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The news that senior Bush administration officials not only approved the use of torture but actually micromanaged the application of it should be the last straw for dithering Democrats in the House of Representatives.
We have known for years that the president and the vice president approved war crimes, including torture, on the basis of legal opinions provided by Justice Department functionaries authorizing the president to break any law in the name of national security. Now we know that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and other top officials dictated specific combinations of outlawed interrogation techniques—including waterboarding and physical beatings—for specific prisoners.
One of the great tragedies of the Bush administration is the lassitude, often appearing to shade into cowardice, displayed by those in opposition to it. The Democratic leadership in Congress refuses to consider impeachment as an option for dealing with a transparently criminal president and vice president, and very few major voices on the liberal end of the spectrum have chided them for it. Liberal blogging powerhouse Atrios today called Rice and company "monsters" and "war criminals" who should all be in jail for their actions; what, then, does that make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers and others who have the option of at least attempting to evict the monsters from the national house but have failed to act?
Maybe the personal involvement, the image of Condoleezza Rice sitting in the White House situation room discussing with Colin Powell and Dick Cheney how often Abu Zubaydah should be subjected to drowning, perhaps while watching the videos of their handiwork on the big screen TV—those infamous now-destroyed CIA videos—will be enough to motivate Conyers to finally begin hearings on whether or not the administration have committed impeachable offenses.
Pelosi can be written off as a lost cause: as we've noted in the past, she is herself complicit in the administration's crimes, albeit as a bystander, because she knew for years that their agenda included torture and she did nothing to stop it. If Conyers, though, is finally moved to act, Pelosi can do little to stop him without overtly incriminating herself.
Journalist Laura Rozen, who writes often on intelligence issues, suspects that the ABC News story regarding the personal involvement of Rice and others can be sourced to CIA officials angry at being exclusively tarred as torturers. She notes further that her own reporting and the ABC story suggest that there is a paper trail indicating which administration officials signed off on what torture aimed at which suspects—exactly the sort of documentation that from Nuremberg on has spelled doom for meticulous war criminals the world over.
It's there: someone has to go get it. The person in the best position to do so is John Conyers. I urge anyone who has even the slightest interest in bringing our monsters to justice, or at least preventing them from ending their terms in office unscathed, to contact Conyers and politely urge him to investigate these new revelations. You can reach him by email or telephone at:
john.conyers@mail.house.gov
(202) 225-5126 (voice)
(202) 225-0072 (FAX)
Following is the email I sent to Conyers tonight. Feel free to borrow it.
The Honorable John Conyers
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Rep. Conyers:
You're no doubt aware of the ABC News report alleging that current and former senior Bush administration officials were actively involved in dictating specific acts of torture from the White House to be used against various terrorism suspects. As you know, torture is a violation of domestic and international law. I strongly urge you to convene hearings and demand the appearance of those officials named in the ABC report—Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Porter Goss, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and John Ashcroft—for the purpose of determining whether they committed war crimes and, in the case of Mr. Cheney and his immediate supervisor, whether their actions constitute impeachable offenses warranting removal from office. The image presented by top US officials authorizing and managing the torture of US prisoners from the White House is both nauseating and immensely harmful to the interests of our country, and only a prompt and thorough investigation can begin to mitigate the damage. I know that you take your oath of office seriously; if there is ever to be a moment when the Constitution requires your defense, it has arrived.
Sincerely,
Weldon Berger
If you have a dollar or two left to spare when you're done feeding the Smirking Chimp, please consider stopping by BTC News and helping me move our world headquarters back indoors.
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Due to personal
Due to personal circumstances, I'm in a bad, foul mood this morning and it has not been made better because I think indiana is right. How do decent people survive totalitarianism, dictatorship, persecution, injustice and oppression? I guess we're finding out now. I just hope there's something left that we're 'surviving' toward....
How long has Conyers been
How long has Conyers been sitting on "The Brain's" impeachment, how many others did he need to sign on before he did any thing.......3.......12......????
That worked out well didn't it. Ain't gonna happen.
The Dems are useless.
"Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted all possible alternatives."
Sir Winston Churchill
Conyers knows
They all know, have known for years that we want these criminal bastards dealt with. I'm not wasting any more time, ink, or energy on this. Fuck the dems, we hired them two years ago to do a job and they haven't even tried, fuck them and the donkey they rode in on. It's time to clear the fucking decks of all this trash.
I have sent E-mails and personal letters to Pelosi, Conyers,
Leahy,Levin,Stabenow and anyone else I could think of, to no avail. The best response I received was when I invested $.41 in a stamp and sent a letter to them. At least I forced their staff to open the letter and reply to it. It is just too easy to dump all that e-mail as witnessed by the whitehouse.
