight as anything Kucinich demands.
The beltway is scornful even of Leahy's walking-on-eggs proposal, and think how fiercely they'd oppose Feingold's. Of course prosecutions should go forward, following a reasonable timeframe for Leahy's truth commission. But all sorts of things should happen from a liberal/progressive perspective that simply will not, because we don't have any more real representation for those views in Washington than we had four years ago. Only a meager handful of token liberal voices that get just as ridiculed and/or ignored as they did when Bush's approval ratings were at their peak.
The only thing the Beltway learned from 8 years of Bush's relentless crime spree was that crime on that scale pays big time, even when it fails miserably and ignominiously, and they fully intend to protect and defend the criminals they so ardently admire. If they could get away with all that for 8 years, the Washington insiders and its pundit whores aren't about to allow a couple of liberal malcontent senators to make a big deal out of it now.
Actually, both Leahy and Feingold are being treated somewhat better inside the DC beltway and in the mainstream media than they were back when George Bush's approval ratings were at their peak. Being the majority party helps.
Just a few years ago, by this time Loe Lieberman would have already been on Meet the Press calling Leahy dangerously out of touch with the post-9/11 world we live in, and Rush, the Wall Street Journal, and the GOP Congressional leadership would have been shrieking in unison for Feingold to be censured in the well of the Senate for undermining the President in time of war.
Remember what happened to poor old Senate whip Dick Durbin, when he once dared make a vague comparison during a floor debate about torture techniques used by Nazi Gestapo and the Soviet NKVD and what the photos showed happened at Abu Ghraib? The media attack was so instantaneously savage and well orchestrated that the Senior Senator from Illinois had to immediately apologize publicly for having called torture by its proper name - a position which is now very much in accepted mainstream discourse, but which created a furious backlash just a few years ago when Karl Rove and the neo-con war machine were on their high flying roll.
On Ephraim's larger point, I say hold off a while longer on collapsing into complete cynicism (do you really think many folks holding power inside Washington after the 2008 election "ardently admire" Dick Cheney to the point they would "protect and defend" him today)?
Frustrating as the partisan tactic is, I think a lot of what Obama is up to is a question of timing. Reach out to Republican moderates first. If they bite the hand extending the olive branch, you can always hit that bad dog over the head with it later on, and then turn towards the progressive wing of the Democratic base. Try it the other way around, the GOP reachables are immediately alienated, and you sure do set yourself up look like a scarey socialist wannabe who lied big time about trying to transcend the partisan rancor of the Bush era.
And by the way, if AIG and a few of the other big US insurance companies do go under (or are shaken to their financial core by the crash well underway), you just might see Obama embrace a single payer national health system.
The hard way, as a matter of necessity.
Bill from Saginaw
It isn't cynicism to point out that yes, there are still many holding power in DC who still ardently admire Bush and Cheney and will protect their blood-soaked legacy from the likes of Feingold and Leahy with all their might. They're called Republicans, and some of them are called Democrats. And many others are members of the loathsome punditocracy who really set the tone for all such proceedings as Leahy and Feingold propose. You mentioned Milbank at WaPo and there are dozens more even less disposed to advocating for a serious truth commission, let alone prosecutions. For every Glenn Greenwald there are 20 or 30 Charles Krauthammers, Bill Kristols, David Broders, Ann Coulters and Bill Bennetts. Not to even mention fascist talk radio and Faux News, though we have Amy Goodman, Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, who are only listened to by . . . folks like us. The rightwing braindead megaphone is several orders of magnitude louder than anything we can generate.
So, cynicism to some is simply realism for others. When I see some action taken along the lines of Feingold's proposal (he's my senator and I'm a big supporter), and when Obama embraces single-payer for ANY reason (whatever it takes, and I'm not holding my breath), I'll rejoice and celebrate right along with all the optimists. And hang my head in grateful shame.
Sioux Rose
Imagine what it says for this nation's lawmakers and ethics that only ONE senator is demanding accountability. Imagine that the only way truth can be coaxed out of these low-lifes is if they are promised impunity. Talk about the scales of justice falling over, with no sign of balance in sight. (It's interesting, too, that Venus, the cosmic counterbalance to Mars, happens to "rule" Libra, the sign of the balanced scales of justice. Again, the disproportionate allegiance to Mars rules absolutely mars justice and its fair, wise and just applications.)
