Bush Administration Torture Reveals How Deceptive Politics As Usual In Washington Has Become
Bill Lindner
May 10, 2009
After slithering out of Washington once their second stolen term was up, some former Bush administration officials are reportedly launching a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign, trying to urge Department of Justice (DoJ) leaders to soften an ethics report criticizing lawyers who fraudulently 'justified' harsh interrogation tactics -- and most likely, to make sure the final version of the report does not include any information leading to further implications of former top Bush administration officials. The ongoing fight over investigating and prosecuting war criminals in the Bush cabal reveals just how deceptive politics as usual in Washington has become.
The draft report by the U.S. 'Justice' Department on the conduct of department lawyers who 'justified' the torture has reportedly been embraced by the Obama administration who has no intention of holding Bush administration officials accountable for the vast number of war crimes committed. Not doing anything about the crimes makes the Obama administration just as guilty and nullifies the fraudulently fallacious rhetoric of the U.S. being a nation of laws.
In January, before Bush left office, a draft report containing more than 200 pages was prepared by the Bush DoJ that recommends disciplinary actions by state bar associations, rather than criminal prosecution -- more evidence of America's two-tier justice system, one for politicians who do nothing but break the law and commit egregious acts of treason and one for the rest of us -- against two former Office of Legal Counsel attorneys who prepared and signed torture memos supporting waterboarding and other methods of abuse that were drafted between 2002 and 2005.
In their usual way of covering up the truth and making sure no government officials are held accountable for their crimes, the draft reportedly finds the attorneys guilty of using poor judgment and failing to provide 'reasonable legal advice,' but not of conspiring to violate U.S. and international laws against torture. Having the politicized Bush DoJ investigate itself is akin to having the Israeli military investigating their own war crimes -- a waste of time and money since you already know their end result will be nothing but a governmentally sanctioned fairy tale that will lack pertinent information and truth, designed to exonerate themselves.
The investigation -- now reportedly in its fifth year -- may shed more light on the origins of the memos. Jay S. Bybee, now a federal appeals court judge in Nevada, John C. Yoo, now a law professor in California and Steven G. Bradbury, former chief of the Office of Legal Counsel were subjects of the ethics probe.
An early draft of the report made no disciplinary recommendations about Bradbury. Former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and former Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip wrote a 14-page letter to counter the draft report, allegedly describing the context surrounding the origins of the memos, trying to imply that the memos were written during a time when government officials 'feared another terrorist strike' like the one allowed -- if not engineered as more evidence coming to light suggests -- by the upper echelon of the Bush administration. Bush planned on invading Iraq before he was appointed to the presidency and his 'global war on terror' is nothing but a major fraud designed to bastardize America and the rest of the world. The counter letter by Mukasey and Filip has not been released yet. A fullscale investigation of the illegal wiretapping Bush authorized before the attacks of 9/11, the attacks of 9/11 and everything that has happened since is needed.
Putting Politics Above the Law
The Obama administration's decision to try and bury any attempts at holding the Bush cabal accountable for their many treasonous actions against the U.S. and its citizens proves once again that politics trumps justice in Washington and that the law only applies to ordinary everyday citizens.
Last month the Obama administration released more of the sadistic Bush administration torture memos that detailed how to slam prisoners against walls, how many days they can be kept awake without sleep and what to tell them before locking them up in a box with an insect among other things in excruciating detail. Upon the release of the memos, Obama -- though it's not his choice to make -- guaranteed that the CIA operatives who carried out Bush's orders would not be held accountable for their crimes either.
As noted by WSWS, Obama was undoubtedly aware of the contents of Bush's internal Justice Department report and was counting on using it to justify his preordained decision to block any criminal prosecution. And, there is every indication that the draft report itself is politically tainted since it was prepared under the Bush administration, which was responsible for instituting the illegal torture policies -- as well as politicizing the 'Justice' Department -- and its principal targets were allowed to review and comment on the report before it was completed.
The draft report has also been sent to the CIA for 'substantive comment' before the document will be declassified, raising serious questions as to why the CIA would have such comment on an internal disciplinary matter -- aside from the obviousness of ensuring that the most incriminating evidence of its treasonous leadership gets buried under the guise of 'national security.'
Torture Used in Attempts to Link Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein
Another problem regarding Bush administration torture policies, as confirmed by a recently released Senate Armed Services Committee, is the fact that Bush authorized torture to try extracting confessions of ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein to justify his illegal invasion of Iraq, not to prevent imminent acts of terrorism. The Bush administration repeatedly utilized terroristic tactics against America and the rest of the world.
