Zellikow was Condi Rice’s deputy and also 9/11 counsel. He claims that he wrote a memo objecting to the OLC torture memos when they were circulated in the Bush government. Zellikow claims to have identified a logical inconsistency in the Yoo/Bybee argument – but there is no inconsistency.
The underlying absurdity of the administration’s position can be summarized this way. Once you get to a substantive compliance analysis for “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” you get the position that the substantive standard is the same as it is in analogous U.S. constitutional law. So the OLC must argue, in effect, that the methods and the conditions of confinement in the CIA program could constitutionally be inflicted on American citizens in a county jail.
In other words, Americans in any town of this country could constitutionally be hung from the ceiling naked, sleep deprived, water-boarded, and all the rest — if the alleged national security justification was compelling. I did not believe our federal courts could reasonably be expected to agree with such a reading of the Constitution.(here
But of course, the power of the executive to run a secret police force and torture American citizens was the position of the Bush/Cheney administration – a position they argued explicitly in court. And it is what they did and got away with in the case of Padilla. If they had not lost Congress in 2006, they would have undoubtedly expanded that program of illegal detention and torture of US Citizens on US soil. And the courts allowed it.
Take a look at Padilla’s feet.
Zelikow was doing a little CYA last night on Rachel Maddow’s show. Not that I blame him. He probably still wants to travel to Europe for vacation without fear of being arrested.
cya is all it is, because he’s got skin in the game now. he, like all the others implicated in these crimes, thought he was going to walk away unscathed, no accounting required. if he was so concerned at the time, and possessed even a modicum of integrity, he would/should have made his objections public.
l have no sympathy for mr. zelikow or his vacation plans. one can only hope that they will include a long visit to The Hague, and opportunity to defend his lack of judgement, and the indefensible actions and consequences he contributed to, from the dock.
and condi, rummy, etal, should be right there beside him.
I don’t care about him, but I think it is significant that he is jumping off the ship and also that he apparently either does not understand or is still covering up the domestic torture agenda of the Bush regime.