Never the crime, always the cover-up
And now that BossKitty has been duly welcomed to the Street by me…
It’s on to Langley! It seems that numerous veteran spooks are lawyering up (including uber-spook Jose Rodriguez, who supposedly ordered the destruction of video-tapes made of the torture of two “high value” suspected terrorist detainees hiring none other than Bob Bennett of Bill Clinton impeachment fame).
Well, well. It seems that Americans, or at least our paid hack surrogates in the press corps, aren’t particularly interested in the high crimes of state until there is some kind of “cover-up”. In the current incarnation, of course, the United States, under the Bush II Administration, has set back the course of international human rights at least fifty years (some would argue closer to a millenium), with its open ended kidnappings and detentions of individuals arguably involved in terrorism, or simply Arabs in a place where we could grab them. Some have been delivered to Morocco or Egypt or Syria or Jordan where they could be tortured on a contract basis… while others have been taken to various locations around the world to be tortured by American personnel.
It’s this last one that presents a bit of a problem: it seems that while new Attorney General Michael Mukasey is unclear that waterboarding is torture (notwithstanding that we court-martialed soldiers for doing it in the Phillipines campaign and Vietnam, and prosecuted Japanese officers for doing it in WWII), he nonetheless quickly realized that the cover up was a far far bigger problem, and appointed a not-particularly-special-nor-outside-nor-independent prosecutor, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, to investigate the destruction of the tapes. It’s unclear what his “mandate” is; he can call it as he sees it, or he can screw around for the next 380 days or so until the Clinton Obama Administration decides what it wants to do with all this.
Just as Plame-gate Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had no mandate to investigate the actual underlying treason associated with deliberately outing a covert CIA operation to score some domestic political points, for which Dick Cheney should be facing impeachment and prosecution, Durham has, arguably, no mandate to investigate the torture itself, notwithstanding that it is a crime under American law. We’ll see if he does, of course. I’ll not hold my breath– as arguably, even if he does, the courts will probably say that the entire military and intelligence establishment brazenly violating our Constitution, laws and treaties is “a political question” or “a state secrret” or some other dodge (although the destruction of these tapes… isn’t).
Note as always that it isn’t the President, Vice President, former Attorney General, or their aides, or anyone of significant rank facing likely prosecution, but, as always, it’s the relatively low level operatives of the CIA… like the foolish NCO’s at Abu Ghraib… who thought that, as they were just following official policy, someone over them had their backs. The fools! Don’t they know that some people are above the law?
January 6th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Great post.
Never the truth always a lie is the other mantra of BushCo. Gonzo will have a hard time wiggling out of this one. He might as well carry a doctors note in his pocket for permanent amnesia. As White House Counsel and the Attorney General, both failures on his resume, he will have very little room to point at anyone. But as the power machines go the little guy will go to jail and the criminals will become ambassadors.
Maybe Bush, Cheney and Gonzo could share the ambassador seat at GITMO.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Thanks Talking Dog … Hmmmm, I have one of those, his name is Miles. His words are not quite as insightful as yours. All Miles says is “gimme another one” or “gotta go, gotta go”.
This administration has bought and paid for most of the non-coverage we are subjected to. I call it ‘deception through omission’. It’s what the media does not say or report that has subjected this country to a distorted view. Media is paid to overload the country’s senses with tripe. Truth or revelation is lost in the noise. This tactic allows BushCo to get away with dastardly deeds, even now. There is no accountability. There is no oversight. This patient is in Critical but Guarded condition.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
arf, arf!
not only is this the worst and most shameful maladministration in history, this congress is almost as shameful. by not impeaching the entire gang of hoodlums, they are spitting on the constitution. i don’t care how inconvenient it might be to their careers, nobody is supposed to be above the law, and those in congress not supporting impeachment don’t deserve to be there. shame also goes to the media. they forgot what their job is. uncovering the crimes of chimpy & co. would not take an awful lot of work, but, instead of informing the public, they chose to carry water for the deciderer. if they didn’t cut off their own balls before, they certainly did after 9/11.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Ooooh, Nonnie I feel your passion. We need someone with your passion to run for office. I hope we can spark enough passion to get the disenfranchised voters off their butts to do something about the mess we’re in.
January 6th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
know what, bosskitty? if one of the candidates stood up and said, enough of this shit! the constitution is too important, and if it ruins my chances, so be it, but i cannot stand by and allow the constitution, which defines this country i want to lead, to be trashed by the present administration and then pissed on by the congress. i will stand up and demand the impeachment of george w. bush, dick cheney, and every other person in this administration who has broken the laws of this land, independents would crawl out from the woodwork to vote for that candidate. they are all so ensconced in the dc bubble that they honestly don’t have a clue as to what the average citizen is thinking. if you truly love this country, then you must love its constitution. if you do, then there is no other choice than to impeach.
now, excuse me, i have to check and see who it was that peed in my cheerios this morning!
January 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Indeed, apparently the only way we pay attention to anything these days is unless there is a scandal and/or cover-up of said scandal.
This is not to say that the destruction of the tapes is anything less than a travesty, but like you, I don’t hold out much hope of ever seeing proper justice in the case.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
OK Nonnie & Comrade, got an idea. Lets kidnap Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton. Since they’re already in LaLa land they won’t notice … we can tattoo our message on their butts. Then we KNOW our message will be read. We could also put ’subliminal messages’ into viagra commercials and porn films … they’ll never know what hit them. Whadaya think?
January 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
chimpy & co. will scream executive privilege and obstruct as much as they can to drag the whole thing out for a year. then chimpy will pardon everyone.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
someone over them had their backs
Unfortunately, their Right hand carried a shiv. It always does.