U.S. Interrogators may have reportedly killed dozens of detainees. At least 98 detainees died as a result of torture while in U.S. custody, of which 34 have been identified as homicides and at least 8 were tortured to death. The torture authorized by Bush is probably the worst in the 45 years that the U.S. has been using it.
Condi Rice's assinine claim that when the President does it, it's legal, are a feable attempt at Nixon-era flawed logic, and completely untrue. Not investigating the Bush cabal crimes would be a major mistake that will -- especially with the culture of corruption in Washington -- come back and haunt the United States and all who live here for generations to come. Besides, if what the president ordered was legal, why were Dick Cheney and other White House officials trying to shred all copies of a memo that challenged their use of torture?
America's Problem With Media Deception and Congressional Complicity
Corporate media's justification, not to mention its hypocrisy, as noted by CBS News, for not investigating or prosecuting Bush cabal crimes is ridiculous. Claiming it was America's policy is a crock of crap, especially when you look back at the past eight years -- and still to this day -- of the corrupted U.S. Congress bending over backwards to pacify their corporate owners while doing nothing but repeatedly screwing the public over while trying to legalize Bush cabal crimes after the fact. Not once. Repeatedly. That pathetic argument makes no sense at all. Bush broke the law. Period.
Another example of media complicity can be found from CNN, the cozen news network, who rushed to spread more Department of Defense propaganda regarding more than 100 civilians killed in Afghanistan by the U.S. military. There are literally thousands more examples of media complicity available.
Deception from corporately owned media -- the CIA has been in cahoots with major news organizations for years -- has deceived Americans for decades. It just became a lot more blatantly evident during Bush's delusional dictatorship. Corporate media has intentionally kept important information, such as the truth about the attacks of 9/11, including the use of explosives in the WTC which Bush himself inadvertently admitted, hidden for years. Bush's illegal appointment by a politically corrupted U.S. Supreme Court set the stage for the intentional destruction of Democracy we are living through today.
Congress is owned by many large corporations, including oil companies, banks, the Israeli lobby -- who dictates much of America's foreign policies -- and multiple Wall Street firms, which accounts for nothing being done about the fraud that has led to the global financial meltdown. Congressional complicity in Bush's crimes is staggering, and many politicians in Washington sold out Americans long ago. The ongoing fight over prosecuting war criminals in the Bush cabal reveals just how deceptive politics as usual in Washington really are.
Deeply Rooted Political Corruption in Washington
The deeply rooted political corruption in Washington -- by both major parties -- is holding up investigations and prosecutions because Congress, at least the 'leadership,' is just as guilty as the Bush cabal. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only way for We the People to get justice is to demand it, and remove ALL the trash (most of Congress) as well. Citizens of this country stopped mattering to Washington politicians a long time ago.
Republicans have resorted to blackmailing Attorney General Holder, threatening to investigate his approval of 'renditions' if he investigates torture. Mr. Attorney General, blackmail can be a two way street, especially since all the Republicans are guilty of complicity in Bush's crimes, and you can use the NSA to illegally blackmail them just like Bush did. Many questions about how much blackmailing was done by Bush and his administration remain unanswered. These issues also reveal the need for a fullscale investigation into all the events of the past eight plus years.
Bush's complicity in the attacks of 9/11 -- which would have been known since the illegal wiretapping began long before the 'terrorist' attacks -- served as the perfect excuse for destroying human rights and liberties. Obama's complicity in allowing Bush impunity for the crimes he committed far outweighs the symbolic changes he has made to undo some of the damage inflicted on this once great nation by the most corrupted, never elected presidential administration this country has had the displeasure of knowing.
The problem America has prosecuting George W. Bush, as noted by the Dissident Voice, is that we assume 1) that our political and economic systems function in the general interest, and 2) that the crimes of the Bush administration are isolated violations of those systems when the "truth" is that we live under a political and economic system designed to support the interests of less than half a percent of the total population. It's time to change that. We need to rid ourselves of the trash in Washington that continues trying to destroy human rights while repeatedly passing unconstitutional 'legislation' designed to destroy more of this country and start over.
