Pro-Torture official to become CIA director in Bush Administration. Is Obama going too far with his attempts at reconciliation and Bipartisanship by ignoring those who abused their positions of power and authority? What's next bringing back Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Is Obama too steeped in the American Mythos and Fantasy that he finds it difficult to label fellow Americans as Criminals and Liars and Propagandists let alone put these criminals on trial or at least investigate to discover whether or not their actions were criminal.
The American people voted for change not for more of the same old corruption and propaganda and lies. There are those who served in the Bush Regime who are guilty of misleading the American people and there are those who are guilty of criminal activity whether it be corruption or of committing War Crimes.Those who committed War Crimes or Crimes Against Humanity must be brought to justice . If Obama won't do it one hopes that the World Court and the United Nations will begin investigations and if necessary go ahead with indictments , arrests and prosecutions. There is little chance of this because unfortunately the United Nations has been set up in such a way that the United States can always use its veto power to defeat such actions or proposals. This is one of the reasons I have argued against the Veto power of the countries in the Security Council. It could be replace by a two-thirds majority or get rid of the council once and for all. see below for more.
Have Obama's Supporters been betrayed even before Obama becomes president ?
Is Obama playing an intricate political game of intrigue which the public does not yet understand? For instance is he using the famous quote of Sun-Tzu:
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
Sun-tzu
Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)
A SLAP IN THE FACE OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO VOTED FOR CHANGE! Senator Bernie Sanders
Anyway Obama it is believed will not only not prosecute John Brennan who supported the Bush Regime and defended the use of torture & renditions but instead of facing a war crimes trial John Brennan is to be kept on as a National Intelligence adviser & Head of the CIA . (Note: the case of Joe Lieberman will be discussed in next post)
Melvin Goodman on Obama and his intelligence advisers-On Democracy Now!
Ex-CIA Officials Tied to Rendition Program and Faulty Iraq Intel Tapped to Head Obamas Intelligence Transition Team
John Brennan and Jami Miscik, both former intelligence officials under George Tenet, are leading Barack Obama's review of intelligence agencies and helping make recommendations to the new administration. Brennan has supported warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition, and Miscik was involved with the politicized intelligence alleging weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the war on Iraq. We speak with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
CIA Official In Favor of Torture Could Be In Obama Adm.
From: TheYoungTurks
Added: November 21, 2008
Watch more at http://www.theyoungturks.com
As Richard Weiner at the Huffington Post writes in his article John Brennan, Torture-Tainted CIA Prospect, Alarms Obama Supporters Nov.21, 2008
Marc Ambinder reported Thursday evening that former National Counterrorism Center head John Brennan is Barack Obama's "favorite to be nominated director of the Central Intelligence Agency." According to Ambinder's sources, Brennan has been vetted and even begun recruiting his team.
The news has alarmed Obama supporters who remember Brennan best for his role in both faulty pre-war intelligence and agreement with Vice President Dick Cheney on torture.
Glenn Greenwald writes, "I'm both entirely unsurprised and basically undisturbed by the fact that Obama's most significant appointments thus far are composed largely of standard Washington establishment figures and pro-Iraq-War hawks." But Brennan is "a different matter."
To appoint someone as CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence who was one of George Tenet's closest aides when The Dark Side of the last eight years was conceived and implemented, and who, to this day, continues to defend and support policies such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" and rendition (to say nothing of telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping), is to cross multiple lines that no Obama supporter should sanction. Truly turning a page on the grotesque abuses of the last eight years requires both symbolism (closing Guantanamo) and substantive policy changes (compelling adherence to the Army Field Manual, ensuring due process rights for all detainees, ending rendition, restoring safeguards on surveillance powers). Appointing John Brennan to a position of high authority would be to affirm and embrace, not repudiate, the darkest aspects of the last eight years.
The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan17 Nov 2008 John Brennan: Change We Cannot Believe In
The good news from last night's 60 Minutes interview is that Obama has clearly committed himself to ending the torture policy of Bush and Cheney. But that clarity will sadly be in doubt if Marc is right and John Brennan becomes the next CIA Director:
"Brennan's long association with George Tenet and with the CIA during the first few years of the Bush administration may give civil liberties advocates and Congressional Democrats some pause; it is not clear to what degree Brennan participated in or was read into many of the intelligence community's controversial post 9/11 /Iraq programs, including extraordinary renditions and orders that sanctioned coercive interrogation techniques."
The plain English for "coercive interrogation techniques" is torture. And any association with Tenet, who authorized war crimes, and used the Gestapo term "enhanced interrogation techniques", taints the office. It's not change. Glenn Greenwald, meanwhile, has a very helpful update on Brennan's record. While skeptical of Brennan on torture, Larison points to this paragraph from the NYT's profile:
As a senior adviser to Mr. Tenet in 2002, Mr. Brennan was present at the creation of the C.I.A.’s controversial detention and interrogation program, which Mr. Obama has strongly criticized. But Mr. Brennan has distanced himself from the program, and told The Washington Times last month that interrogation methods like waterboarding are “not going to be allowed under an Obama presidency.”
Well: waterboarding isn't even currently used under Bush any more. Talk about low expectations. And anyone close to Tenet has no place in an administration eager to restore America's moral standing. This report from CQ is also very disturbing:
Although Obama issued a statement during the campaign supporting the idea of applying the Army field manual interrogation standard to all agencies, not just the Pentagon, a senior campaign adviser to Obama left the door open to applying another standard.
