KO Special Comment = Obama and Torture

[L. Coyote]

Run time: 04:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw9nqW0W1Sk   Posted on YouTube: April 17, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 17, 2009 By DU Member: L. Coyote Views on DU: 1283

 

[bjobotts]

1. Excellent. Obama has stopped listening and must be pressured to prosecute

[bjobotts]

2. We cannot move forward without dealing with our wrong doings first.

[bjobotts]

3. Crimes have been committed. Ignoring them will only ensure they will occur again

[bjobotts]

4. The world is watching how we defend our coruption when we refuse to admit to the crimes committed

[bjobotts]

5. When we refuse to hold those criminals accountable our hypocrisy becomes evident

[bjobotts]

6. Obama must enforce the laws or admit to this hypocrisy.It is his duty to prosecute

[bjobotts]

8. He is going out of his way to avoid his duty.He is putting himself above the will of the majority

[defendandprotect]

18. Congress could help ---

[biopowertoday]

11. agree

[summerintx]

19. I've been trying to imagine…

Obama and the Justice Dept going after CIA Interrogators. Maybe watching all of those espionage films has left me paranoid, but I flashed on a few of them deciding to take him out. So the question is, how does the administration hold those in charge accountable. Keith is right though. It is a moral imperative. Hopefully now that Obama has removed their motive for assassination or coverup, we can cautiously moved forward. Congress should take the lead on this now.

[merh]

7. How can we send this in volume to Obama?

How can we get him to watch it and to know that KO speaks the truth and speaks for us.

[rpannier]

12. Find someone on the other side of the political aisle to criticize him for it

He seems to be willing to invite them to the White House to discuss it

[aquart]

9. I love it when Olbermann agrees with me.

[biopowertoday]

10. thanks, I will listen as I was working earlier.

[JDPriestly]

13. Bravo! I have watched the body language of Armitage in his Al Jazeera

interview and drawn the conclusion that there is some sort of fix, some sort of agreement between the former members of the Bush administration and Obama that Obama will not prosecute. If so, Obama is as guilty as anyone in the Bush administration of conspiracy to cover up these crimes.

That Obama and the Bush administration members are so afraid of prosecutions for what can only be considered crimes makes me wonder what portion of the evidence that would inevitably have to surface is so horrifying that they do not want it known.

Go to your local county court house. Watch some criminal trials. People are sentenced to jail terms for shoplifting minor items, for getting into fights in drunken states, for driving under the influence, for driving in rough neighborhoods with a gun under the seat of the car or even just having a knife under the floor mat of their cars. Kids serve time for graffiti all the time.

How can any judge sentence a 14 year old to time in a juvenile facility for graffiti or for fighting at school when he knows that the thugs in the Bush administration committed these assaults on shackled prisoners in violation of international and United States law.

Where is the American sense of justice and fair play? Can you imagine what John Adams or George Washington or Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson, to say nothing of James Madison would tell Obama if only he would listen?

Here is the link to the Armitage interview. In my humble opinion, he is lying and knows there is a deal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/richard-armitage-on-tortu_n_187391.html

[DUlover2909]

14. Is it possible that this is a charade?

Is it possible that torture never really took place? Is it possible that this whole controversy is a CIA plan to intimidate terrorists into believing that we a more cruel than we actually are? I understand that real people have died, many innocents, during our overt military campaigns, but when it comes to the interrogations, is there any possibility that the CIA wants others, and the American public, to wonder whether these kinds of treatments are actually being employed in order to fulfill another goal? I am skeptical, but the way that the Obama Admin is handling this, it seems to beg the question.

[L. Coyote]

15. NO. But is is still possible Obama is.

[JDPriestly]

20. No. It is not possible that it is a charade. The legal memos are real.

Some of the torture victims have described their torture in detail. I understand that you wish to think that Americans would not do these things. Please read Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side. She reveals the details -- discusses the evidence on the torture. It is very bad. I cannot recommend that book highly enough.

I have to confess that I really know how you feel. When Bush started bombing and invading Iraq, I said to myself that there had to be weapons of mass destruction because no American president would start a war without good reason.

I studied a lot of French culture and literature. As a result, I have read a fair amount about WWI -- and the effects of and strategies used in defending against gas and such chemical weapons. Chemical weapons or gas require that those defending against them send in waves of troops (this was also true in the Iraq/Iran war in which Saddam actually did use chemical weapons). Facing possible nuclear weapons would require yet different tactics.

So, when I saw how the troops were equipped, and how they were slowly slugging their way through the desert single file, getting stuck like sitting ducks, I knew that Bush and his military strategists were not planning on meeting up with any use of chemical or biological weapons. Before sending troops in, they knew that there were no WMDS. They

When I realized that, I was so disappointed, so angry, so horrified, and so embarrassed that I had trusted Bush. Prior to that time, I had faith in the basic goodness of the leadership my country. I had not voted for Bush and I felt that he had stolen the election, but I still supported my country. I knew that our leaders sometimes made mistakes and that we, as a nation, had done things that were wrong, but I just never thought that we could simply invade another country based on trumped up evidence. Well, we did.

So, I understand how you don't want to believe that we would be torturing people. But, this is real. I assure you. Very real. And very, very shameful. It was totally unnecessary. There is no excuse.

Minors, kids, get felony convictions here in L.A. for doing graffiti. I met a seven-year-old in a Juvenile Hall who had been detained -- arrested is more like it -- along with several other children in the family for burglarizing a neighbor's house. I believe they were caught in the house. The seven-year-old boy was crying and crying. His 12-year old sister was more composed. Sure, they should not have been doing what they were doing, but putting seven-year-olds in what is effectively a jail with tall fences and institutional discipline even if it is age-appropriate is pretty strong stuff. So, kids face detention for acts that we define as crimes although the acts harm only property -- things. But the Bush administration enjoys their freedom although they tortured people -- who were, under our law, still innocent, not convicted.

[jeff30997]

16. K&R

Excellent.

[defendandprotect]

17. Olbermann did a super job on this last night . . .