Dave Lindorff: The Way Forward on Holding the Bush/Cheney Administration Accountable for its Crimes
While both men are clearly guilty of war crimes, and have in fact admitted to willful violation of international law and the U.S. Criminal Code relating to torture and treatment of captives, and while Bush has admitted to the felony of willfully violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and while a good case of defrauding Congress could be made against both men with regard to their claims made to justify the invasion of Iraq, not to mention a host of other crimes large and small, I think it is clear that the new administration of President Barack Obama does not want to be seen trying to put the president and vice president in the slammer (where they so deserve to be). For better or worse, Obama has decided to pursue a less confrontational politics in Washington.
That said, I would argue that there can be a good case made, both legally and politically, for the convening of a Truth & Reconciliation Commission, which could put all key people in the last administration on the stand and under oath and klieg lights to explain just what they did and why.
Of course, such a commission, if established by an act of Congress, would on one level amount to letting off the hook people whose criminal actions have led to the deaths of over a million people, including over 4,500 Americans in uniform, to the torturing of hundreds and perhaps thousands, and to the undermining of the constitutional rights of all the people of this nation. And yet, it may be the best way to establish just what the extent and nature of those crimes were, who was harmed, and how to avoid such reckless and criminal behavior by a president and an administration in the future.
Furthermore, if properly constituted and empowered, such a commission could still lead to prosecutions in the end.
Here's how it might work: The commission would call administration officers, whether former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or Vice President Cheney. Under oath, they would be asked what their roles were in, say, the authorization, promotion, and covering up of torture. If they answered truthfully, they would be immune from prosecution for any crimes they admitted to, but the world would know for all time what they had done. If they refused to answer, or if they were to lie to the commission, however, they would be subject to possible indictment for contempt or perjury -- charges that could place them before a judge or even a grand jury.
Moreover, if lower-ranking members of the administration, called before such a commission, chose the route of coming clean about their role in administration crimes, it would both provide evidence that could later be used to prosecute higher officials who might refuse to appear and testify before such a commission, and at the same time would tend to create a public sentiment in favor of prosecution.
A truth & reconciliation commission would have to be authorized by an act of Congress, I believe, because only Congress could offer the necessary waiver from prosecution for a capital crime like torture in which victims have died, as is the case with the torture that U.S. military forces and CIA agents have engaged in over the past eight years. But the new Congress should be willing to support such an act, because, far from being retribution, the truth & reconciliation process, which was used in South Africa, and which has been used in other countries recovering from past criminal rule, could be presented as a way of getting out the facts, and of restoring the country's international reputation, without trying to put anyone behind bars.
Moreover, I think that the vast majority of the American public wants to see some kind of reckoning made with the past eight years of secret government, official lying, and criminal actions by many of the top officials of the land.
If South Africans can respond to generations of a criminal apartheid regime and a police state with a truth & reconciliation process, so can we in America.
It is, after all, the truth, not the punishment of criminals, however heinous, that sets us free.
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and now available in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net.
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I agree 100% - exposure is
Obama is compelled to prosecute
Those conventions are "the supreme law of the land." Which doesn't mean what most people think it does, because Article VI, in the same sentence, includes the laws of the US as supreme law of the land. The same sentence also explains what that means: the Constitution, Treaties and US Law trumps state laws and hence are the "supreme law of the land."
That aside, Treaties are as much a part of law as the Constitution and US laws, and nobody is above the law. If Obama declines to prosecute Bushco, he himself is guilty of a war crime.
Some Unfinished Business with the Bush Administration
I just watched Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States, and then got to see George W. Bush being whisked away by helicopter, as a jubilant crowd sang, “Nah-nah-nah--nah, nah-nah-nah-nah; hey, hey, hey...Goodbye”.
I am not going to speculate on what President Obama will do--or might do, or could do, or should do. He strikes me as an intelligent, competent man who shares many of my concerns and is so vastly superior to his predecessor that I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt--until he gives me some reason to do otherwise. Besides, we still have unfinished business with the Bush/Cheney Administration.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should have been impeached as soon as it was discovered that their administration had cooked the books on the reasons for invading Iraq (or for any number of other high crimes and misdemeanors engendered by their ill-conceived War on Terror).
But they were not impeached--though they may wish they had been; because now America must deal with their crimes within our criminal justice system.
