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Bush's Waterboarding Admission Prompts Calls For Criminal Probe
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday joined a
growing chorus in the human rights community calling for a special
prosecutor to investigate whether former president George W. Bush
violated federal statutes prohibiting torture. 
In his new memoir and ensuing book tour, Bush has repeatedly admitted that he directly authorized the waterboarding of three terror suspects. Use of the waterboard, which creates the sensation of drowning, has been an iconic and almost universally condemned form of torture since the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
Except for a brief period during which a handful of Bush administration lawyers insisted that the exigencies of interrogating terror suspects justified its use, waterboarding has always been considered illegal by the Justice Department. It is also a clear violation of international torture conventions.
The ACLU is urging Attorney General Eric Holder to ask Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate Bush. For nearly three years now, Durham has been acting as a special prosecutor investigating a variety of torture-related matters involving government officials considerably lower on the food chain. Just this Tuesday, it was widely reported that Durham had cleared the CIA's former top clandestine officer and others in the destruction of agency videotapes showing waterboarding of terror suspects -- but that he would continue pursuing other aspects of his investigation.
"The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President's acknowledgment that he authorized torture is absolutely without parallel in American history," the group wrote in its letter to Holder.
"The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president. That founding principle of our democracy would mean little if it were ignored with respect to those in whom the public most invests its trust. It would also be profoundly unfair for Mr. Durham to focus his inquiry on low-level officials charged with implementing official policy but to ignore the role of those who authorized or ordered the use of torture."
In his new memoir, "Decision Points," Bush recalls his thought process after CIA director George Tenet asked for permission to waterboard alleged al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in early 2003. Bush's response: "Damn right."
In an interview with the Times of London published this week, Bush used that language again, this time with feeling. James Harding described asking Bush if he authorized the use of the waterboard on Mohammed.
"Damn right!" he barks. "We capture the guy, the chief operating officer of al-Qaeda, who kills 3,000 people. We felt he had the information about another attack. He says: 'I'll talk to you when I get my lawyer.' I say: 'What options are available and legal?' "
In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Bush explained himself this way:
We believe America's going to be attacked again. There's all kinds of intelligence comin' in. And-- and-- one of the high value al Qaeda operatives was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the chief operating officer of al Qaeda... ordered the attack on 9/11. And they say, "He's got information." I said, "Find out what he knows." And so I said to our team, "Are the techniques legal?" He says, "Yes, they are." And I said, "Use 'em."LAUER: Why is waterboarding legal, in your opinion?
BUSH: Because the lawyer said it was legal. He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I'm not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do.
The so-called "Torture Memos" were drafted by officials in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel under the strict supervision of the vice president's office -- and were withdrawn within a matter of months when other Bush lawyers found them utterly unjustifiable.
For the record, the first time Bush admitted his direct role in waterboarding was actually back in early June, when he casually acknowledged what he'd done and said he'd do it again.
"Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," Bush told the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Mich., in a paid appearance. "I'd do it again to save lives."
I wrote at the time about the outraged response from some former military and intelligence officials.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat who (for now) chairs the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, called for a criminal investigation into Bush's conduct on Tuesday.
He told MSBNC host Ed Schultz on Wednesday:
[T]he United States has always considered waterboarding torture except during the Bush administration. We prosecuted Japanese generals for waterboarding people. We prosecuted American soldiers for waterboarding people and pressed that cage. The current attorney general Mr. Holder has said that waterboarding is torture. We`ve always regarded it as torture and under our statute, under our international law, we are bound to prosecute. The president has a duty under the constitution to take care the laws of faith to be executed and now that former President Bush said that he personally ordered waterboarding, there must be at least an investigation and a special prosecutor.
Nadler called Bush's admission a "smoking gun." But, he said, he was dubious that Holder would act.
"Judging by the record of this attorney general, he will not pay attention, he will not respond," Nadler said. The reason: "[T]his administration, unfortunately, has taken the opinion -- has taken the attitude that they`re not going to look at any criminal actions within the prior administration. They say, let`s look forward, not backward, by that standard no one would ever prosecute any crime and this is a violation of our obligations under the torture treaty, under the torture convention, that Ronald Reagan signed."
