Follow BeltwayBlips on Twitter
As One Might Have Expected
Talking Points Memo —
... Obama not ruling out legal consequences for the lawyers for provided the legal arguments for torture. That would be BYB -- Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury. ...
Torture: Obama Is on a Slippery Slope
Angry Bear —
... According to the New York Times, Philip D. Zelikow, former state department advisor to President Bush, says, "No." Obama cannot rule out such an inquiry. ...
Newspaper Roundup for Apr. 21, 2009
CNSNews.com Headlines —
Home News National CNSNews.com Newspaper Roundup for Apr. 21, 2009 Tuesday, April 21, 2009 By Susan Jones, Senior Editor Washington Times: Obama adviser: Anti-Americanism not cool because of Obama Washington Times: Tolerance waning for zero-tolerance rules States revisit weapons bans 10 years later Fox News: U.N. advising U.S. climate-change group Politico: Congress launching the mother of all climate weeks on Tuesday Fox News: Cheney Calls for Release of Memos Showing Results of Interrogation Efforts Politico: Can GOP paint Obama as apologist? Politico: ...
And it isn't going to stop, either
Brilliant at Breakfast —
... Well, he may not have a choice as to whether to investigate, because except for the most sick, rabid wingnuts, most people are horrified that even a monster like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times: ...
Obama's long and labored path to doing the right thing
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash —
... his own "administration officials," who contradicted Rahm Emanuel, who contradicted David Axelrod, who pre-contradicted Robert Gibbs. Speaking at CIA headquarters yesterday, President Obama appeared to confirm Emanuel and Gibbs, while denying Axelrod as well as his own written statement of last week: Let's concede that "mistakes" were made, he said, and for heaven's sake move on. Just hours later, however, Obama's aides were doing the same number on him as they had done on Emanuel. Reports the Times : "While Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. officers for acting on legal ...
Are Congressional Democrats Rubber Stamps For The Obama Administration, The Same Way The Craven Repugs Were For Bush's Regime?
DownWithTyranny! —
Short answer: well see. There is no valid, reasonable excuse-- none whatsoever-- for not holding perps accountable for breaking the laws regarding torture. If Obama wants to pardon them, that's his prerogative but these people must stand trial-- especially the ones who gave the orders and the ones who gave flimsy legalistic cover to the torturers. Rahm Emanuel has certainly shown himself to be one of the sleaziest and most disreputable operators in our political system. Not even a Newt Gingrich or Tom DeLay is worse. For him to go on TV and come down as squarely opposed to prosecuting even the order givers should make any decent ...
Interrogation Battle
The Page by Mark Halperin —
NY Times: Despite assurances to the CIA, Obama may not be able to avoid inquiry into interrogation tactics used under the Bush administration.
Pressure mounts after Cheney calls it "a little bit disturbing" they released some CIA memos but not those showing "the success of the effort." ...
The Rude Pundit — Pardon Them: A Proposition (With Many Caveats) Regarding Torture: Come on - let's play a game: Let us believe, and why not, the President when he says that no one at the CIA will be prosecuted for the torture that received the Good Bushkeeping seal of approval. And let us take it further: let's say that the likelihood of actual criminal charges being brought by the Justice Department against John Yoo, Steven Bradbury, or Jay Bybee is small to nil. And, of course, there's virtually no chance that the actions of the Bush/Cheney/Gonzales axis of perversity will ever be fully revealed in our lifetimes. Presume all of this for a ...
Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News —
Source: NY Times WASHINGTON Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice... Others pushing for more investigation included Philip D. Zelikow, the former State Department counselor in the Bush administration. On his blog for Foreign Policy magazine and in an interview, Mr. Zelikow said it was not up to a president to rule out an inquiry into possible criminal activity. If a Republican president tried to do this, people would be ...
White House: Rahm Didn't Mean What He Said On Not Prosecuting Bushies For Torture
TPMMuckraker —
... Looks like that's what happened: the White House now appears to be walking back Rahm's comments. The New York Times reports today: ...
NSN Daily Update 4/21/2009
democracyarsenal.org —
See today's complete Daily Update here. What We’re Reading Pressure grows on President Obama to hold an investigation into the torture memos (even from some former Bush administration officials) and release further memos. An army takeover quells violence in Ciudad Juarez, formerly the epicenter of Mexico’s drug violence, but also prompting questions over civil liberties. South Africa goes to the polls tomorrow in what has been billed as the most important election since the end of ...
Is accountability still on the table?
Political Animal —
... . So where are we? It appears the door to prosecutions is once again ajar . Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice. Mr. Obama said it was time to admit "mistakes" and "move forward." But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president's top aides and many critics ...
Feinstein to Obama: Torture prosecutions should still be on the table.
Think Progress —
In recent days, President Obama has reiterated his pledge to oppose prosecutions of individuals responsible for torture under the Bush administration. However, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) yesterday wrote to the President and asked him to keep the door open to prosecutions. From the text of the letter, obtained by ThinkProgress:
I am writing to respectfully request that comments regarding holding individuals accountable for detention and interrogation related activities be held in reserve until the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is able to complete its review of the ...
Torture Trials - Bring It On!
JustOneMinute —
But by pushing for the release of these memos, Cheney may just be inadvertently joining the bandwagon pushing for an investigation into the interrogations and the complicated legal process by which they were allowed to occur. This is the other half of his gamble. By calling for transparency on this, Cheney is putting the legal colleagues he asked to twist the law in danger. The more the American public learns and thinks about all of this, the more it's going to ask for someone's head — and Obama's already protecting the CIA, who were merely acting out what they were told was permissible. Administration officials say that the Bush legal team isn't ...
President Obama Vs DNI Dennis Blair
TalkLeft —
Sandy Levinson noted that President Obama said to the CIA yesterday that: What makes the United States special and what makes you special is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it’s hard, not just when it’s easy, even when we are afraid and under threat, not just when its expedient to do so.... However, President Obama's Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said upon the release of the torture memos: Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, cautioned that the memos were written at a time when ...
A bunch of links
The Sideshow —
... I'm not sure I should quote her by name, but someone I know looked at Obama's remarks to the CIA and said, "That's how we learn? Is this man on crack?" ...
On accountability: the chains that bind --
The Reaction —
By Carol Gee Committee Report -- A report released Tuesday by the Senate Armed Services Committee will prove to be a very important declassified document coming out of the work of Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), his staff and committee. To quote David Cloud's Politico article, Newly declassified documents reveal how harsh military interrogation procedures approved for use at Guantanamo Bay prison by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also filtered down to war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. . . . The chairman, Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said the ...
