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Feingold Pushes AG to Hold Torture Architects Accountable
Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, the chief Senate critic of executive excess and wrongdoing during both Republican and Democratic administrations, wants Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a prosecutor to investigate the CIA's harsh interrogation program.
But Feingold wants Holder to do it right.
The chair of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee is concerned that the appointment of a prosecutor by Holder, which now seems increasingly likely, come with a charge by the attorney general "to focus on holding accountable the architects of the CIA's interrogation program."
In a letter to Holder, Feingold, who also sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote:
"Dear Attorney General Holder:
"Recent news stories indicate that you have reviewed the highly classified 2004 CIA Inspector General report on the CIA's interrogation program, and that as a result you are considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate individuals who may have gone beyond the legal authorization for that program provided by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice. I write to encourage you to do so, but also to urge you to focus on holding accountable the architects of the CIA's interrogation program. While allegations that individuals may have even gone beyond what was justified by those now-public OLC memos are extremely disturbing, we should not lose sight of the fact that the program itself -- as authorized -- was illegal, not to mention immoral and unwise.
"As I said in a letter to President Obama in April, the OLC documents make clear that the details of this program were authorized at the highest levels of government, which is where the need for accountability is most acute. Those who developed, authorized and provided legal justification for the interrogations should be held responsible.
"I understand this is a difficult decision for you, and I want to assure you that you will have my full support if you take this important step in furtherance of the rule of law."
This is an essential message, and an essential step in the process.
Official Washington does not like accountability.
Holder will be under pressure to organize a narrow inquiry that focuses on the misdeeds of underlings.
But this investigation needs to go where the real wrongdoing took place.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was a principal proponent of harsh interrogation during the Bush/Cheney years and has since emerged as the primary defender of the initiative.
When asked about the use of torture tactics late last year, Cheney told "ABC News," "I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency, in effect, came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it."
That is an invitation -- from Cheney himself -- to, as Feingold suggests, investigate the extent to which illegal activity was "authorized at the highest levels of government" and to "(hold) accountable the architects of the CIA's interrogation program."
Americans should tell the attorney general to accept this invitation, and the Credo Action Project of the progressive long-distance phone service, Working Assets, is offering them an opportunity to do just that with a new campaign to tell Eric Holder to start his torture investigation with Dick Cheney. Check it out.
- Posted in
27 Comments so far
Show AllIf Barak Obama won't hold these sadistic war criminals to account
then he will set a precident for all future American dictators.
that is because HE is already relying upon Dictatorship functions and "laws" developed by his precedents.
it is not surprising.
POWER likes to BUILD on the foundations that BROUGHT IT into being.
isn't the idea of "capital" and "capital building" based on PREVIOUS accumulations?
excusing "capital GAINS" from taxation is an example of building UPON previous gains so that a NEW structure of power-accumulation is put in place: "taxLESS capital gains" ...
so is "compound interest" in banking or the credit card system.
so is the secretive "board members minutes" in corporatist structure in order to prevent scrutiny..
so was Cheney's adoptation of this into his "energy commission" secret "council".....
so goes torture , spying, signing statements..etc..
and the excuse by the NEXT practitioner is "we are going to do it RIGHT THIS TIME"........meaning: they are going to accumulate EVEN MORE power.
it would be very , extremely rare for individuals and cabals to actually GIVE UP the privileges of accumulating more power.
very very rare.
At the Nuremberg trials the writers of position papers or commands that resulted in crimes were held culpable.
I think pigs will fly before Holder listens to Feingold !!!
But I could be wrong ! (and hope I am !)
I think that it's the fact that he's associated with "The Nation" that's making him a real jackass. Like Bob Barr did after getting kicked out though by the GOP, John Nichols needs to leave "The Nation" and show us what he really understands and thinks. Has JN ever written outside of "The Nation" and if so, how different is he there? Nevertheless, writing for "The Nation" is a bad idea from the start.
John Nichols'. . . job description, as he views it, is "Keep dangling the carrot of Hope in front of liberals who are on the verge of abandoning the Dem Party for good."
Everyone I know who, like me, voted for Obimbo in '08 will not vote for him or any other Democrat in '012 or '010 or ever again. It's quite a lot of people and we certainly can't be alone. For thousands of people, this really is the end of the line as far as believing in the Democrats in concerned. As someone once said, "The bullshit is piled so high it'd take wings to fly over it."
