Newsweek is reporting that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey delayed a critical internal report on the conduct of senior Justice lawyers in the torture scandal, including Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury. The delayed report not only adds another contradiction to Mukasey’s claims before Congress, but should add pressure on the Obama Administration to stop delaying a criminal investigation into the commission of war crimes by the Bush Administration.
During his confirmation, many of us were alarmed by what appears to be clear false testimony by Mukasey, including his statement that he did not know what waterboarding was. Mukasey insisted that he would implement changes at the Justice Department to stop the political manipulation of career professionals. However, once in office, he blocked any investigation of war crimes, blocked any prosecution of Bush officials for contempt of Congress, and shutdown an array of investigations into the misconduct of Justice officials. It is quite of legacy.
Mukasey’s abuses have led many to question why Sens. Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein rescued his confirmation by not demanding that he answer questions about torture and war crimes. Mukasey proceeded to use an array of implausible excuses for not acting on allegations of crimes while secretly working to delay any criticism of those same officials in this report. For a prior column, click here.
The internal report was an effort to avoid a criminal investigation by allowing career lawyers to review the “conduct” as opposed to the crimes of Bush officials. To Mukasey’s surprise, career lawyers found serious misconduct and he prompted moved to waterdown the report and change its conclusions.
Even with changes forced by Mukasey, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), sharply criticizes three former top lawyers at Justice who authored the torture memos and raises the possibility that they could be referred to bar disciplinary boards.
Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury are the focus of those criticisms.
The controversy, however, should serve to remind citizens that the Obama Administration has still not taken any action on widespread allegations of war crimes. There is clearly an effort to outlast any public interest in such an investigation. Delay will also serve to allow some statute of limitations to run — giving the Administration an excuse not to prosecute on some collateral crimes. However, there are no statutes of limitations for war crimes and the failure of the Administration to act is itself a violation of our obligations under these treaties.
For the full story, click here.
Check this out. A first hand account of being “disappeared”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mohamed-farag-bashmilah/disappeared-in-the-name-o_b_168200.html
Obama needs to come clean on the following. He’s been ducking on
releasing information related to torture and war crimes.
“A cross-party coalition of MPs and human-rights campaigners has written to Barack Obama calling on him to publish secret documents that allegedly contain evidence of US and British complicity in torture.
The letter to Obama calling on the president to publish them has been signed by Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesman, Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, Chris Mullin, a former Foreign Office minister, Clare Algar, the executive director of the legal charity Reprieve, and Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty International UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/19/obama-torture-mohamed
Buddha,
You have done yeoman work today. Your first posting was masterful and it sums up my feelings on this subject. I am a big Obama backer, but I will not stand for a weak stance on restoring the rule of law and for not prosecuting any and all criminals in the Bush regime. I still believe that Congress will hold Obama’s hand to the fire and force him to get on board. My first target is Karl Rove. He must not be given any deals and must answer any and all questions under oath.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
May I present you with Bishop Desmond Tutu . . .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7895328.stm
He’s not as strong in voicing what needs to be done as someone without a Church affiliation can be, but he clearly get “it” too.
Buddha,
You make a very good point. Failure to prosecute for war crimes does undermine the presidency as well as weaken the position of the US in the world.
I read this WaPo piece last weekend and am anxious to see if there is a strategy at work in the timing of all this activity,
at once.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/13/AR2009021303093.html
Talks Could Clear Way for Congressional Testimony by Rove
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 14, 2009; Page A05
White House lawyers and representatives for former president George W. Bush are engaged in discussions that could clear a path for congressional testimony by onetime Bush aide Karl Rove, three sources familiar with the talks said yesterday.
Word of the negotiations came on the same day that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) issued Rove a fresh subpoena regarding his role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, allegedly for political reasons.
Rove has deflected congressional demands for information about the dismissals by citing executive privilege and instructions from Bush. But Democrats say President Obama’s view of the matter may open the door for Rove’s eventual appearance on Capitol Hill.
“I believe that continued defiance of the subpoena is even less tenable in light of the fact that Mr. Rove is now the former adviser to a former president,” Conyers wrote yesterday in a letter to Rove’s attorney, Robert D. Luskin.
