Nixon should never have been pardoned by Ford. The nightmare didn't end with that act, it merely continued the practice of placing the president above the law.

This is such an absolutely great article. It is so simple.

It is exactly what the USA has to do. Not only with the Bush administration, but with the founding of the country itself.

The President of the United States of America needs to apologize in Congress on behalf of the nation for the genocide and ethnic cleansing that was visited upon the native tribes that inhabited the "north American" continent when the Europeans arrived.

Only then are we going to be able to truly move forward.

We are all native Americans now.

President Obama must adhere to the edicts of the "Powers that Be" ....those who are really in charge...as concerns policy here in America. If not, the very real 'security threat' may be to him.

Obama not only wants to look forward but he plans to keep moving forward with more of the same...

EXCLUSIVE…Indonesian Forces Tapped by Obama for Renewed US Aid Implicated in New Assassinations

In a Democracy Now! exclusive, investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn reveals US-backed Indonesian armed forces carried out a series of assassinations of civilian activists in late 2009. The news comes as the White House moves towards increasing aid to the Indonesian military and lifting a twelve-year ban on the training of the notorious Indonesian military unit known as Kopassus. A US-trained Kopassus general who coordinated the assassinations confirmed to Nairn an Indonesian army role in the killings.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We end today’s show looking at US-Indonesian relations. The White House is moving towards increasing aid to the Indonesian armed forces and lifting a twelve-year ban on the training of the notorious Indonesian military unit known as Kopassus. The special forces unit has been linked to scores of human rights abuses in East Timor, Aceh, Papua and Java since its formation in the 1950s.

On Monday, Jeffrey Bader of the National Security Council acknowledged Kopassus had committed human rights violations in the past, but he said the Obama administration, quote, “hopes to be able, at some point, to move past and resolve those concerns.”

AMY GOODMAN: President Obama was scheduled to travel to Indonesia next week but the White House has announced the trip will be postponed ’til June because of the healthcare negotiations on Capitol Hill. The trip to Indonesia would have marked Barack Obama’s first time returning to Indonesia since he was elected president. He lived in Indonesia for several years as a child.

Well, yesterday I reached investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn about his new investigation into assassinations by US-trained Indonesian army and Kopassus officers. I reached him in Southeast Asia.

ALLAN NAIRN: President Obama wants to restore military aid to the Indonesian armed forces, including Kopassus, the Red Berets. I’ve just come out with a piece that shows that the Indonesian army and Kopassus have been involved in a series of recent assassinations of civilian political activists. The piece names the names of the officers involved, including a Kopassus general named Sunarko. These assassinations were carried out in the region of Aceh in late 2009.

They targeted activists for the Aceh—the Partai Aceh, which is pro-independence. In one case, the case of a man named Tumijan, he was abducted, tortured to death. His body was dumped in a sewage ditch near an army post. In another, a man was sitting in his car outside his house. An assassin walked up, put two bullets in his head through the window.

According to a senior Indonesian official with detailed information on these murders, they’re part of a program of political murder being carried out by TNI, the Indonesian armed forces, and Kopassus and by military intelligence. And so, these killings are still going on today. And Obama is about to give them new aid on the pretense that the Indonesian army has reformed and has stopped killing civilians, which is false.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you know this, Allan?

ALLAN NAIRN: From people inside the Indonesian government, who gave the names of some of the killers and the officers they work for. And just a few hours ago, I spoke on the phone with General Aditya, who is the head of the police in Aceh, and he confirmed that his forces had in fact detained some of the assassins who were working for the army. They’d been holding them for months, but they never announced this, because they were afraid to do it. The police are afraid of the army. But when I asked him about it directly, he admitted it publicly for the first time. The Indonesian police have confirmed this. They know about it, but they’re afraid to act. The Indonesian army and Kopassus are running a program of killing civilians, and it’s active right now. And Obama wants to give them new US weapons, training and money.

...

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/19/exclusiveindonesian_forces_tapped_by_obama_for

As a practical matter, Borat's dual policy of justice for foreign criminals and immunity for domestic criminals makes sense. He is counting on the next corporate lawn jockey to protect him.

The Mendacity of Hope.

Addendum to the First Amendment of the Constitution which states:

"Our nation shall look forward, not backward, unless by looking backward we end up looking forward, in which case we must simply close our eyes entirely, especially when evidence of high crimes, war crimes, felonies and misdemeanors stands in front of us and we wish to cover our back side."

The Democrats just need to try harder to explain that the US is more special than the 95 percent of humanity outside America ;)

I agree with finallyawake that this is an exceptionally good, straightforward offering from Glenn Greenwald. I also strongly recommend following the link to Jane Mayer's latest article in the New Yorker that Greenwald conveniently provides.

On the basic issue of looking forward versus looking back, I still consider the best formulation to be that of Senator Patrick Leahy, discussing (I believe) the Bushies' warrantless electronic surveillance program: before we can turn the page, we must first read the page.

Bill from Saginaw

"Looking forward, not backward" has to be one of the most stupid things any US president has said, and that is really saying something.

If this policy were followed in ordinary affairs, few criminals would ever be punished because that would involve looking backward at his or her crimes instead of forward to a future where he or she has not yet committed any crimes.

This is the height of political doublespeak.

Jim Shea

Like I have stated before: Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Condi, Wolfowitz, Yoo and the rest of our Government leaders that are complicit and condoned torture are definitely guilty and should have been tried for war crimes by Obomba, except he drove the get away car when he said: " I want to look forward "! This quote proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Obomba is part of the same crime family!

We must look sideways before looking sideways!

Why dosen't the US insist that Israel adher to the UN Goldstone Report calling for the Israeli internal investigation of the December 2008 Gaza War - or kick it up to the International Court of Justice if they don't adher to it?

Simple - the United States supplied Israel with phosphorus bombs - illegal according to the UN - and would thusly be tried for war crimes.

And that is just one example. In Indonesia, the US was complicit in the 1967 overthrow of Sukarno. If the US investigated that, then they would have to investigate the 1954 US overthrow of Mossedeque in Iran, 1955 overthrow of Guzman in Guatemala, the 1973 overthrow of Allende in Chile and dozens more.

Why dosen't the US look back and investigate - because the United States is a cowardly nation that should be overthrown - only then would the United States understand the horrors that they bred.

What else can we expect from the US, shining and entitled example to the rest of the world? Do as we say, not as we do, with a blind eye for their real allies, however despicable they may be, and the threat of invasion (The Hague Invasion Act) if we don't toe the line and try to bring an American to justice, to name just one example.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem applies to all.

Inner Party President O'Brien has mastered his Orwellian doublethink.

"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink."

Double Standard President?

Ignore that! We have to protect the presidency, give him more chances, have hope he'll change his ways... That is why I, Dennis Kucinich, tell you voters to overlook Obama's continuation of Bush foreign policy, effective amnesty to the Bush torturers, putting corporations before people, standby as the US supports Gaza's ethnic cleansing and support him and a health care bill that I don't like and have personally called a sell-out to insurance companies.

Janus --the Roman god of past and future --and of doorways --entrances and exits ---looking both ways -- Janus faced --root of the English word 'janitor,' keeper of doorways --and by extension --- halls, and entire buildings....