• “The misbehavior was not an aberration--aspects of it, particularly the idea that the president is above the law, were present in Watergate and in the Iran/Contra scandal. To fully restore the rule of law and prevent any repetition of Bush's misconduct, the abuses of his administration must be directly confronted.”--Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Congresswoman who sat on the House Judiciary Committee which drafted articles of impeachment against President Nixon, The Nation (2/2/09 edition)
• “We must avoid any temptation simply to move on. We must instead be honest with ourselves and the world as we condemn our nation’s past transgressions and reject Bush’s corruption of our American ideals. Our constitutional democracy cannot survive with a government shrouded in secrecy, nor can our nation’s honor be restored without full disclosure.” Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s new head of the Office of Legal Council, Slate.com, 3/18/08
• “After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the [Bush] administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”--Major General Antonio Taguba, who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, McClatchy Newspapers, 6/18/08
******
If you were remodeling your home and discovered that termites had destroyed part of the foundation of your home, would you plaster over it--or would you fix it before your whole house fell down? The US Constitution is the foundation of our nation, and the Bush Administration has been eating away at it for eight years. During that time, they have done more damage to our home than a hundred Osama bin Ladens could have done and have turned our house into an eyesore in the community of nations.
We cannot ignore this:
• “[T]his was an assault on the law itself. If legal opinions that sanctioned torture are left untouched, it sets a dangerous precedent. ...If laws can be broken with impunity today, they can and will be broken with impunity tomorrow. Not just laws against torture and war crimes, but any and all laws; any and all limits on government.”-- Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, quoted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet.org, 11/28/08
To continue the analogy, we must not only repair the foundation of our home, we have to get rid of the termites. Otherwise, the same thing will happen again. Case in point: Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have been running this same play for decades:
• “A terrible tyrant must be overthrown; the window for intervention is closing quickly; Congress isn't up to the job; diplomacy is worthless, arms control bogus, and the American people are in danger if we don't take pre-emptive action.”-- Ted Widmer, in a review of Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet , by James Mann, The New York Observer, 3/8/04 (It is basically the same method described by Hitler’s right hand man, Herman Goering--“It works the same way in every country,” he said at the Nuremberg trials.)
• “If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted, the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq.”-- Lawrence Velvel, chairman of the Steering Committee of the Justice Robert H. Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals, The American Chronicle, 1/13/09
******
The guilty members of the former Bush Administration, their toadies in Congress and their mouthpieces in the media are busily trying to convince the American people that the American people don’t really care about their crimes and just want to move on. That is not the case.
The number one question on the Obama transition team’s website in early January was:
• “Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor (ideally Patrick Fitzgerald) to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?”-- posted by Bob Fertik of democrats.com (check out his website)
Some people may disagree with the choice of Patrick Fitzgerald; but we should all join Mr. Fertik in calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration. So, how do we do that?
On ABC's This Week (1/11/09), Barack Obama said:
• “[The Attorney General’s] job is to uphold the Constitution and look after the interests of the American people, not to be swayed by day-to-day politics. So, ultimately, he's going to be making some calls."
...and he described his pick for Attorney General, Eric Holder*, as “the people’s lawyer”.
It is time to call our lawyer. It is time the Justice Department resumed its rightful role of investigating and prosecuting criminals, rather than acting as a political tool and the Obstruction of Justice Department--as it has for the past eight years.
Call the Office of the Attorney General at 202-353-1555, and demand that he appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and indict former members of the Bush Administration who have committed crimes in our name. (Please call. It is the most effective method of influencing our government.)
We can let these criminals go on their merry way, collecting their generous retirement checks and growing richer on speaker fees; or we can hold them responsible for their crimes.
******
There is a saying: The wheels of justice grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine.
We must start the wheels of justice and allow them to grind Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, et. al. into dust. Then, and only then, they can be swept into the dust-bin of history; and Americans can finally turn the page on this horrid period in American history and move forward to rebuild our nation on the solid foundation of Constitutional Law.
(*At this time (1/22/09), Senate Republicans are holding up the confirmation of President Obama’s choice for Attorney General (Eric Holder). Apparently, they are afraid Holder may actually enforce the laws against torture.
Dodging The Neocon Bullet?
I heard recently that the United Nations has the ability to try Bush administration officials for war crimes. If this is factual, it would explain Obama's public reticence toward doing his international duty and pushing for criminal prosecution of these warmongers.
By allowing the UN to take the lead, Obama won't be in as many political cross hairs should the UN find the Bush administration guilty as charged. I sincerely doubt that the UN can enforce any such ruling, which would mean that the George and Dick Show will not have to worry about being renditioned to a nation they harmed militarily. But any UN ruling would assuage world opinion that something be done - all without Obama having to stick his neck out into a literally dangerous position.
Check, and mate.