For me it's coming down to what we are preserving- or attempting to preserve- I think the bad far outweighs the good here- and I believe that if Obama sidesteps this it will be his downfall.
President Obama will forever be linked to the Bush Torture Coverup and our great victory over the establishment will be torn down.
"It's a trap are you blind?" (Hamish) ~Braveheart
Inspite of many attempts to make you change your mind on prosecuting those who committed crime against humanity you keep on hiding the suspects: We ask you how can this be possible, is it on Mr. Gates advice ? Or are you afraid of partisans, who might attempt to remove you from Office ? Do not falter, and you see every sincere person will support you even more.
You decided not to publish photos of Abu Ghraib in order not 'to endanger the U.S. Military' stationed in Iraq.
Your actions are now raising eyebrows on every part of the globe. We ask you again : " Let those who committed those acts face
justice; a term which they used over and overduring their own campaign of Terror against innocent, and helpless people.
Article quoted from New Zealand paper :
Quote :
Obama half bush?
Harith al-Ubaidi, a member of parliament's human rights committee, said he understood why Iraqis struggling with a lack of jobs and services might ignore more photos of abuse, but he contested Obama's reasoning for holding them back.
"This is an absolutely invalid excuse. If armed groups could exert more pressure, they wouldn't wait for the photos."
In Ubaidi's view Obama is trying to avoid whipping up Arab opinion as he attempts to repair US-Middle East relations, damaged under former President George W Bush, and was also protecting interrogators guilty of abuse.
Obama has said CIA agents who followed legal guidance on interrogation would not be prosecuted, but left the door open to prosecuting Bush-era officials who developed the policies.
Ubaidi said Obama's overtures to Muslims in Egypt next week are likely to fail if he is seen as continuing Bush's policy of secrecy over detainees, or as blocking efforts to hold those who abused prisoners accountable.
Laila al-Khafaji, another member of Iraq's parliament, said she preferred to forget the past.
"The page of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal was turned a long time ago and it's time to forget. What's the point of reminding us of these pains?"
unquote
How much more needs to be said to make you understand that people around the world look up to you and want nothing else butyou taking them on.
Again we quote another article from another publication. Gruesome details are known to you, and must be made public.Do not hesitate to act on those who made this world dirtier to live in, to live in shame to be an American.
We need to clarify our good name in front of the world now. And you will gain respect from every voter, everyone who believed in you when they elected you to office.
Please do it now, let justice take its course ..
When I read the latest revelation, and we will hear more and more as the days go by,
I ask myself what kind of people these must be.
Taking a great nation such as this to a long ride, making us look like fools.
Are we going to allow them to get away with this ?
Finally President Obama, we ASK you to take action against these perpetrators of crima against humanity in no uncertain terms.
READ: WE NEED JUSTICE, WE CRY FOR JUSTICE in the name of those who were maltreated, raped, tortured, killed, and sodomized by animals who call themselves humans.
MORE here - at last the truth will come out.
I have not read extensively about this issue or heard your comments.
But my first thought about people who want to see more photographs of prisoners being abused is, surely we've seen a representative sample of the awful things that happened. Aren't those who did it punished or in the process of?
I would say to those who want to see the unreleased photos, "use your imaginations sickos. Let those sitting in judgment (official judgment) have access to all of them, but let there be closure, and justice, to this episode."
By the way, how's progress on my list of suggestions going?
McClatchy Newspapers reports that former investigator accuses Bush administration of war crimes.
Get ready folks. These kinds of investigations and resulting statements are what give me hope that the day the Bush Administration vacates DC, that it doesn't automatically equate to "they're off the hook."
While I personally don't think it's ever too late to pursue impeachment proceedings (even if it's the week before they leave office), I will say that the likelihood of that goes down by the day. So, to hear former military officials -- and especially those who were tasked with investigating abuse -- use phrases like "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes" and "held to account" is very heartening. If he's serious about that -- and he certainly sounds like he is -- and if the next Congress has the intestinal fortitude to do something about it, it could mean that even after the Bush Gang leaves office, that they will be investigated and prosecuted where warranted.
For the sake of our Democracy -- and so that history doesn't record this as evidence that all you have to do is make it through your term(s) in office and then everyone will leave you alone -- I certainly hope this continues down the path that Major General Taguba is indicating.
It is depressing to work long hours day in and day out when all of your effort, and time away from your family results in little more than survival. There's a tax for something at every turn -- unless, of course, you're wealthy enough to afford it, in which case there are many opportunities to avoid full participation in the tax system.
The truly horrifying part of the story is the way our money is being spent. Here are a couple of reminders, which are full of disturbing images. Is this the way YOU want your money to be spent?
