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 just disagree on one point, they dont think they are steering, they think they own the damn log.” -Dick Luzack
Dick,
My father died earlier this year, but he would probably agree…
(Re: “…power is filling the vacuum.” It is. In a manner that is truly Kafkaesque — or beyond Kafkaesque, as noted in an earlier comment.)
The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/
He was then forced to begin releasing them and then when people found out Bill Ayers came to visit they said it was not the same Bill Ayers.
The White House on Friday released a small list of visitors to the White House since President Barack Obama took office in January, including lobbyists, business executives, activists and celebrities.
The White House warns that many names that may appear familiar — and controversial — do not in fact refer to the most famous people to carry those names. Jeremiah Wright is on the list, but it’s not the president’s former pastor. This Michael Jordan is not the basketball player. This Michael Moore is not a filmmaker. The William Ayers who took a group tour of the White House isn’t the former radical from Chicago who figured so prominently in the 2008 campaign. And the Angela Davis on the list has a different middle initial than the activist and former fugitive.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33556933/ns/politics-white_house/
I believe the Whitehouse don’t you
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/net-closes-on-assange-arrest-by-british-police-expected-in-days-2149805.html
No, it’s because thats the way it is. Although the president has the final say, one must look at his inner circle to see how he might decide. Thats why the Whitehouse visitor log is very important.
Anon Nurse:
” it’s become pretty clear to me that this country is being run by intelligence agencies, the military, corporate America, and/or the Pentagon, but it isn’t President Obama”
If so, it is because he is perceived as weak. He probably is weak and so power is filling the vacuum. He does not have the requisite experience to do his job.
Anon Nurse:
I am laughing my ass off, a log full of pissants funny stuff.
I just disagree on one point, they dont think they are steering, they think they own the damn log.
Imagine a wild beast, more subtle and more clever than every other wild beast?
does it have 666 in the hairline, thats all I want to know.
bdaman Aren’t you the one that posted that Obama should not be president because of his association with Bill Ayers?
Swathmore Mom I might have, you know how anti Obama I am so it would not surprise me if I did. A friend of mine told me that if one was to look hard enough you can find faults with Mother Theresa because of all the anti Obama stuff I would send.
About the Pentagon, my career-military father used to say, “It’s like thousands of pissants riding a log down the river and each one of them thinks it’s steering the log.”
ROTFLMAO. Thats Great. Funny thing is as I was reading that the picture appeared in my head as I was acyually seeing the log with the ants on it. Thanks for that.
bdaman Aren’t you the one that posted that Obama should not be president because of his association with Bill Ayers?
Franz Kafka, “Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared,” Michael Hofmann, tr., copyright 1996, the New Directions Publishing Corp. 2002 version printing. I have been re-reading portions thereof.
Has Amerika utterly transcended the Kafkaesque?
Has the President of Amerika, the person who supposedly won the 2008 election, been disappeared?
If so, who disappeared him? And, how? And, why?
Imagine a wild beast, more subtle and more clever than every other wild beast?
Imagine a wild beast so subtle and clever as to be able to devour a person and leave the person devoured perfectly intact, except for having been devoured.
Were I to attempt to name such a wild, clever, subtle beast, I might name it “deception,” for I find that deception deceives itself no less than it deceives all else.
Who can truthfully be faulted for having been overcome by that which is impossible to overcome?
Wise man, Thomas Jefferson…
I know this bdaman. There’s some wicked, ugly stuff going on in these United States — things in which our government is involved. Dick Cheney’s fingerprints are all over it, IMO. He was reportedly working with the CIA on a daily basis after 9/11.
With regard to Obama, I don’t know, but something seems to have changed. I had high hopes that the domestic operations that are going on would stop after Obama was elected, but it’s business as usual. Those involved act with a clear sense of impunity.
In the early days of the Obama administration, I heard a veteran say, “We told the President. We can be your best friends or your worst enemies.” It resonated with me at the time. Having said this, I know that some of the things that were either put in play by the Bush administration (or at the very least, ramped up) have continued under this administration. While not a surprise to some, it’s become pretty clear to me that this country is being run by intelligence agencies, the military, corporate America, and/or the Pentagon, but it isn’t President Obama.
About the Pentagon, my career-military father used to say, “It’s like thousands of pissants riding a log down the river and each one of them thinks it’s steering the log.”
Any thing sound familiar here.
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe .
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
and finally
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: ?I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until
their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.?
You don’t say….
Here’s something that just crossed my mind on things I’ve said here. I’m reminiscing about Obama’s executive order, the first one on the first day of office.
If my memory serves me correctly I stated that the first thing Bush did when he came into office was to sign executive order #13233. It allowed former presidents and even family members to declare executive privilege and block public access to White House records for virtually any reason. Alot of people then thought that this was Bush secrecy but going back to my earlier post above this was about protecting Clinton, now former president from any more embarrassment.
Obama on his first day signed E0 #13489
http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayEO.cfm?id=EO_13489_
Obama said at the time
“For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city. This administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but with those who seek it to be known,” Obama said after signing the order rescinding the Bush-era measure.
“The mere fact that you have the legal power to keep something secret does not mean you should always use it. Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”
But yet
High court questions broad use of FOIA exemption
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9JR8HJG0&show_article=1
Anyone see the irony here.
Bdaman:
are you saying this administration wants to impose a benign censorship on the population?
HA HA HA HA HA
President Obama and Vice President Biden ask newly elected Governors to call the White House before they “are really mad about something” and go to the media.
“We prefer not to read about it in the press,” Obama said.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/12/02/obama_biden_to_new_govs_calls_us_before_you_go_to_media.html
Cui bono? I’d forgotten that there are claims that Obama authorized or allowed torture at a secret prison in Afghanistan.
What I cannot understand is why Obama fights so hard against others’ taking action against torturers, whether those others are foreign governments or torture victims who file civil suits against torturers.
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Intention is presumed from actions; actions are premised on fear or self-interest. Cui bono?