Previously: His sock puppet used a crayon, he used blood and oil (August 30, 2011)

Getting Away With Torture

Dick Cheney’s memoir shows the importance of the law, not of torture.

By Dahlia Lithwick

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011, at 5:23 PM ET

….Dick Cheney is living proof that if we are not brave enough to enforce our laws, we will forever be at the mercy of a handful of men.

We are not worthy.

Apparently, the dark lord has written a book and is hawking it.

“No blood for oil.”

@democracynow Democracy Now!

Ex-Bush Official Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: “I Am Willing To Testify” If Dick #Cheney Is Put On Trial owl.li/6gAjV @ggreenwald 2 hours ago

“….This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will ‘Pinochet’ Dick Cheney,” says Wilkerson, alluding to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested for war crimes. Wilkerson also calls for George W. Bush and Cheney to be held accountable for their crimes in office. “I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due,” Wilkerson said….

That’s some book review. Damn, in the coming days and weeks we’re all gonna need garlic if we stroll past the remainder bin at our favorite bulk shopping venues.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney:

Cheney Calls for Release of Memos Showing Results of Interrogation Efforts

“…I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country,” Cheney said. “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was…”

Uh, if the right wingnuts have been complaining that the release of the torture authorization memos would hurt America, won’t the release of the “dubya administration ‘snuff porn'” memos do the same? Why does Dick Cheney hate America? Just asking.

The incomparable Digby:

Vice For Life

…Did someone forget to tell Dick that he has no authority anymore to formally or informally ask the CIA to do jack?

I don’t ever remember a former president, much less a former vice president, behaving like this after he’s out of office. Can’t he find some GOP hacks to do this for him? It’s embarrassing…

It isn’t easy being out of power and not being able to travel the world without fear of arrest because you habitually violated the peremptory norms of international law.

From the incomparable Glenn Greenwald:

…If our political leaders can’t be held accountable for their war crimes and other serious felonies in foreign countries or international tribunals, and must never be held accountable in the U.S. either (because to do so is to “pour acid into our democratic machinery”), then it means that American political officials (in contrast to most other leaders) are completely and explicitly exempt from, placed above, the rule of law…

Go. Read the whole thing.

Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nüremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, 1950.

Principle III

The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

[emphasis added]

Harsh interrogation techniques? Don’t you long for simpler times when everyone knew it was called torture?

New York Times

Bush Aides Linked to Talks on Interrogations

By MARK MAZZETTI

Published: September 24, 2008

WASHINGTON – Senior White House officials played a central role in deliberations in the spring of 2002 about whether the Central Intelligence Agency could legally use harsh interrogation techniques while questioning an operative of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah, according to newly released documents…

…The documents provide new details about the still-murky early months of the C.I.A.’s detention program, when the agency began using a set of harsh interrogation techniques weeks before the Justice Department issued a written legal opinion in August 2002 authorizing their use. Congressional investigators have long tried to determine exactly who authorized these techniques before the legal opinion was completed…

Uh, the 2002 memo was withdrawn, because it was in conflict with the peremptory norms of international law and the standards of behavior for civilized nations:

A Small Clique Of Legal Extremists…

The Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President of August 1, 2002 (the so-called “Bybee Memo”) goes to great lengths to narrowly define torture, create a “defense” defense, and to further assert the unitary executive (that the President determines what is “the law”). The memo signed by Jay Bybee, then an assistant Attorney General and now a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was reportedly the work of John Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. There is no mention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in this memo…

…LEGAL STANDARDS APPLICABLE UNDER 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL issued on December 30, 2004 (the so-called “Levin Memo”) states: “…This memorandum supersedes the August 2002 Memorandum in its entirety…”

AWOL military justice

Why the former chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions resigned his post.

By Morris D. Davis

December 10, 2007

Los Angeles Times

I was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until Oct. 4, the day I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system. I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly…

…I had instructed the prosecutors in September 2005 that we would not offer any evidence derived by waterboarding, one of the aggressive interrogation techniques the administration has sanctioned…

[emphasis added]

The old media is pathetic. They use the memes and language of those who want to obscure their reprehensible behavior. Torture is torture, not a “harsh interrogation technique.” As a party to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials the United States prosecuted individuals for waterboarding prisoners because it was torture. I’d expect even the mediocre legal minds who have served the present administration to know that. And the New York Times, too.