Also on Tuesday, a Republican suggested for the first time that a torture investigation in Congress might not be out of the question. As Think Progress reported, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) told MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan that he's "not afraid of going after the Bush administration."
Amnesty International called for a criminal investigation on Wednesday.
"Under international law, anyone involved in torture must be brought to justice, and that does not exclude former President George W. Bush. If his admission is substantiated, the USA has the obligation to prosecute him," said senior director Claudio Cordone. "In the absence of a US investigation, other states must step in and carry out such an investigation themselves."
Indeed, British human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson was quoted in the British press this week as saying Bush's admission could leave him open to arrest and possible prosecution if he visits countries that have ratified the UN torture convention.
That includes a good chunk of the globe.
"George W Bush has confessed to ordering waterboarding, which in the view of almost all experts clearly passes the severe pain threshold in the definition of torture in international law," Robertson said. "[H]e is an ex-head of state so he is not entitled to immunity from arrest and trial."
Robertson added: "So his retirement travel plans may well be circumscribed, although he never ventured abroad before he became President, and no doubt made the statements in his book having been advised of this potential consequence."
Here's the full text of the ACLU letter:
Dear Attorney General Holder:The American Civil Liberties Union respectfully urges you to refer to Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham the question of whether former president George W. Bush's conduct related to the interrogation of detainees by the United States violated the anti-torture statute. See 18 U.S.C. § 2340A.
In his recently published memoirs, President Bush discusses his authorization of the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah. He states, for example, that he "approved the use of the [enhanced] interrogation techniques," including waterboarding, on Abu Zubaydah, and that he responded to a request to waterboard Khalid Sheik Mohammed by stating: "Damn right." George W. Bush, Decision Points 169-70 (2010).
The Department of Justice has made clear that waterboarding is torture and, as such, a crime under the federal anti-torture statute. 18 U.S.C. § 2340A(c). The United States has historically prosecuted waterboarding as a crime. In light of the admission by the former President, and the legally correct determination by the Department of Justice that waterboarding is a crime, you should ensure that Mr. Durham's current investigation into detainee interrogations encompasses the conduct and decisions of former President Bush. The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President's acknowledgement that he authorized torture is absolutely without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president. That founding principle of our democracy would mean little if it were ignored with respect to those in whom the public most invests its trust. It would also be profoundly unfair for Mr. Durham to focus his inquiry on low-level officials charged with implementing official policy but to ignore the role of those who authorized or ordered the use of torture.
Failure to fully investigate the role of the former President in the use of torture would also severely compromise our ability to advocate for human rights in other countries. The United States has been a champion of that cause for over half a century. Recently, while in Indonesia, President Obama urged that country to acknowledge the human rights abuses of the Suharto regime. He stated unequivocally that "[w]e can't go forward without looking backwards." Without suggesting that our own experience is equivalent, it is clear that the United States's authority to push for such accountability in other countries, and the willingness of those countries to follow our advice, would quickly unravel if we failed even to investigate abuses authorized by our own officials.
The ACLU understands the gravity of this matter and appreciates the difficulty of the Department of Justice's task. A nation committed to the rule of law, however, cannot simply ignore evidence that its most senior leaders authorized torture.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. For your convenience, I am attaching the ACLU's letter of March 17, 2009, in which we asked you to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate crimes relating to the abuse of detainees.
Sincerely,
Anthony D. Romero
- Posted in
57 Comments so far
Show AllOf course he should be investigated, along with others from his administration. That's obvious.
However, this isn't really a decision based on law, or justice, or even a very shallow morality. The decision to investigate is a political decision, and one that I can't see benefitting the political futures of anyone involved.
Sad, I know, but I believe it to be true.
Justice in the USA, and I'd suppose many other places as well, is quite often about politics. I've long held that the degree to which it isn't is an indication of how advanced a nation is. By such a measure, the US is out of the starting gate, but a very, very long way from the homestretch.
What part of "impeachment is off the table" (Nancy Pelosi's first words as House Speaker in November 2006) didn't Dan Froomkin understand ?
On that day Pelosi and the DNC assured Team Dubya that their license to steal and murder had no expiration date.