I won't either, but I know an amazing number of Democrats who STILL support and defend Obama and all of the other elected Dems and won't criticize them no matter what! They get into arguments with me when I say I already know I won't vote for Obama- or my Congressional rep- again, and tell them why. "Would you rather have [the Republican]?" will be their response. There's still too much idiotic loyalty out there.
While I applaud Sen. Feingold's tenacity and perseverance to hold the architects of this program accountable (we all know there is a snowball's chance in hell of getting a conviction), I wonder when he will give up. Historically, he has challenged the crimes committed by the Bush Admin., pushing for full accountability, only to be ignored. I applaud his candor and will to hold those who committed crimes accountable, but he is the falling tree in the forest that goes unheard. It must be extraordinarily frustrating to be the only one who wants to do what is right when no one else will do it.
Sioux Rose
I would not be surprised if some committee is appointed to mostly make evidence disappear or otherwise present it with a convenient smoke screen so as to provide an appearance (empty of true content, of course) of SOMETHING being done. This reminds me of the report done on 911 by government insiders, or the "conclusions" published by The Warren Commission.
One wonders if those insiders orbiting close to the nucleus of power in D.C. can even conceive of the truth these days?
Imagine the historians scratching their heads when they confront the amount of money spent on a letter-of-the-law authoritarian witch hunt as that pursued by the likes of Kenneth Starr as opposed to the dearth of meaningful investigative data dug up and/or exposed to bring justice to the crimes of the century, those that involved an obscene misuse of power, the arrogant claim to aggressive war pursued on the basis of fixed evidence, the acts of torture and holding persons indefinitely without charges, the criminal neglect in the way of substantial investments in renewal energy sources, and the late giveaway ($$) to Wall St, a grand gift to the same geniuses who engineered a world wide DEpression, the likes of which have hardly panned out as yet. And of course, with these goals in hot pursuit, no $ left in the pot for education, universal health care, or the repair of the nation's bridges and inner cities. Sure, appoint THAT commission!
Sounds likely - the committee may label the data and thereby obscure truth by "clarifying the situation."
Those of us who have watched Cheney and Yoo and others confess publicly to high crimes (while calling them something else) will feel tempted to drop the matter as unresolvable as the bureaucracy drags on.
However, any possible victory in this, however partial, must come oppressively slowly and involve disgustingly redundant restatements of various versions of denials and excuses both by the accused and by investigators and prosecutors.
We must work for prosecution, but recognize small and partial victory in every fresh exposure of these horrors before public consciousness. These men derive power from publicity, and every fresh piece of bad publicity aired in the press is a fresh deterrent.
Have at them, Sioux! Have at them, folks!
DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR THIS ONE! AND IF IT DOES SEE THE
LIGHT OF DAY IT WILL BE SO WATERED DOWN IT WILL BE LIKE
YOUR KINDERGARTEN TEACHER GIVING YOU A TIMEOUT BECAUSE YOU
KNOCKED THE SAND OUT OF THE SANDBOX OR YOU PULLED SOMEONES
HAIR!KINGS AND DICTATORS DO NOT RELINQUISH POWER. IT HAS
TO BE PRIED AWAY OR THEY GET THROWN OUT OF POWER!
RUSS SHOULD FORM A NEW PARTY WITH KUCINICH AND THE OTHER
LEFTIES AND START TO EXTRACT SOME REAL POSITIVE CHANGE IN
OUR LAWS AND POLICIES.AS FOR OBAMA WE ARE STUCK WITH HIM FOR
3 1/2 YEARS UNLESS HE PULLS A BUSH AND STEALS THE ELECTION.
AFTER WATCHING SOME OF THE STUNTS HE'S PULLED SO FAR
I WOULDN'T PUT IN PAST HIM. THIS GUY IS UNBELIEVABLY
SLICK. YOU COULD CUT YOUR HAND SHAKING HIS.
I agree it would be wonderful to see Russ, Bernie, and Dennis form a third party, but they know it never will get enough support to really challenge the Dems and Reps.
If we didn't have people like John Nichols out there this country would be in even worse shape. Democrats and other liberals always seem to have problems with in-fighting and criticizing one another. That has always weakened our position.
None of us are perfect but we all want the same thing: prosecution of these war criminals for their crimes against humanity. I appreciate John Nichols giving us hope. Without hope where does that leave us?
I also appreciate Senator Feingold standing up for what he believes is right even if he is almost a lone voice in the Senate on many occasions. There are others in the Senate like Bernie Sanders who stand up for what this country desperately needs, but I agree there are precious few. We can count on Robert Parry, Ray McGovern, Amy Goodman and others. We are not alone!
