« Op-ed targets the Hillary-hating media | truthseeker77's Blog | Score another FAIL for the Queen of Mean, Maureen Dowd »
Greenwald: Holder to investigate those who "tortured people the wrong way"
Glenn Greenwald reacts today to the just-announced investigation by Eric Holder, arguing it's based on the "Abu Ghraib" model. An excerpt:
This quite likely sets up, at most, a process where a few low-level sacrificial lambs -- some extra-sadistic intelligence versions of Lynndie Englands -- might be investigated and prosecuted where they tortured people the wrong way. Those who tortured "the right way" -- meaning the way the OLC directed -- will receive full-scale immunity.
Advertisement
From Greenwald's post:
"to target low-level interrogators while shielding high-level policy makers would further bolster America's two-tiered system of justice, in which ordinary Americans are subjected to merciless punishment while the most powerful elites are vested with virtual immunity from the consequences of their lawbreaking"
The "DOJ" is better referred to as the "DOSJ".
The "Department of Selective Justice".
August 24, 2009 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
"There is nothing more important than protecting the identities of CIA officers. So I need everybody to be clear: We will protect your identities and your security as you vigorously pursue your missions."
—Barack Obama at CIA headquarters, April 2009.
Unfortunately, I doubt Obama keeps this promise
August 25, 2009 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cheney certainly didn't.
August 25, 2009 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
which CIA officer's identities did Cheney make public?
August 25, 2009 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is also the possibility that as the investigations unfold, everyone points up the chain regarding the origins of their orders. At some point, the Prosecutor may be forced into a wider scope of investigations.
Larry Wilkerson was on Rachel Maddow and said that the 99% of CIA members who did not endorse or participate in torture, and many objected to outright, would love to have the investigations. I can see his point; otherwise they are all painted with the same brush.
I admire Glenn, and hope he is wrong on this one. That said, if they try a few private contractors and call it quits, it will be worse than evil.
August 25, 2009 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink