CNN (Seriously) Asks: "Could George W. Bush end up behind bars?"

[kpete]

By Jonathan Mann
CNN


(CNN) -- Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars?
George W. Bush could be investigated for the steps taken after 9/11.

George W. Bush could be investigated for the steps taken after 9/11.

It's extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror.

"You don't know where these things are going to end up," former CIA agent Peter Brookes told me. "They could go to very high levels in the government."

The probe will focus on whether interrogators exceeded their instructions and broke the law when, for example, they choked a prisoner until he lost consciousness or threatened another one with a gun and a power drill.



more:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/04/mann.george.w.bush/index.html

[dgibby]

1. We can only hope! n/t

[Piewhacket]

29. ditto ditto ditto ditto. and ditto. and to that i can only add... DITTO!

[Cirque du So-What]

2. CNN must smell ratings

There's no way they would pursue such a line out of any sense of decency, a desire to see justice done, or in pursuit of the truth. If anything, CNN is even more cynical than the general population over the possibility that BushCo will suffer the slightest inconvenience where their heinous, unlawful, unconstitutional acts are concerned. But if it generates some buzz, even for a short while, they'll be all over it...until some blonde turns up missing or some celeb overdoses, that is.

On edit: syntax

[dana_b]

30. agreed

most cable news is that way. So much goes unreported while they focus on a few stories and let their talking heads babble endlessly.

[WCGreen]

45. They are getting killed in the ratings for being so careful with how they

present the news.

They are so frightened of being called Liberal News by the likes of Rush and Hannity that they are now neither news nor liberal.

Just wishy washy.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Only if he pleads to lesser charges!

[RagAss]

4. He'll end up sitting at a bar....a place he should never have left !

[SmileyRose]

5. NOT - A - CHANCE - IN - HELL

there's no way our corporate overlords would allow such a thing. As in the case of the Plame fiasco - it may be painfully clear to anyone with brainz Dick is criminal, but if anything with the authority to incarcerate him was serious they'd be suicided but fast. At best you can expect somewhat high level people in the Admin to spend a few months in a minimum security - but Bush or Cheney? No way.

[BlooInBloo]

6. Wow - just getting them to ask that is progress, however small.

[imdjh]

7. A good fantasy can be healthy.

[pipi_k]

8. BAH!!! I'm not going to hold my breath

Seriously...do people really think that's about to happen?

I'd like to see him behind bars as much as anybody else here, but I honestly don't believe we'll ever see it.

[wildbilln864]

9. I sure hope he does! nt

[lunatica]

10. The topic will be treated like all the rest by CNN

all seriousness will not only be cast aside but it will die while being trampled in the rush to cover some celebrity death or white girl gone missing.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Why isn't he there already?

[Individualist]

12. DLC

"The Democratic Leadership Council's agenda is indistinguishable from the Republican Neoconservative agenda," - Dennis Kucinich

[ellie]

13. If there is any justice he will

[bugfragged]

14. Even if he ends up in jail, the Republicans will try to pardon him...

...unless we could maintain a Democratic era.

[renate]

15. it's kind of amazing that the question was asked seriously

:wow:

A few years ago it would have seemed utterly pigs-flying impossible.

[Vincardog]

16. We can only hope! n/t

[rosesaylavee]

17. Yes. If our laws mean anything.

[UTUSN]

18. "exceeded the instructions" - more F-ing ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM!1

The "instructions" were: Do what we WANT that we aren't SAYING.

[leveymg]

19. That investigation takes us directly to steps that were taken BEFORE 9/11, and far greater crimes

And I don't mean that metaphorically. The same guys who murdered and tortured the surviving witnesses, also let the 9/11 attack cells into the U.S. and withheld information from FBI investigators who were looking for them. See, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/438

[malaise]

20. Plueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez

plueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez plueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!

[G_j]

21. I thought the investigation parameters rule out

investigating higher ups.

[fascisthunter]

22. its the only way to keep the powerful in check

let them all know they are not immune from the law, and also let them know they are only as powerful as we let them.

[jimlup]

23. No one even considers prosecuting him for his most egregious crime

His most serious crime is initiating a war of aggression. I find it incredible that it isn't even discussed. Perhaps because congress and many of the industrialized democracies were accessories to the crime.

[Arugula Latte]

24. ...

[RoccoR5955]

25. Hope springs eternal

Him, and the rest of Bushco, Inc. belong in the slammer, as they are all traitors.

Forget the CIA thing, they planned and executed the 9/11 false flag mission, and they should be punished.

