With the news that the US government has seriously threatened the domestic security of the UK, if the UK High Court reveals that the US tortured a confession out of a British citizen, the Obama Administration has reached the Rubicon of Torture.
Obama is faced with exposing US torture crimes and retreating back to the shore of civility, or continuing to conceal US crimes from legitimate national and international war crimes investigations.
Obama appears to have limited choices in this situation. He can either share the required documents, and publicly reveal the torture crimes of our government, repudiate them, and do his duty by prosecuting all who disgraced our nation with torture
Or Obama can continue the policies of hiding our torture crimes behind the same layered curtains of secrecy, lying, bribery and bullying Bush used, until Bush's use of torture finally came to rest on nothing more than naked power and expediency.
If Obama persists with Bush's threats against the British High Court, and by extension, the British People, he is directly complicit in covering up, if not continuing, US torture crimes.
Based on the solid evidence of how the Democrats have backed all of Bush's domestic and international crimes for the last eight years, we have few realistic hopes that Justice will flow from the hand of either Obama or the Democrats. But this UK Torture Scandal offers Obama a third option.
Obama can now bypass Pelosi and the many protectors of torture in the House, if he so chooses, and fully support European prosecutions of Bush and his Torture apparatus.
How Obama responds to this UK Torture Scandal will reveal what the Administration's policies on torture really are, and what "changes" in our policies have really occurred with the election of Obama. So far, it appears that nothing has changed.
If the published reports about Obama's "ban" on torture are accurate, Obama's position is that he too, like Bush, may torture in special cases. That is exactly the same position the Bush used to justify establishing criminal executive branch powers to order torture, kidnapping, secret prisons, and the whole police state apparatus that Bush established. Obama's exec order banning torture with reservations is the official intact transfer of Bush's Criminal Powers of kidnapping and torture to the Obama Administration.
In Leon Panetta's testimony before the Senate committee about his appointment to be the CIA director, Panetta assured the worred Senators that he would not prosecute torturers "who were following orders," and he would end "bad" renditions, but would continue to allow "good" renditions.
Panetta's statements, when combined with Holder's assurances, when looked at through the "reservations" in Obama's Executive Order "banning" torture indicate that the criminal powers of the Bush Presidency have made a safe and total transfer into the Obama Administration.
Independent of the difference between what Obama says and exactly what his executive order actually permits, it has been apparent for a long time that there is no hope for justice on torture from the Democrat controlled House.
The Democrats have hid from their responsibility to defend our Constitution and laws since first joining Bush en mass to pass their criminal "Patriot Act." The Dems defense of our rights deteriorated from that point on. The Democrat's silence about Bush's crimes intensified as Bush's crimes increased, reaching a crescendo of inaction when the Dems took the House in 2006.
Bush had little to fear from the Dem capture of the House. The Dems were too preoccupied with managing the massive flood of bribe money that flooded into their party coffers anticipating and following their 2006 House victory.
Immediately before getting elected in October of 2006, Pelosi sent a clear message to Bush that he had little to fear from the new Dem House. In Oct of '06 Pelosi publicly took impeaching Bush, meaning any investigation of any of the President's ongoing crimes, off the table. Wow. Pelosi cut off even the possibility of investigating the President's crimes even as he was in the very act of committing them. Amazingly, the Dem Congress was able to go downhill from even that low point.
Instead of acting like an American, Pelosi stonewalled and even openly fought investigation of what were clearly presidential crimes and claims to illegal power while Bush was right in the middle of his domestic and international crime sprees.
Pelosi's actions stifling Congressional investigation before the full extent of Bush's crimes were even known prove her a coward and a traitor. Despite the fact that Bush's crimes are international public knowledge, producing reams of solid evidence against Bush here and around the world, Pelosi and the Dem Congress managed to stick their heads into the sand, and pretend these crimes did not exist.
Pelosi's actions signaled to the President, and the whole world, that Congress had tacitly approved of Bush's abuses of the Presidency. So Bush continued to illegally search, kidnap, and torture without any fear of Congressional oversight, let alone any risk of an impeachment investigation of his crimes coming from the House.
