Now it all fits. For some time now I’ve been looking for the smoking gun: i.e. why did Pelosi preemptively take impeachment “off the table” back in 2006??
Some thoughts on torture from David Swanson:
First, torture DID work. It forced false agreement with war lies, helping to launch a long-desired illegal war. And it persuaded many Americans that some very scary and very foreign people were out to get them, people so scary that they had to be tortured in order to talk with them, people whose every false utterance, aimed at stopping the pain, instead generated color-coded horror warnings.
Second, torture has boosted recruitment for anti-U.S. organizations tremendously, horribly damaged the United States’ image, stripped U.S. diplomats of the power to address human rights abuses abroad, as well as stripping U.S. citizens of a clear moral right to protest being tortured, and set an example that has spread far and wide. Torture has brutalized participants and witnesses, and we are all witnesses, and it has destroyed lives both through torture to the point of death and through torture to the point of unbearable life.
Third, if you’re going to violate particular laws and treaties, you can either repeal them and leave all the other ones intact, or you can simply proceed criminally, thereby assaulting the whole structure of law, leaving everyone in doubt whether ANY laws will be enforced against important people. Our government has taken the latter approach and redefined crimes as “policy differences,” which is why torture is ongoing and no criminal penalty will deter its future expansion or the commission of other crimes of whatever sort by high officials.
Fourth, if torture had produced life-saving information, we would have long since heard that fact shouted from every television studio. In fact, we did hear such claims made. They just all turned out to be fictional.
Regarding the nonsensical notion democrats “did not know” or “were not informed” about the enhanced interrogation techniques; this from Mr. Greenwald:
Jay Rockefeller was one of the key Democrats briefed on the torture methods who never objected. But it’s far worse than that. In September, 2006, Rockefeller was one of 12 Senate Democrats to vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act, one of the principal purposes of which was to explicitly authorize the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program” to proceed (even though it continues to be illegal under the Geneva Conventions). Thus, not only did Rockefeller remain silent when continuously briefed on illegal torture methods by the CIA, he then voted to legalize those methods by voting in favor of one of the most Draconian laws in modern American history. That law also retroactively immunized government officials from any liability for past lawbreaking.
Rockefeller is not just any Democrat. He is the individual whom the Democratic Senate caucus thereafter elected — and still chooses — to lead them on all matters relating to intelligence. Just consider how compromised he is and they are when it comes to investigating abuses by the intelligence community over the last six years. Rockefeller was complicit in all of those abuses, and the Democrats voted for him — and still support him — as their Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. How can Rockefeller possibly preside over meaningful investigations into conduct and policies — including the destruction of the videotapes and the conduct which those videotapes would reveal — of which he approved? And how can Senate Democrats pretend to be outraged at such policies when the leader they chose supports them?
Rockefeller and 12 senate democrats approved the Military Commissions Act. Key here: “That law also retroactively immunized government officials from any liability for past lawbreaking”.
Timeline: May of 2006:
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told her caucus members during their weekly closed meeting Wednesday “that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it,” spokesman Brendan Daly said.
Senate vote on the MCA: September 2006.
QUID PRO CO.
Pelosi has ZERO credibility here.. she preemptively took impeachment off the table, thus destroying one of the foremost tools for checks and balances of the executive in our system. this action in fact calls into question the very credibility of our entire governing system. it’s means Treason is OK, among other obvious crimes.
IF this is how we roll, then why even bother having a congress?
It appears to me she took impeachment off the table because she knew democratic senators like Rockefeller were going to approve the MCA which is totally about using the “enhanced interrogation techniques” (torture).
So what this comes down to now, in May of 2009, is it’s obvious congressional democratic leaders were/are complicit with torture. so now we have this in addition to numerous democrats being complicit with the rush to war in Iraq, even tho’ the IAEA was well on their way to proving NO WMD’s in Iraq, and in spite of people in the State Department on record stating there was no al Qaeda in Iraq at the time of 9/11, because Hussein’s people kept them out.
two strikes and your OUT as far as I am concerned.
There will be NO significant prosecution of those responsible in the previous administration.. again, note the “retroactive immunity”. of course this doesn’t cover torture done after the MCA passed, but it doesn’t matter.. it all gets lumped into one giant “Get out of jail Free” card for those responsible.
it’s over, folks. No more moral high ground for the U.S., no more lecturing China, N. Korea, etc., about “human rights”.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/09/democrats/
http://www.counterpunch.com/swanson04302009.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051101950.html