Its no secret that our administration has been part of some of the most heinous acts of inhumanity and insurrection our country has ever known. From lying to its supporters to slaughtering innocent civilians, the Bush corporation has tainted our existence with evil, brought this country down to levels so low that I’m surprised we aren’t reclassified as a developing nation.
What concerns me is that the darkness that is neo-conservatism has infected the media so severely that I feel like its no longer an independent entity. Naturally, information being openly shared is a more progressive or liberal idea. A lot of what conservative administrations do is limit or block information to benefit them, and in order to keep Americans in the dark, this is a necessity. Its a cycle. Conservative administrations’ primary goal is more money for the elite wealthy class, they do this by any means necessary which often means human rights violations (including slaughter and murder), which requires misinformation, censored information, and/or deceit, which leads to media being controlled by the government which leads to more conservative governments.
Depressing I know.
What if they disclosed a torture memo and nobody cared? This week, an81-page memo, authored by John C. Yoo, who was a deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice at the time of its creation, was declassified and made public. The memo, which, among other things, was used as the rationale for authorizing the torture of government detainees, has long been held to be a savage reimagining of the structure of the Executive Branch and its authority, hostile to the traditional checks and balances that circumscribe the President’s authority.
The memo is one of the most unpatriotic things America has ever produced. But what is interesting is that the mainstream media ignored it… or asked to or required to ignore it. One of the major points I am making is that we are not moving forwards as a country. You cannot be a superior country if you still have the death penalty, torture prisoners, deny habeas corpus to some and not others, instigate military actions in other countries, interfere with the happiness of citizens, sacrifice liberty for a false sense of security, use fear to rally support for war, and all the while make a shit load of money off of it.
John Yoo’s Memorandum, as intended, directly led to — caused — a whole series of war crimes at both Guantanamo and in Iraq. The reason such a relatively low-level DOJ official was able to issue such influential and extraordinary opinions was because he was working directly with, and at the behest of, the two most important legal officials in the administration: George Bush’s White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and Dick Cheney’s counsel (and current Chief of Staff) David Addington. Together, they deliberately created and authorized a regime of torture and other brutal interrogation methods that are, by all measures, very serious war crimes…This incident provides yet more proof of how rancid and corrupt is the premise that as long as political appointees at the DOJ approve of certain conduct, then that conduct must be shielded from criminal prosecution. That’s the premise that is being applied over and over to remove government lawbreaking from the reach of the law.
The memo basically says that the president can authorize any action during “wartime” which is also something he can declare. Congress can’t stop him, treaties can be violated, and he cannot be interfered with by any court in the United States. It is as if he can declare martial law over the world. The memo sets the scope for his power to being without limits.
These people need to be tried in international criminal courts for war crimes committed against humanity.
whereIstand Tags
- GeorgeWBush
- DickCheney
- Can the use of torture as an interrogation technique be justified?
- Has the War on Terror been effective?
- Is the U.S. safer from terrorism today than it was before 9/11?
- Should the President order domestic warrantless wiretaps to combat terrorism?
- What should be done with the Guantanamo detainees?