It Is Getting Harder and Harder to Sweep Torture Under the Rug

Six months into Barack Obama's presidency, his Democratic allies are pushing for twin investigations into Bush-era torture and anti-terrorism policies.

Two senators including the head of the intelligence committee suggested Sunday that the prior administration broke the law by concealing a CIA counterterrorism program from Congress.

The assertion that Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the concealment came amid word that Attorney General Eric Holder is contemplating opening a criminal probe of possible CIA torture.

A move to appoint a criminal prosecutor is certain to stir partisan bickering that could prove a distraction to Obama's efforts to push ambitious health care and energy reform.

Obama has repeatedly expressed reluctance to probing alleged Bush-era abuses. He resisted an effort by congressional Democrats to establish a "truth commission," saying the nation should be "looking forward and not backwards."

Regarding the 8-year-old counterterrorism program, the Bush administration's failure to notify Congress "is a big problem, because the law is very clear," said Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Bravo to the Heroes at the ACLU!

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government Thursday, seeking release of legal memos which authorized torture, authored by Bush administration lawyers. The lawsuit also seeks release of communications between the Bush White House and the Central Intelligence Agency related to the interrogation of terror war prisoners.

The civil rights group said in a Thursday media advisory that the suit was filed following the White House’s failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.

“The information already in the public domain makes clear that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration, but there are still unanswered questions about precisely what the policies permitted, how they were implemented and who specifically signed off on them,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, in a release. “This lawsuit is an effort to fill some of the gaps in the narrative.”

Two of the documents sought were authored by Bush attorneys John Yoo and Steven Bradbury, who face possible disciplinary action after a Justice Department probe found their legal reasoning to be sloppy and unprofessional.

The civil rights group is publicizing the lawsuit as the official kickoff to their “Accountability for Torture” initiative.

If you are interested, and who wouldn't be, here is the link for more information on the ACLU's "Accountability for Torture" initiative.

Time for a Special Prosecutor

The chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the Bush Administration authorized torture of detainees before even rendering a legal opinion on the practice — and that they sought to torture detainees in an effort to produce intelligence tying Iraq to al Qaeda.

Yes, it will be a HUGE distraction to investigate the former administration for their crimes, but not doing so would be a HUGE miscarriage of justice.

Clueless Church-Going Bastards

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified.

My guess why this is so: these folks have been tortured every Sunday and think that others need to be tortured, too. {Note to the humor-impaired: that was a joke... only a joke...}

On Torture

I just read a very interesting comment on another one of the blogs I read about John McCain and torture. It reads:

"...if McCain accepts the Bush administration definition of torture, he should shut up about his treatment in Vietnam since it wasn't torture by that definition."

An interesting conundrum, no?

Probably not, since conservatives don't rely on facts and truth.