Real Prosecutors Don't Let War Criminals Walk For The Price Of A Confession

[mmonk]

From an email:

The fact is that without prosecution, the top war criminals in American political office of the future will presume that they can always get off the hook by the so-called "truth" commission route. And yet the people who are in the media calling for non-enforcement of the laws against torture and illegal wiretapping are the SAME ones who are "zero tolerance" fanatics when little people get in trouble.

-snip-

One of Leahy's non-arguments was that prosecuting all the criminals in the Bush administration would take 10-15 years. Oh, really? Did they commit THAT many hideous crimes? That's all the more reason to get moving on it as soon as possible. As a former prosecutor himself he should know that immunity is granted to GET testimony against the criminal kingpins, not to let them skate themselves entirely.

-snip-

Thankfully at least John Conyers on the House side, and other senators like Whitehouse and Reed, have come forward to stand up for the principle that ONLY prosecution is any deterrent in cases like these. Did the pardon of Nixon send a message for the future? Of course it did? It led Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were IN that administration, to believe that they would have their own chance to get away with mass murder.


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[Mike 03]

1. Important food for thought. K and R. NT

[mmonk]

2. Thanks.

Something people can push for anyway.

[pleah]

3. K&R Prosecutions and nothing less.

Damn it.

[mmonk]

4. Yep.

Have a heart on me.

[pleah]

7. Oh, you little sweety!

:loveya: :hug: :toast:

[mmonk]

8. .

:-) :toast: :hi: :hug:

[librechik]

5. Saddam Prosecuted:it took about 18 months. Milosevic prosecuted:

perhaps 2 years for the trial.

What is Leahy taking about? Is Bush a worse criminal than either of those murderers?

[mmonk]

6. Indeed. How long did Nuremberg take?

[chill_wind]

9. K & R.

[Time for change]

10. Leahy should not have made that statement about taking 10-15 years to prosecute the criminals in the

Bush administration.

It is perplexing to me why he said that. The subject of prosecutions is in the hands of the executive Branch, not Congress, so why he would say that is beyond my comprehension, and as you said, even the Nuremburg trials took a much shorter period of time.

It is especially perplexing to me because Leahy has been one of the most consistent and vocal critics in the Senate of the Bush administration over the past several years. Therefore, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to a mis-statement. I don't believe that he really wants a truth commission as a substitute for prosecutions -- though of course I could be wrong.

Anyhow, I fully agree with you that we must press forward with prosecutions. We had the pardon of Richard Nixon. Then we had the failure to impeach Reagan or otherwise hold him and his administration accountable for the many crimes connected with Iran-Contra. And now we have the Bush administration taking high level crime to new heights. If we don't put a stop to this by holding these criminals accountable, we're likely to slide into tyranny.