ACLU Director Favors Prosecution, Not Impeachment, Not Committee Hearings

[kpete]

ACLU Director Favors Prosecution, Not Impeachment, Not Committee Hearings
Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2009-05-02 03:20.



By Susan Harman

I heard Anthony Romero, ExDir of ACLU, speak tonight: "Moral hazard" is the term used in the stock market (and insurance) when a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk. He applied it to BushCo's abuse of power; that they behaved immorally because they believed they could get away with it. That is, to deter future abuses we must hold them accountable.

"Holder needs to investigate, indict, and, if necessary, convict the authors of the memos as well as those who authorized them."

2,000 torture pictures due to be released May 28 (I had heard only 100. Wow.). He made the point that they can't all be of the "few bad apples;" that torture had to have been systemic.

He called impeaching Bybee a distraction, and said he needs to be criminally prosecuted along with the rest.

..........................


more at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/42223

[enough]

1. To my mind, this is the correct approach.

If laws appear to have been broken, prosecute. That's what is meant by Rule of Law.

[Baby Snooks]

12. Rule of law does not apply to presidents and their men....

We went there once with Nixon. Once with Reagan. We won't go there again. They made sure of it. They. The shadowy figures who have remained in Washington all these years. Serving George HW Bush and those who serve him. And his oligarchy.

And Obama seems to have fallen right into line in the matter. There will be no prosecutions. No one will be held accountable.

We need to focus on the people. On ourselves. Before they completely destroy this country and we are left with nothing.

We need to focus on Congress and demand that its priority be Main Street rather than Wall Street. And demand they override the vetos that will come when they do so.

[slipslidingaway]

2. knr "to deter future abuses we must hold them accountable" .....

From tonight's Bill Moyers show.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5579158&mesg_id=5579158

"MARK DANNER......But you asked why this is different. And I'll tell you what it seems to me is dramatically different. This was made legal, within the American Government. I say "made legal" with quotes. This was officially done. This was ordered by the President. The Department of Justice made memos saying you can do this. The principals, Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, sat in meetings and talked about interrogations that were plainly illegal, according to our laws, and according to treaties we have signed.

All of it is now laid out before the public, and finally, if you look at Fox News, if you look at discussion of this — usually on the conservative side, not always, but usually on the conservative side — you find a strong attempt, basically, to say, "Not only should this stuff have been done, but we should not handcuff ourselves. We should keep doing it." So, we're talking about not simply what happened before. We're talking about the politics of now. And that's why it's important."

[Political Heretic]

3. As far as I can see, he's correct.

[Dragonfli]

4. K&R /nt

[chill_wind]

5. ACLU calling for a three-pronged approach-

The ACLU is calling for a three-pronged approach to investigating abuses of power under the Bush administration. In addition to the proposed commission, a congressional select committee should be put in place to investigate these matters. This committee would be able to commit the necessary resources and have full subpoena authority to compel individuals with knowledge to come forth. Also, the executive branch should be examining whether prosecutions are appropriate through a Department of Justice special prosecutor.

The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

“The ACLU welcomes Senator Leahy’s remarks today on the need to discover how America abandoned the rule of law. But we also call on Congress to establish a select committee and for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor. Both the Obama administration and Congress have an obligation to conduct investigations in order to achieve accountability and to ensure these egregious errors will not happen again. In order for America to move forward and put torture and abuse behind us, we must know how our nation was led astray.”

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/38836prs20090225.html

This is what they were calling for a few weeks ago. A Special Prosecutor, a Congressional select committee and a commission.

Differences of opinion between an ExDir and the current Dir?

[merh]

6. I agree Bybee and Yoo need to be indicted and tried.

That does not negate the need to impeach Bybee. The impeachment would come after the convictions, just as was the case with Judge Walter Nixon and Judge Hastings. (Judge Hastings conviction was overturned but he was still removed from office and lost his retirement/pension - the guaranteed lifetime compensation as a federal judge appointed for life.)

I have no desire for my tax dollars to go to the salaries or the retirement of the bastards that authored the memos and ordered/authorized the torture.

Impeachment is the step after the convictions so they do not continue to profit from their crimes.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. I say waterboard them, that would be a sort of "Twilight Zone" style ending

its not really torture, right?

[bvar22]

8. "Truth" Commissions and Bi-Partisan Congressional WhiteWashes...

..are a WASTE of time, and will be counter productive at this point.
There is NO DOUBT that serious crimes have been committed.

The White House NEEDS to immediately appoint an Independent Prosecutor and then step completely away from this explosive issue. The longer the White House delays, the stronger the perception that they are protecting Torturers and War Criminals.

Appoint a legitimate Independent Prosecutor, and let the chips fall where they may.

[rhett o rick]

9. Agree. And there is the problem of statute of limitations kicking in. nm

[pleah]

10. K&R PROSECUTIONS AND NOTHING LESS!

Conviction of the authors of the memos, those that carried out the torture, those that ordered the torture, and ANYONE that had the least little thing to do with this horrific mess SHOULD BE PROSECUTED. PERIOD!

[Bondor]

11. A--men!!

[Gregorian]

13. Please. America needs justice after this massive nightmare of war and torture.

[L. Coyote]

14. KnR