_______Brandane
"National security",the catch-all for political criminals.
"...the lassitude, often appearing to shade into cowardice, displayed by those in opposition to it. The Democratic leadership in Congress refuses to consider impeachment as an option for dealing with a transparently criminal president and vice president..."
Perhaps someone with more knowledge of legal terms can tell me...what is the legal term for the victim(s) of extortion? THAT,not some bullshit about"national security",is why CheneyBushCo has been eavesdropping on all of us since they assumed power in 2001. It's not national security they care about. Grandpa Prescott proved that. It's Bush Crime Family security they're interested in preserving.
John Conyers:
"Step across that line,I dare you...
Okay,step across THAT line...
Okay,step across THAT line...
Okay,step across THAT line..."
Etc.,etc.,etc...
I've got values but I don't know how or why.
coupla things:
1: conyers has already carved his legacy into granite. history will regard him as a rank opportunist, political coward and likely a collaborator whose name shall displace the name Quisling in the future.
b: pelosi knew about the torture from the first days of it. she is also as corrupt as Cunningham and delay, as impotent as a newborn, and a quisling deserving the new term, 'a conyers'. If justice is ever served over this, pelosi should be herded off to the gallows with cheney and rice.
iii: the democratic party, fetal, cowering in the corner, tail 'twix it's quivering hind legs, and corrupt as a $3 crack whore has proven itself unworthy of our faith or support and should be summarily repudiated. And I include the rank and file. For crissake, half of y'all still think hillary is the best option!! Kucinich, Edwards, Gravel, Dodd and Obama are, in order, soooooo much better. Shame on you Ds for being unworthy.
And before y'all git animated over this, I ask you... How would the past 2 years have been ANY worse if the fascist party had held both chambers? Anyone?
_______"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
"And before y'all git
"And before y'all git animated over this, I ask you... How would the past 2 years have been ANY worse if the fascist party had held both chambers? Anyone?"
Ahhhh but you see, the Fascist Party HAS held both chambers for the past two years. The Dem part of the fascist party just wears a different cloak, they had theirs made from white cloth, but the lining is just as besmirched and odorous as their black cloaked partners.
_______"Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted all possible alternatives."
Sir Winston Churchill
...um...
ya got me. it's like the difference between the brownshirts and the gestapo. They were the same, mostly, except for timing.
but most americANS don't do nor get such nuances.
_______"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
Exactly.
Exactly.
_______"Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted all possible alternatives."
Sir Winston Churchill
War Crimes Trial
In the war crimes trial that should be conducted, Conyers, Pelosi, and Reid would at the very least be subpoenaed as hostile witnesses for the prosecution of Cheney, Rice, Powell, Tenet, Ashcroft and all others who signed off on torture and the many other crimes against humanity that the present regime has committed in our names and in the name of the United States of America.
wrong.
pelosi and reid should be prosecuted too. you can give immunity to underlings who would testify against them both, but these 2 MUST go down.
_______"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
Yes, MUST go down...it's a
Yes, MUST go down...it's a 'two-party system' after all...(yuk, yuk)....wouldn't be fair at all otherwise...
Surely, you jest!
Do you have ANY idea HOW MANY GOD-DAMNED EMAILS I HAVE ALREADY SENT?
Do you have ANY IDEA HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE ALREADY TELEPHONED MY DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN ABOUT IMPEACHMENT?
I wouldn't waste one more useless minute emailing, writing, or telephoning these rest of these god-damned useless Senators and Representatives about doing their duty by our now-defunct Constitution.
These useless elected creatures are as bad - if not WORSE - than the UNELECTED creatures now perching in the White House. WORSE because they REFUSE to do what they were ELECTED to do. They REFUSE! And THEY are the ones who have the power to do something. And they REFUSE.
And you are asking me to waste more of my time talking to the wall. NO WAY. NO HOW!
I wouldn't waste my time any more. The country is going down the tubes and NOTHING BUT NOTHING you or I or anyone else with no power does will change this one iota. NOTHING!
I Feel Your Pain.....!
Bluebird, I understand your position.
I too have been disheartened by the Democrats. They are spineless bastards who have basically shit on us and those who voted for them in 2006. They care not one iota about the law-and-order based Constitution of the U.S.
I will not send another E-Mail or regular mail to these enablers of the Bush/Cheney criminal family, nor to my Representative from the 10th District of ILL. Mark Kirk. I can picture Pelosi's secretary taking her mail and putting it through a shredder immediately.
As one writer noted above, this brainless idiot who was appointed President could kill someone in the White House and the shit-for-brains Democrats wouldn't lift a finger to impeach him. They are Republicans posing as Democrats, with their wallets overflowing with cash from their wealthy lobbyists.