These Dem actions, in actions really, all established precedents for future presidential claims to illegal powers. The Pelosi Congress has effectively put the tools of illegal searches, kidnapping, secret detentions, and torture into the tool belt of all future presidents. This also has the effect of setting the standard of behavior for governments around the world. The Dems actions confirmed Bush's claims that the executive is Beyond the Law here in the US and around the world.
And now Obama has acknowledged and transferred these criminal presidential powers to his Administration by acknowledging them in the "reservations" in his Executive Order supposedly banning these crimes. Except when the President wants to commit a crime.
Since their capture of the House the Dems have marked themselves as active and willing co-conspirators with Bush's domestic spying as well as his international war and torture crimes. The Dem House has continued to fully fund all of Bush's torture, kidnapping, and illegal search crimes since they captured the House. It gets even worse.
Pelosi, the House Dems, and Obama's Dem Senate subsequently passed a series of laws which defied long-standing criminal laws against criminal searches, the 4th Amendment that these laws were based on, and went so far as to indemnify the criminal corporations that assisted the president's illegal domestic search crimes.
The Dems subsequently confirmed and protected all of Bush's crimes when they confirmed Mukasey as AG to replace the disgraced traitor Gonzales. Mukasey openly testified before the Dem Senate (Substantially the same Senate that sits today) that the President had the right to break the law and the Constitution, had the power to illegally search, kidnap, and torture. Mukasey declared that Bush was virtually the divine-right King of the USA. The Dem Senate then promptly rewarded Mukasey for his treachery by confirming him.
All of the presidential powers Mukasey openly defended before the Senate are serious crimes, and in this case, open crimes against long standing laws and the plain words of our Constitution. The Dem's confirmation of an Attorney General who openly pledged to defend both the President's criminal powers and his crimes was not unexpected.
Mukasey was actually recommended by a Democrat. Sen. Schumer, D-NY, recommended Mukasey to Bush for the Attorney General position. The Democrat's recommendation and easy confirmation of Mukasey clearly demonstrates that the Dem's position on kidnapping, illegal secret detentions, secret transportation of US kidnap victims to nations that torture, US torture itself, and illegal searches are, and have been, exactly the same as Bush's.
Mukasey's affirmation of the president's "right" to kidnap, torture, and illegally search citizens should have immediately disqualified him for citizenship in our Democratic Republic, let alone any position of responsibility in the Government. The same may be said of every Senator who voted for this traitor.
At the time of Mukasey's Confirmation there were two European prosecutions of US torture and kidnapping going on, one in Germany, the other in Italy. Now a third Euro torture scandal is breaking out in the UK. But rather than being a crisis for the Obama Administration, this UK scandal could be a blessing in disguise.
Having the UK justice system scandal blow-up in his face presents Obama with a unique opportunity, offering Obama the chance to use European prosecutions to comprehensively deal with US torture crimes while avoiding Pelosi and the Repugnant's defense of criminal government powers in the House and Senate.
Obama's domestic difficulty is well described by Holder's confirmation. Apparently Holder promised the Repugnants he would not prosecute torturers, which sparked scandal, whereupon Holder repudiated his promise not to investigate US torture. This makes Obama's domestic difficulties with actually following US law on torture clear: Congress itself, including both parties, are incapable of enforcing our Constitution and Laws upon itself or the Executive Branch.
Obama can make an end-run around this whole mess, and end the whole US torture scandal by allowing foreign prosecutions to go forward with US cooperation. Obama should turn over every torture document requested by the upcoming Solicitor General Torture investigation in the UK, and to the ongoing investigations and trials in Italy and Germany.
Rather than watching a disgusting dance of deception and mis-direction by the Democrats and Republicans here that any domestic investigation of Bush's kidnapping and torture crimes would spark, Obama should "offshore" the disposal of our torture scandal to the justice systems of Italy, Germany, and the UK. Since we are incapable of upholding our own basic laws or any decent notions of justice, Obama should allow the nations still capable of enforcing basic international law to act.
