President George W-is-for-warcrimes Bush.

[flamin lib]

This Sunday Andrew Sullivan, senior editor of The Atlantic magazine and formerly of Time Magazine, said on the Chris Matthew’s Show that John Yoo (former DoJ attorney), Donald Rumsfeld and David Addington (Chief of Staff to Dick Cheney), “Shouldn’t leave the United States any time soon because they will be indicted for war crimes.” Pretty shocking coming from such a senior journalist on a major cable news show. What brought on that comment? The de-classification of an 81 page memo Yoo wrote while he was a senior Justice Department Lawyer advising the President that he had the authority to ignore US law and the US Constitution while interrogating suspects during a time of war.

From the Washington Post Article about the memo: “Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out? Or, for that matter, could he have ‘scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance’ thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting?

These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as detained by U.S. authorities. The specific prohibitions, he said, depended on the circumstances or which ‘body part the statute specifies.’

But none of that matters in a time of war, Yoo also said, because federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief.”

These interrogation methods and others were discussed in grizzly detail in the 2003 memo to the DoJ, a memo resulting from legal research at the behest of Dick Cheney. The treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and at Guantanamo Bay are based on this and other legal research done at the behest of Bush and Cheney during the run up to the Iraq War. Because of these memos it is no longer possible to argue that the torture and atrocities at Abu Ghraib were committed by a few “rogue guards” without the knowledge and approval of superiors all the way to the top of the Chain of Command.

These things have been done in your name. Makes ya’ proud, huh?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502099.html?nav=rss_print/asection Yoo memo
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/yoo_army_torture_memo.pdf Actual memo in it’s entirety.

In researching this post I've found that the images of Abu Ghraib are only the tip of the iceberg. Google "Abu Ghraib rape" and click on images if you have the stomach for it.

[bdamomma]

1. we cannot let these thugs get away with all the crimes they have

committed, NO WAY. This is not a forgive and forget moment.

[calimary]

3. Nor is this a - "hey, it's a new day, a new year, a new administration,

a new (fill in the blank here), let's not dwell on the past! Let's MOVE ON, shall we? We need to look FORWARD. Move FORWARD! On 'The Way Forward.'"

THIS HAS TO BE ADDRESSED. Otherwise, the template it leaves behind, the precedent it sets, GUARANTEES that there WILL be another bush/cheney. Or more. And you better believe it: whoever comes along after them with delusions of dictatorship and unitary all-powerful executive authority placing them above the law, THEY ARE GOING TO POINT TO THIS TIME, AND THIS REGIME, and they're gonna say - "WELL????? It can't possibly be illegal. These guys did it and nobody said peep, and nobody raised a finger to stop them. Must not have been illegal then, 'eh? If it was so bad and so criminal, somebody would have stopped it, 'eh? So GET OUTTA MY WAY THEN AND GO FUCK YOURSELF, OKAY?!?!?!?!!??!"

Guaranteed. Take that one to the bank. Thank you nancy pelosi.

[L. Coyote]

2. “Shouldn’t leave the United States any time soon because they will be indicted for war crimes.”

They might WANT TO leave before the next Administration takes charge!

But where can they hide. Even Paraguay extradites criminals!