This is not the first post on this subject and hopefully it will not be the last.
Here is the link to a good New York Times Article outlining the substance of the CIA tactics used on prisoners in secret overseas prisons which the Justice Department released today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17detain.html?hp
Just the most cursory look at that article will tell you what criminal acts our government engaged in routinely with the full knowledge and consent of the Bush Administration.
Here is a link to the full text of President Obama's press release statement about the release of the information. There is a great deal of talking about keeping the CIA's secret operations and the names of their operatives secret. A lot of talk about what a great service they do and why there can never be any sunshine on any of their activities. You can read all of that here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/politics/16text-obama.html?_r=1
What I would like us to reflect on carefully are the following excerpts from the President's statement.
" In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution. The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world. Their accomplishments are unsung and their names unknown, but because of their sacrifices, every single American is safer. We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs."
And then read what I have included below, which cinches the deal that this President is not now or ever going to do what any decent man would do and that is to investigate and when necessary prosecute, try and judge those responsible for the moral and legal outrage that went on during these interrogations. In essence, regardless of all the fancy rhetoric about moving forward, we are moving forward without resolution or closure on year after year of the violation on our laws, our Constitution and of the moral clarity which once was a hallmark of American leadership. We are being told to now build a new American on the foundation of the old, never mind that the foundation is rotten and termite ridden. No one is to be brought to justice. No one.
Read on:
"This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past. Our national greatness is embedded in America's ability to right its course in concert with our core values, and to move forward with confidence. That is why we must resist the forces that divide us, and instead come together on behalf of our common future.
The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again."
President Obama believes that he is doing the right thing. He isn't. He believes that he is leading by consensus. He isn't. He believes that people of good will can turn their backs on heinous crimes and move confidently into the future by ignoring the stench of the past. We can't.
I wanted with all my heart and soul for this President to be elected. I listened to his campaign rhetoric and believed what he said. But we now have two very large and visible examples where he has turned to the advice of the insiders, sellers of the old way of doing business. He has looked them straight in the eye, and blinked.
So now we have the good old boys running Treasury, and his financial advisory team and at the Fed. We have turned to the foxes and taken their advice on how to run the hen house. And the foxes just get fatter and fatter off of us and our children. We are watching them produce program after program that makes the same people who got us into this mess richer and richer, all the while the middle and working classes see little change on the horizon for them.
And today he confirms what he has hinted at many times in the past, that he will turn his back on Constitutional abuses of power, torture as a national policy that went on for a minimum of four years, and the stench of incessent abuses of American freedom and privacy, of the use of our armed forces to fight an immoral war, all by an immoral, illegal, power mad, corrupt Administration -- and tell us to move on.
This is pollyannaish behavior at its most naive. If someone had asked you four months ago to sit down and read what was going to happen you would have laughed in their face. This is looking evil straight in the eye and saying, "if you won't bring this up then I won't either." (wink - wink).
There are no more excuses. We have been told over and over that it has been only 40 days or 50 days or now almost a hundred days. Give it time. We have given it time enough to see that on the two major efforts that he could have done right he has come down on the side of those who think that they are above the law, worse, that they can ignore the law and rewrite it in a back room of the Vice President's office, in the off limits secrecy of the CIA Building, and in the back rooms of banks, hedge funds and Treasury.
We are being had left and right, from top to bottom, and we sit and say, "Well, let's give him a little more time."
OK. But answer just one question: "How is this different than if Bush were still in office?"
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