I have already left a list of books and articles that are clear proof that the Bush administration was guilty of a war of agression, torture, illegal wire tapping, lying to Congress, and a number of other crimes. One of the better articles was written by Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski and published in Salon.Com. As an Air Force intell analyst, She was assigned to the,"Office of Special Plans" at the Pentagon. She recounts how Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith recruited Zionist, mostly Jewish, from neo-con think tanks to create the false reasons for the attack against Iraq. These were forwarded to the White House without being double checked by any of the US intelligence agencies. For those who read, you know that General Tommy Frank did not like Feith ("The stupidest **##ing person I have ever known). A DOD Inspector General report verifys her observations. IG Report no. 07-Intell-04-"Review of Pre-War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense For Policy". It found that (The Office of Special Plans) "inappropriately disemminated an alternative analysis drawing a link between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorists who carried out the attacks on Sept. 11 that the Intelligence Community was unable to substantiate". In other words, they deliberately lied like Hell!
Most US newspapers will censure this information and refuse to print because they are afraid of AIPAC.
For torture information, read,"The Memo", "The Torture Memo", "Tortured Reasoning", "The Trial Of Willy Brand".
The most serious charge against Bush and his group should be agressive war, which we prosecuted and hung Germans for at Nuremburg after WWII. Forget the Truth Commission! There is more than enough available information to get a "Slam Dunk" conviction against Bush and at least 20 other enablers and accomplices from his administration.
Leahy is a pussy cat...why not roar like a lion. How about read the constitution?
Crimes were commented (admitted...some even bragged about).....quit beating about the bush....start an investigation and look for the facts, request a special prosecutor... advertise transparency not immunity. Most Americans want a criminal investigation(check Gallup). The secrets of the Bush pres have hurt our country ....the criminals should be treated with the same dispassion as arrested dope dealers and drunk drivers. Equal before the law needs to be the new model for our government and the Department of Justice. A bold stand might strengthen the confidence in the legislature ...and thusly the gov in general.
The bigger secret has yet to be unveiled. Warrant less surveillance of Americans by right wing republican fanatic fringe groups.
Trust me when I say, bring all torture groups and wrong doers to justice. It will shock the country from a dull sleep when they find out that one in in every 25 Americans is a recruitment goal for spys by the DHS , supporting agencies and private company's with contracted armys.
No one, no reporters or media agency's want to tell the truth.
And thats because big business and the major media are involved.Just goolge ,Infragard,the IAFF, citizen corp and you will start piecing together the nation wide spy network.
Then read Tim Shorocks " Spies for Hire" Follow the money to non bid contracts awarded to company's.
BornFreeMen
They follow me 24/7, low frequency sound harassment, slander and lies in the community, gang stalking torture, caused major stress in my life from fear of bodily harm, the stress caused a heart attack, 6 weeks of recovery these so called American torture freaks punished me with sound harassment while at home recovering,and the day I went back to work their surveillance was twice as harsh.
If that isn't a group of torture freaks trying to kill you, what is it.
I'm in Sen. Feingolds state-of "cheesehead-dom".
I may never understand why he cast deciding vote for Ashcroft,but he's an honorable man,and incidentally possibly the poorest Senator.
His intellect and decency should have already gotten him serious consideration in the Presidential race,but I suspect there's a secret behind why he allowed Ashcroft to become AG,and this ammo has been used to keep him out of the spotlight for the most part.
With this effort now to go against the tide of the MIC and the other filthy rich "Overlords",it could get interesting.
Relax folks, this is the country that doesn't believe in accountability, nothing is going to happen. We might have this senator or that representative make some noise but nothing will happen. It would be bad business, messy and cost a fortune for lawyers. Plus the imperialistic power has no time for it. There is no appetite for looking back as we have so much coming at us from the front. Bush and his band of crooks have been exposed for about 6 years now, what has been done so far, nothing. That will not change.
Accountability is only for the commoners. The elite is above the law....Hell, the elite IS the law.
And dont forget the war crime that violated the #1 Geneva Convention - starting a war of agression. All the other war crimes Bush & Co committed flow from the first one, which is still ongoing.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
"(How) did we get to a point where we were holding a legal U.S. resident for more than five years in a military brig without ever bringing charges against him? How did we get to a point where Abu Ghraib happened? How did we get to a point where the United States Government tried to make Guantanamo Bay a law-free zone, in order to try to deny accountability for our actions? How did we get to a point where our premier intelligence agency, the CIA, destroyed nearly 100 videotapes with evidence of how detainees were being interrogated?"
Here's a clue: The Patriot Act; Military Commissions Act; Signing Statements; and of course, "Executive Privilege".
"Congress' complacent approach to oversight has done our country irreparable harm and legitimized illegal and counter-productive intelligence programs. It's time for Congress to step up in a very real way and assert its role of oversight."
When Congress sees those campaign checks rolling in from lobbyists, they conveniently forget their role as one of three co-equal branches of government.
This is the age-old entitlement mentality that none dare speak about.