Rich M,
I'm sure you are intelligent enough to realize that I didn't mean that everyone in Congress wants the same thing that we do. I would have to be very naive to believe that. I just assumed that all of us commenting here were in agreement that those responsible for torture should be prosecuted. Perhaps most do agree but obviously some believe that HOPE is a bad thing. I'm open to other suggestions, but I don't think that giving up hope is going to get us anywhere.
If the Democrats had not stopped all four investigations into the Iran-Contra scandal, then Dick Cheney would not have felt so comfortable committing his crimes while vice-president. Cheney was one of the top Republicans on the congressional Iran-Contra investigation in 1987. Perhaps he saw that Democrats were certainly not tough enough and perhaps not principled enough to hold any high-level officials accountable. A precedent had been set! So what did Cheney have to be afraid of while vice-president? We must do everything possible to see that this history is not repeated. Without hope we become inert and we don't accomplish anything. For more info on this past history, read Robert Parry and his account of what happened back then.
"When Nichols pretends Democrats are going to "hold torture architects accountable," he's giving you substance-free hot air."
I totally disagree. You are obviously frustrated, just as I am. I'm sure we all are. But we cannot take out our frustrations on those that agree with us. We need to all band together to push our congress, our attorney general and our president to proceed with an investigation. I would be happy to listen to any other reasonable alternative you have to put forth. Whining just won't get it!
I'm not in total agreement with everything that has transpired during the Obama administration. However, he's been in office such a short time with huge crises to deal with in almost every area. Look back over the eight years of the Bush administration--can you really say that Obama is just like Bush and that we are not one heck of a lot better off now?
"Look back over the eight years of the Bush administration--can you really say that Obama is just like Bush and that we are not one heck of a lot better off now?"
Judging by what Obama has been doing for the past 6 months, a strong YES.
"Without hope we become inert and we don't accomplish anything."
All this talk on hope means nothing when the man who promised hope and change (in reality false hope and chump change) is now betraying us this way and that. What has Obama done for you or for that matter all of us for all that hope you had these past 6 months that you can be proud of and what's the guarantee he'll do any better for the rest of this term? Obama's not even trying to be reasonable anymore but is instead siding with the wrong people. I don't think you're one of those Obamabots but you need to look at the issues and not judge by the party. That is what RichM is trying to help you with. While I too voted for Nader last year as did RichM, I for one wished that there was anything good to vote for Obama on but so far he has failed to come remotely close. RichM is not whining but in fact telling the truth, painful as it is. Why pay Obama to tell us to "make him do it" even as he goes out of his way to bully his own party especially the true progressives and liberals into pandering to the Republicans and censoring his own website where he lies about being open to suggestions? Is that hope and change you can believe in? I strongly suggest you take the time to read the articles and comments as well as similar progressive/liberal sites, not the Obamabot types such as Huffpost, and try and catch up on the knowledge of what's really happening. You're being misinformed on the M$M.
RichM, my apologies. 1996, I was not yet old enough to vote but I did get to vote for Nader thrice and proudly so. The more I knew the issues, the more I was convinced that neither party was good. I did vote for Kucinich in the 2004 and 2008 Democratic primaries and Paul in the 2008 Republican primaries but that was it. I generally vote on the issues which is why I rarely end up voting for a Republican or Democrat even on the local level. I wished Nader and Mckinney had run a joint ticket last year. I live in MO so there's no socialist party on the ballot. Even Mckinney was write-in but Nader, Barr, and Baldwin were the 3rd parties on the MO ballot. Wasn't it Eisenhower who killed that party? I would love to see the two "corporate socialist puppet" parties D and R get their equal punishment at the rate they're going. If the socialist party were on the ballot, I would have checked the issues and compared that party as well.
I like your defense of Nader btw. I got to see your posts in the archives and I shared a lot of those feelings last year. I still cannot believe that 3rd parties got even fewer votes than in previous elections despite FISA, 700b bailout to W$, and the rest. I was totally depressed after that election was over although I've overcome most of the feeling except for Obama pushing us into dissatisfaction.
If only more people would open their hearts and minds and actually vote on the issues would we not be controlled by klutzes in Washington.
