Did the unrec feature kill this Babylonsister thread which deserves greatest page?

Liberation Angel

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Mon Jul-13-09 11:21 PM
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Did the unrec feature kill this Babylonsister thread which deserves greatest page?

Edited on Mon Jul-13-09 11:45 PM by Liberation Angel

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x462868

Scott Horton: Torture Prosecution Turnaround?
Posted by babylonsister

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-... /

Torture Prosecution Turnaround?
by Scott Horton
July 12, 2009 | 9:22am

The attorney general is leaning toward appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Bush-era torture policy, sources tell Scott Horton. Inside the logic driving Eric Holder’s possible conversion.

The Obama White House has deflected calls for appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the formulation and implementation of Bush-era torture policies with an argument that they want to “look forward, not backward.” But Justice Department lawyers took careful note of a different statement President Obama made yesterday in Ghana: “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable.” Now two sources in the Justice Department confirm to me that Holder is preparing to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a comprehensive investigation and, if necessary, bring charges. They caution that the final call has not been made. And senior Justice Department officials remain concerned that meddling by the White House’s political wing would undermine the appearance of the Justice Department’s independence.

Holder’s path to a decision was described as prolonged and surprising. Holder began his review mindful of the clear preference of President Obama’s two key political advisers—David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel—that there be no investigation. Axelrod and Emanuel are described as uninterested in either the legal or policy merits of the issue of a criminal investigation. Their concerns turn entirely on their political analysis. They have advised Obama and other senior figures in the administration that the torture issue is a “distraction,” and that any attention on it would detract from Obama’s ability to push through his agenda—especially health-care reform. Holder initially appeared prepared to satisfy their wishes.

But, then, Holder decided to take a close, personal look at the issues, and his perspective began to change. Holder is said to have been closely engaged with three sets of documents—a group of memoranda from the Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel, since repudiated by the Justice Department; the report of the Office of Professional Responsibility on these memoranda, which has been on his desk, awaiting review and release for months; and the report of the CIA’s inspector general reviewing in great detail the actual techniques used, guidance given by the Justice Department, and results or lack of results obtained.

Holder released the first set of memoranda and his Justice Department publicly suggested that it would release both the related report and the CIA inspector general’s report—often viewed as the Rosetta Stone of the torture controversy. As he read through the latter two documents, my sources said, Holder came to realize the focal and instrumental role that Department of Justice lawyers had played in constructing the torture regime and in pushing it through when career lawyers raised objection. He also took note of how the entire process was orchestrated from within the Bush White House—so that more-senior lawyers in Justice, sometimes even the attorney general, did not know what was being done. And he noted the fact that the United Nations Convention Against Torture, to which the United States is a party, requires that a criminal inquiry be undertaken whenever credible allegations of torture are presented.

snip//

In the days after Obama’s speech at the CIA, both Axelrod and Emanuel insisted that the White House had made the decision that there would be no prosecutions. According to reliable sources, that incensed Holder, who felt that the remarks had compromised the integrity both of the White House and Justice Department by suggesting that political advisers made the call on who would or would not be criminally investigated. After Axelrod and Emanuel made their statements, Holder realized, a source said, that the Justice Department might have to appoint a special prosecutor to uphold its reputation for independence.

Observers caution that even if a special prosecutor is appointed, actual indictments would still be far off. The Bush torture policy was implemented with the advice of lawyers well skilled in the ways of Washington bureaucracy. Any prosecutor would face considerable legal obstacles in bringing charges. A review of the torture memoranda themselves shows that a consuming concern was thwarting the possible bringing of charges by a future prosecutor. Now, perhaps, the defenses they devised may be put to the test.

Scott Horton is a law professor and writer on legal and national-security affairs for Harper's Magazine and The American Lawyer, among other publications.

I think the unrec feature killed this worthy post. Babylonsister's threads frequently make the greatest page and frankly i cannot imagine WHY this would not make it there.

Please. admins, consider this matter carefully