Foreign prosecution is required because weare incapable of following or holding ourselves to the basic standards of domestic or international law. Obama, to truly end US torture and "bring change we can believe in," must allow and assist these Euro prosecutions to fulfill his campaign promises. Unless he was lying to us, and never intended to return Presidential Power to its Constitutional limits.
This would work out well: Hand over all the documents and all the agents involved in torture to all the Euro countries investigating and charging torture crimes against the US. These countries can then do what we are incapable of: They can identify the criminals and march up the chain of command, identifying and charging CIA agents and supervisors, FBI Bureau chiefs and CIA directors, and eventually march right into the White House to charge the gang of criminals on the National Security Council, in the office of the Vice-President, and the President himself, who finally must take responsibility for authorizing, and apparently allowing White House Staff to directly participate in real-time crimes of torture.
Obama's Administration is facing a serious choice. Obama can continue our government's dishonest policy of stonewalling both domestic and legitimate European investigations and prosecutions. Obama can continue to go along with the failure of the last President and this Democratic Congress to obey our laws and stand up for our principals. But now this UK scandal has given Obama the opportunity to bypass determined domestic efforts by the Dems and Repugs to cover-up Bush’s Crimes by merely fulfilling our treaty obligations with our best European allies. All's Obama has to do is to turn over all the information that his Administration is holding on torture crimes to the European prosecutors. They will do the rest.
In any case, Obama's response to the UK Torture Scandal, when combined with Panetta's defense of torturers, Holder's deals to withold prosecution, and Obama's "reservations" in his order ending torture will reveal what, if any, changes in US torture policy have really occurred. So far it appears that nothing has changed except who is committing the crimes.
Update
Obama subsequently maintained his threat to withhold intelligence information from the UK, and the High Court Buckled, withdrawing the case.
Obama's threat to withold US "terror" intelligence info from the UK was widely perceived to put the UK at serious risk of a "terror" attack.
This means that Obama used the threat of attack by Al Queda against the UK to pressure the Limeys into quashing their torture inquiry.
Hell, he should have just threatened to unleash Blackwater on their asses. Send 'em to Trafalgar Square.
So that was it for me giving our own Osama, I mean obama, the benefit of the doubt. I knew it was a longshot, but that was one of the few real options that appeared open to his fully-bribed ass.
But Gates is still in Defense, Wall Street is still running the Fed and Treasury, his corporate health care for all plan is in a shambles, and now Obama is crying populist. This appears to me to be no more than a vain attempt not to be pulled down when the other shoe drops on Wall Street's greedy face.
When the Govt stops buying its own debt, and stops buying the banks securities, the markets are going to fall to the level that the economy can actually support. As I said a long time ago.
But now the fall is going to be weighted down by the massive debt Bush and Obama incurred propping up the very same corrupted Wall Street Bankers who's incredibly unchecked greed actually drained our economy for market profits.
Both political parties received their cut of this rip-off. The deregulation of the Banks and subsequently restoring the money they ripped us off for is testament to the politician's through state of bribed subservience to the Bankers. And the Oil Companies. And the Insurance Industry, and so on down the line.
The individual local voters, the democratic process, and the general welfare of our country are always the last interests served by our system of political bribery.
Obama's premature "populism" means the underlying conditions of the Markets are worse than even I thought. I didn't think Obama would begin crying populist until June, after the Markets fall again. (When the markets fall this next time, we will find that we have no "ammo" left in our monetary or fiscal gunbelts to offset the downturn this time, even for the rich.)
Though Obama's populism is been sped-up by the Dem's hilarious loss in Mass, I believe obama applied mouth-pressure to the bankers, rather than to the health insurance industry, because he does is more afraid of being pulled down with his Wall Street Bribers when the Markets take their next big crash, than he is of being pulled down by his Pharma and Health Insurance bribers.
But I don't think he will succeed in either case.
Alex, 1-27-10