Liberal schmiberal: Torture is illegal

I had to laugh when reading a recent Associated Press article about 'liberal democrats' (and the story made a point of pointing out that the Democrats were LIBERAL) who are calling for an independent investigation into Bush era torture procedures.

WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats turned up the pressure on the Obama administration Tuesday to start a criminal investigation by a special counsel into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects.

It would be a conflict of interest for President Barack Obama's Justice Department to investigate lawyers from the Bush administration, even though they no longer work for the government, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Democrats wrote, "It is impossible to determine at this stage, and before conclusion of the necessary investigation, whether additional conflicts of interest might exist or arise."

The letter said a special counsel's investigation would insulate the department from accusations that the investigation was politically inspired.

Most of the 16 signers were Democratic liberals. Seven committee Democrats did not sign the letter, nor did any of the 16 Republicans.

Independent investigation means an investigation done by people who are, by their very independent nature, not going to do this in a partisan manner. The entire point is to take the politics out of this discussion and look at the legality. And yet conservative democrats and of course Republicans slam the very idea of investigating criminal behavior - and yes, torture is illegal - in the last administration because of course, that would be 'partisan.'

And that is a giant crock of BS.

I'm an independent. I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I don't consider myself 'liberal' or 'conservative.' I do however believe in the Geneva Conventions, our Constitution and our rule of law. I believe that all three were ravaged during the last administration, and I want to see an investigation. I believe our safety as a country resides entirely in our right as citizens to hold our government accountable to the law and to the people who supposedly represent our American democracy. I believe that if we stray as a nation from our ideals, then we have to make a firm move back to them by holding ourselves and our leaders accountable. If we can't do that... we are no longer a democracy.

If we all know that torture is illegal and against the Geneva Conventions (not to mention all sense of morality;) and we all know that Bush and Cheney directed the CIA to torture - they even admitted it - then we as a nation are all on the hook for their behavior until an investigation takes place. All of us. Every single one of us. We are responsible as a nation until we pin the behavior on the handful of bad apples who perpetuated it.

This is not a partisan issue: this is a national issue. This is a question of who we are as Americans, and what we are willing to sweep under the rug to remain comfortable. Its also a question of bullying, because the Republicans are desperate that this information not be investigated, and are using anything and everything to bully the rest of us into dropping it.

But it must not be dropped. This is our national soul on the line.

I personally am not comfortable. I won't be comfortable until the America I believe in - the ideals of liberty and justice that our grandfathers fought for against fascism in WWII, not to mention the freedom our ancestors bled for in the Revolution and Civil Wars - is redeemed. Many soldiers of our grandfathers' generation were tortured - were waterboarded - during WWII. Those who tortured them (those that we caught and tried after the war) were punished; some were executed. I can't even imagine what surviving POWs from that great war must be thinking today. We are betraying them.

Our children and grandchildren will judge us by how we behave today. Right now... we have earned an 'F' in restoring justice to our land. And we are proving to be cowards in the face of bullying by those who use the word 'partisan' to escape any further embarrassment and political association to an administration that they allowed to run amok.

Real Patriotism: First, obey the law

I guess this is the face of real American patriotism... the determination to remain true to the law, the Geneva Convention, and our own ideology in the face of Neocon lawlessness.

This is the story of a man who enlisted in good faith but has now deserted the Army; for fear that he will be forced to take a role in torturing captives, which he sees (rightfully) as a war crime.

From the Toronto Star:

Jemley argues that as one of only a small number of Arabic linguists with top security clearance, he could be forced to violate international law by participating in the interrogations of terrorism suspects. It was something he hadn't considered when he enlisted in 2005 and was handpicked to undergo two years of intense training due to his adeptness with languages.

Only last February did he discover that his government had sanctioned new rules on how terrorism suspects could be interrogated. He believes it's torture and when he realized he might be asked to be a part of it, he fled.

"It's a soldier's obligation to say `no' if their commander is doing things that are criminally complicit," Jemley, now 42, said in a recent interview in Toronto. "I think everyone is agreeing now that torture is really what has been going on ... I have every reason to believe that from my small pool that I belong to, with my credentials, that I'd be ordered to do such things."

Impeachable

Have Bush and his neocon cronies committed impeachable crimes? I'd say a better question is... how many will it take?

Impeachable... let us count the ways:

1. Invading a country that posed no threat to the U.S.
2. Misleading Congress and the American people into supporting a war on false pretenses
   
3. Acting in direct opposition to the Bill of Rights and Constitution, which Bush swore to uphold
4. Seizing U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and holding them indefinitely - without charges, a trial, an attorney or even the right to remain silent
5. Illegally spying on American citizens without a court order
6. Breaking Geneva Conventions by torturing prisoners
7. Abolishing habeas corpus
8. Issuing hundreds of signing statements and indicating that he (Bush) did not intend to uphold any portion of any bill that he did not like
9. Authorizing the use of depleted uranium shells in Iraq, thus endangering the life and health of Iraqi civilians and U.S. Troops for generations to come
   
10. Authorizing the use of phosphorus bombs against Fallujah, a civilian target
11. Deliberately blowing the cover of a CIA agent to get revenge on her husband, a whistle blower
12. Using party email systems to avoid leaving behind possibly incriminating presidential documents (in violation of the Hatch Act)

It is very likely that the Bush administration deliberately destroyed Rove's emails - before or after they were subpoenaed - and it is quite likely that before too much longer, we will see proof that the Republican Party stole the 2004 election in Ohio and actual documents that lead directly to Rove and the White House.

We already know they stole the election in 2000... from these very Democrats who refuse to do anything about it.

Madam Pelosi... what will it take for you to put impeachment on the table? You're making Neville Chamberlain look like a bulldog by comparison...