Collision Course in History
On the one side are Republicans who want Holder to echo President Obama's promise to "move forward" -- widely interpreted as a hint that Bush-era officials and operatives would not be prosecuted for the torture of detainees -- and on the other side is, well, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
During today's Senate vote to confirm Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I talked to both senators. And Graham, a former attorney in the JAG Corps, has a more even-handed view of the torture-prosecutions dilemma than Cornyn's. When we spoke this afternoon, Graham echoed Judiciary panel chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) judgment that Holder should not be expected to unilaterally rule out all prosecutions related to torturous interrogations.
"The idea for prosecutions is coming from the hard left," Graham said. "Making a commitment that you'll never prosecute somebody is probably not the right way to proceed either ... I don't expect him to rule it in or rule it out."
But like anything is this really what Cornyn is fearing? Even if Holder and the Obama Administration punts, the UN appears it will not.
"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Mr Bush and Mr Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany's ZDF television today.
He said Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.
"We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld" against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Mr Nowak said.
"But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this," said Mr Nowak, who authored a UN investigation report on the Guantanamo prison...
...Asked about chances to bring legal action against Mr Bush and Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Nowak said: "In principle yes. I think the evidence is on the table."
At issue, however, is whether "American law will recognize these forms of torture"...
...French, German and US rights groups have previously said they wanted to bring legal action against Mr Rumsfeld.
On MSNBC's Countdown, Oberrman finished reporting this by stating that the UN does not have to wait for the U.S. judicial system to close their process. Then he lead into a riveting live interview with Russell Tice, the NSA whisteblower and what he revealed was a gargantuan level of domestic surveillance than previously thought.
What I think that Cornyn is protecting is this systemic and widespread domestic spying in the US. This is not policy but political manipulation he fears. The spying revelations will probably reveal more than merely peering into everyone's personnel communication of ordering a pizza or talking love pants to one's lover, but show that it was also about the political opportunity to install the permanent GOP majority. This would snare not only the Bush Administration beyond the bounds of Nixon's morass, but the entire GOP and corporate plutocracy as well. It might explain how seemingly there was a toothless Democratic Party when it actually came to standing up to this Administration in that in FBI Hooveresque fashion they could blackmail everyone.
An example of this comes from Gen. Michael Hayden himself when he was at the National Press Club on January 23, 2006, ironically 3 years ago. There he refused to answer question about spying on
political enemies. As the Administrations top man at the Office of National Intelligence, he was was asked "if the
NSA was wiretapping Bush's political enemies?"
Hayden attempted to dodge and avoid the
question when the questioner repeated his question with more force: "No, I asked, are you targeting us
and people who politically oppose the Bush government, the Bush
administration? Not a fishing net, but are you targeting specifically
political opponents of the Bush administration?"
Hayden looked at the
questioner, and after a silence called on a different questioner.
During the Bush Administration the law enforcement mechanism was corrupted, people were secretly arrested anywhere on the globe, detained and
then held indefinitely, without any judicial review or intervention. How different is this from any other form of fascist governance be it Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia or Argentina? They held that there was no reason to worry about legalities only the premise of safety.Since the primary purpose of the government is to police and protect---isn't that the justifications that they use for GITMO and all the actions regarding their war on terror. Basically what we have is a police state, focused on policing.
What we are dealing are people who wanted to rule the world, Project for the New American Century (PNAC), to have their worldvision of a New World be imposed on the old world order. Their chief problem was that unlike Rome or England, America has never been inclined towards actually being a real empire, thus their primary task was to "insure" that the Homeland was secured.
What has been entirely evident here at the hometown of Northcom, where I have heard that the Bush administration specifically redirected the nation's spying apparatus inwards onto Americans. Wholesale unconstitutional spying was a key component of their entire Administration. Thus the natural progression that spying on any political enemy be it journalists or US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is more than probable it is expected.
The problem is that the Bush modis operandi preferred to privatize
many government operations---outside of government control and oversight. The private and contracted "company" network is immense and includes their armed private police force with Blackwater.
As we begin to gain the courage and political momentum to hold the Bush Administration accountable, revelations will continue to see the light of the day. The actual prosecuting of them will always be extremely complicated where I suspect counter spying by this former "Cabal" will still be available. Not unlike post Nixon era there will also be great resentment of many where propaganda will grow using the "water carriers" like Limbaugh and Hannity to continue drum up their base for blind support. Even this weekend through Tuesday many rightwingnuts openly are personally comtempt and unmoved by the Obama Presidency and hold any compromisor from their side is a traitor.
But what they fail is to properly calculate and predict social behavior. Even Cheney admits he underestimated because he links only the points in his worldview for his end---global rule, not the realities. Their other miscalculation is that the New Global Recession will unleash political and social forces that will further expose and make their plan irrelevant.