Bush is only a semi-cooperative mouthpiece for a far more insidious, and deeply rooted system of abusive practices.
This problem is endemic, but if its necessary to take on (good luck!) some symbolic figures to point this out, so be it, and I applaud it.
But bringing W. ta justice, and bringing Real Justice back to the United States of America are still two different stories. A systemic indictment is in order, and systemic reform (however this is achieved) is the only remedy.
if a "special prosecutor" is appointed, who knows what he will uncover...
Nothing will come of this.
US culture and politics are way too far gone.
There will be no accountability for the highest crimes.
Just more of the same, and a continuing dizzying spiral into hell, for all of us.
Until We the People are desperate enough to act despite the political culture of subservience to power.
How desperate are you? That is the question.
Willing to give up what you get from this system, and risk true accountability for our lives?
Sadly, you are correct. The U.S. is in twilight now, and descending rapidly into the darkness. There will be no investigation, no prosecution, simply look at what the "Justice" Department did to the CIA operatives who destroyed the videotaped evidence proving they had tortured: dropped the investigation and cleared the CIA of any wrongdoing.
Asking the U.S. government to investigate the U.S. government is like getting rid of regulations on industry, and instead asking industry to regulate itself. We all know how that turns out.
The U.S. is a dying entity, and this is no more obvious than in its decaying system of "justice" and disregard for the laws and the Constitution. Bush has nothing to worry about. The rest of us, however, who live in this country as the darkness falls, do.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Decision Points?
more like Derision Points.
nothing but goddamned pieces of paper.
I would not even wipe my ass with them.
George Boy, don't take any flights that come near a border with one of those signatories e.g. the Great White North, in case of aircraft problems and a diversion to the nearest airport -as in Canada.
How about a rendition to one of those countries? That would work wouldn't it?
Imagine the ratings of a live 16 week congressional hearing like Ollie North and the Iran Contra affair. The Bushboarding Trials...Win for the MSM.
Imagine the inappropriate dribblings of pundits decrying the "new" GOP is cleaning house and all is good again in the USA. Imagine the sheeple who will believe that bushshit.
Imagine that the backwoods gubmints that we prop up all over the world would point to US style justice and squelch dissent as they rape their peoples.
A few politically convenient reasons this could go somewhere...
Yawn
They will never, ever bring this little devil to justice. First, his hideous family has too much money & power; second, all the democrats in modern history lumped together, wouldn't have enough spine to bring GWB a cup of coffee, much less to justice.
Democrats are weaselly little pussies. Yeah, pussies.
Think Cowardly Lion(s).
Put 'em uuup! Put 'em uuup!
What a crock.
The Spanish judge G... had prosecution of Baby Bush on fast track.
Then OilyBomber personally meet with the Spanish PM two or three times and Judge G and his case against Bush were squashed or marginalized.
Better yet, now, they're after Judge G himself. Right before he could get to the Zionists too, what timing, eh?
War criminals and torturers like Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc. etc. will never show remorse or humility until they're prosecuted and held accountable to the rule of law.
And Nobel Peace Prize President has the gall to traipse around the globe talking about human rights?? What a joke.
In Indonesia, with regards to the Suharto regime, Brand Obama "stated unequivocally that '[w]e can't go forward without looking backwards.'"
In America, with regards to the Bush regime, Brand Obama "stated unequivocally that 'we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.'" - ABC's Meet the Press, Jan '09.
I hope those asse's, that gave him that Peace Prize, see what a mistake that was ! All he did was manage to get the country to vote for him, people that never voted before. There is nothing peaceful about this man. He has already sanctioned many, many illigal deaths. He's going to Hell ,with the rest of them.
"Use of the waterboard, which creates the sensation of drowning..."
No.
It IS drowning, asshat. American journalists, even most on CD and other alternative news outlets, can't get this through their collectively blast-proof skulls.
A simple grammatical analysis demonstrates:
"Drowning" is the present participle of the infinitive "to drown." Means "in the process of drowning, ie, not yet "drowned."
"Drowned" describes someone who is no longer drowning, 'cause they died as a result.
