I'm for the investigations because
The release of the only Lockerbie convict was an outrage. US leaders condemned it. It made my stomach turn. If it is tradition to release the terminally ill from prison in Scotland, then they should open the doors and allow anyone afflicted with mortality to leave.
But that crime has a stronger smell over here, where despite all those years of fear mongering and paranoia, the two ingredients other than Cheney fumes that kept the Bush administration steamroller going for so long, the same thing will happen hundreds more times as the United States fails to bring any of these fools to court.
The Bush administration's sole purpose was to keep us busy while his boys ruined as much of the country as possible. They undermined our ideals, thwarted even their own goals, and made off with Clinton's half-trillion dollar surplus. And now we come to understand that the 'legal' black hole in Guantanamo is really, really black. None of those bastards, as dangerous as the liars say they are, can be prosecuted. No confessions are going to stand, even if charges can be brought.
These thieves and liars were so bad at justice and law that the 'worst of the worst' are now nothing more than props in their wierdo apocalyptic pantomime. And we still own it. Jeez- what will the Republicans saddle us with next (if the Old Irritated People Bloc stays together) time they get the top gubmint job?
That they claimed to be so bent on catching and bringing justice to the bad guys (guilty of punching back at them?) without ever giving a thought to anything, let alone how justice would be applied, is a crime of tragic and expensive proportion. Is 7 years of torture enough? Call it even? Do these guys go back to a quiet, normal life, or will they capitalize on their stay at Club Fed ?
Stupid, stupid. So now it's going to fall on the soldiers who carried out their nefarious and illegal designs? I hope the Holder investigation is thorough, and I hope some spooks get hurt for being assholes. But if it doesn't lead to the leadership it's a sham.
Our culture is pretty permissive and forgiving of executives who ski to the lodge while their former employees attempt to stretch their severence after their horrible performance ruins a company. I hope the patriots among us hold their President and his Secretaries to a higher standard than some money whore, as if that 'President' were anything more.
You might look into the specifics of the Lockerbie trial. Even many of the families of the Scots victims (the crash killed a number of people on the ground) are convinced that the man recently released was framed:
To summerize:
The sole witness against him gave a different description when initially interviewed, and failed to identify the suspect in two different photo lineups. A Scots police constable has has come forward claiming that the CIA planted the fragment of a timer that was the most compelling of the physical evidence. It is claimed that such a timer would not have allowed the plane to successful complete the initial legs of the flight if it was planted on the plane in Malta as the authorities have claimed.
The above claims were the basis of a pending appeal of the conviction. The release was conditional on abandoning the appeal. This serves to avoid any publicity of the claims above.
If a man is to be released on compassionate grounds, why condition it on dropping an appeal when such could serve to clear his name even post humus?
I don't have access to enough information to judge the validity of these claims, but have read enough to feel that guilt of this man was far from certain.
My outrage at his release is based on the interuption of the appeal process. If he was indeed framed, I'd like to see the real perpitrators punished.
August 26, 2009 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Merits of this case aside, the outrage out his release should be a pale precursor to the anger at the gubmint for doing all their bad stuff and then having no path to justice available because doing all that bad stuff voids the prosecution's case.
Right now, our cases are weaker than Scotland's apparently sketchy case against whats-his-face because the power working against the Guantanamo people was based on fiat rather than sanity.
August 26, 2009 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink