Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty, (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
In our sometimes upside down world, it can seem that the lives and secrets of our intelligence service employees and their agencies are worth more than the lives and physical and mental well-being of the countless prisoners who were tortured by the CIA . That is the same torture that was authorized and approved at the highest levels of our government.
Let’s also not forget the many instances of allegedly criminal activity by large banks and their employees that resulted in civil fines or no action at all, notwithstanding the lives that were shattered in the meantime.
Recently it was disclosed that the Department of Justice and the FBI have recommended that Gen. David Petraeus be criminally prosecuted for allegedly passing his classified CIA email account and exposing state secrets to the biographer/author he was having an affair with. This is the very same Department of Justice, along with the Obama Administration that claims it did not have enough evidence to file charges against admitted torturers and those that authorized the torture and destruction of evidence.
” The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors have recommended bringing felony charges against David H. Petraeus, contending that he provided classified information to a lover while he was director of the C.I.A., officials said, and leaving Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to decide whether to seek an indictment that could send the pre-eminent military officer of his generation to prison.
The Justice Department investigation stems from an affair Mr. Petraeus had with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer who was writing his biography, and focuses on whether he gave her access to his C.I.A. email account and other highly classified information.” New York Times
While I have no problem with the Department of Justice and the FBI bringing charges against Gen. Petraeus if he has broken the law, why is the CIA itself immune to criminal charges over illegal torture? Is the possible indictment of Petraeus merely related to an alleged crackdown on whistleblowers that disclose “state secrets”, as alleged in the prosecution and sentencing of former CIA official, John Kiriakou?
It is interesting to me that while the Obama Administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than any other administration, not a single Torturer has been called to Justice. Not a single Bankster has been called to answer for his/her crimes that devastated the U. S. economy and wrecked countless lives in the process.
Instead, legitimate whistle blowers are forced to hide in foreign countries for their alleged crimes of informing us of the abuses to privacy laws that have been going on for at least a decade, if not longer. There is a lesson to be learned when the Department of Justice wants to prosecute a former 4 star general and former head of the CIA for allowing his mistress to see his classified email account, but the individuals who broke United States law in torturing prisoners remain free and unscathed.
That lesson is that if you dare to inform the American public of our country’s abuses, your freedom is at risk. However, if you torture people or authorize torture, we will turn a blind eye.
If you admit to the destruction of evidence of that torture, we just can’t find enough evidence to prosecute you. If you destroy an economy, you are too big to jail, but not too big for Congressional efforts to allow you to continue to feed at the public trough when your banking gambles don’t pay off.
When and how will this upside down world right itself? When will those in power be called to account for their selective blindness and their illegal actions?
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