The Iraq War and The Tax Form 1040
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XoN9oEowXQ
Abu Ghraib - Iraq: by Journeyman on YouTube -- It' probably too graphic to post on this blog, but it is reality and if there's anyone left who still thinks that war is the answer, then they should be encouraged to view it.
Senator Barack Obama did NOT support the Iraq War. There are certainly many additional reasons to support his candidacy. Although, if you can stand to watch even these two videos, then his opposition to the war should be enough for any human being with a soul to vote for him without hesitation!
I am an American living and working in Saudi Arabia for the past 13 years. I have watched with dismay as the reputation of my home country has plummeted among my friends and neighbors in my adopted home. When I first arrived in Riyadh in 1995....
It’s pretty clear that the American people want to boot Bush & Co. out of the Whitehouse. Barack Obama’s message of change absolutely resonated in Iowa, stunning the country with an astounding win. Even on the Republican side, the insurgent who criticized the President’s “bunker mentality” beat the corporate Bush-apologist in Iowa. Change has been the recurring theme of this campaign so far. However, I think we need more than change. We need to not just boot out Bush: we need to reboot the system.
From Wonkette:
You’d think Donald Rumsfeld would know better than to go to the land of rabid Jerry Lewis fans, striped boating shirt aficionados and melty cheeses, but oh, no! He probably thought, “It’s Sarkozy’s town, now,” and, therefore, he’d be greeted as a liberator.
Well, not exactly: Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item — he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him with torture.
Rumsfeld, in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine Foreign Policy, was tracked down by representatives of a coalition of international human rights groups, who informed the architect of the US invasion of Iraq that they had submitted a torture suit against him in French court. The filed documents allege that during his tenure, the former defense secretary “ordered and authorized” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Also: they yelled at him and called him a murderer! And it’s totally unfair! Because that Abu Ghraib stuff? It’s not like he connected the battery cables to the terrorists’ genitals himself or anything! God, that country has gone to the dogs. Renoir would be so embarrassed.
Once upon a time in America, reasonable people agreed on the facts and disagreed on the solutions.
Yet now, and especially over the last six years, our political discourse has grown ever more shrill, especially on the Republican side, with name-calling, demonizing and attacking the messenger, personal insults – anything to draw attention from the truth.
What are the Bush/Cheney administration and their Republican apologists afraid of? What is the dirty and terrible secret they are apparently frantic to protect?
What is the primary common thread behind this administration’s hideous legacy, which includes:
1) Their failure to detect and prevent 9/11
2) The squandered golden opportunity to bring America and the world together in the aftermath of 9/11
3) Their failed invasion of Afghanistan
4) Their failure to capture Osama Bin Laden
5) Lying America into war with an unthreatening sovereign country
6) Fabricating, falsifying and exaggerating intelligence information, then blaming the messenger
7) Failure to provide body armor for our sons & daughters who risk their lives and limbs to protect us
8) Failure to properly armor the vehicles driven by our sons & daughters who risk their lives and limbs to protect us
9) Their failed occupation and reconstruction of Iraq
10) Looting, chaos and civil war in Iraq with no end in sight
11) Repudiation of the international Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war
12) Shamelessly blaming our fighting men and women for their arrogant MISSION ACCOMPLISHED publicity stunt
13) Billions of our tax dollars lost off the back of pickup trucks and crooked middlemen
14) Continuing year after year to squander American lives and money on their Iraq folly with no achievable goals other than avoiding admitting or taking responsibility for their tragic mistakes by passing the problem onto their successors in 2009
15) Creating a vast new generation of international terrorists who hate America
16) Craven war profiteering and cronyism
17) No-bid privatization of government functions and departments
18) Pervasive secrecy and dishonesty at the highest levels
19) Repeated, blatant violations of the Hatch Act barring partisan politicking on government property
20) Abu Ghraib
21) Katrina
22) Walter Reed
23) Alberto Gonzales
24) The Pat Tillman propaganda cover-up
25) The Valerie Plame treason affair
26) The destruction of America’s international reputation
27) Torture, rendition, unlimited detention (of both US citizens and foreigners) without charges or trial
28) Unconstitutional and illegal spying & surveillance
29) The biggest budget deficits in American history
30) Corruption, bribery and pork-barrel spending at an all-time high
31) Building of secret standing armies not subject to our laws or Constitution
32) Unconstitutional power-grabbing via illegal executive orders and assertion of executive privilege
33) Breaking down the Constitutional separation of powers
34) The firing of US Attorneys scandal
35) Their unconstitutional use of hundreds of signing statements to undermine the enforcement of laws passed by Congress and signed by the President
36) The decisive 2006 electoral defeat of the Republican Party
37) Their despicable hiding behind the apron strings of decent and honorable members of our armed forces, commandeering the reputations of men like General Colin Powell and General David Petraeus to sell their lies and Enron-style accounting to the American public
The Bush/Cheney administration has betrayed and done great damage to the Republican Party. Leading, thoughtful conservatives, such as Pat Buchanan, John McLaughlin, Alan Greenspan, Brent Scowcroft, William F. Buckley, Jr., Ron Paul, Bruce Fein, and John McCain have already hinted at the sickening truth: The Bush/Cheney administration is probably the most recklessly incompetent in American history. Its negligence in, and distain for governing is breathtaking.
