Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
We haven’t heard his name for quite some time now, but former Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel attorney, John Yoo is in the news again. The United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out an appeal by convicted terrorist, Jose Padilla attempting to hold Yoo liable for the torture used on Padilla while in U.S. detention centers.
Believe it or not, the Justices stated that the law on what constituted torture was not clear when Padilla endured the Bush Enhanced Interrogation methods. “A three-judge panel of the court said laws governing combatants and the definition of torture were unclear during the years policies were crafted. Padilla alleged he was subjected to death threats, given psychotropic drugs, shackled and manacled for hours at a time, denied contact with family or a lawyer for 21 months and refused medical care for potentially life-threatening conditions. “That such treatment was torture was not clearly established in 2001-03,” Judge Raymond C. Fisher, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the court.” LA Times
Is it just me or does it confuse and upset anyone else that Prof. Yoo, as an OLC attorney can decide for the country what actions constitute torture and when sued for those torture techniques, the Court claims that because of those very same rules declared by Emperor Yoo, the methods employed against Padilla were not established as torture? It sounds like Prof. Yoo made up the rules of the game and is now hiding behind those very same rules.
“The 9th Circuit’s ruling said the U.S. Supreme Court did not declare until 2004 that citizens held as enemy combatants have constitutional rights. Even now, the 9th Circuit said, “it remains murky whether an enemy combatant detainee may be subjected to conditions of confinement and methods of interrogation that would be unconstitutional if applied in the ordinary prison and criminal settings.” LA Times
Did the Court forget that Mr. Padilla was a United States citizen when he was detained and tortured by government officials? Wasn’t it patently unconstitutional to hold a citizen for 21 months without contact with an attorney or family members or a charge? Here is how the court answered that question.
“The court said that someone designated as an enemy combatant by the president – regardless of whether he is a US citizen or not – is not automatically entitled to full constitutional protections. “Padilla was not a convicted prisoner or criminal defendant; he was a suspected terrorist designated an enemy combatant and confined to military detention by order of the president,” the court said. “He was detained as such because, in the opinion of the president … Padilla presented a grave danger to national security and possessed valuable intelligence information.” “We express no opinion as to whether those allegations were true, or whether, even if true, they justified the extreme conditions of confinement to which Padilla says he was subjected,” Fisher wrote. “In light of Padilla’s status as a designated enemy combatant, however, we cannot agree with the plaintiffs that he was just another detainee” entitled to full constitutional protection.” Christian Science Monitor
I realize that these issues are not new. Allowing for one person, even any President, the ability to rescind normal constitutional guarantees for United States citizens seems not only dangerous, but unconstitutional. How can I, as a citizen, lose my constitutional protections just when I need them the most? I contend that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals missed an opportunity to right a wrong that could impact every citizen. Prof. Yoo created the rules that these justices used to exempt Yoo from liability for his scurrilous definitions of torture.
Shouldn’t that have rang a warning bell in the minds of these justices? What do you think? Did the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals make an error? Let us know what you think!
The full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision can be found here.
anon nurse,
great links. I will check out the site to hold Rodriguez responsible for his illegal actions.
“Contact Attorney General Holder and ask him to prosecute Rodriguez: 202-353-1555.” –Jesselyn Radack, Government Accountability Project
http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/42-2012/1963-prosecute-jose-rodriguez
Prosecute Jose Rodriguez
by Jesselyn Radack on April 30, 2012 ( The Whistleblogger / 2012 )
Prosecute Jose Rodriguez for violating the anti-torture statute (18 U.S.C. § 2340A).
He did it. Enjoyed doing it. And would do it again.
Rodriguez admitted on 60 Minutes that he organized, ordered, and destroyed evidence of “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Yesterday’s 60 Minutes featured CIA rendition-supporter/torture proponent/videotape destroyer Jose Rodriguez, giving him a platform to pimp his new book, Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives, which discusses CIA black sites and touts torture. (It should not be lost on anyone that Simon & Schuster gave Rodriguez a book contract, 60 Minutes gave Rodriguez a main-stream-media platform, and CBS owns both Simon & Schuster and 60 Minutes.)
