I'm no lawyer, but the just-released Justice Department memo from five years ago that gave the OK for President Bush to direct the military or intelligence agencies to torture suspected terrorists is ridiculous.
"Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion," wrote John Yoo, then deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel. He went on to write that, "even if the criminal prohibitions outlined above applied, and an interrogation method might violate those prohibitions, necessity or self-defense could provide justifications for any criminal liability."
Using this logic, all of the Nazi war criminals tried, convicted and executed at Nuremburg were not guilty because Hitler authorized their actions and his word was German law, which would have trumped the Geneva Conventions. Isn't the hypocrisy evident?
9 comments:
This new Bush defense appears to be: "I only did those terrible things in self-defense." I doubt this would be found acceptable in any court. Certainly not any international court. The Nuremburg defense is logically stronger ("I only did those things because I was ordered to do so") and it was never considered an acceptable defense against war crimes. This Bush defense is simply stupid.
This brings to mind a lesson we might take from the South American dictator Augusto Pinochet. US ideology and culture right now make it unlikely to prosecute Bush for war crimes. But over time, things may change. Pinochet was in his late 80s when he was finally tried for human rights violations and war crimes. If he hadn't died, he likely would have been convicted. Other South American dictators are currently on trial or have been convicted of war crimes and human rights violations that occurred in the 1950s-1980s.
While this is unlikely to happen here in the US any time soon, it isn't impossible. Perhaps if we had a judicial system that took these kinds of things seriously, it would serve as a deterrent to decisions like torturing suspects.
n.starluna, you seem to know the political lay of the land. Do you know about the Ward Committee or this Ed person? I am trying to reach him by phone or mail, but people are saying he doesn't return calls. I am a new addition to the community and no one will answer me on the blog. Most of my comments have not been published.
Thanks Marissa.
To reach Ed Deveau, call Sen. Anthony Petruccelli's office at the State House. I know Ed, and he will get back to you.
Jimbo, just for the record Anthony Petrucelli's office doesn't call back.
Now, to the real issue......Bush has taking this war into his own hands and the blood of the young soldiers are on his hands
Has anyone read Tim Burkes' recently released book??
Marissa - I don't know anything about the Ward Committee. I don't even know what it does, if anything. If it's a Democratic party thing, though, you might be able to get more information by calling the Massachusetts Democratic Party at 617-776-2676 or at their website www.massdems.org.
Back to this issue, my sister is the Deputy State Surgeon for the California Air National Guard. Her job is to oversee the medical processing when the national guard soldiers go out on tour and when they return. She loves her job and returned to the military after a decade in the private sector. But I can tell that it has become more stressful because she sees all of these young men and women come back severely wounded and disabled. More than once she's called me with the most heart wrenching stories of families torn apart because soldiers return with devastating disabilities - both psychological and physical. As a country, we will have a large price to pay for this war, even if we ignore the damage we've done to Iraq.
Did anyone see the Frontline program on WGBH last night? It was called "Bad Voodoo's War" and it was about a platoon of California Army National Guard soldiers who were redeployed to Iraq. They were given video cameras to record their experience.
It was pretty good. Go to Frontline's web site to watch it online.
Anon. Why don't you just call the Senator's office and ask for Ed Deveau, instead of listening to other people say that no one from that office calls back. If your new to the community then how can you pass judement on anyone that is on the Ward Committee
To Anon's: We all know who the two people are who attacking Ed Deveau and I ask you to stop it! You yourselves can become victims of personal attacks when you at a community meeting and you wouldn't like it.
Please come to this blog and be respectful and stick to issues.
Thanks Jimbo for this oppurtunity to speak my mind
Post a Comment