One of the little reported details from the latest batch of Wikileaks material are cables showing that the Obama Administration worked hard behind the scenes not only to prevent any investigation of torture in the United States but shutdown efforts abroad to enforce the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. This includes threatening the Spanish that, if they did not derail a judicial investigation, it would have serious consequences in bilateral relations. I discussed these cables on Countdown.
For two years, President Obama has worked to block the investigation of torture under the Bush Administration — even as both Dick Cheney and George Bush publicly admit to ordering waterboarding of suspects.
David Corn in Mother Jones has an interesting posting today on the issue.
A “confidential” April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid to the State Department discloses how the Administration discarded any respect for the independence of the judiciary in Spain and pressured the government to derail the prosecution of Bush officials. Human rights groups around the world had called for such enforcement in light of Obama promise that no torturers would be prosecuted and Holder’s blocking of any investigation into war crimes.
The Association for the Dignity of Spanish Prisoners had filed a demand for prosecution with Spain’s National Court to indict former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; David Addington, former chief of staff and legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney; William Haynes, the Pentagon’s former general counsel; Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy; Jay Bybee, former head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; and John Yoo, a former official in the Office of Legal Counsel. It had a compelled factual basis that these men ordered or facilitated war crimes — a record that has only become stronger since this confrontation.
American officials pressured government officials, including prosecutors and judges, not to enforce international law and that this was “a very serious matter for the USG.” It was Obama’s own effort at creating a “Coalition of the Unwilling” — nations unwilling to enforce treaties on torture and war crimes when the alleged culprits are American officials.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) joined the embassy’s charge d’affaires in the secret campaign to block the prosection of Judge Baltasar Garzón.
Corn notes that, during an April 14, 2009 White House briefing, he asked press secretary Robert Gibbs if the Obama administration would cooperate with any request from Spain on the investigation and prosecution. Gibbs insisted that this was nothing but “hypotheticals” and did not disclose that in fact the Obama Administration was working diligently to block the Spanish case.
Just as many conservatives abandoned their principles in following George Bush blindly, many liberals have chosen to ignore Obama’s concerted efforts to protect individuals accused of war crimes. Under our treaty obligations, the United States has the primary responsibility to prosecute torture by U.S. citizens. That responsibility rests with the Executive Branch – the prosecuting authority of the United States. What is particularly disgraceful is that Obama would refuse to fulfill this responsibility under our treaties and international law and then demand the same hypocrisy from our allies.
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I think Obama could be impeached by Daryl Issa. He has promised as much. Bush on the other will go free.
Swarthmore,
And? There are some principles that aren’t worth compromising on, no matter what the cost. For me, torture is one of those issues. I won’t actively help a person who refuses to hold people who torture accountable hold office.
Sometimes there are no good options.
eniobob,
I agree in so much as they both exhibit sub-human traits.
Bob: “OBAMA IS DOING EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID IN HIS BOOKS.
YOU SHOULD TRY READING THEM YOU HAVE NOT HIT ON ONE OF YOUR PREDICTIONS YET”
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.” –Dostoevsky
Anyone who likes to watch Animal Planet such as myself will understand my analogy,The Republicans are like Hyenas they eat their prey alive,The Democrats on the other hand are like the African Wild Dogs it take a lot of them to track and get their prey.
Would anybody like to respond to my friend Bob.
Bob is a die hard Obama Fan.
Here’s his reply via e-mail to this thread. All in caps
OBAMA IS DOING EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID IN HIS BOOKS.
YOU SHOULD TRY READING THEM
YOU HAVE NOT HIT ON ONE OF YOUR PREDICTIONS YET
I have not read his book/books. Does anybody know what Bob is talking about.
Bloomberg is the most probable third party candidate but I doubt he is for impeaching anyone.
In fact, first party to bail on both Bush and Obama wins my vote.
I’d vote for a republican that vowed to prosecute both Bush and Obama.
Gyges One thing to remember is that a candidate must get to 270 electoral votes to win. With three strong candidates no one would get to 270, so the GOP House gets to choose. It is a sure path to a republican victory.
