Sunday, April 19, 2009

CIA Torture Memos

A Nation magazine article recently dealt with the CIA torture issue and stated the following. The Constitution was in danger under Bush II. It was in danger under Reagan in the 1980's. The Iran/Contra affair damaged the Constitution but Reagan, Bush I, Weinberger, Abrams, and North were never made to answer for it. Now Bush II, Cheney, John Yoo, Robert Delahanty and others are also being let off the hook.
The Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department now says the "military (was) used to seize alleged terrorists in their homes" and the military was used to "carry out law enforcement operations at home" in violation of Posse Comitutus Act. Now we learn that CIA's directorate of operations head Jose Rodriquez Jr "ordered destruction of 92 interrogation video tapes" under orders from former chief Michael Hayden. Worse than this is that these abuses went unreported by the main stream media. Patrick Leahy and John Conyers Jr are pushing for investigations and only a "full accountability...is the only reliable prophylactic against future abuses".
The problem now is that the MSM can't push for an investigation w/o admitting they failed in their role as "democracy's watchdog": they were either "sleeping or cowering" when we needed them the most.
(Source: "It Can Happen Here" by Eric Alterman in The Nation on 3/30/09)

No comments:

Post a Comment