Rep. Nadler (D-NY) Calls for an Investigation of Bush Administration Officials

[babylonsister]

Rep. Nadler (D-NY) Calls for an Investigation of Bush Administration Officials

by Chris Johnson


Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has written a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging him to appoint an independent council to investigate actions taken by Vice President Dick Cheney, Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and other senior level administration officials in regard to the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.

Rep. Nadler cites Vice President Cheney's recent interview with ABC News and Cheney's frank admission to directly approving the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad as evidence of the Administration's participation in approving tactics that are against the law. Rep. Nadler states in his letter:

The Vice President's public admission that he was "aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared" is deeply disturbing. It implicates the Vice President in this activity which appears to have been a direct violation of our criminal laws against the use of torture. Similarly, a recent report issued by the Senate Armed Services Committee found that "Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there."{7} Additional evidence shows that other top officials also were involved in authorizing similar activities.

Not only did Cheney admit to his role in approving such policies as stated above, but, as Nadler points out, the Senate Armed Services Committee recently issued a report that found Administration officials directly responsible for the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody. I recently wrote about this bi-partisan report and will reemphasize that this report is damning evidence that the Administration not only approved policies of torture, but lied about it when the abuses at Abu Ghraib were exposed.

In addition to Nadler's letter, he appeared on Democracy Now! and emphasized some very basic points that I, and others, have been making:

And the morality of this aside, you cannot have high officials deliberately break the law without accountability. The Vice President, on that interview we saw a few minutes ago, talked about the oath of office that the President, the Vice President, others take, and that is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. You are not preserving it, and you are not defending it; you are, in fact, perverting it, if you deliberately break the law, which is the supreme law of the land pursuant to the Constitution. It is imperative, if the United States is to remain a country of laws and not men, that people who break the laws be held accountable.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/26-0

[Phredicles]

1. Rec'd - never too late for this, although sooner is much better than later;

I don't want to see Cheney pulling a Pinochet and avoiding trial until he's too sick to know what's going on, and croaking before a verdict can be pronounced.

[Alexander]

2. I stand by my belief that he'd make a good Senator from New York.

[Muttocracy]

4. agreed

http://www.house.gov/nadler/biography.shtml

[cascadiance]

15. He'd be my pick now!

Caroline I think might be a better fit starting with Nadlers slot (or perhaps Ted Kennedy's slot if that becomes available later)...

[Vincardog]

3. Don't forget that $hit for brain$ called the Geneva Convention " Quaint"

[defendandprotect]

19. and the Constitution "just a piece of paper" . . . !!!

[mmonk]

5. Mukasey? From his testimony before being CONFIRMED, he showed

he doesn't know what torture is (of course he does but he lies).

[Me.]

6. Now?

He's had constituents calling for this for a couple of years and he blew them off. Now he wants to be senator and he calls for investigation? Damn, that's calculating.

[AtomicKitten]

7. Mukasey isn't going to do squat. Why bother? Give it Holder to investigate and prosecute.

[Pastiche423]

8. You actually believe Chiquita Holder will do any investigating?

:rofl:

[babylonsister]

9. You honestly don't?

I guess we'll see. But there is this...sounds like he's a big departure from what we've had to deal with for 8 years.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/19/holder-justice-issues/

[AtomicKitten]

14. What I know for sure is that Mukasey will ignore it.

I never mentioned what I thought Holder would do with it, but to correct your insinuation of an opinion you have no knowledge of, my opinion is ... who knows? I'm guessing more than ignore it. For more details, you will have to consult your Magic 8 ball.

[Pastiche423]

17. Asking a question is insinuation?

I'll have to remember that.

[AtomicKitten]

21. "You actually believe ....." is an insinuation wrapped in a question.

You imply something you have no knowledge of to create a strawman argument (or, in your case, ridicule punctuated with a rofl emoticon). How's that working out for you around here?

[Pastiche423]

24. It's been working just fine for the past seven years here

[Luminous Animal]

10. Sign the petition...

http://www.democrats.com/special-prosecutor-for-bush-war-crimesDear Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder,

"We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes."

[tan guera]

11. Link doesn't work.

[Luminous Animal]

12. Thank you. Let's try this again....

http://www.democrats.com/special-prosecutor-for-bush-war-crimes

[Poiuyt]

13. Why doesn't he want to investigate Bush?

Everyone just suggests investigate Cheney and Rumsfeld. Why does Bush get a free pass?

[sofa king]

23. Because Bush is an an empty suit.

It was clear from well before he stole the election that Bush didn't have the intellectual capacity to run or the interest in the day-to-day running of his branch of the government.

If you were to load that guy up with sodium pentathol and ask him, "why did you cover up Pat Tillman's murder?" He'd say, "because Rummy came over one morning while I was playing Nintendo with some papers to sign, and I had a hangover so I didn't ask anything about it."

It's further complicated by the obvious fact that both Cheney and Rumsfeld took full advantage of "plausible deniability" to pursue their own interests, the full details of which we have yet to discover. Turns out the bullshit War on Terror, which has caught like six actual terrorists and killed about a half a million innocent people, cost a trillion dollars. That's enough to pay for NASA's entire budget for forty years! I'm sure those greedy bastards stole a big hunk of that money and diverted it to who knows what else.

But Bush doesn't know, either, and everyone knows that.

[libodem]

16. He needs to be prosecuted

for his whole taxi trip to the Dark Side.

[defendandprotect]

18. Love Nadler, but don't see any point in asking Mukasey - except for the record?

[Senator]

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

"... at some later time ... by someone other than me."

Sorry Jerry, ONLY an impeachment article for torture -- before Jan. 20th -- will get you off the hook for complicity and approval of the ongoing torture and war crimes. And yes, your failure thus far is a war crime in itself.

Impeachment remains our ONLY moral, patriotic option.

---

[Independent_Liberal]

22. Right, we must urge folks not to back off of impeachment.

Nadler could be doing more than just calling for investigations.