To say pouring water into the orifices that lead directly to the lungs creates a "sensation of drowning" is like telling us that sliding a spoon into the anus of a man or woman strapped to a wire frame and connecting the current "creates a sensation of being electrocuted and sodomized."
And to anyone who mutters to themselves that the U.S. doesn't torture the way I just described...we do. We're so good at it, we even have certified instructors who teach this, waterboarding, nail extraction with pliers, genital mutilation, child rape (in front of parents or relatives, natch), and others.
The author should bone up on the ol' School of the Americas. To borrow his verbiage, it would "create the sensation of knowledge."
Thanks for your clarity/discernment! Public polling suggests half of the US supports torture knowing full well its horrors? Alot here being tortured socially/economically/culturally/politically/etc. are advocating for their torturer's (banks, et.al.,) rights - Tea Party's mantra of no taxes/regulations for the rich. Everything is topsy-turvy.
The Puffin: Your graphic depiction shows where pornography segues into war & torture.
So long as significant numbers of people (mostly angry males) are taught through pornography to equate sexual release with the dehumanization of OTHER, the PASSION for war, torture, and the ways and means to both will remain mostly unquestioned (sick!) staples of "society."
A few wise people in this forum make elegant cases that depict the logical progression of capitalism into a fully decimated (in terms of natural & human resources) society. I'd argue equally, that patriarchal religions end up under thrall to Mars rules. This war-championing entity claims the lion's share of our society's investment; and out of this distorted value system comes every sick aberration. The U.S.--and how far it's fallen--is a case in point.
Although Europe retains the same patriarchal religious legacy, having been the recipient of horrific wars and carnage, it's learned greater enlightenment. That is seen in its reciprocal investment in the antidote to Mars rules, which are "Venus" style social benefits programs that extend health care, respect for the arts, and far more consciousness about what is eaten (their united front against GM "food").
You don't find too many Europeans clamoring for sexual abstention, either. They are not consumed by a sin-based religiosity that leads to a repressed, sexually twisted society such as our own.
Who has the courage to discover the links between the use of erectile drugs in old warrior-politicians and the casual reflexive, immature boast to bring IT on, in the form of costly, senseless battles?
Hell, I'll take a shot:
The patriarchy, at its core, is all about virility: express MY genes at all costs. The feminine, both human and nature in general, are subjugated to this task. Technology (a nearly entirely male-driven phenomenon) created steroids, amphetamines and Viagra, all of which create and channel aggression, military, interpersonal, sexual.
There are many healthy sexual relationships based on pain and/or submission, ie, the consensual bdsm "top" and "bottom", but here the giving and receiving of pain and dominating or submitting brings great pleasure to both (or however many) folks are involved. The military from day one has to break down the basic human reluctance to kill another. It is not a gentle process. We should not be surprised that other aspects of one's humanity are affected. The Nazi officer speed freaks and Les Boys parties were perfectly predictable. Nor should the torture porn emanating from Abu Ghraib and other U.S. gulags strike us as strange. It's the inevitable extension of unchecked male dominance. The planet, other humans-- are only resources to be exploited.
Once you've crossed the torture line, rape and murder are just incidental--
--never mind looting the public funds and destroying the planet.
I hew to George Carlin's line that If there is a god, it must be male because no woman would or could ever fuck things up this badly.
At one point Italy had a porn star in the Senate. She got through some of the better legislation I have heard of ever passing on a national level. Such as - Sex as a Human Right. Even prisoners must be given conjugal visits with the partner of their choice. Opposite or Same Sex. Prostitutes would be allowed.
The level of violence in the prisons dropped drastically afterward.
We as a country need to get the hell out of the business of War. That is all we are anymore, it defines us. War is ugly, and the men, and women that are in it, can become very ugly people, as we have learned. This is not something from the past, or what they used to do, this is what America does, and we can't run around preaching to the World, and then breaking every law ! It reminds me of the Nut Christians, the fanatics, that their predjudices, and judgements of people, make them the worlds biggest hypocrites ! I do not want my Country to be this way too.
..."create the sensation of knowledge."
Ha! Good one.
And the man who made it all legal is now a professor of law at UCLA Berkely.
Yoo did NOT make torture legal.
