In an interview with Raw Story, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) denounced President Barack Obama for blocking any investigation or prosecution of torture under the Bush Administration as inviting ‘tyranny.”
Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. correctly said that the Obama Administration had endangered the very premise of the “supremacy of laws” in its refusal to prosecute Bush officials.
The Obama Administration could not risk a full investigation because the evidence of torture would likely have resulted in indictments of former officials, including President George Bush and Dick Cheney. Instead, President Obama decided to ignore our clear international obligations to investigate and prosecute torture — which allowed Bush officials to go public with boasts of how they waterboarded suspects and would do it again.
Source: Rawstory
I do not know anything about Nadler; however, I think I might like another Democrat…just as long as he does not say in a day or so that he misspoke or was misquoted.
So the govt. can find money for wars and Obama can keep adding troops while “working” on unemployment (in other words the govt. can undertake multiple extremely difficult tasks at the same time) but one thing the govt. can’t do is work on unemployment and uphold the rule of law at the same time?
That tea party propaganda is out and about. Does it explain Obama’s own grab for executive tyranny such as imprisoning the innocent and killing American citizens he considers Muslim terrorists?
The wars are funded by bond sales to the Chinese.
Smom,
Let ’em. Because that’s the point those astroturfing assholes Breitbart and Armey’s ‘lil plan blows up in their face.
I think if Bush or even Cheney were to be put on trial the tea party would become even more violent.
If we will living in a more prosperous time, hmmm…where is all that energy and money for multiple wars of empire coming from? How about we drop those and focus on unemployment and restoring the rule of law?
tom Mil You are right. Maybe if we were living in a more prosperous time they would pursue this or maybe not. The focus will remain on unemployment and the economy. I don’t think this country has the stomach for what would be viewed to be political trials now. That is not to say it is not the right thing to do.
y’all shood leaf the gubbmint ‘lone. theyz keepin us saffe from dem preverts liken Pulanskee….
Actully, Obama is engaged in his very own torture program (and people are going to have to research that for themselves but check into the ACLU, Scott Horton, Andy Worthington, the CCR, Amnesty International and Jeremy Scahill).
But allow me to take on the idea that it would backfire politically. So what? No one needs to be in elected office. If you run for office with the sole intention of being elected again, that doesn’t say much for you as a person. We should hope that people who run for office have a better purpose in mind, that they wish to do what is right, that they hope to accomplish things for the good of the many. You are also not coming to grips with Obama’s own grab for the powers of a tyrant. It should not be acceptable to any American that their president has said he will imprison the innocent and that he may pick out who he thinks is a Muslim terrorist and kill them. That should backfire politically.
Swarthmore Mom,
I agree Obama has placed political considerations over the fundemental rule of law and that is what I find most disturbing. I am not a politician so my view is probably 180 degrees different than a politician’s but I would rather be a one term POTUS who stood for profound/just/legal principles than an unprincipled two termer?
I think the Obama administration is afraid it would backfire politically. Many Americans already think he is a muslim.
I’m glad Nadler finally spoke out. Why did it take so long? Why aren’t there more political figures speaking out? Why is the Obama administration “blocking any investigation or prosecution of torture under the Bush Administration?” My guess is that the hands of Democrats are “dirty” on this issue too.
I, too, share Nadler’s concern. It truly boggles my mind that, with the abundance of evidence, the Obama DOJ is allowing the Bush Crime Family to wander about scott-free. If anything pisses me off about Obama, this is it. Truly disgusting.
BIL:
LOL – I heard about that yesterday … Ol’ Ruppy must be having a major league hissy fit!!
Check this out. I bet Andrew got a call from Rupert over this:
Andrew Napolitano, Fox Contributor: Bush And Cheney ‘Absolutely Should Have Been Indicted’ (VIDEO)
Talk about using both sides of the corporate mouth . . .
“If you don’t prosecute, or if you don’t investigate, then what you’re saying is government can do anything,” This is an extremely important concept.
I used to ask Bush supporters why they supported Bush’s grab for dictatorial power and they would always tell me they trusted him to handle it. Now Obama supporters tell me they trust Obama to know who it’s O.K. to kill an American citizen and who it’s O.K. to imprison people without trial etc. There’s a very bad assumption behind this thinking– that anyone should be trusted with these powers. Once you’ve allowed a president to take powers that do not belong to him you are in a state of tyranny, period.
Not only on this issue,but to me the administration seems to be going through this ritual on a lot of things lately:
I am always so heartened when someone speaks up like this. It defies imagination that there was never any groundswell of anger from the public sufficient to move this mountain. And I feel like the same thing is going on with Rush Limbaugh’s outrageously harmful and dangerous race-baiting.
So as soon as Steinbrenner passes away, all that Limbaugh draws from this is that this guy made a lot of black baseball players wealthy? How many times can I throw up after hearing this before I start throwing my actual guts up? This kind of talk should make all non-bigoted Americans to demonstrate outside his employer’s corporate office PERMANENTLY until Limbaugh is removed from the public airwaves.
Inviting tyranny? More like actively encouraging tyranny.
Nadler voted against the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002 also.