Failing to investigate and prosecute Bush's delusional dictatorship would prove once again that Obama is your typical Washington politician who has no regard for human rights or democracy. Democrats and Republicans, like the media and numerous other large, corrupted corporations, as also noted by WSWS, are deeply implicated in torture and the illegal wars to which it is linked. Obama, like his predecessor, is more interested in upholding the corrupted interests of a financial oligarchy at the cost of Americans and the rest of the world while slowly and methodically destroying rights and freedoms. It's time to do something about it and demand justice.
The draft report by the U.S. 'Justice' Department on the conduct of department lawyers who 'justified' the torture has reportedly been embraced by the Obama administration who has no intention of holding Bush administration officials accountable for the vast number of war crimes committed. Not doing anything about the crimes makes the Obama administration just as guilty and nullifies the fraudulently fallacious rhetoric of the U.S. being a nation of laws.
In January, before Bush left office, a draft report containing more than 200 pages was prepared by the Bush DoJ that recommends disciplinary actions by state bar associations, rather than criminal prosecution -- more evidence of America's two-tier justice system, one for politicians who do nothing but break the law and commit egregious acts of treason and one for the rest of us -- against two former Office of Legal Counsel attorneys who prepared and signed torture memos supporting waterboarding and other methods of abuse that were drafted between 2002 and 2005.
In their usual way of covering up the truth and making sure no government officials are held accountable for their crimes, the draft reportedly finds the attorneys guilty of using poor judgment and failing to provide 'reasonable legal advice,' but not of conspiring to violate U.S. and international laws against torture. Having the politicized Bush DoJ investigate itself is akin to having the Israeli military investigating their own war crimes -- a waste of time and money since you already know their end result will be nothing but a governmentally sanctioned fairy tale that will lack pertinent information and truth, designed to exonerate themselves.
The investigation -- now reportedly in its fifth year -- may shed more light on the origins of the memos. Jay S. Bybee, now a federal appeals court judge in Nevada, John C. Yoo, now a law professor in California and Steven G. Bradbury, former chief of the Office of Legal Counsel were subjects of the ethics probe.
An early draft of the report made no disciplinary recommendations about Bradbury. Former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and former Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip wrote a 14-page letter to counter the draft report, allegedly describing the context surrounding the origins of the memos, trying to imply that the memos were written during a time when government officials 'feared another terrorist strike' like the one allowed -- if not engineered as more evidence coming to light suggests -- by the upper echelon of the Bush administration. Bush planned on invading Iraq before he was appointed to the presidency and his 'global war on terror' is nothing but a major fraud designed to bastardize America and the rest of the world. The counter letter by Mukasey and Filip has not been released yet. A fullscale investigation of the illegal wiretapping Bush authorized before the attacks of 9/11, the attacks of 9/11 and everything that has happened since is needed.
Putting Politics Above the Law
The Obama administration's decision to try and bury any attempts at holding the Bush cabal accountable for their many treasonous actions against the U.S. and its citizens proves once again that politics trumps justice in Washington and that the law only applies to ordinary everyday citizens.
Last month the Obama administration released more of the sadistic Bush administration torture memos that detailed how to slam prisoners against walls, how many days they can be kept awake without sleep and what to tell them before locking them up in a box with an insect among other things in excruciating detail. Upon the release of the memos, Obama -- though it's not his choice to make -- guaranteed that the CIA operatives who carried out Bush's orders would not be held accountable for their crimes either.
As noted by WSWS, Obama was undoubtedly aware of the contents of Bush's internal Justice Department report and was counting on using it to justify his preordained decision to block any criminal prosecution. And, there is every indication that the draft report itself is politically tainted since it was prepared under the Bush administration, which was responsible for instituting the illegal torture policies -- as well as politicizing the 'Justice' Department -- and its principal targets were allowed to review and comment on the report before it was completed.
The draft report has also been sent to the CIA for 'substantive comment' before the document will be declassified, raising serious questions as to why the CIA would have such comment on an internal disciplinary matter -- aside from the obviousness of ensuring that the most incriminating evidence of its treasonous leadership gets buried under the guise of 'national security.'
Torture Used in Attempts to Link Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein
Another problem regarding Bush administration torture policies, as confirmed by a recently released Senate Armed Services Committee, is the fact that Bush authorized torture to try extracting confessions of ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein to justify his illegal invasion of Iraq, not to prevent imminent acts of terrorism. The Bush administration repeatedly utilized terroristic tactics against America and the rest of the world.
U.S. Interrogators may have reportedly killed dozens of detainees. At least 98 detainees died as a result of torture while in U.S. custody, of which 34 have been identified as homicides and at least 8 were tortured to death. The torture authorized by Bush is probably the worst in the 45 years that the U.S. has been using it.