Absolutely right, vdb. Yoo and Bybee did not have the power to make torture legal -- that resides exclusively with Congress -- and Junior's defense that he listened to his lawyers is idiotic. He should have read the Constitution himself, the one he took an oath to defend and obey, and the laws and treaties on torture thereto. You don't have to be a lawyer to understand any of it.
I don't know why we don't test candidates for high office on their knowledge of the Constitution: we could have avoided the blight of Bush altogether. There is obviously no way Junior could have passed that test.
Here's a nice Freudian slip in the transcript: "The president has a duty under the constitution to take care the laws of faith to be executed ..."
As we all know, the President is not required to ensure that the laws of faith are executed ... but Bush evidently thought that he was. Remember "faith-based initiatives", the "global gag rule", and the carrying-on about stem-cell research?
I am sure that Obama would not want to dwell on the past, present or future.
Such an action assumes that there is no corruption in the administration of justice in this land. A very big assumption to make.
From all we have seen so far, one can safely bet that this will go nowhere fast. It has about as high a probability of success as getting Congress to nominate a new commission to investigate nine eleven.
Even the chance of between slim and none that Bush would be tried for torture and war crimes, you can bet your bottom $ that he would be pardoned by either Palin or whoever is President in 2012, just like Ford pardoned Nixon. Fox News says to try Bush for torture is a waste of time because he was given legal authority under the law to torture. Well I agree with ol Foxy News because like Nixon said:" what we need is law and order"...yeah as long as it is my law and my order!
No mention of John Yoo or Jay Bybee, heads of the legal "team" that issued the green light for torture, which they clearly knew the Bush junta was demanding from them. Not that they were coerced.
But this whole thing is just another car alarm that won't be answered. It's nearly impossible to reasonably expect ANTHING will happen to Bush. First, MSM won't be reporting on this, or what they do say will thoroughly minimize and marginalize it as an important development or that it in any way concerns that antiquated concept, justice. If corporate media decides to make all this go away, it will. But it won't have to because neither Obama nor Holder will pay any attention whatsoever, as Jerrold Nadler averred. The whole matter will be stillborn in cyberspace.
There's no way Bush wouldn't have been strongly advised not to bring any of this up, especially in interviews, if there was the slightest chance he'd actually be prosecuted or even investigated. Putting the admission in the book wouldn't be as risky, since hardly anyone reads, so allegations that he signed off on torture would remain conjectural. But he's not going to confess all this publicly if there's a chance a possee might be rounded up and his ass brought in for trial. Never happen, and he and all his protectors know it, including Obama.
But it is something we can get all lathered up in here about, like the calls a few years ago that he stand trial for war crimes, a matter directly related to this one. If there's one constant in the political world we're all prisoners of now, it's that major war criminals, Wall Street thieves and their counterparts in medical insurance and pharmaceuticals, all get away with wholesale murder every goddamn day of every corrupted year. It's how we do business in America. It's what makes us GREAT.
I hope you are wrong, and they do get all the people involved with breaking very important laws, that define us for who we are. The U.K. is going after Tony Blair, and I think if they get him, the International Justice System will feel compelled to go after the Americans that committed these crimes against the World by breaking the Geaneva Convention, and the codes and ethics of War for the last 400 yrs. ! All Countries that have done what we just did, and are still doing, have all been considered the "Bad Guys " by the U.S. and the World, so how can we do these crimes, and expect to walk when the Bosnia guy, Grenada, Hitler all the guys in History that killed, and tortured, and committed genicide (millions of people) like we are doing ,have all gone to trial, or killed themselves. Why should Bush be any different, I am sure the dead Iraqi, feels just as dead as the other people muredered in illigal wars around the world. A crime is a crime.
New DNA evidence casts doubt on the guilt of Claude Jones, executed in Texas for a murder he may not have committed-- while Bush was governor. Think Bush would feel any guilt over this?
Meanwhile, our justice system is obviously not just. I propose that we boycott by refusing to serve on juries- or, if we serve on juries, make sure that we are the lone juror who refuses to return a guilty verdict. If those guilty of the worst crimes against humanity are not going to face justice, why should any other American citizen?