I am very pessimistic about the future of this country. I am afraid the Bill of Rights is dead, as well as the Constitution. America, the once loved land of not just its own citizens but those throughout the world has been shit on and flushed down the toilet with the blessings of the Democrats, Republicans, big business and the impotent news media.
Eight years of lying by this bastard is enough. Since the Democrats won't do anything, it's time for the World Court to indict, convict, and imprison Bush, Cheney, Rice, Pelosi, and the other felons in D.C. Anything short of that will be the death of this country and of democracy.
The rest of the world must be laughing their asses off at the USA.
try a police department statement
http://www.prosefights.org/nmlegal/apdstatement/apdstatement.htm#statement2
cheers
_______pro se fights
impeachment and Conyers / Pelosi
As much as I would love to see articles of impeachment filed, it would be tantamount to whistling in the graveyard. Impeachment, like all the other bills filed to stop this silly war or to stop funding will go nowhere. Progressives have neither the votes to pass a bill or at the very least, votes to override the predictable veto.
So all you people that are cussing the leadership, please try to be a little realistic. We will, if we work hard and without voting machines, elect a veto-proof majority. Then, and only then, can we bring sanity back to our government and ship the "Principals" to the Hague for their justice.
The Untouchables
How,pray tell,do we ship the "principals" to The Hague when they're all living in countries without extradition treaties?
_______I've got values but I don't know how or why.
The one sure way to avoid impeachment is not to try
Nixon's impeachment was by no means guaranteed at the beginning of the Watergate hearings; it wasn't until after John Dean's testimony that it became all but certain. So the argument that it's pointless to hold hearings because the effort would fail is spurious: it might, but hearings might also generate a groundswell. That aside, hearings would most certainly create a thoroughly unpleasant atmosphere for Republicans, which, regardless the ultimate result, would help elect that bulletproof majority you're talking about. And that aside, it's the right thing to do, and Pelosi and others should do it for that reason exclusive of other considerations. There has never been a more openly criminal president and vice president.
Hey there Mr.
Hey there Mr. Johnny-Come-Lately to his own thread, Weldon Berger: I agree with you, but of course the reason impeachment is not happening is that the Democrats have just as much treasonous/criminal doings as the Republicans. Everyone (in this farcical government) wants their own sorry ass preserved, thus NOTHING is happening through constitional political process, it is all corrupt, present-day 'business as usual' to them. But, it is still gonna do down, Amerika is gonna go down. Because things HAVE gotten so bad. Either through less chaotic (to us) means by completely eviscerating our current political ONE party (Money Party--see Michael Collins elsewhere on chimp) system, eliminating through position removal and criminal prosecution virtually ALL of our 'elected' leaders; or else in a giant MORASS of conflict and ruin. Amerika is going down!! Let's hope it is through impeachment and removal of the politicians. Shall we?? Cuz the other 'option' is much worse...
I'm not sure, being as it's
I'm not sure, being as it's been a while since civics classes for me, but I don't think a president can veto his own impeachment. Correct me if I'm wrong.
_______"Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted all possible alternatives."
Sir Winston Churchill
The Supreme court cannot
veto it either. So let it begin.
_______Brandane
...um...well...
the SC can't VETO it, but the chief justice (roberts) DOES preside, should it go to trial in the Senate, and on all points of law, he can (and likely will) fellate the fascist side and/or bugger the other side. And it might just be a slight possibility that the cowardice of the Ds is fractionally due to this knowledge.
But this is not the primary reason the Ds have their thumbs in their butts. They're just plain cowards. And yes they are also profoundly corrupt and in an impeachment, THAT will certainly be brought up. In fact, it is a certainty that an impeachment TRIAL would be turned into a full-blown, sleight of hand in every motion, farcical circus; and that roberts as presiding judge would allow and encourage it as a means to distract the public from the treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity, theft, corruption and constitutional violations on the part of the fascist/pnaczi administration.
However, the Ds are facing a choice between keeping their asses out of hot water or losing their nation (and, by extension, their asses). It may be relevant to remind these cowards that many who supported hitler in the early '30s had been executed for treason by the early '40s.
_______"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
It Won't Help
Bush could walk into Congress with a machine gun and shoot people. And Conyers would simply say "Impeachment is not an option".
It doesn't matter what Bush et. al. did or will do, the spineless wimps will wring their hands and whine, all to not rock the boat (even if the boat is quickly sinking to bottom of the ocean). They want to get re-elected. Fuck their Constitutional obligations.
I'll send the idiot an email and probably give them a call. But I might as well email my dog and call my kid's hamster up for all the good it will do.