I don’t know Gyges, seems to me that that the blind eyes supporting Obama are just about the same percentage of the Democratic party as those Republicans that turned a blind eye to Bush.
Here’s hoping we get a good third party candidate for President. There are some evils that “lesser of” just doesn’t apply.
Do it Til we’re sick of it
Do it ’till you can’t do it no more
I prefer til I’m satisfied, what ever it is
Bdaman: “He was damned from the beginning. He was damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
******
If the wheel is fixed
I would still take a chance
If we’re treading on thin ice
Then we might as well dance
So I play the fool
But I can’t sit still
Help me get this rock
To the top of this hill
Do it
‘Til we’re sick of it
Do it ’till you can’t do it no more
Friends will pity you
I guess that’s what they’re for
But they just take you like they find you
When they find you on the floor
But you do it
Til you sick of it
Do it til you can’t do it no more
©1972 Jesse Winchester
From the LP “Third Down, 110 To Go”
Buddha I quess it’s all in how you look at it. 🙂
Thats how I ended up married again.
Can’t wait to watch Olberman feign outrage.
Sheriff Buford T. Justice: “What we’re dealing with here is a complete lack of respect for the law.”
bdaman,
If you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, it is far better to do.
Obama has committed war crimes too? Chomsky says so. Paul Craig Roberts says so. And Glenn Greenwald suggests it as well:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/noam-chomsky-president-obama-is-involved-in-war-crimes-right-now/
That is why Obama will not pursue this.
You can whine and cry, and rant and rave, but it ain’t gonna happen. The fix is in. It was in when Biden was put on the ticket.
They are all filthy dirty.
This is because they are all members of the same club: the Council On Foreign Relations. It is the most dangerous, extremist, and subversive organization in America (outside of the Department of Homeland Security) which the DHS will never tell you about.
Even when not officially registered, Presidents are automatic pseudo-members because of their handlers or family members who belong to the club. Cheney under Bush 43, Bush 41 under Reagan, Biden under Obama, Kissinger under Nixon. JFK wasn’t CFR, but he wanted a debt-free monetary system. Oops, that was a no no. You cannot destroy America if it has a sound economic policy. LBJ canceled that executive order for sound money immediately. After JFK was murdered, that is.
You get my drift?
And every Secretary of State since the CFR was created is a CFR member. Hillary may have been the first one not to be (though Bill is). But I believe that now she is a member. She would be a tardy member therefore. Certainly she was very happy that the CFR was moving their offices nearby so she should could consult with them regularly.
Did I mention that power corrupts? Did I mention it murders? Did I mention that that also means mass murder?
Anyway, group together several hundred of the most powerful people in America whose power is unaccountable but absolute and what do you get? A group of benign but sincere citizens who just want to help themselves….I mean…help us out, or a group of demons with a like-minded goal of world dominion and the abolition of the nation-state throughout the world? I’ll bet you know what I think the answer is.
Any way, David Lindorff (who wrote a book about prosecuting Bush and Cheney when they were still in office) now says the same thing about Obama.
Biden continually guides the young Obama to the CFR goal of one world government. They all use the same tricks to achieve this goal: lawlessness, sedition, and subversion.
Biden, who could win an Academy Award for pretending to be a hapless imbecile, is charged with the job of keeping his young Padawan apprentice on track to CFR goals. He makes sure the youngster doesn’t stray too far from it (like Kennedy did). Did I mention that our CIA directors are CFR members too? No? Well, you can bet it’s not a minor detail.
Anyway. The goal of the CFR is world government. I’m not making this up, this is THEIR stated policy. They will do it in whatever way they can. Currently, they are leveling America so she doesn’t have power to lead the world, or even “co-lead” it. That is so she then becomes forced to comply with world governance. You have to destroy her economically to do that. (It’s working well right now, isn’t it?)
The Constitution has to be rendered obsolete or invalid too. And for these people this can happen none too soon.
Although, truth be told, government has been doing that for quite some time now, even before the CFR was created. Abe Lincoln began it in earnest.
Lindorff’s comments:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/lindorff12.1.html