Equal Justice Under Law: Unfair, Unequal, Biased, or Passé

Two Have Escaped Justice 

(While Blaming Others - Protecting Crimes)

Jay Bybee; John Yoo; Jack Goldsmith; James Comey; Steven Bradbury
(Others could also be named)

The update that follows relates to the original post (follows after the update). This whole issue also ties into my other page re: Detainee handling and treatment library that can be seen here. 

This update is a fine editorial from the NY TIMES, in part which says:

“Mr. Obama has said multiple times that “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” as though the two were incompatible. They are not. The nation cannot move forward in any meaningful way without coming to terms, legally and morally, with the abhorrent acts that were authorized, given a false patina of legality, and committed by American men and women from the highest levels of government on down.”

I would add quite simply: Those high ranking officials, and others, at all levels, represented and spoke for us – all us. They need to be held accountable, and right now, well … they are not. We Americans speak of justice in America and peddle it around the globe, and rightly so, but then we see this torture mess and somehow easily accept the premise that “it’s okay” – it is not. To allow anyone involved, up and down the line to “escape” justice on this matter is not only un-American, but hypocritical for us to think otherwise while demanding justice and fairness for all persons in nations all around us.

Original post starts from here: First some background on the so-called "torture memos" that the DOJ and OLC issued that Bush-Cheney say they followed and that torture was not involved:

AUGUST 2002: Jay S. Bybee, who oversaw the office, issues a memo, released Thursday by the Obama administration, that says the C.I.A. has the authority to use harsh interrogation techniques. The memo, drafted by Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, argues that physical torture “must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”

JUNE 2004: Jack Goldsmith, Mr. Bybee’s replacement, rescinds the 2002 memo — days after it becomes public — with the support of James B. Comey, then deputy attorney general. Mr. Goldsmith submits his resignation on the same day.

DECEMBER  2004: Daniel Levin, the new acting head, issues a new memo denouncing torture and broadening its definition.

MAY 2005:  Over the objections of Mr. Comey, Steven G. Bradbury, newly appointed to run the office, signs several secret opinions. The memos, which were released by the Obama administration, justify combining different interrogation techniques and find that even the CIA harshest tactics are not “cruel, inhuman or degrading,” the restriction soon to be imposed by Congress.

To date: former VP Dark Dick Cheney on NBC with Chuck Todd - here in part (key parts). and in total here:

1.  Cheney and Bush and others all say “we were following legal opinion that told us it was legal: However, DOJ lawyers in 2004, rescinded John Yoo and Jay Bybee OLC 2003 memorandum authorizing the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” for DOD, and a similar one written for the CIA in August 2002.  Jack Goldsmith, who as head of the Office of Legal Counsel (after John Yoo left) made the decision to rescind the memorandums. He criticized the documents, saying they had used careless legal reasoning to provide national security agencies with sweeping interrogation authority. [Reported by The New York Times, 4/2/08]

2.  Doctors Say Rectal Rehydration is Not a Modern Medical Practice: According to PBS' Newshour, the technique known as “rectal rehydration” or “rectal feeding” is a practice that dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries but is not a modern medical procedure. Newshour reported that doctors have called the practice “humiliating, and that it has no place in medical treatment.” [On PBS, News Hour, 12/12/14]

3.  Most startling statement from Cheney: He said after being pressed by Chuck Todd on MTP on the fact that the Senate report revealed that 25 percent of tortured detainees turned out to be innocent and were later released, yet many had been subjected to the torture techniques.

How Cheney downplayed that and said clearly stated: “I have no problem with torturing innocent detainees as long as we achieve our objective.”

My B/L on this whole torture issue: There is absolutely 100% no reason to torture to gain valuable intelligence or military actionable information. 

Further, it seems to me that with Bush-Cheney pronouncements like: "We listened to the lawyers who told us the techniques were not torture and we did, so it's not torture..." that they were and still are somehow subscribing to the former Nazi defense used at Nuremberg which nearly every defendant proclaimed: "Befehl ist befehl" (German: "An order is an order")." So, how did that work for those defendants?

P.S. for the Media: Please take your spotlight and air time away from and off  of Mr. Cheney. That would be in the best interests of our national sanity and mental health care. Thanks in advance. 

Enjoy the review of stuff below and thanks for stopping by. Come again.