From Saturday’s NYT Editorial:
Bush administration officials came up with all kinds of ridiculously offensive rationalizations for torturing prisoners. It’s not torture if you don’t mean it to be. It’s not torture if you don’t nearly kill the victim. It’s not torture if the president says it’s not torture.
It was deeply distressing to watch the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sink to that standard in April when it dismissed a civil case brought by four former Guantánamo detainees never charged with any offense. The court said former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the senior military officers charged in the complaint could not be held responsible for violating the plaintiffs’ rights because at the time of their detention, between 2002 and 2004, it was not “clearly established†that torture was illegal.
The Supreme Court could have corrected that outlandish reading of the Constitution, legal precedent, and domestic and international statutes and treaties. Instead, last month, the justices abdicated their legal and moral duty and declined to review the case.
[ . . . ]
In effect, the Supreme Court has granted the government immunity for subjecting people in its custody to terrible mistreatment.
Shameful actions, no? I fear that some think it’s just the last bits of the horrors of the Bush Administration being dusted away. Well, remember:
The party that urged the Supreme Court not to grant the victims’ appeal because the illegality of torture was not “clearly established†was the Obama Justice Department.
Warren
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
J. Tyler Ballance
Many rank and file Republicans still hold the Jack Bauer view of how to deal with the world; where any government official can kill maim or torture anyone, as long as it doesn’t happen to one of “us.”
What these Jack Bauer wannabes don’t realize is that the power to torture and maim people, once handed over to government “officials” will not be readily relinquished, then sooner or later, those tactics will be used on us.
I had hoped to see President Obama take a strong stand for liberty and roll back these practices, but his administration has been slow and has even sustained some of the illegal practices. The DOJ still maintains a list of 1.2 MILLION AMERICANS who are listed as enemies of the state, even though an audit (DOJ 9-25 May 2009) confirmed that about 100,000 citizens are on the list with no documentation or rationale for their names to be on such a list. There is also no procedure in place for citizens to challenge being wrongly listed.
President Obama, the Democrats and the few Republicans who still care about liberty need to table other issues and hammer those who have been abusing government power and who have harmed our citizens and those who have been wrongfully detained.
Jack Bauer wannabes need to stand trial and pay for illegally detaining and torturing people. Just because the Republicans acted like fascists, there is no reason to continue such practices or provide tacit approval of previous offenses.
MB
Not same as the old, Warren, but definitely not as much of an improvement as we had every right to expect.
~
What list is that, Tyler? (I otherwise concur.)
J. Tyler Ballance
I sent you the Audit Report via email at your Comments email address.
This DOJ “Enemies List” is beyond the old McCarthy era enemies list, because there is no method in place to resolve names that are maliciously placed there, or those where they are placed on the list in error.
More importantly, why the devil are you hearing about this from me instead of having the Press screaming bloody murder about this travesty.
America has become like East Germany and neither Democrats or Republicans will do anything to restore our LIBERTY.