Luskin replied that he and Rove are awaiting advice from White House counsel Gregory B. Craig about whether Obama would back the executive privilege assertion by his predecessor.
“The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened,” Craig said in a statement yesterday. “But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency. So, for that reason, he is urging both sides of this to settle.”
A clue about the next phase of the dispute will emerge next week, when the Justice Department is scheduled to file legal briefs in a federal court case in the District. The House of Representatives has sued for information about the prosecutor firings from former Bush White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and former chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten.
The issue is heating up even as a criminal investigation into the firings accelerates. Nora R. Dannehy — a career prosecutor from Connecticut named to examine whether laws on false statements, obstruction of justice or other matters were violated surrounding the dismissals — began to interview key witnesses Thursday.
Weeks earlier, a federal grand jury in the District issued subpoenas in the case to several people, including former senator Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.). Authorities are seeking information from Domenici about any possible role he played in the firing of former New Mexico prosecutor David C. Iglesias.
Rep. Lamar Smith (Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, criticized Democrats yesterday, saying their “continued persecution of former Bush administration officials is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money.”
““The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened. But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency. So for that reason, he is urging both sides of this to settle.”
****************
Proof again that the hardest thing to ask of a decider, is that he/she actually decide.
By not punishing criminals who violated the Constitution, how exactly is that NOT undermining the Office of the President. Not punishing them DIRECTLY undermines the authority of the office by making it Constitutionally invalid.
You can’t say everyone is subject to law, except US, and not expect We the People not to get really angry and really creative in how we’ll extract our pound of flesh that is due. Because if the President is immune to the law, that makes him King, doesn’t it? NO MAN IS MY KING. I’ll die fighting first.
Craig is another fine example of an equivocating douche bag that the government, and indeed the world, could do with less of.
Watch for this as well. Time for PRESSURE, PRESSURE AND MORE PRESSURE…
“This is significant: President Obama’s top lawyer, White House counsel Gregory Craig, has now made some expansive and telling comments about Obama’s views of how or whether to reverse the legal tactics Bush used to expand the power of the Presidency. And they won’t cheer those hoping for a clean break with the past…
Craig, addressing the question of whether the Obama White House will uphold Karl Rove’s claims of executive privilege as he seeks to avoid revealing information about the scandal surrounding the firing of U.S. Attorneys, said this:
“The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened. But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency. So for that reason, he is urging both sides of this to settle.”
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/obamas-top-lawyer-says-obama-doesnt-want-to-weaken-presidency/
Ironically, the horrible economy is going to give Obama cover for what will be his administration’s complete and shameful inaction regarding the crimes of the Bush years.
Also, I’ve always used the expression “ass-clown”. Now, thanks to Buddha, I will try to mix it up a little with asshat.
I found this interesting mainly because of the comments. Ashcroft is a known Neocon tool and anything that comes from his mouth is pure unadulterated crap – the baseline story isn’t that interesting other than to note he’s busy trying to cover himself like he tried to cover semi-nude statues instead of doing his damn job. You’ll notice they too have been visited by our old GOP paid and vanquished troll, Bingo. The comments, however, back what I’ve said about the mood of We the People. The adults are speaking. Washington needs to be listening.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/18/ashcroft-obama-bush/
Buddha:
A little loud maybe, but hear, hear!
from Newseek
…”If Holder accepts the findings, the OPR report could be forwarded to state bar associations for possible disciplinary action against the lawyers. More broadly, the report would likely affect the broader debate over calls for a “truth commission” and other investigations of Bush-era policies…”
—–
Yessss! – we can probably skip the ‘commission’.
Policies? They’re called ‘crimes’.
Might I also suggest a hearty round of dis-barments for Ashcroft, Gonzo and Mukasey as well? Three willing abettors to many of the Bush Administration’s crimes. I personally feel that they all deserve some serious jail time but disbarment would at least throw a wrench into their future financial aspirations and help underscore their part in Bush’s crimial activities. Their complicity and obstruction was unprofessional to say the least, criminal at best.
“Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.”