[Martin Eden]

26. It could make my poem come true!

I’d tell you to go fuck yourself

But that is much too kind

Because if you could perform that feat

You’d take pleasure in your behind



I’d like to say eat shit and die

But you deserve much more

You should suffer all the grief and pain

Of your misbegotten war



Though I can never make you feel

Or think, or understand

I’ll take solace when you hear your name

Cursed throughout the land



From inside a lonely prison cell

Dark and bare and cold

Where every day you pay for your crimes

Till you’re sick, heartbroken, and old



And when you finally leave the earth

You fucked over oh so well

If there is a God and afterlife

You’re going straight to hell.

[TankLV]

27. WE are hoping and praying that this should come to pass!!! I should fucking hope SO!!!

Gee - amazing, isn't it?!!!

Imagine - holding someone ACCOUNTABLE for their CRIMES!!!

[pasto76]

28. if there is any justice. Lotsof dead troops on his hands

you know, like the kind of people we should be safeguarding, not sacrificing.

[Mr. Sparkle]

31. The rich and powerful always seem to escaped Justice. Just look at pfizer at the fine they got.

I hope Busy and Cheney prove the exception, as if they get away with what they did, it will have set an ugly precedent.

[progressoid]

32. Dream on.

Ain't gonna happen.

[mother earth]

33. BushCo certainly belongs there, this is just one reason.

[graywarrior]

34. Yeah, behind a bar puking his guts out and looking for his car keys.

[colsohlibgal]

35. Love To See That Perp Walk

I can't help feeling though that Bush is a bumbling puppet, his strings controlled by Darth Cheney and his gang. So...I'd celebrate more to see Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz etc going to the slammer. It's funny, obviously the BTK guy was pond scum but Cheney is responsible for many more deaths.

[Texasbacksass]

36. Re: "Could George W. Bush end up behind bars?"

One can only hope................................................but then again one would have to place trust in an overtly corrupt lawmaker/judicial system.

With my dying breath I will utter "Like-minded corrupt people, lawmakers and judges for instance, that act in colluded concert, can, will, and do steal what they want, when they want, and get away with it because it is they that make and enforce law which they easily and manipulatively corrupt and there is not one damned thing that can be done to stop them." And why? Because the very idea of government of, by, and for the people and equal justice has not just slipped away from the masses but kidnapped and hidden within the law by the growing volume of corrupt among the masses.

[earcandle]

37. Have we lost the ability to be intentionally clear about which we will not put up with?

[valerief]

38. That's it. Make us hope only to disappoint us again. nt

[tooeyeten]

39. I'll settle for 2nd banana

[Uncle Joe]

40. Don't forget the steps he and his maladministration took before 9/11.

Outing Brewster Jennings; whose job was investigating nuclear proliferation, in the summer of 2001, ignoring numerous warnings regardng the threat posed by Al Qaueda that same summer, and the fasinating revelation by Sibel Edmonds that Osama Bin Laden had been a U.S. asset right up until 9/11!

[TicketyBoo]

41. Obama has said he wants to "move on."

Eric Holder has said he is going to investigate.

How about this idea…Obama pardons Bush (and maybe Cheney, too). It says, "Yeah, we know they're guilty, but the country has bigger worries than these two has-beens."

I thought it was awful when Ford pardoned Nixon. It cost Ford a second term, I'm sure. But now I think (and most historians agree) that it was the best thing to do for the country. Ford put the country ahead of politics. Maybe the idea needs to be revisited.

[LaPera]

42. Not a chance, the corporations would stand behind their little pimp....

The corporate structure controls everything, you think it's tough for Dems to just go up against the insurance industry....try all of the corporations banking, military complex, etc. etc. and every other republican corporation that Bush let run wild, with no oversight and little if any regulations that were ignored while government oversight agencies were gutted, always purposely short of man power.

Bush was/is everything corporations want & believe in, fuck the workers, destroy unions, no voice about their working & safety conditions, as little pay as possible & with no benefits....and republicans love keeping unemployment high so people have to take shit jobs & pay with corporations and have no voice or lose your job....essentially, slaves!

That's what Bush gave to the corporations for eight years, along with allowing them to pollute without clean-up, without any consequences what so ever. Fuck the land, air & water according to Bush & the republicans it's only there for corporate exploitation and profit.

And if all else fails, Bush will be welcome at his new ranch in Paraguay, or is it Uruguay?

Doesn't really matter, does it? The corporations, the republicans & the ruling class will make sure Bush NEVER has to go to jail for all of his crimes....he'll just skip along as he always has.

[MissDeeds]

43. Finally

It's encouraging they even dared float the possibility!

[chknltl]

44. The world should help America take this journey.

Every journey consists of many steps. This is of course one of those steps. It's good to see these early steps being walked. We American citizens should encourage further and further steps. The citizens of the world should also encourage us to walk those steps. Can you imagine what a better planet we could have for ALL of it's citizens if we walk and complete this journey together?