Stanley Kutler on Bush’s 11th hour bid for secrecy:

http://www.truthdig.com/report…..r_secrecy/

Thank you, Laura.
I strongly agree with Horton and Ratner. I watched Rivkin during the House Judiciary Hearings on torture. He makes my blood boil! That he was in the GHW Bush clan says it all. A lawyer that stands with breaking the law should be disbarred.

This issue will be like an infected wound that sealed over with the poison inside unless an independent counsel is appointed to examine the mess from its inception and bring to justice those who broke our Law.

Thanks very much, Laura. I’m reminded by the clip you’ve played in your opening of what an amazing session of Sen. Levin’s Armed Services committee that was, the most riveting hearing I watched this year. Everyone on those three panels is now fixed in my memory as a character, Haynes above all.

To me, there is no more important issue to keep pressing as the new administration goes forward, this and the related problems of “rendition” (kidnapping) and detention systems that continue in violation of international law.

We have to keep raising our voices; this is not a review that is going to happen without a lot of pressure from citizens, and citizens in more than one country (I’m writing from Canada).

Thank you, Laura. I am totally mystified by the “let’s just move forward” opinion. The crimes of the Bush Administration have been so egregious that if they are not prosecuted, it would seem to me to be sensible to close all the jails, if there is to be fairness in the justice system. Why bother having a justice system? Let’s let everyone create mayhem!

David Rivkin’s full throated endorsement of AG nominee Holder is a big RED FLAG.

When Bill Kristol advocates giving war criminals Medals of Honor, its just more of the same we’ve come to expect from him. Kristol is a partisan hack engaged in political posturing, dirty tricks, propaganda and worst of all war mongering.

Kristol’s and Rivkins arguments are dismissive of what’s happened and try to leave the door open for torture in the future. Kristol and Rivkin pretend to care about protecting the CIA, military, and subcontractors who carried out the torture regime but they say this while saying there should be no official investigation or prosecution. Meanwhile Ratner and Horton want to investigate the principles – Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Yoo, Gonzalez, Addington Bradbury – who created the policy and provided legal cover for it. Ratner and Horton argue that there must be real consequences in order to deter a US torture regime in the future.

As a Canadian, one of the questions I have about this debate is: Since most of the victims of the Bush Administration’s torture regime are not Americans, what right do Americans have to decide whether they are entitled to demand justice?

As the widow of a victim of torture, I will fight until my last breath to make sure that, at the very least, these things happen:

1) An independent, thorough and open investigation into all those who wrote the Bush definition of torture, all those who aided and abetted it’s becoming the law, policy and practice of the United States, all those who approved the torture and all those who actually performed the torture. Whatever charges are recommended out of that investigation must be supported, and the trials commenced.

2) The removal of the Bush Administration’s definition of torture from all law, policy and practice from the law, policy and practice of the United States.

3) An independent, thorough and open accounting of all those who have been held in US custody since January 21, 2001, and all those renditioned, and their treatment.

4) The re-signing and radification of the International Criminal Court treaty.

5) The closing of Guantanamo Bay and the dark sites around the world.

6) FAIR and speedy trials for all those in Guantanamo who have been charged.

7) A FAIR process for all those who have been held uncharged, and the release of those found innocent to the country of their choice or assylum in the United States for those who fear torture in their home countries.

That’s a start, but only a start.

Standing for justice,
For Dan,
Heather