In the last week, the Obama Administration has supported the Bush Administration in a variety of cases to the great disappointment of many civil libertarians, historians, and academics. This includes an effort to kill litigation that has sought millions of missing emails in the Bush Administration.
Public interest organizations have been suing the Executive Office of the President over large amounts of White House e-mail that were mysteriously lost or destroyed by the Bush Administration. Now, the Holder Justice Department is trying to snuff out the case — a move that runs against Obama’s promise of a more open government. The move puts the Obama Administration on a curious side of opposing the preservation of such key material, which has been sought by both public interest groups and academics. For the full story, click here.
This follows the decision of the Obama White House to try to force the Democrats in Congress “to compromise” with people like Karl Rove on the issue of compelled testimony. I recently discussed that effort on this segment of Countdown.
The Obama Administration has also come up in favor of the position of the Bush Administration in seeking to block an avenue for prisoners to get DNA evidence to prove their innocence. In an Alaskan case, the Obama Administration will argue in support of the state’s opposition of allowing prisoners to sue for such access, even when they are willing to pay for the tests. The case involves William Osborne who was convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping in the death of a prostitute in Anchorage in 1993. In post-conviction appeals, Alaska courts said he was not entitled to DNA evidence for testing but the 9th Circuit reversed. For the full story, click here.
This follows the Obama Administration’s recent embrace of Bush Administration views on the “war of terror” and officials backing down from criticism of the rendition programs, here. The Administration has also decided to continue to deny trial to detainees held by the United States.
Actually, I’d count torture as a lesser included offense; wouldn’t you?
Bob,
Well, yeah, there is that too. 😀
Torture shmorture…
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/13/citing_iraq_war_renowned_attorney_vincent
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7905643.stm
How long until the torturers are held accountable, Obama? The tide is rising. As more evidence of criminal wrongs committed by Bush Co. is made public, the less you’ll be able to resist the call to restore the rule of law.
Get in front of this train or be derailed. There is still time to do the right thing and rehabilitate America’s image abroad and calm the growing domestic anger.
Do the right thing.
Do what you were elected to do and stop using the economy as an excuse to pander to fascism and war criminals.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer?pagename=IndictmentReferendum
It’s about war crimes trials. Please take a look.
And this? This is a real test here . . . a stationary target in the DOJ scandal as Turdblossom comes to rest on his own arrogance. Come on, Obama, Holder and Congress. I dare you not to urge that Rove shouldn’t be picked up, frog marched into a cell and allowed to stew in his own vile juices (or in a just world, the vile juices of fellow criminals) until he cooperates.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0209/Rove_skips_House_Judiciary_deposition.html
I double-dog dare you.
Bron,
Term limits are a start but that’s just a band aid. The real issue is the revolving door between government service and lobby. That’s where the rubber of graft meets the road of political subversion and corruption.
what about term limits instead would they not be easier to put into place and really address the heart of the matter-corrupt individuals who have no philosophical grounding, no internal mechanism for self correction?
The more time passes, the only viable solution would seem to be a third party combined with a drive to get some new Amendments to the Constitution.
This comes from another hobby project of mine and I submit it not as a final work, but an idea in progress.
“The Constitutional Integrity Amendment, the proposed 28th Amendment. – The penalty for violating these core legal principles enshrined in the Constitution should be exclusion from process. Any official of any party found to directly or by complicit inaction to have enabled Constitutional abuses in a court of law should be stripped of the right to vote or hold office either elected or appointed.”
“Buckley v. Valeo, an erroneous S.C. decision that has brought us to the fascism we are witnessing in full bloom under the Bush and Obama Administrations. It has been aided by the deeply flawed McCain-Feingold Act and the McConnell v. FEC decision which led directly to the 2004 and 2008 campaign spending fiascoes. Money is not free speech. It’s money. Money is the root of corruption. It is self-evident that corruption is the problem. Corruption should be pulled out by the roots. These bad precedents should be overturned by Amendment. The proposed 29th Amendment, the Anti-graft Restriction on Free Speech, should contain severe limitations on donations so that the poorest Americans can compete with the wealthy and the corporate. Suggested improvements are forcing cable companies and broadcast stations to donate time for candidates and debates as terms of their business charters, a $5000 cap on personal donations from a single natural citizen, restructure PAC’s as to limit their influence to presenting an issue and a prohibition of lobbyists or corporate contributions made either directly or indirectly to any party or candidate. The proposed 28th Amendment is discussed below, The Constitutional Integrity Amendment. The proposed 29th Amendment is second in importance only to the proposed 28th Amendment”
This comes from the Center for Constitutional Rights:
“Currently at Guantánamo, the majority of detainees are being held in conditions of solitary confinement in one of two super-maximum facilities – Camps 5 and 6 – or in Camp Echo. The conditions in these camps are harshly punitive and violate international and U.S. legal standards for the humane treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. Solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, environmental manipulation, and sleep deprivation are daily realities for these men and have led to the steady deterioration of their physical and psychological health. In addition, detainees are subjected to brutal physical assaults by the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF), a team of military guards comparable to a riot squad, who are trained to respond to alleged “disciplinary infractions” with overwhelming force. Detainees have also been deprived of virtually all meaningful contact with their families, and have suffered interference with and abuse related to their right to practice their religion.
“Contrary to statements by the military, conditions at Guantánamo have not improved for the majority of detainees and are still in violation of the law. In this report, we describe the current conditions of confinement for the men at Guantánamo and make recommendations for bringing Camps 5, 6 and Echo into immediate compliance with “all applicable laws” governing the conditions of confinement of detainees, as required by President Obama’s Executive Order.