ARISTOTLE
Outrage at US and UK behavior is coming out stong in the UK. I am hoping this will make it much more difficult for Obama to ignore clear evidence of war crimes. This is what the former head of MI5 said in an interview:
“The former head of MI5 has accused ministers of exploiting fears over terrorism to restrict civil liberties, adding to mounting criticism of the government’s record on human rights.
In an interview with a Spanish newspaper, Stella Rimington said state interference in people’s privacy played into the hands of terrorists.
“It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, [which is] precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state,” she told La Vanguardia.
Rimington, who stood down as the British security service’s director general in 1996, also accused the US of torture.” (from The Guardian)
It is precisely the assult on civil liberities, justified by the “war of terror” that the Obama administration seems hell bent on continuing. Glenn Greenwald discusses some of the bad and good on this matter in his column today. The case of Binyam Mohamed in UK is bringing things to a head. Much information on torutre by both govts. is coming to light due to this case. As this information comes out, I am hoping it will be hard for either govt. to sweep it under the rug.
As to those hideous lawyers, I don’t know why they weren’t disbarred a long time ago, but I’m happy it’s being considered now. From what I can tell, Mukasey is open to charges of obstruction of justice and the legal crew, to war crimes.
Buddha,
That is the post of the year so far! Well said indeed!
Make no mistake Obama Administration, THIS ISN’T GOING AWAY.
You don’t punish the guilty, We the People will. Force our collective hand and see how well that works out for you.
And for clarity, I’ll spell a couple of things out –
1) No one expects Bush to go to prison. He’s a moron and a puppet, not as intrinsically evil as he is stupid. History will be adequate punishment for him and his family. Don’t believe that? Try getting elected without cheating with the name Bush EVER again. You want to throw the Neocon Nazis a bone? That’s the ONLY one you’re going to get.
2) Cheney and the Secret Energy Taskforce ALL NEED TO GO TO PRISON AND HAVE THEIR ASSETS SEIZED AS REPARATIONS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Period. This is NOT negotiable if you want a) our international standing restored and b) continued “domestic tranquility”. We the People WILL enforce the Constitution if you are unwilling or unable.
3) Halliburton – they should be destroyed. End of story. And while your at it, find that pallet of cash those asshats stole. Blackwater can change their name to Xe, but that changes nothing. They deserve the same fate as Halliburton.
4) Rove and those who stacked the DOJ with Regent’s half-assed theocratic fascists for Jesus and Pat Robertson all NEED TO GO TO PRISON. A supermax too, not a country club. This includes Gonzo, Addington, Yoo and, yes, possibly Mukasey. Related to this a) unlimited detention without trial FOR ANYONE is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and UNACCEPTABLE, b) torture FOR ANYONE is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and UNACCEPTABLE, but I’ll throw you this bone – you can keep rendition if the purpose is to bring someone to trial, not ship them off for torture by proxy. Not all of us ignorant to how field intelligence operations SHOULD be run and have been run in the past. You want to sneak in and snag the bad guys, fine, but you better give them a trial as MANDATED by the Constitution. And that also means “speedy” in addition to fair.
There are more issues you need to pick up the pace on, but those four are CRITICAL.
Justice delayed is justice denied. The only people who think this is optional are equivocating weasels. Which is to say “self-serving politicians”. PUNISHING THE GUILTY IS REQUIRED FOR CLOSURE BOTH DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. Count on it. Justice denied is a recipe for revolution. Add that to the generous portions of “Let them eat cake” you’re serving by not putting a boot to criminal Wall St.’s throat? That’s insult to injury. It’s also a recipe for being a one term wonder, to appeal to your self-interest and ego. But if you won’t enforce our laws, then quite respectfully fuck you, Mr. President. We’ll get someone who will or we’ll do it ourselves. The adults in the room are standing up whether you acknowledge them or not. And we’re FURIOUS. We might sit back down if you punish the offending children. If not? Well, you get the idea. We the People is THE most powerful force on Earth. King or President, it isn’t wise to piss us off.
Now do the job we elected you to do.
The Department of Just Us is a difficult one to convert back into the DOJ:
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/02/department-of-just-us.html
Mukasey’s just another Bushie Neocon criminal.
I hope Yoo and company get what they deserve as it’s been a long time coming.
“He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.”
–Leonardo da Vinci