"Criminals whose day of reckoning is drawing closer on the horizon" (Scott Horton)

[kpete]

The Green Light

BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED April 2, 2008

..............

And of course, the torture lawyers fully appreciated from the outset that torture was a criminal act. Most of the legal memoranda they crafted, including the March 2004 Yoo memorandum released today, consist largely of precisely the sorts of arguments that criminal defense attorneys make–they weave and bob through the law finding exceptions and qualifications to the application of the criminal law. But there are some major differences: these memoranda have been crafted not as an after-the-fact defense to criminal charges, but rather as a roadmap to committing crimes and getting away with it. Moreover, the authors are government attorneys who have sworn an oath, which they are violating, to uphold the law.

..................

They also missed the established precedent I have cited repeatedly here, namely:

United States v. Altstoetter, under the rule of which the conduct of the torture lawyers is a criminal act not shielded by any notions of government immunity. Sands discusses the history of that case which is, lamentably, known by so few American lawyers. And then he turns to the prosecution of Generalissimo Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean strong man whose life ended in a swarm of indictments and criminal proceedings. Americans seem also to forget exactly what the crime was that plagued Pinochet to his deathbed. The answer is fairly simple: he was accused against convincing evidence of having authorized a regime of torture in connection with the interrogation of insurgents, who were removed from the rule of law. The precise techniques used included a number of those subsequently authorized by President Bush’s torture team and incorporated into his “Program.” Sands recounts a prophetic moment in the course of the proceedings surrounding Pinochet’s case in London.

“It’s a matter of time,” the judge observed. “These things take time.” As I gathered my papers, he looked up and said, “And then something unexpected happens, when one of these lawyers travels to the wrong place.”

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more at:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002779

[Solly Mack]

1. I want to believe

"Criminals whose day of reckoning is drawing closer on the horizon"

but I can't...not just that I don't....I can't afford to believe. I'm going to have to be shown. No hope..no having faith in the same system allowing people to be tortured..... I have to see the trials...hear the convictions read...know they (Bush Inc) are in prison. Only then will I believe.

[navarth]

2. k & r. I certainly hope that's true...

but I'm not going to set myself up for disappointment. In my lifetime, I've never seen bastards like these get any jail time, or any significant punishment. We got Nixon out of office, but (disgrace!) Ford pardoned him. Libby got a slap on the wrist. Rove, all of them are walking around free.

I'm hoping they get prosecuted and jailed, but I'm expecting them to go free.

Prove me wrong, I beg of you.

[gratuitous]

3. Dr. King said the arc of the universe bends toward justice

I know that the sociopath Bush won't lose any sleep over this, not having the inconvenience of a conscience, but there are plenty of folks in his administration and past members of his administration who know full well what their exposure is. Here's hoping "something unexpected happens" sooner rather than later.

[bluesmail]

4. now, how do we get them on a plane and into another country?

ala Rumsfeld.

[The Stranger]

5. Yet the Nancy Disaster still won't allow the people to exercise the only remedy for executive crimes

So many don't see how it all ties back to impeachment -- all of it.

[sam sarrha]

6. political representatives, elected/appointed dont EVER sign their Oath of Office, so that when they

get caught, they were only impersonating the position of that office, which is a misdemeanor. that is why there IS an oath of office, it is nothing more than a back door out for criminals..

[L. Coyote]

7. George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists

From: George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists
Junta Day (12/12), 2007 -http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2459135

Plan Condor: Crimes Without Borders in Latin America
Marie Trigona - 12 Dec 2007 - http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1042/1 /

Former military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla and 16 other military leaders in Argentina will be prosecuted on charges of conspiring to kidnap and kill political activists in a scheme known as Plan Condor, developed by Henry Kissinger and George Bush Sr., head of the CIA at the time. Dictators in Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina killed opponents in the 1970s and 80s under the plan, also known as Operation Condor. The United States and Latin American military governments developed Operation Condor as a a transnational, state-sponsored terrorist coalition among the militaries of South America. In Argentina alone some 30,000 people were disappeared as result, leaving loved ones to seek justice decades later.

Coordinating Terror with U.S. support

Plan Condor began with the U.S. supported military coup against Chile's democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende. Allende's government was targeted as a threat to U.S. strategic policy in Latin America early on. White House tapes reveal that on Sept. 14, 1970, then-President Richard Nixon ordered measures to force the Chilean economy into bankruptcy. "The U.S. will not accept a Marxist government just because of the irresponsibility of the Chilean people," declared Henry Kissinger, Nixon´s secretary of State.

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[progressoid]

8. Wishful thinking

The established precedent from the last 7 years is "getting away with it".