The descriptions of ongoing, severe solitary confinement, other forms of psychological abuse, incidents of violence and the threat of violence from guards, religious abuse, and widespread forced tube-feeding of hunger strikers indicate that the inhumane practices of the Bush Administration persist today at Guantánamo, despite President Obama’s Executive Order, and should be remedied immediately.”
In Washington, Bill Delahunt, Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives human rights subcommittee, accused Miliband of engineering a cover-up and demanded that the Obama administration declassify the report.
Delahunt has written to the US attorney general, Eric Holder, and the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, demanding they publish the unedited dossier on Mohamed’s treatment. His letter states: “The United States should not restrict access to intelligence solely to prevent information that might prove politically embarrassing from becoming public, when it poses no legitimate national security threat. This is especially the case when the information in question bears on an allegation as deeply troubling as torture.
“I suggest that the US itself should make that information public.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/binyam-mohamed-return-uk
If a person who we have tortured is still able to worry about those left in Gitmo, how much more should we be calling for justice and an immediate end to the abuse of US prisoners. We must not stay silent. This is wrong.
“Binyam Mohamed, a former UK resident who is flying home after four years of incarceration at Guantánamo Bay…
“I am not asking for vengeance, only that the truth should be made known so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured.”
Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and then secretly flown by the CIA to Morocco where he says he was brutally tortured. He was subsequently flown to Afghanistan and then to the US camp in Cuba.
In his statement today, Mohamed said he would not be able to speak publicly about his experiences for some time.
“I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain,” he said. “I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares.
“Before this ordeal, torture was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government.
“While I want to recover, and put it all as far in the past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers.
“My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/23/binyam-mohamed-return-uk
I agree with Jill the time for demonstrating has arrived. I would also suggest to many calls to the White House to register your opinions, just as I will be doing right now.
I tend to agree, buddha. The dems are still spineless, the repubicans still mindless. Obama refuses to throw anyone that voted for the Iraq war under the bus. There must be something JT could do, no? 🙂
Can’t we sue Obama for harboring terrorists like Bush?
All of these cases outlined in Prof. Turley’s posting are very disturbing. If the Obama administration is going to prove to me that he is going to put his money where his mouth is, he better do it quickly. The one good thing about the President residing in the White House, we all know where he lives when it comes to demonstration time. If the NSA is still listening, those are peaceful demonstrations that I am talking about!
I am also deeply concerned over detainee treatment. This is a report on abuse and beatings in Gitmo, including recently. All people of conscience must speak out against torture, even if it is occurring under the Obama administration.
“Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by US guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantánamo Bay, according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp.
Mohamed will arrive back tomorrow in the UK, where he was a British resident between 1984 and 2002. During medical examinations last week, doctors discovered injuries and ailments resulting from apparently brutal treatment in detention.
Mohamed was found to be suffering from bruising, organ damage, stomach complaints, malnutrition, sores to feet and hands, severe damage to ligaments as well as profound emotional and psychological problems which have been exacerbated by the refusal of Guantánamo’s guards to give him counselling.
Mohamed’s British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said his client had been beaten “dozens” of times inside the notorious US camp in Cuba with the most recent abuse occurring during recent weeks. He said: “He has a list of physical ailments that cover two sheets of A4 paper. What Binyam has been through should have been left behind in the middle ages.”
Lieutenant colonel Yvonne Bradley, Mohamed’s US military attorney, added: “He has been severely beaten. Sometimes I don’t like to think about it because my country is behind all this.”
Claims that Mohamed was beaten during the period after President Obama announced Guantánamo’s closure in January risk harming diplomatic relations between the administration and the British government. Prime minister Gordon Brown is believed to have raised Mohamed’s case with the US president during their first talk following Obama’s inauguration two months ago.
Stafford Smith, the director of legal charity Reprieve, said yesterday that Mohamed had been routinely beaten by Guantánamo’s notorious emergency reaction force, a six-strong team of guards in riot gear who have been the subject of previous abuse allegations. The alleged beatings were routinely administered against Mohamed “for no reason” and some were “recent” according to Stafford Smith.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/22/binyam-mohamed-injuries
It really is time for a mass rally in Washington, DC. These rulings are too consistent to be ignored. It doesn’t matter if you like Obama or you don’t like him. That’s not the point. The actions he is taking are undermining the rule of law. We don’t have time to keep waiting before we exercise our rights as a free people to petition the government. There is no reason to keep silent. The only way for Obama to get the message, loud and clear about what we want from him, is to be loud and clear. We don’t have to be disrespectful. We do have to be strong. We need a clear ethical vision of what we want the United States to be as a country and insist that it be honored.
BTW, Barry. I never put a bumper sticker on any vehicle I’ve ever owned. I did for you though. Needless to say, it’s gone now, you lying sack of crap. Scrapped off my window like you should be scrapped off the shoe of Thomas Jefferson after he’s strolled through a barnyard.
The time for patience has officially ended.
I rarely repeat myself, but I think I said all I had to say to you on this issue just recently . . .
President Obama,
Hi! I just wanted you to know that I’ll be working just as hard to get you out of office as I did to get you in to office.
This is why.
I was under the impression you were a Constitutional scholar. What you’ve just shown is that in reality you’re a Neocon capitulating chickenshit. That scumbag Perle must have some stroke, because the hand job you just gave We the People just reeks of Neocon.
Enjoy your one term.