Many of us are no strangers to public service, and have many friends and colleagues from both parties who likewise serve or have served. When appointing people to positions of public trust and responsibility, first and foremost, they must be qualified and experienced to competently discharge the responsibilities of that position. One compiles a list of suitably qualified candidates, and then and only then, elected officials may choose those from the list who share their politics and loyalties. But the Bush/Cheney administration appointed people to key positions throughout the government solely and strictly on ideology and/or loyalty without the slightest regard to competence, experience or fitness. Conversely, they specifically excluded anyone who didn’t pass their narrow litmus tests. If you spoke fluent Arabic but you were in favor of Roe v Wade, you were rejected. “Heck of a job, Brownie!” was the rule, not the exception. That, for example, is how we got a 22-year-old in charge of establishing a stock exchange in Baghdad – incidentally a pet project of rather dubious priority in the chaos of Iraq.
Their reckless incompetence is a direct result of this policy, and all the killings, chaos, mismanagement, theft, cover-ups, law-breaking, tyranny and failures of this Administration can be traced back to this primary cardinal sin of governing. (OK, perhaps let’s add a sprinkling of greed and hubris, too.)
Whether or not one was in favor of the invasion of Iraq, the incompetent execution of the occupation and reconstruction was and remains criminal. How can our leaders claim to not to have known better? Even thousands of years ago, when the Roman Empire invaded a country, the military phase was immediately followed by a corps of experienced and competent administrators (who in this instance would have spoken fluent Arabic and been well-versed in Iraqi culture) ready to take over the key reins of government and infrastructure, in cooperation with suitable locals. And why were our “lessons-learned” in Vietnam and the tragic mistakes we made there largely ignored and repeated? This whole mission could have been competently and successfully concluded within a few months or never should have been undertaken at all, and none of the terrible aftermath would have ensued. But now Iraq is as broken as Humpty Dumpty – and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men and all the false bluster and chickenhawk rhetoric in the world can’t put back together again our questionable imperial goals in the Middle East.
The truth is that our military performed brilliantly and courageously, as always. No-one disputes that, and we all support our troops. But they have been betrayed and strained to breaking by this Administration’s incompetence, and to attempt to cover up its failures by accusing its critics of “not supporting the troops” and “aiding the enemy” is the worst kind of craven and shameful propaganda.
CANDIDATES TAKE NOTE: The American public is eager to rally around leaders who are strong in character and integrity, not strong in chest-thumping, false promises, wedge politics, and empty platitudes.
Meanwhile, the cynical Democratic Congress is playing shell-games with their base expecting further electoral success in 2008 by doing nothing while America hemorrhages. The Democratic presidential candidates are all promising strong leadership if they take office in 2009. But if the Republican Party continues their “lemming-like” policy of calling critics bad names and rationalizing this Administration’s incompetence and corruption, their 2006 election debacle will look like a “cakewalk” in 2008.
But there’s good news!
Now that the underlying truth is revealed, reversing the damage begins with 3 simple, albeit painful steps:
True patriots of the Republican Party must put aside partisanship, and for the good of the country we all love, as well as for the salvation of the Party:
1) Disavow, repudiate and reject the gross and malignant incompetence of the Bush/Cheney administration as a matter of both Party policy and principle
2) Hold them legally and Constitutionally accountable
3) Ask the American public, and the rest of the world for forgiveness for having facilitated and promoted this mess in the name of misplaced party loyalty.
And then we can all come back together again to agree on the facts and disagree on the solutions.
ABU GHRAIB: THE AFTERMATH: Fresh from telling The New Yorker magazine that senior U.S. defense officials were involved in directing the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, Taguba comes to The Club to discuss the scandal that shocked the world. Taguba will talk about the effects of Abu Ghraib on our nation's ability to execute elements of national power – diplomacy, information gathering, military operations and economic bargaining – and what changes, if any, have taken place since 2004. He will also address critical questions about the accountability of senior government officials.
