U.S. Justice Department Has Failed to Hold CIA Accountable for Torture in Detention

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/us-justice-department-has-failed-to-hold-cia-accountable-for-torture-in-detention-0

Press Release

Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [e-mail], 212-633-4150, @strimel

(New York) – Amnesty International USA Executive Director Suzanne Nossel made the following comments today in response to the Justice Department’s announcement that it closed the investigation into the CIA’s torture and abuse of detainees, without bringing charges.

“The continued failure to hold accountable all of those responsible for well documented cases of torture and other abuses is now a stain on two administrations -- and itself a crime. Those responsible must be punished. The failure to do so is a striking blow against justice and human rights. The Attorney General noted that the decision to close the investigation ‘was not intended to, and does not resolve, broader questions regarding the propriety of the examined conduct.’

But when will those ‘broader questions’ be addressed? And when will the U.S. government meet its international human rights obligations to ensure accountability for torture and other crimes under international law? There must be a full and impartial investigation, prosecutions where warranted, and remedy and redress for victims. Failure to ensure accountability for torture and other crimes is itself a violation of international law."

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.









via #OccupyMARINES

[librechik]

1. yes it's a scandal--something must be done about the DOJ--we are all in danger

if things are left to continue on their own.

[Politicalboi]

2. Too busy closing Marijuana shops.

[1-Old-Man]

3. Lawlessness is the greatest "clear and present danger' this nation faces

When the Government itself can not be constrained by law then we are at our most dangerous juncture with loss of democracy.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. But..but...the actual torturers/murderers were "just following orders".

Hell, I'll bet those CIA guys could even say it in German.

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. Failure to prosecute those responsible is a stain on our nation.

And on the Obama Justice Department.

[Solly Mack]

6. k/r

[riderinthestorm]

7. I've been told many times already on DU that "we" don't do this bad shit anymore

Nobody has to worry about this - evah!!

Anyone who even dares think the US is in violation of international laws (repeatedly so - gasp!) just doesn't have their head screwed on straight and is a paranoid delusional hero worshiper.

[polly7]

8. It's Official: No One Will Ever Be Prosecuted for Bush-Era Torture

—By Kevin Drum| Fri Aug. 31, 2012 10:37 AM PDT
131

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/08/its-official-no-one-will-ever-be-prosecuted-bush-era-torture

[Luminous Animal]

9. Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian comments...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/obama-justice-department-immunity-bush-cia-torturer

The Obama administration's aggressive, full-scale whitewashing of the "war on terror" crimes committed by Bush officials is now complete. Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the closing without charges of the only two cases under investigation relating to the US torture program: one that resulted in the 2002 death of an Afghan detainee at a secret CIA prison near Kabul, and the other the 2003 death of an Iraqi citizen while in CIA custody at Abu Ghraib. This decision, says the New York Times Friday, "eliminat[es] the last possibility that any criminal charges will be brought as a result of the brutal interrogations carried out by the CIA".

To see what a farce this is, it is worthwhile briefly to review the timeline of how Obama officials acted to shield Bush torturers from all accountability. During his 2008 campaign for president, Obama repeatedly vowed that, while he opposed "partisan witch-hunts", he would instruct his attorney general to "immediately review" the evidence of criminality in these torture programs because "nobody is above the law." Yet, almost immediately after winning the 2008 election, Obama, before he was even inaugurated, made clear that he was opposed to any such investigations, citing what he called "a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards".

Throughout the first several months of his presidency, his top political aides, such as the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, publicly – and inappropriately – pressured the justice department to refrain from any criminal investigations. Over and over, they repeated the Orwellian mantra that such investigations were objectionable because "we must look forward, not backward". As Gibbs put it in April 2009, when asked to explain Obama's opposition, "the president is focused on looking forward. That's why."

On 16 April 2009, Obama himself took the first step in formalizing the full-scale immunity he intended to bestow on all government officials involved even in the most heinous and lethal torture. On that date, he decreed absolute immunity for any official involved in torture provided that it comported with the permission slips produced by Bush department of justice (DOJ) lawyers which authorized certain techniques.

[Luminous Animal]

10. Now that there has been no crime committed, we will torture again.

[struggle4progress]

17. Greenwald's main desire, that Democrats lose more seats, always colors his comments:

Re-rise of the Naderites: Glenn Greenwald’s third party dreamin’ **UPDATE: on Libertarianism
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/04/re-rise-of-the-naderites-glenn-greenwalds-third-party-dreamin/

[Luminous Animal]

18. So, you are okay with the DOJ letting government sanctioned torturers& murderers go unpunished.

[struggle4progress]

19. If you have a coherent plan for doing that, I'm sure many of us are interested, but success won't be

easy

We've never been able to bring Kissinger to justice for his many crimes in the Nixon era, nor have we brought the Reagan thugs to justice for their international mayhem

Bush essentially came to power by judicial coup, and the power structure today is still full of Bushbots: why, for example, is Jay Bybee still a judge?

You might look at some comparative cases, to see how long it can take to bring perpetrators to justice: how long did it take, for example, to convict Videla's gang in Argentina?

Greenwald isn't interested in the hard dull decades of work to bring any of these gangsters to justice: his specialty is shrill noise that's intended split progressives away from Obama

[suegeo]

11. Farce

There's one set of "laws" for the rich and connected and another for us serfs. Torture people to death, well okay. Steal a pack of beer, there are consequences.

If I am not mistaken the financial crimes went largely white-washed as well.

Who joins an army to fight for the gain of these dishonest shit heads?

[Solly Mack]

12. ACLU response

http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/torture-impunity

CIA interrogators were told that they could waterboard suspects, even though the Reagan administration and its predecessors prosecuted Americans and others for using the tactic. Interrogators were told they could use, among other tactics, extended sleep deprivation; "stress positions" such as forced-standing, handcuffing in painful crouched positions and shackling people to the ceiling, usually for hours or even days; confining prisoners to small, coffin-like boxes with air and light cut off; extended forced nudity; sensory bombardment; extreme temperatures; hooding; and physical beatings, including slamming prisoners into walls. Each and every one of these techniques had been declared torture at some point by US courts, Israeli courts, European Courts, the UN Committee on Torture or other foreign courts. But the OLC's approval of the techniques meant the Obama Justice Department refused to investigate their use. Instead, in 2009, Attorney General Holder ordered a preliminary review of 101 cases where the CIA allegedly went even beyond the approved torture techniques. In June 2011, the Justice Department closed 99 of those cases and opened full investigations into the remaining 2, both of which involved prisoners who died while in US custody. Now, those last two investigations have also ended.

It is simply unacceptable that torture can be treated with impunity, no matter the goal of the torturers. Doing so gravely undermines the prohibition against torture worldwide and sends the dangerous message to US and foreign officials that there will be no consequences for future abuses.

[G_j]

13. it's reassuring to know the DOJ has looked into 101 cases

and determined nothing criminal took place... simply unacceptable

[Solly Mack]

14. I know, right?

Here's Scott Horton at Harper's.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2012/08/hbc-90008825


read the part about admissible evidence (and then think about the torture isn't admissible because of national security blah blah blah bullshit we've heard over and over again)

Yet America will continue to release its yearly report on human rights, daring to point the fingers at others.

[G_j]

15. that was easy

"The Department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt."

[Solly Mack]

16. Handy, isn't it?

Can cover all manner of crimes and cover-ups.