Unfortunatly I think about 60% of people in public office are criminals, and the other 40% are corruptable. Too many of them follow the leader, and are afraid to go against the groove, so they are easily lead. That is not why individual States send their Reps. to Washington though. We need to really get rid of the old crooks ,if they were convicted, that would solve a big problem. Also it would send a message to the rest, to start doing their damn jobs, and stop ripping us all off, and screwing our Country up !
The first time Bush told a lie to the American people was the day he took office.The last time hasn't happened yet.
I want All these clowns arrested, Dick,and Rumsfield, and even Powell, if he knew he was lying, and caused the death of so many people. They are not above the law, and if they are... then everything we think we are, is a lie. If we could get the criminal element out of Washington we could have a great country. It is not our fault that we are constantly being lied to for the last 40 years, but we know that Rumsfield, and Cheaney both help orcharstrate Vietnam, and here we are 35 yrs. later repeating the whole nightmare. There are a select few in the goverment that are just bad men, that are trying to rule the world. They are nuts, and we need to deal with them, just like we do all criminally insane people. We must show ourselves, and the World that we are a Fair, and Just People.
I pray my countrymen do the right thing, and bring Justice to America ! It will let the International Community know, that we do not agree with this behavior. We are not running around the world causing Terror anymore. We have killed 1 million Iraqis, that stuff really bothers me. I am very mad, and ashamed. However, we can fix all of this, and send a message to anyone else that wants to highjack this country for personal glory, that the American people don't tolerate Torture, or War Crimes Against Humanity !
"Damn right" was NOT an admission from Bush that he ordered waterboarding.
This is a misinterpretation being made on progressive websites everywhere.
Instead it's a public declaration that the unitary executive now not only claims the authority to order torture but will no longer hide this power or fear any legal consequences whatsoever. Thus the repeated boasts to a variety of mass media.
It's a coming out party.
The dimensions of the unitary executive are now being revealed to the public.
With the coming economic, governmental and environmental collapse (and the mayhem that will ensue) the unitary executive is simply broadcasting to the public, lest there be no doubt, that HE IS THE RULE OF LAW.
Thank you Miggy-2 for continuing to fight the good fight.
He also should be investigated for plagiarism. Apparently he lifted several quotes and passages from other peoples' works without properly citing them. Plagiarism still is a felony, right?
Dear gracchus:
Plagiarism...yes that will be the loophole. You see, he will finally admit he didn't actually write the book, and therefore, "he never said that about water boarding."
So ACLU, go after the plagiarism charge with the original authors FIRST. Then, if that is won, the terrorism charge would stick.
Of course, he will finally admit that the whole thing is ghost written and then HE will sue the ghost writer for libel. When asked why he didn't review "his" book, he will finallly admit that he can't read.
His defense? " I never did have plagiarism with that book! " There is, after all, precedence for this defense.
I guess only Felons need apply for the job of the Precidency !
Being a Felon seems to be part of the requirements !
No one loathes that mentally ill empty suit George W. Bush more than I do. I can't stand to to see him, listen to him, or read anything his ghostwriters have written for him. I think he is one of the sorriest excuses of a human being, and the worst president in US history....until now. At least that steaming pile of war criminal excrement never had his Justice Department argue in federal court (that I am aware of) that the president has the absolute right to have any American killed on his sole word/whim, with no possibility of review by anybody. Obama is doing that as we speak. I never thought it would happen in my lifetime: that there could ever be an individual >>actually worse<< than W residing in the White house.
Unfriggin' believable.
Where is the MSM? AWOL as usual.
Google: Al-Aulaqi v. Obama ACLU
Ya with GW at least you knew he was going to do something stupid,he would even tell you, Obama lied about who he was, he is more of an anti christ than Bush...Obama is just freaking me out. He keeps doing more, and more things that are just unbelievable. He is a very bad guy...
Or, it's entirely possible, Obama is just worried about ending up like JFK. Perhaps he's gotten the word that he can play president, but if he tries to do anything meaningful, he'll feel the wrath of the MIC, as Paul Wellstone did. After all, the disinclination to prosecute Bush and Cheney proves we are a corporate plutocracy already, it just hasn't appeared in headlines in our corporately-owned newspapers.
