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POPSThe Ironic Rule of Law Did they copy this from a US Justice Department press release? First they pirate our DVDs and now our legalistic dissembling! Pioneering torture policy authors like John Yoo are apt to be pretty steamed.
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POPSS&M Porn Illegal-Real Life Torture-OK! But for our highest government officials, including the ones responsible for this prosecution, we have a different story altogether. In 2002, the Bush DOJ radically re-defined "torture" and illegal treatment of detainees to exclude anything that falls short of "the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." The DOJ's John Yoo even decreed that the President could legally order "'scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance' thrown on a prisoner" and possibly even "slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb."
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POPSThe putsch that imperiled America "Others have been less scrupulous for reasons that do them even less credit than ideological fanaticism. Take, for example, former Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes II. In a sworn statement, Air Force Col. Morris Davis -- the former top prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions -- says he resigned after being pressured by Haynes to move forward with politically "sexy" prosecutions even though Morris believed the evidence against the defendants had been obtained by torture. Davis said he also told Haynes that a few acquittals at Guantanamo, if warranted, would send a message that the commissions sitting there were fair, just as the not-guilty verdicts against some Nazi defendants had done for the Nuremberg trials. Haynes' response was emphatic, according to Morris: "We can't have acquittals! We've got to have convictions! ... If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off?""
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POPSinteractive guide: Who in the Bush administration broke the law, and who could be prosecuted
Each scandal is represented by a colored circle that encompasses the people who are implicated. As it's easy to see, many of the players here are mixed up in two, three, or more of the alleged crimes. Hence all the overlapping circles (Venn-diagram heaven!). The best way to make sense of this legal tangle is to mouse over the title of an individual scandal, which will highlight everyone implicated. For example, the wiretapping bubble ensnares George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and Alberto Gonzales. At the same time, Ashcroft and Gonzales fall into the overlapping circle for monkey business related to DoJ hiring. Mouse over a person's name for information on how each person is involved. Mouse over the title of each circle for specifics about the particular scandal. And if all else fails, fall back on this golden rule of wrongdoing in the White House: All roads lead to Gonzales.
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POPSAshcroft Still In Favor of Torture Re-writing history and the laws that govern conduct. This conduct is " unbecoming" and this man and many others should be arrested. Even World War II veterans, most, will not support any form of torture.
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POPSYoo Roast Watch John Yoo squirm. Great fun. What is your question? I was wondering if the President could order a suspect to watch reruns of Roseanne?
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POPSMoral Depravity in the Highest Places After 7 1/2 years of George W. Bush, much of the media and political establishment — which have never shown much interest in holding Bush to account — now appear anxious to simply move on. They seem determined to leave unexamined the full cruelty and mendacity of the Bush administration, with its unlawful wars and blatant violations of the Geneva Conventions. Moving on is a great idea - once there’s been some accountability, with a full public recognition of wrongdoing, and a commitment to bring about change. Otherwise, nothing will have been learned. The comments of Yoo, who authored top-level internal memos justifying torture and virtually unlimited presidential power, suggest a moral depravity in very high places. That depravity led to the horrific abuses at Abu Ghraib and at other U.S. prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and “black sites” around the world. The dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Lawrence Velvel, argues that Bush and top administration offi
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POPS "Citizens' Subpoena" Demand Answers on Torture! If you have not participated in any on-line activism but wished you had. Now is the time to begin. Just click this link or copy and paste it into your browser. https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=DemandtheTruth
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POPSThe Torture Memo When lawyers in private practice mess up, they face serious jeopardy. They can be fired, sued for malpractice, disbarred or prosecuted. Yoo and Bybee face no such risks. The President won't protest. He got what he wanted. And while a state disciplinary body can investigate, that is unlikely without Justice Department help.
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POPSPost-9/11 Memo Shows Disdain for Constitution Bush's "Justice" Dept had written memo claiming that 4th amendment of the Constitution "did not apply". The administration now disavows this position, it claims, yet we see little evidence of their disavowal in regard to civil liberties when it comes to domestic spying, the PATRIOT ACT, REAL ID, or a host of other examples. It was Bush who blurted out that the Constitution is "just a g--damned piece of paper" , when legal challenges were warned of.
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POPSMaiming in your Name: "the sovereign" Bush In a 2003 memo released yesterday, the US justice department extended the sweeping wartime powers claimed by Bush to military interrogators, giving them freedom from criminal laws when questioning al-Qaida suspects. The 81-page brief was released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which fought the administration in court to secure the release of documents. ...Guardian
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POPSBush Is Right to Worry If Waterboarding Is Defined as Torture
"I have to say that I am both glad and amazed that the Bush administration is with it enough to worry. That is a good sign. And they should worry, because they should be indicted, at least. I hope that they are, and that, indeed, it does "go all the way up to the president." One of the Attorney General's jobs should be making sure not only that the laws are enforced, but also that the laws are actual laws -- not opinions by John Yoo or David Addington or some other administration apologist. There is an exact definition of what a law is in this country, and it is not the same as a partisan legal opinion. One of the enraging things about the Bush administration is the way that they have consistently written their own rules, as if governing the nation is like playing a game of stealing the flag, where the stronger team, when it finds itself losing, simply changes the score or the rules until they either technically "win" or wear out the other side..."
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POPSCheney Aide, "We're One Attack Away From Our Goal"
More revealing is Goldsmith's description of how the Bush administration systematically violated one law after the next employing tactics that are truly the hallmark of the most lawless third-world dictators. They literally decided they would break whatever laws they wanted based on patently baseless memos issued by obedient followers like John Yoo. Not only did they do this in complete secrecy from Congress, they refused even to allow Executive Branch officials who were told to follow orders to see the legal basis for what they were told to do. Goldsmith's first experienced this extraordinary concealment, or "strict compartmentalization," in late 2003 when, he recalls, Addington angrily denied a request by the N.S.A.'s inspector general to see a copy of the Office of Legal Counsel's legal analysis supporting the secret surveillance program. "Before I arrived in O.L.C., not even N.S.A. lawyers were allowed to see the Justice Department's legal analysis of what N.S.A. was doing,"
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POPSMatt Lauer grills Bush Bush delivers up the usual talking points in response to some of Matt Lauer's tough questions (such as, if we are using legal interrogation techniques, why do we use secret prisons? Are you worried that the use of these "alternative interrogation techniques" will blur the lines between us and the enemy?), but what is notable is Bush's delivery, which imho sounds desperate and unconfident.
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