If you want an intelligence service to work for you,
they always work on the edge.
--Michael Hayden, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5imDvIlEBNgzKdqYgIuTUEzUEImrQD97JRBUO0">AP, 4/17
So, we must sanction CIA torture because it's just a necessary consequence of "working on the edge"? Are you kidding? They are actually promoting this Un-American, irrational rationalization for dereliction?
When it comes to the treatment of persons in the custody of the state, we designed our law to ensure that Every Official, in Every Agency, would be Highly motivated to steer clear of "the edge."
The truth is, any intelligence service employee working "on the edge" who is "a national of the United States" is risking the penalty of death if the individual they are abusing dies. And given the "techniques" Bush and Cheney ordered, and Yoo et al "rubber stamped," the possibility that the "subject" may die is very real. (We know least 100 captives
did die).
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > Sec. 2441. War crimes
(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.
(b) Circumstances.— The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act).
No White House memo can alter reality. Those who failed to "Just Say No" when ordered to subject human beings in their custody to "treatment" that is the definition of inhumane, cruel, and degrading, did so with full knowledge of the law and the risk of prosecution.
As Hayden puts it, they knew they were "on the edge."
To protect these officials from prosecution is to spit on the graves of all those who died in the fight to forge the treaties that mandate the humane treatment of every person held in the custody of the state.
Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.
--Barak Obama, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5imDvIlEBNgzKdqYgIuTUEzUEImrQD97JRBUO0">AP, 4/17
Why bother prosecuting for anything? The criminals acts are "in the past." What's to be gained by "laying blame"?? Holder and his entire department should just pack up and close shop right now.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that Obama's refusal to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Haynes, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and the rest of those responsible for ordering or sanctioning war crimes, and his refusal to prosecute those who executed the orders,
does nothing but shift the duty to prosecute to the other parties to the Geneva conventions.United States Constitution -- Article VI
. . .This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land. . .
If we are unable to wake our so-called "leaders" up to reality -- if we must look to other nations to deal with "our" war criminals because we refuse to enforce our own "supreme law of the land," it will be a national shame from which there can be no true recovery.
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