Despite Rodriguez admitting his crimes on national television, the only person the Obama administration has criminally prosecuted in connection with the Bush-era torture program is John Kiriakou, who refused to participate in torture and blew the whistle on waterboarding.
How can we be a nation of laws when a former government official can proudly boast about his criminal behavior on national television without consequence?
Rodriguez’s callous descriptions of torture do not make his behavior any less criminal:
We made some al Qaeda terrorists with American blood on their hands uncomfortable for a few days.
Rodriguez adopts the Nixonian “logic:” “if the President approves it, it’s not illegal.” This shouldn’t save him from prosecution. “No one is above the law” – at least that is what Attorney General Holder told the Senate under oath during his confirmation hearings. Moreover, despite Rodriguez’s stubborn re-naming waterboarding an “enhanced interrogation technique,” there is no credible debate about whether waterboarding is torture. We can thank Attorney General Holder for that as well, as he unequivocally agreed under oath that “waterboarding is torture.”
Waterboarding is torture, and torture is illegal, and it violates more than just the statute specifically prohibiting torture.
In addition to the torture statute:
The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
The War Crimes Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. § 2441) makes it a criminal offense for U.S. military personnel and U.S. nationals to commit war crimes as specified in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. That includes Common Article 3, which prohibits “[v]iolence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture; . . . [and] outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”
Rodriguez admitted his crimes on national television. Surely that is enough for the Justice Department to begin a prosecution, especially considering that that the Justice Department has spent millions of dollars hunting down news sources who exposed government illegalities, investigating how Guantanamo detainees found out the names of their torturers, and prosecuting whistleblowers. Contact Attorney General Holder and ask him to prosecute Rodriguez: 202-353-1555.
Then, instead of reading Rodriguez’s torture-apologist swill, read Ali Soufan’s The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda. Soufan recently won the Ridenhour Book Prize for The Black Banners, which offers a reasoned, first-hand experience account of interrogation and articulates beautifully the advantages of rapport-building (NON-torture) techniques in obtaining actionable intelligence from even the most hardened suspects.
Too often the Obama administration answers calls for accountability with “look forward not backward.” I submit that if Rodriguez wants to “look backward” to sell books, then the Obama administration should look back to prosecute Rodriguez for his admitted crimes.
…anextension of my previous comment (“ExxonMobil… really sees itself as an independent sovereign in the world, and one that is almost the equivalent of a state,” Coll says.)
“We look at one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world: ExxonMobil. Last week, the corporate giant reported it earned $9.5 billion in profits in the first three months of this year — or almost $104 million per day. We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Steve Coll, who pulls back the curtain on ExxonMobil in his exhaustive new book, “Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power.”
“ExxonMobil, I came to think as I worked on this over four years, really sees itself as an independent sovereign in the world, and one that is almost the equivalent of a state,” Coll says. “They really are one of the most closed corporations headquartered in the United States.” -Steve Coll
(Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation and a staff writer at The New Yorker. His most recent book is called Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Previously, he was managing editor of the Washington Post and has also been a reporter, foreign correspondent and editor at the paper. He was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for the book Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the C.I.A., Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. He is also author of The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.”)
To Mike S’s excellent point:
Friday, May 4, 2012
“Private Empire”: Author Steve Coll on the State-Like Powers, Influence of Oil Giant ExxonMobil
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/4/private_empire_author_steve_coll_on
MetroCowboy 1, May 7, 2012 at 12:31 am
Frankly 1, May 6, 2012 at 6:15 pm
“As a kid I was taught that we are a nation of laws not of men. Any delusions I held of that being a true statement are gone. Its painful to watch my nation die, more painful that people are watching it happen and either saying nothing or cheering the death on under the guise of being fans of original intent.
