In a major decision, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that he has found that the Justice Department has acted improperly in barring any criminal investigation of well-documented war crimes committed by the Bush Administration in the torture program. To punish the failure of the Department to act in a timely fashion, he has announced that no criminal charges will be pursued regarding torture to teach prosecutors a lesson that “justice delayed is justice denied.”
On April 1, 2009, Holder held a press conference in which he was angry over the failure over Acting Associate Attorney General Daniel Marcus and Lanny Breuer, head of the Criminal Division, to even investigate the commission of war crimes despite a public record of the crime.
“I am simply perplexed by what these prosecutors were waiting for. These are crimes committed and discussed virtually in front of the Justice Department building. The International Red Cross found that this was torture. Bush officials admitted that it was torture. Interrogators said it was torture. Both the President and I have said waterboarding is torture. Well, folks, torture is not just a crime, it is a well-defined war crime. Now, we have Spain investigating crimes that we failed to investigate. The failure of Messrs. Marcus and Breuer to act shows the very type of political pressure that corrupted the Justice Department under my predecessors.”
Holder announced that he will now let Spain enforce these laws to teach prosecutors a lesson — much as he did with the Stevens case. Holder noted “I’m no fool. I promised the Senate that I would no longer engage in political acts like those I was accused of committing while a member of the Clinton Administration. The failure of these officials to act in the face of confirmed crimes is intolerable and makes me look like a political hack.” In a bow to the Spaniards, Holder noted that “the fact is that the Spanish legal system is much older than the United States and they have had more experience dealing with waterboarding since the Inquisition and war crimes since the Spanish Civil War.”
Holder indicated that his policy of punishing the Justice Department by barring investigations or prosecutions against criminals will be a continuing tool for discipline of his administration. Holder noted that it is sometimes necessary to “do good by doing nothing” and that he will not hesitate to punish his department in a similar fashion in the future in these highly politicized cases. “I am not some April Fool,” he insisted, “despite the views of many.”
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BTW, Happy April Fool’s day, everyone.
“…Holder noted that it is sometimes necessary to “do good by doing nothing” and that he will not hesitate to punish his department in a similar fashion in the future in these highly politicized cases.”
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I’ll take Edmund Burke’s observation on doing nothing over Holder’s:
‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” (“Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents” (1770))
Loosely translated today to, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”
This has to be the most backwards press announcement in the history of government. It makes my head spin how wrongheaded the logic is.
There is some logic here in not letting Obama and his DOJ / administration investigate US War Crimes.
US War Criminals should not be investigating US War Crimes.
I believe legally they have the right, according to treaties, to pass the investigations to another country or countries.
This is a joke, right? Please tell me that this is just an April Fool’s joke.
I also heard that Eric Holder addressed the following deep concerns of many:
“Can nuclear splooge really turn us into flesh-eating zombies? Is it such a good idea to go into the basement of the last house on the left? {Uncle Ted says it’s fine if you don’t know who paid for the addition}. And that naked girl sure looks great zooming around on a motorcycle–but did she at least wipe the seat first?
(written by Stephanie Zacharek in “The B List”)
Attorney General Holder stands in the great American tradition of jurisprudence best exemplified by our 57th AG and Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson who, when addressing the Nuremberg IMT trials of major Nazi war criminals following World War II as the Chief American Prosecutor stated, “Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let’s not bicker and argue over who killed who.”
AG Holder will soon be addressing issues of malfeasance and nonfeasance by present and former administration and congressional officials with respect to the Foreign Assistance Act (22 USC 2151 et seq.), Arms Export Control Act (22 USC 2771-2781) and Israel’s recent Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Uncle Ted is CON-nected. That poor dear old man. Thank goodness Eric cares about the elderly (as long as they’re rich and connected).
Happy April Fools!!!
I mean even i can lighten up once in a while but this may border on torture as well!
not even the Obama administration can fight a war against its own people on both the economic and political fronts
april fools all!(i hope)
Let’s start shipping the U.S. War Criminals to Spain and the Hague! This includes Obama / Bush and their administrations, Congress, US judges, DOJ offenders, US main stream media, etc.
Some people find April Fool’s jokes by news organizations and other people who you can normally rely on funny.
I’m afraid I don’t.
Is this an April Fool’s joke?
Do “good” by doing nothing…That’s about it!
This is just ridiculous. Let me get this straight. First the administration drags its feet and refuses to prosecute and now says that because it refused to prosecute it will, well, not pursue any prosecution. Hmm. Interesting tactic. They are looking for a way to criticize the fact they failed to prosecute while at the same time getting away with failing to prosecute. All they are doing is diminishing their credibility.
The Onion broke this first! Brilliant, JT. I threw up a little bit when I heard the news about Holder purportedly “sending a message that this conduct won’t be tolerated” when it was really sending a message that it will.
Can it be that Obama is willing to go beyond Bush? Bush, for whatever reason, chose not to pardon Libby, over Cheney’s objections. I imagined that, on some level, he hesitated to overturn a jury verdict and felt that the commutation. But Obama, via Holder, appears to be willing to go beyond what even the defense was seeking, a new trial, to supposedly “send a message” to his AUSA’s. Sickening.
Happy April Fools Day.
With this decsion and the dropping of charges against Ted Stevens-Ex Senator from Akaska,I to will be looking for the Prof. somewhwhere on the tube.
Very busy AG, Henry. In addition to dropping the war crimes investigation and the Stevens prosecution(see Stevens below), he reversed the DOJ stance on DC voting rights, overruling JT.
I hope he and DOJ will aid Spain in these investigations with extradition, etc. Let’s give Spain all the assistance needed to investigate all US War Criminals.
It appears members of the Justice Dept. are guilty of War Crimes in suppression of these investigations.
Obama is already a well-documented War Criminal of many years.
This leaves me with dozens of questions. I’m hoping I’ll see Prof. Turley on Countdown or the Rachel Maddow Show for some expounding.
Hog wash! Politics as usuual. Double speak. They mean the opposite of what they say.
Holder is sure up early this morning. I read this at 9:15 a.m. D.C. time, and I don’t know how long it has been posted.