The article “Supreme Court delay may help keep detainee abuse pics forever sealed” at
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/supreme-court-delay-may-help-keep-detainee-abuse-pics-forever-sealed/ states “The ACLU said the administration’s about-face ‘makes a mockery’ of Obama’s campaign promise of greater transparency and accountability, and damages efforts to hold accountable those responsible for abusing prisoners,” CNN added on Tuesday.”
The item contains the typical misinformation that is spewed in matters such as this it states “The Pentagon said US military commanders had sternly warned the president that the photos could be used as a recruiting tool by extremists and jeopardize the safety of US troops. Federal courts have ruled against the government in a series of decisions on the matter after the ACLU sued to force disclosure.”
This isn’t a totalitarian state and the ACLU has to fight against this as the article states “Congress should not give the government the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and if it does grant that authority, the Secretary of Defense should not invoke it,” ACLU National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer said in a press release. “If this shameful provision passes, Secretary Gates should take into account the importance of transparency to the democratic process, the extraordinary importance of these photos to the ongoing debate about the treatment of prisoners, and the likelihood that the suppression of these photos will ultimately be far more damaging to our national security than their disclosure would be.”
It is not only this information that the Obama team is suppressing as the article “Obama’s DOJ May Appeal Ruling Ordering Release of Cheney’s CIA Leak Transcript” at
http://www.opednews.com/populum/print_friendly.php?p=Obama-s-DOJ-May-Appeal-Rul-by-Jason-Leopold-091014-185.html states “The Obama administration indicated in court papers it may appeal a federal judge’s ruling ordering the Justice Department to release portions of the transcribed interview between former Vice President Dick Cheney and Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to probe the roles Bush administration officials played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson six years ago.”
Cheney committed a crime when he outed a covert spy as the article states “The case stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed last year by the public interest group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The organization has been trying to gain access to Cheney’s interview transcript and has found its efforts thwarted first by Justice Department attorneys in the Bush administration, who had said the interview transcript was being withheld on national security grounds, and now by the Obama administration, whose attorneys said the material, if released, could become “fodder for The Daily Show.”
We’d expect that 43’s crew would resort to such a cover-up, but as the article continues “The resistance from the Obama administration has left some of its supporters shaking their heads. Not only does the obstruction go against President Obama’s pledge of government openness, but it is protecting the reputation of Cheney, one of Obama’s most vocal critics.”
We all remember–as the article continues “Fitzgerald’s criminal investigation led to Libby’s indictment in October 2005 and his subsequent conviction in March 2007 on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, which Bush later commuted.
During closing arguments at Libby’s trial, Cheney was implicated in the leak, as Fitzgerald acknowledged that Cheney was intimately involved in the scandal and may have told Libby to leak Plame’s status to the media.
Court papers filed by Obama’s Justice Department in July revealed that Bush and Cheney were in contact about the scandal, including what is described as “a confidential conversation” and “an apparent communication between the Vice President and the President.”
So, we have a clear indication that Cheney and his boss committed criminal activity and we have Obama concealing their crimes. Why? Obviously his desire to placate the GOP hasn’t worked as the GOP has attacked everything Obama has proposed so far. What worse can happen?
What started it all? What lie did Cheney feed 43 that caused the illegal war against Iraq to start? He told “Bubble Boy” that the US should make a preemptive war against Iraq. That forced all of the lies about Hussein being involved in 9/11, and Iraq presenting an imminent threat to the US, and Cheney getting the GOP media to out Wilson’s wife among other crimes committed because of starting the Iraqi theater of GWOT.
The military typically supports GOP policies because the GOP’s warmongering enhances its role. It didn’t take long after 43 left for the Pentagon to decide that 43’s illegal preemptive wars should be reconsidered.
The article “Pentagon mulls ending Bush-era first-strike doctrine” at http://rawstory.com/2009/10/pentagon-mulls-ending-bush-era-first-strike-doctrine/ states “The most important and most controversial element of the “Bush Doctrine” on foreign policy is being reassessed by the Pentagon.
A news report Thursday states the Department of Defense is reviewing the policy of preemptive war, the notion that the United States can and should attack countries it believes will pose a threat in the future.”
We all could accept the W’s attack on Afghanistan. A brief review of how that forsaken land has been attacked frequently by foreign powers–who all failed, doesn’t make it easy to understand why 43 did it though. A review of how in the world’s history no superpower has ever won a 4th generation warfare tactic such as the US is waging in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al queda makes it imperative to realize that the Afghanistan theater of GWOT should be abandoned.
The article “Top 15 Reasons to Get Out of Vietghanistan” at http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/24256/ lists 15 reasons for us to leave Afghanistan including the fact that we are generating more terrorists than we are killing in Afghanistan. The article’s 4th reason is “Occupying and bombing Afghanistan is actually making us less safe. It is enraging people against the United States, building the Taliban and other resistance.”
Our occupation of Afghanistan is working against our self interests. Why then continue? Why is Obama modifying, not completely rejecting, 43’s insane, inept policies? By doing so Obama is perpetuating 43’s crimes and is therefore becoming complicit in them.