Where do we get off lecturing China on human rights?” (Frankly)
I thought what Frankly said needs to be repeated, god help us..god help the United States of America (MetroCowboy)
——————
Bears repeating… “…god help us..god help the United States of America.” (MetroCowboy)
Hyperbole? Nope but, even in the face of the things that we’re seeing, there are the deniers…
Rafflaw,
So right. Yoo and company take oaths. But it is as you say, to their masters, from whom they came and will return ASAP.
Do Americans think, falsely, that this is only a case of profiling? That the guy was of arab blood, and was probably guilty anyway; what the hell, he might know something important, etc.
I wonder when the first “American poster child” gets in their sqeeze.
Have you heard of any candidates?? Shall it be someone from OWS to send a wartning to them, or ????
ID707,
If you are talking about Joh Yoo and others who authorized, approved and participated in the Torture, then yes. Their Oath is to their corporate masters.
Metro and Rafflaw,
So the new politician sign-off is:
God help you, and God help the US of A.
And some will also mumble quietly: And godddamn my opponent and bless my PACa and my oath doesn’t count.
Metro,
It did need to be repeated.
Frankly 1, May 6, 2012 at 6:15 pm
As a kid I was taught that we are a nation of laws not of men. Any delusions I held of that being a true statement are gone. Its painful to watch my nation die, more painful that people are watching it happen and either saying nothing or cheering the death on under the guise of being fans of original intent.
Where do we get off lecturing China on human rights?
I thought what Frankly said needs to be repeated, god help us..god help the United States of America
BFM,
I am afraid your checklist is not too far off!
Of course, on the slippery slope, the saying that four legs good, two legs baaaad, makes a dog have a little more hope than the humanoid.
Big Fat Mike: We would welcome you to come speak to our dogpack. I agree with your comments- particularly the ones posted at 2:49 p.m.
Another subject related to this is the Reichstag Fire which precipitated the fall of democracy, the rise of the Nazi Party (elected by the way), the Third Reich, the War, the Holocaust. The act of arson of the house of parliament was later admitted by Goebbles of having been done by himself. The Reischstag Fire is analogous to the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The response by President von Hindenberg was the Reichstag Fire Decree, which stripped civil rights. That is analogous to the Patriot Act. Google: The Reichstag Fire Decree.
We are well down the slippery slope. We are on our backs, complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity, sliding towards the abyss and then Hell.
The book Tyranny On Trial, by Whitney Harris, is a very complete documentary on the Nuremberg War Tribunals. Whitney lived in Saint Louis for a good portion of his later life and lived to be 97 years old, dying in 2007 or thereabouts. Another source which can be found on Google is The Judge’s Trial and a defendants last name: Altshoffer (sp?)
Back when America was the Exceptional country we founded the international jurisprudence on war crimes and crimes against humanity outside of war. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we will soon be getting it in our own rears. The judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in this case should look over their shoulders for their coverup and big fat lie about obvious crimes against humanity. Next they will be proclaiming that Tasers are not lethal weapons and that waterboarding is a sport indulged in by Southern Californians.
You may be right Elaine!
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rafflaw,
“Did the Court forget that Mr. Padilla was a United States citizen when he was detained and tortured by government officials?’
Being a United States citizen doesn’t count for all that much any longer in the eyes of our government and leaders, I’d say.
Good ol’ “bitter ” Peirce,
Wikipedia says:
“As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, the same idea as was used decades later to produce digital computers.[10]”
To which I add, you can do the same thing with faucets and pipes, but your feet get WET reading the output.
Said by the electrical engineer who did the test routine and equipment for the fluid propellant handling system at the White Sands LEM rocket test facility, ca 1964.
NEWSPEAK from the TRUTH MINISTRY.
IS 1984 IN 2013?
President of the United States to hired minion: “Write me a secret memo that pronounces “legal” anything I want to do.”
Hired minion : “Just between us, I pronounce “legal” anything you want to do”
Corporate judge: “Sounds legal to me. Whatever.”