RichM and JenniferBedingfield,
I think Terrie understands the anger and frustration you two are going through but she's not used to seeing Obama on a deeper level of thinking and analysis. I know you two mean very well but let's not go too hard on Terrie. That said, I do have some disagreements with Terrie on Congress and Obama. It is true that Congress is basically "fixed" and once they're elected, it's almost impossible to get them to listen to you until the next election when one of more of your represenatives and/or senators are up for election/reelection. I voted very reluctantly for Obama feeling that whoever the 3rd party candidate, none of them had a chance against the system stacked against them. That does not make me an Obama apologist. I'm already witnessing Obama working hard as he can to make himself a one-termer and he may very well get it. 6 months is already plenty of time although technically he has 3 years and 4 months to turn things around before the next election. So far, there are no signs he plans to turn things around even though anything is possible at least in theory.
Getting to 2012, I don't know what all 3rd parties will be on the ballot but whichever 3rd party wants to be on the ballot had better be preparing themselves sooner rather than wait until 2012 to get started. Terrie, RichM, and JenniferBedingfield, I would advise you to take a good look at BeForKids's proposal of the Main Street Party and possibly get it started up in each of your states. If we want a 3rd party, we definitely want one that takes Main Street seriously just like most 3rd parties but straight on the issues that truly matter to Main Street. MS does not deal with social issues such as guns, abortion, same sex marriages, and other divisive social issues.
Addressed to RichM:
The nature of Obama's current agenda, as you describe it, is bolstered by Paul Street's book, written during the campaign: Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics. Recognizing this, there are several important questions to guide the actions of true progressives (such as people who believe in actual democracy and the actual rule of law) such as:
How do we go about changing the system?
How do we pursue changing the system and still deal with the dilemma of a rigged, corporate-controlled, two party system?
The nature of the dilemma is this: we can vote our conscience and help the Republicans, thus betraying our short-term interests and the conservative party closer to our own views and policies; OR vote our short-term interests, thus helping the better of the two corporate-conservative-war mongering parties, while betraying our conscience? Either choice maintains the system of corporate totalitarianism and militarism. Thus defining it as a dilemma. There are ways out of the dilemma, but merely complaining about the situation won't really help, though understanding the system as you do RichM, DOES help.
America is the capstone of the current system that is destroying the ecosystems on which we depend. Ecocide is the worst possible thing we could do, yet it is the slow-rolling catastrophe that is unfolding at this time in history.
We need a constitutional (non-violent) progressive revolution. With most Americans favoring progressive policies, such a process is possible. But it will take smart strategies, unprecedented progressive unity, and massive actions and organizing. How to do that is critical, not just for us; not just for our nation; not just for the world; but also for all future generations of people on this planet.
Thanks for your reply RichM.
When I said that "merely complaining about the situation" wouldn't help, I wasn't referring to you. (My mistake for not clarifying that.) I was referring to a prevalent theme in the CD comments. The ratio of complaints versus productive proposals or plans to fix the system is very high, here, and elsewhere on progressive news sites.
I'd like to know more about your statement that "it isn't possible to have a non-violent revolution." I'd like to know what you mean by that.
My own view is that powerful, non-violent methods can cause enough problems to bring forth a revolution, done with sufficient unity and numbers. Frances Fox Piven, in a book called "Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America," provides a comprehensive list of non-violent strategies to cause real problems for the illegitimate few you call, rightfully, the "plutocracy." She describes how the minority in control are involved in interdependent relationships with the majority, and so the majority can exploit those relations to get real progress made.
As far as reforms versus revolutions, Noam Chomsky, an astute progressive observer, notes that we have made considerable progress since his first activist talks in about 1962. The areas of progress that he notes are more reforms than revolutions, and are to me significant—particularly those involving women's rights, some youth rights (many bans on corporal punishment in schools, etc.) and many other areas that have changed for the better.
I think at this stage (agreeing with you) that real reforms and the many illusions of reform (the election of Obama, for example) are not nearly enough to even establish a democracy in the US, let alone prevent the looming ecocide from not solving the converging problems of the 21st century.
If you have access to ideas or references to smart strategies and/or ways to bring about unprecedented progressive unity, I'd love to know them.
I hope there will sufficient public interest and pressure, which will make an investigation impossible to avoid. I signed the Credo letter -- I hope many, many citizens do likewise.
justify |
1 show or prove to be right or reasonable.
2 (Theology) declare or make righteous in the sight of God.
Twice in the quoted extracts above Feingold misuses this concept.
Does he actually believe these memos justified anything?
Tell a lie often enough . . .
a new word is needed.
combining vote and hope.
"who did you vope for?"