Condi Rice's assinine claim that when the President does it, it's legal, are a feable attempt at Nixon-era flawed logic, and completely untrue. Not investigating the Bush cabal crimes would be a major mistake that will -- especially with the culture of corruption in Washington -- come back and haunt the United States and all who live here for generations to come. Besides, if what the president ordered was legal, why were Dick Cheney and other White House officials trying to shred all copies of a memo that challenged their use of torture?
America's Problem With Media Deception and Congressional Complicity
Corporate media's justification, not to mention its hypocrisy, as noted by CBS News, for not investigating or prosecuting Bush cabal crimes is ridiculous. Claiming it was America's policy is a crock of crap, especially when you look back at the past eight years -- and still to this day -- of the corrupted U.S. Congress bending over backwards to pacify their corporate owners while doing nothing but repeatedly screwing the public over while trying to legalize Bush cabal crimes after the fact. Not once. Repeatedly. That pathetic argument makes no sense at all. Bush broke the law. Period.
Another example of media complicity can be found from CNN, the cozen news network, who rushed to spread more Department of Defense propaganda regarding more than 100 civilians killed in Afghanistan by the U.S. military. There are literally thousands more examples of media complicity available.
Deception from corporately owned media -- the CIA has been in cahoots with major news organizations for years -- has deceived Americans for decades. It just became a lot more blatantly evident during Bush's delusional dictatorship. Corporate media has intentionally kept important information, such as the truth about the attacks of 9/11, including the use of explosives in the WTC which Bush himself inadvertently admitted, hidden for years. Bush's illegal appointment by a politically corrupted U.S. Supreme Court set the stage for the intentional destruction of Democracy we are living through today.
Congress is owned by many large corporations, including oil companies, banks, the Israeli lobby -- who dictates much of America's foreign policies -- and multiple Wall Street firms, which accounts for nothing being done about the fraud that has led to the global financial meltdown. Congressional complicity in Bush's crimes is staggering, and many politicians in Washington sold out Americans long ago. The ongoing fight over prosecuting war criminals in the Bush cabal reveals just how deceptive politics as usual in Washington really are.
Deeply Rooted Political Corruption in Washington
The deeply rooted political corruption in Washington -- by both major parties -- is holding up investigations and prosecutions because Congress, at least the 'leadership,' is just as guilty as the Bush cabal. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only way for We the People to get justice is to demand it, and remove ALL the trash (most of Congress) as well. Citizens of this country stopped mattering to Washington politicians a long time ago.
Republicans have resorted to blackmailing Attorney General Holder, threatening to investigate his approval of 'renditions' if he investigates torture. Mr. Attorney General, blackmail can be a two way street, especially since all the Republicans are guilty of complicity in Bush's crimes, and you can use the NSA to illegally blackmail them just like Bush did. Many questions about how much blackmailing was done by Bush and his administration remain unanswered. These issues also reveal the need for a fullscale investigation into all the events of the past eight plus years.
Bush's complicity in the attacks of 9/11 -- which would have been known since the illegal wiretapping began long before the 'terrorist' attacks -- served as the perfect excuse for destroying human rights and liberties. Obama's complicity in allowing Bush impunity for the crimes he committed far outweighs the symbolic changes he has made to undo some of the damage inflicted on this once great nation by the most corrupted, never elected presidential administration this country has had the displeasure of knowing.
The problem America has prosecuting George W. Bush, as noted by the Dissident Voice, is that we assume 1) that our political and economic systems function in the general interest, and 2) that the crimes of the Bush administration are isolated violations of those systems when the "truth" is that we live under a political and economic system designed to support the interests of less than half a percent of the total population. It's time to change that. We need to rid ourselves of the trash in Washington that continues trying to destroy human rights while repeatedly passing unconstitutional 'legislation' designed to destroy more of this country and start over.
Failing to investigate and prosecute Bush's delusional dictatorship would prove once again that Obama is your typical Washington politician who has no regard for human rights or democracy. Democrats and Republicans, like the media and numerous other large, corrupted corporations, as also noted by WSWS, are deeply implicated in torture and the illegal wars to which it is linked. Obama, like his predecessor, is more interested in upholding the corrupted interests of a financial oligarchy at the cost of Americans and the rest of the world while slowly and methodically destroying rights and freedoms. It's time to do something about it and demand justice.
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