Poor, poor, Bush. He's been so battered. After all he's done for Amerika and the world and then someone mean like Kanye West has the audacity to say that such a loving, caring human being doesn't care about black people. Imagine that! Poor Georgie was crushed. Crushed I tellz ya. The worst moment of his presidency. Imagine someone saying that he doesn't care about black people the worst moment of his career! Cognitive dissonance is an art from in Amerika and it comes all the way from the top.
Have I been conditioned?
No matter what picture it is, no matter if it one that intended to flatter GW bush or one of those Intended to ridicule him, each and EVERY picture of this guy turns my stomach.
I see that face. I get sick. Will the brainwashing NEVER end!!?
ME TOO !! His voice,his name ,and his face ,all make me so ill ! I feel so much hate for him, and his friends ,I pray everyday that the International Community will come and arrest them all. Unfortunately our own country is so screwed up, we can't even demand Justice when it screams to us, right in front of our faces, a clear and obvious crime spree, headed by Bush, and designed by Cheaney and Rumsfield, two of the Devils henchmen....I hate them ! I worry about us...
The complete and total disregard by the current and former president for taking the high road is a sign of American desperation. A blatant admission by Dubya that he authorized torture, and an assertion by Obama that he can order the assassination of American citizens at will...! "Soft power" be damned.
In the international arena, esp. in the economic sphere, the U.S. is now where Hitler was after his defeat at Stalingrad and the D-Day landing at Normandy in June 1944.
The results of the G-20 meeting demonstrate that the U.S. has been its own worst economic enemy. We remonstrate China for "devaluing" its currency, just as the Fed's Bernanke is printing up another $800 billion in electronic currency while our government policy is now to "weaken" the dollar to increase American exports. Not even our allies can take the hypocrisy anymore.
Looking at things purely emperically, there was no necessity for torture. It was a decision made by a sadist. Or a cabal of sadists. The world also knows that the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the execution of Saddam Hussein were acts of calculated madness.
What if every other nation adopted the Bush Doctrine? To wit:
"In his new memoir, "Decision Points," Bush recalls his thought process after CIA director George Tenet asked for permission to waterboard alleged al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in early 2003. Bush's response: "Damn right."
In an interview with the Times of London published this week, Bush used that language again, this time with feeling. James Harding described asking Bush if he authorized the use of the waterboard on Mohammed.
"Damn right!" he barks. "We capture the guy, the chief operating officer of al-Qaeda, who kills 3,000 people. We felt he had the information about another attack. He says: 'I'll talk to you when I get my lawyer.' I say: 'What options are available and legal?'" This, after Dick Cheney had warned of America's use of "the dark side."
Can anyone imagine, in the context of recent history, Dubya asking, out loud, "What options are available AND LEGAL"?
Meanwhile, it suddenly occurs to me that it is not enough to say that the U.S. has more military resources than all other nations combined. We must also recognize that we project our military far more aggressively than any other nation. To take a thought from SR, we are Mars on Earth.
It is becoming clear that we are increasingly becoming an international Pariah.
Meanwhile, after the repeal of Glass-Steagall (under Clinton) and the gutting of telecom independence (under Clinton), etc., I put the date of the collapse of the Dollar at Monday, Sept. 15, 2008, when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson allowed his (Goldman-Sachs) competitor, Lehman Brothers, to collapse in the early stages of the bursting of the housing bubble.
The threat of economic collapse was made palpable by that act. I'd love a private meeting with Nancy Pelosi!
TARP a few short weeks later was the result, and Obama hopped right on board. The first step in saving the big banks AND INTERNATIONAL FINANCE (often overlooked by pundits), while the whole system was built on these financial instruments we have a hard time even giving a name. "Credit default swap." Hmmmmm.
Bush admits authorizing torture! Are these wars actually a DIVERSION from the economic realities? Has it come to this: Globally, we can no longer compete internationally?
If so, kiss the Dollar goodbye (per CK Liu at atimes.com) as the fiat currency (thanks to Nixon and his breaking of the Bretton-Woods convention). (Recall the gas lines in the early 70s?)
George Bush is actually promoting torture here. In contravention of an anti-torture law signed by Reagan! No wonder the ACLU is alarmed. What does Obama have to say?
