Thank You Senator Levin-TORTURE CRIMES TO BE REFERRED FOR PROSECUTION!!!

[kpete]

Torture Crimes to be Referred for Prosecution? Be Still Me Beating Heart!
By: looseheadprop Sunday December 21, 2008 9:00 am


Senator Carl Levin, Chair of the Armed Services Committee was on Rachel Maddow Thursday night.

Rachel: One of the things that I think has been so I guess challenging to the American debate about this is that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have essentially argued that they have legalized waterboarding, that they have legalized torture. They think the actions of their Justice Department made things like waterboarding not war crimes any more. Are they right?

Levin: You can’t just suddenly change some thing that’s illegal into something that is legal by having a lawyer writing an opinion saying that it’s legal. Things can’t work that way or else someone could get a lawyer and say a crime is not a crime and then that would be a defense. It is not a defense. And I was astounded frankly, when I heard the Vice President of the United States sort of just blandly and blindly saying that he thought that was appropriate thing and yes he was involved in discussions about it.

........

THANK YOU SENATOR LEVIN. In one salient sentence, Senator Levine has explained why all the twisted, convoluted, crappy Yoo memos in the world, no matter how high you pile them up, do NOT equal a "get out of jail free" card.

Even better, Senator Levin proposes outright an intention to turn over information which the Armed Services Committee apparently already has or believes it can get, to the Obama Justice Department for prosecution. You heard read it folks, referrals for prosecution. Woot!

LEVIN: What I think it is our role to do is to bring out the facts which we have, to state our conclusions which we have, which is where the origin of these techniques were began. And then to turn over to the Justice Dept. of the next administration cause clearly this Justice Dept is not willing to take an objective look and turn over to the next Justice Dept. all the facts that we can and we have put together and get our report, the rest of it, declassified.

more at:
http://firedoglake.com/2008/12/21/torture-crimes-to-be-referred-for-prosecution-be-still-me-beating-heart/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. be still my heart, and

not from being Tased.

[Vincardog]

2. I hope the Obama DOJ is going after those traitors and thieves. Maybe O is just playing possum.

[FreakinDJ]

3. Such a "Wealth of Crimes to be Tried for"

but this issue alone would serve to restore the World's confidence more then most

[lonestarnot]

4. I can't wait! But I'm not going to hold my breath either!

[WhiteTara]

5. can we start impeachment proceedings now?

and would that stop * from pardoning the whole lot?

[Senator]

15. Sure, it would take merely a few days. Maybe less with resignations.

And proceedings are not even necessary. A simple up or down vote on torture is all that's necessary.

But no, it would not stop pardons unless and until the Senate votes to remove bush and cheney. If that looked likely they'd issue pardons in a hurry.

But a pardon is not unchallengable. The pardon itself could be deemed a criminal act in furtherance of a conspiracy, thereby invalidating its effect.

---

[WhiteTara]

17. okay, that made my daydream

too bad we can't have a reality.

I think that too many dems are caught in this and it will never happen because of the CYA effect.

[Senator]

16. deleted dupe

---

[madokie]

6. I truly believe that the rule of law will prevail

With an Obama/Biden administration at the helm I know this will be.

[EFerrari]

7. Thanks, kpete. I hope this goes somewhere.

:kick:

[opihimoimoi]

8. OOOHHHhhhhhh, the Ratz will be jumping soon if not already...

I am puting the popcorn on and melting the butter...this is gonna be gooooood....

[pleah]

9. K&R

[Wednesdays]

10. K and R nt

[Senator]

11. Let Me Guess --- "Something Must Be Done! ... "

"... At Some Later Time ... By Someone Other Than Me!"

Uh huh. Got it.

No Senator Groupthink, your "role" is not to "bring out the facts." The facts have been out for literally years. Your duty, as a US Gov't Official under the Geneva treaties, is to DO some damn thing to stop the ongoing torture and war crimes. Failure to ACT is a war crime in itself.

Only Impeachment can begin to stop the torturers. Only Impeachment is an ACTION.

It remains our long overdue -- ONLY moral, patriotic option.

=====

[Swamp Rat]

12. yep

[Hubert Flottz]

13. K&R

If the Bushites won't talk waterboard them, they shouldn't mind...

[bluesmail]

14. Maybe this is part of the reason Darth went on National Television

and literally confessed. I am so confused by his (all) his actions.