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Torture Led to Murder; It's a Fact. BuzzFlash Has Been Calling This Murder I, Regardless of the Cause.

Submitted by mark karlin on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 8:25am.

THE BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

For many years now, BuzzFlash has been recording and documenting the acts of homicide and war crimes that have resulted from the Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld policies on torture and killing of sometimes randomly singled out Arabs.  Face it, the trio of war criminals had a policy that if innocent Arabs got caught up in the web of torture and war, that was their problem.  So what would be a crime of murder if committed in the United States was an "act of protecting America against terrorism" in Iraq, Afghanistan and the CIA "black holes."

Even if many of the tortured and dead were just so more wrongfully abducted and arrested "collateral damage."

A study by the Human Rights First Organization has what we believe is an undercount of those individuals who died as a result of homicide while in U.S. custody (the study did not include the CIA "black hole" detainees who were tortured, because there has never been any accounting for the victims -- and one study ascertained 32 of the CIA "rendition suspects" are still unaccounted for.)

BuzzFlash has emphasized this for some time -- as we also covered how the media, including many progressive sites, had not seen the forest through the trees because they overlooked widespread murder while just emphasizing two "high level" Al Qaeda operatives who survived torture.

Most recently we ran a series of two editor's blogs and a BuzzFlash analysis on the importance of recognizing that what is at issue with the past Bush Administration officials is not just torture, but more pressingly murder:

The Legal Case Against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Et Al., Is Murder One, Not Just War Crimes

Torture Led to Murder; It's a Fact. BuzzFlash Has Been Calling This Murder I, Regardless of the Cause.

Hannity's Waterboarding Distraction Trivializes Torture, Minimizes Murder and Appeals to the Sadist in Us All

Recently, I was re-watching the riveting documentary written by Alex Gibney and Directed by Eugene Jarecki, "The Trials of Henry Kissinger."  The main lesson is this: If you are a member of the ruling elite, one of its princes of power, and your nation calls the shots in the world, you can get away with war crimes, as Kissinger has.  Not only that, you can remain a revered pundit and adviser.

So it goes with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, the legal enablers of torture and murder, and all the others who should be held legally accountable for policies that led to sanctioned homicides.

 

I also remember that riveting moment from Ron Howard's gripping re-creation of a historic media duel, "Frost/Nixon," when Frost coaxes out of Nixon a defiant declaration that a president cannot break the law because he is, in essence, the decider of what is legal.

That is the case we have before us with the Bush Administration war criminals, and if Kissinger's de facto immunity from prosecution is any precedent, the Bush architects of torture will also go unpunished.

At this point, the only investigation for crimes of torture and murder may rest with a Spanish judge, if his government will even allow it.

Our criminal court system does not deal so leniently with murder; but apparently Nixon was onto something when he made his unexpected exclamation to Frost: "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal."

Other progressive blogs are now following BuzzFlash's lead in declaring that murder is murder -- and that torture is the precipitating cause of death, and therefore homicide -- not just torture -- is of compelling legal importance as far as prosecution.

Let's hope that the calls to justice for murder to not reach a Henry Kissinger cul-de-sac.

THE BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG




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Bush killed 10,000s - not

Submitted by Atmost11 on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 2:09pm.
Bush killed 10,000s - not hundreds - including thousands of Americans, many more who will be crippled for life because of Bush. He started the war on purpose, now he says it was a mistake. Bush has "bullet tortured" 1,000s of Iraqis. The reason why Americans are more un-forgiving about torture, than they are about mass-slaughter with bombs and bullets, is because its us the Conservatives really want to torture - not rich sheiks - the real aim of the torture program is to establish precedents that chip away at the 8th ammendment.
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No person is above the law...