The most important person today is now said to be the guy running China and I can't think of his name. Tao Chi?
Obama keeps dissing himself. Unfortunately, probably for good reason.
Meanwhile, Bernanke ultimately does not answer to the President. He runs the independent Fed, actually a colloquy of private banks. Bernanke's injection of another $800 billion of inflationary paper will help domestically NOT AT ALL. The banks are already floating in surplus. They are not making loans because there is no Consumer Demand. They are making money playing the Fed scam, borrowing at near zero and then shafting credit card users at near 30 percent and offering to refinance your mortgage---maybe!---at just above 4 percent. To say nothing of investing in Treasuries.
The spread here is genuinely obscene.
To close, and to borrow from some thoughts of Horkheimer & Adorno, much as I hate to suggest it, the actual torture is that of the American people on a day by day basis as the global economic forces make it harder and harder to maintain a civilized life.
Here's a bet: How many American married men with children today would be willing to be waterboarded if it would rid them of their financial debts and save their homes?
The G-20 just repudiated the United States. If push comes to shove, we are the largest debtor nation and cannot meet our international obligations (despite the rise in the price of gold). And Pete Peterson's BILLION-dollar attempt to raid what the MSM continues to misappropriate semantically as "entitlements" (Social Security, Medicare...government pension funds next?) cannot even begin to address this. (Besides, isn't most of Social Security already "borrowed" by the guvment in special Treasury obligations?)
We are ALL being tortured now. It is just a matter of degree.
Welcome to the frogpot.
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The difference here is that we are Americans, we voted for these people. We have let our Country become this. Even the billionairs that have put us here, are Americans. The men that were tortured, were kidnapped from thier country, and beaten and tortured. They watched other men around them get murdered, the fear level is much greater, and we asked for this, they didn't !! Much of it is the fault of Americans, people linning the streets in upper suberbia, driving $60,000 cars living in $750,000 dollar homes. Not just the billionair, many Americans knew they were doing things at thier jobs, that was going to hurt millions of Americans.
Doctors that have allowed people to die, because they listened to an insurance company tell them how to treat thier patiants,they are guilty. People that work for insurance companies, and get on the phone, and tell the doctor "Billy can't have that test or procedure". These are the Americans that betrayed us all too. That is why we have a bad taste in our mouths, we should have refused to do things that would hurt people, just for a paycheck. The doctors, and nurses, and Bankers all over this country, Airline pilots ,people making medicine, and selling it 1,000 times more expensive to an American, than any other country. We have sold our nieghbors out, for a bigger paycheck. Now it is back firing ! If your job requires you to do something you know is wrong ...than you should get another job, refuse to do the wrong thing, and these companies would be forced to do the right things too. Yet millions of Americans just plodded along destroying the lives of thier fellow Americans, and claimed "It was my job !" That is no excuse, and that is why we are here today, and why we are all so tense, and angry, between an illigal war, and having blood on our hands.. we have systematically helped the rich corral this whole country ! We will pay for what we are doing. Don't think these mid-level managers of companies don't know that the business practices of thier companies would hurt people financially, or medically...they talk about..they sometimes even laugh about it. We love to see our nieghbor fail ! Americans don't seem to be loyal to each other, only competitive, and when all you want to do is win, all the time... there is no way that a good civil spirit can thrive. We are our biggest enemy !!
If a guy knew he could loose all his debt if he got waterboarded ,he would do it sure...but he knows what the outcome will be, it is not the same, and the fact you can even look at it that way, is why we are in the mess we are in ! You clearly have no idea what torture is !
Bush thought he could torture anyone with immunity, and Obama thinks he has the right to murder anyone he wants to without any due process.
Who is worse?
Don't forget they Both are Murderers, and Both torture. They are the same. Obama's in office ,we have yet to see his full potential, but Bush is ready to be arrested, we will have to wait and see what Obama deserves.
Bush started this. No President gets in trouble for people dying during War. Bush attacked Iraq illigally, so he is no.1 criminal. Obama, was at first stuck with this situation, but by now, this is his own War, his own illigal killing of civillians,so his day will come.