“He [believes] torture not be allowed in any form or fashion in any part of the federal government, and he would make sure that was the case,” said John Brennan, who served under former CIA chief George J. Tenet in a variety of capacities at a time when the agency has since acknowledged it waterboarded a small number of terror suspects.
“Whether the Army field manual is comprehensive enough to cover all those tactics and techniques, that’s something I think he’d look to his national security advisers for,” Brennan said in an interview with CQ in August.
Appointing Brennan to the CIA does not mean change from Bush. That was absolutely a critical part of Obama's message. With Brennan, we get the taint of a Bush and two-facedness of a Clinton. We need to say goodbye to all that, not perpetuate its double-speak.
and in a further update on John Brennan Andrew Sullivan argues on the issue of the use of " Torure " by the Bush Regime's True Believers in his article of Nov. 21 "No Way. No How. No Brennan.
The simple answer to the question - what length do we want to go? - is to abide by the rule of law. Why is that so hard to understand? And yet Brennan and Tenet didn't. They authorized clear torture sessions. Why is such a man even considered for the post under Obama? This man cannot end the taint of Bush-Cheney. He was Bush-Cheney. In fact, if Obama picks him, it will be a vindication of the kind of ambivalence and institutional moral cowardice that made America a torturing nation. It would be an unforgivable betrayal of his supporters and his ideals. It would be an acknowledgment that Tenet himself is not a war criminal, while the facts indisputably prove that he was.
In fact, I'd like to see much more evidence of whether Brennan himself is implicated in the war crimes and unlawfulness of the past eight years. If nominated, the Senate should find out. Whatever his qualities, Brennan is not change. He has even used Tenet's disgusting adoption of the Gestapo euphemism "enhanced interrogation." Here he is arguing against change earlier this year:
Even though people may criticize what has happened during the two Bush administrations, there has been a fair amount of continuity. A new administration, be it Republican or Democrat -- you're going to have a fairly significant change of people involved at the senior-most levels. And I would argue for continuity in those early stages. You don't want to whipsaw the [intelligence] community. You don't want to presume knowledge about how things fit together and why things are being done the way they are being done. And you have to understand the implication, then, of making any major changes or redirecting things. I'm hoping there will be a number of professionals coming in who have an understanding of the evolution of the capabilities in the community over the past six years, because there is a method to how things have changed and adapted.
Given that Obama may not have the power or the desire to prosecute the War Criminals of the Bush Regime it will then be up to the World Court and the UN Security Council to take action.
Maybe given the power of the UN Security Council the US could be designated a " rogue state "and ousted.
as the UN Charter states:
A Member State against which preventive or enforcement action has been taken by the Security Council may be suspended from the exercise of the rights and privileges of membership by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. A Member State which has persistently violated the principles of the Charter may be expelled from the United Nations by the Assembly on the Council's recommendation.Here's a list of alleged crimes of the Bush Regime and The case against the United States:
Illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq under false pretences i.e. lies, fabrications, cooked-up Intel etc.
the disregard for civilians in the conduct of its invasion of Iraq
the illegal and unnecessary destruction of Iraq's infrastructure i.e. power plants, water & sewage treatment plants, hospitals and schools & places of worship
The use of torture and other abusive techniques on POWs
The terrorizing and intimidation of the Iraqi people
The disregard of the well being of millions of displaced people in Iraq
The ongoing attacks on & intimidation of the Media and the Press.
The disregard of the safety of the Media and Press during the conflict.
The on going attacks on personnel and equipment of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
The massive bombing of Iraqi civilians in cities such as Fallujah.
The disinterest and failure to rebuild hospitals, schools , police stations, power plants , water and sewage treatment plants as well as roads and highways etc. which under International Law is the responsibility if the invading forces. It is thereby another crime committed by Bush Regime & Tony Blair of Great Britain and other governments involved in the occupation of Iraq.
But don't hold your breath as the UN has become irrelevant and only appears to act when the United States thinks it should act.
see appropriate sections of the Geneva Conventions for example on Civilian Populations and basic Infrastructure. The United States in its war i & Occupation of Iraq has been guilty of a number of War Crimes based on a reading of the Geneva Conventions. Besides those listed below the United States is guilty of a War of Aggression on a Sovereign state since its reasons and case it presented for going to war were based on propaganda, fabrications and out and out lies which they presented as "undisputed facts" to the UN Assembly.Saddam had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or the 9/11 attack nor had he any WMDS and was not an imminent threat to the United States or its allies. The country was a mere shadow of its former self after a decade of draconian inhumane sanctions.
From Albalagh.net Geneva Conventions: Does Anybody Remember?
Protocol 1
Additional to the Geneva Conventions, 1977
PART IV: CIVILIAN POPULATION
Chapter I: Basic Rule and Field of Application
Article 48: Basic Rule
In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.
Chapter II: Civilians and Civilian Population
Article 50: Definition of Civilians and Civilian Population
The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character.
Article 51: Protection of the Civilian Population
The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.
The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:
those which are not directed at a specific military objective;
those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or
those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.
Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate: an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
Chapter III: Civilian Objects
Article 52: General Protection of Civilian Objects
Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 2.
In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.
Article 54: Protection of Objects Indispensable to the Survival of the Civilian Population
Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.
It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.
In tomorrow's post more on that other Bush Cheerleader/ War Monger & Pro-Bush Propagandist Joe Lieberman who defended torture and renditions and other criminal activities of the Bush Regime. So there will once again be no justice or retribution and common decency once again is mocked.
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