Submitted by cagey on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 12:09pm.
...in a democracy based on the rule of law, that is. So let's admit that we are not that. We are "governed" by a worldwide oligarchy of bankers, weapons profiteers (including NRA), and the oil industry, who use the human and natural resources of the world for their own ends. The U.S. specialty is military might. The rules of engagement are not based on U.S. or international law, and the crimes committed are usually not pursued. It's probably going to take a worldwide effort to bring the murderers of today and the past to justice, and we in the US should be the tip of the spear. From "Democracy" by Leonard Cohen:.............. "It's coming to America first, the cradle of the best and of the worst. It's here they got the range and the machinery for change and it's here they got the spiritual thirst."
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It's all there, in plain sight

Submitted by willymack on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:34am.
Torture and murder are but two- out of how many?-crimes committed by the bush crime cartel. Treason, crimes against humanity,war crimes, war profiteering, fradulent elections, etc. were all done in plain sight and thoroughly documented. A case for these and other crimes can easily be made, and convictions almost certainly obtained. The question here is why is nothing being done? Does this not make President Obama complicit in multiple capital crimes? Does he need to be reminded that under the law, he, himself could (and SHOULD) face prosecution for inaction as an accessory after the fact? Is it REALLY true, as Gerry Spence said in his book "And Justice for None" that there is little justice for little people? How are we to hold our heads up before the world if it's universally known that we let monsters get away with manifold crimes and did NOTHING about it?
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Editorial

Submitted by paganbaby on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:05am.
Hear! Hear! Exactly what needs to be said---over and over. The US refuses to examine our horrors committed world wide. We need to have a truth and reconciliation process to help everyone understand that the US is not an exceptional country that can ignore decency, morality, democracy, international agreements, international law, the UN, and civilized behavior. We are not the country we claim to be. The US Constitution establishes a faux democracy. The problem is a faux democracy is not democratic. Our ideology has created its own (incorrect) definitions. For example, in this country, most people believe that socialism=totalitarianism and capitalism=democracy. Most people believe that, in both cases, one can be equated with the other. And, believing in these nonsense equations, means we have overthrown elected democratic governments because that government has dared to do what the US is now doing, i.e., nationalizing banks, establishing government owned manufacturing companies, and establishing regulations on key businesses. When we (the US) do these things it is OK and necessary, when other countries do it, it is socialism and undemocratic. We then have proceeded to undermine that government in order to establish "freedom" and "democracy". When the dictatorship we prefer has taken over and reversed the previous policies, we recognize that government as being democratic and proceed to help that government stay in power as it oppresses the majority of the people. Some say, "well yes, we did that in the past, but no more". Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is exactly what we have been doing, and are presently doing, in Venezuela as we label Chavez a dictator. If there was ever a need for a country to have a truth and reconciliation movement it is now---here in the US. Lets start with the recognition of what this editorial says--we committed murder and we need to cleanse this society.
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What is wrong with the Justice Department and AG Holder?

Submitted by ETS on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 10:56am.

First of all President Obama says waterboarding is torture. Attorney General Eric Holder concurs, waterboading is torture.

But then AG Holder, like the little girly-man every Rush Limbaugh-listener and Ted Nugent-fan knows he is, recommends that torture memo architects John Yoo and Jay Bybee get wrist slaps from their state bar association (owww! that'll leave a mark!) while letting Steven Bradbury walk. So much for the rule of law. I guess Attorney General Holder is extending this as a professional courtesy to the torture memo trio. Perhaps Holder envisions the Obama administration approving some less drastic and dramatic form of torture in the not too distant future?

Please also note that in recent days the mainstream media has dropped the word "torture," in describing what went on at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib under Bush Justice Department jurisdiction, and are using the euphemisms "enhanced interrogation techniques" or the slightly stronger "harsh interrogation techniques." This little bit of bureaucratic new-speak is reminiscent of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's pronouncement that hence forth "swine flu" would be referred to in polite society as H1N1, in deference to the nation's pork producers. Therefore leaving one to wonder, in striking the word "torture" from the lexicon to whom is the administration and the MSM deferring?

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A whole lot of Bush hold-overs have "wormed"

Submitted by Chabuka on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:39am.
into the DOJ..Bush appointments/appointees that have became "career employee" positions... evidently they are still obstructing and managing the DOJ..and President Obama has bigger fish to fry (economy, they are busy trying to "blow" the bubble up again, you think that was coincidental..? Or was it a sure fire way for the Republicans to empty the National Treasury, fill their pockets and stop dead any sort of "social progams"..entitlements that help the poor, the people the GOP despises most?) Obama just can't be bothered with the Laws...and Lawyers at the DOJ..(another plan from the Bush bunch?..foul the water so much it will not produce any thing of value for years...?)
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