Obama smoothes passage of war spending bill by pledging to suppress torture photos

[Karmadillo]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/warf-j15.shtml

Obama smoothes passage of war spending bill by pledging to suppress torture photos
By Tom Eley
15 June 2009

Negotiators in the US House and Senate on Friday reached a tentative agreement on a $105.9 billion “emergency” war-funding bill for US military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan through September. The Obama administration paved the way for the agreement by promising Senate Democrats that it would continue to suppress dozens of photographs of US military and intelligence personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners. Full approval should come this week, bringing the total Congressional allocation for the wars to more than $900 billion since 2001.

Democratic Senators had earlier joined their Republican colleagues in adding a measure to the war bill, on Obama’s request, that would have outlawed the release of the torture photos. This rider had delayed the bill’s passage. The House Democratic leadership warned it would no longer have enough support to pass the bill, with House Republicans having already promised to vote no in protest to a separate rider that will guarantee $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In response, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel ‘rushed’ to Capitol Hill and prevailed upon Senate Democrats to remove the torture photo measure in exchange for an explicit White House promise that it would use all means at its disposal to block the photos’ release. Obama also issued a letter to Congress assuring it he would support separate legislation to suppress the photos, if necessary, and imploring it to speed passage of the war-spending bill. The rider would “unnecessarily complicate the essential objective of supporting the troops,” Obama wrote.

The administration’s position was strengthened Thursday by the US Court of Appeals in New York, which granted Obama a stay on the court’s earlier order to release the torture photos so that the White House can appeal to the US Supreme Court. Should the US Supreme Court rule in Obama’s favor, the photos may never be made public.

The episode demonstrates the Democrats’ leading role in carrying forward the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and their complicity in covering up the criminality of these operations. Obama’s intervention in removing the rider that would have suppressed the torture photos—in exchange for his promise to do so himself—was specifically aimed at providing political cover to allow 51 “anti-war” members of the Democrats’ House delegation to support the war funding bill. “Many of them are leadership loyalists who can be counted on to switch” their vote, the Associated Press notes.

<edit>

Civil liberties groups expressed dismay at the new filing. “This is a watershed moment,” said Ben Wizner, a legal representative of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “There’s no mistake any longer. The Obama administration has now fully embraced the Bush administration’s shameful effort to immunize torturers and their enablers from any legal consequences for their actions.”

more...

[ixion]

1. the more things 'change' the more they stay the same.

:(

[indepat]

4. Has the President articulated in unambiguous terms why the US is

remaining in Iraq and thereby seeming to legitimize junior's pre-emptive war of choice deemed illegal by much of the world? :D

[bvar22]

9. Yes.

Obama has stated that US Military forces will remain in Iraq to:

1)Fight Al-Qaeda

2)Train Iraqi forces

3)Protect American interests.

If that sounds familiar, it should.
That is the exact same Mission Statement that was used by Little Bush.

If you wade through all the ambiguities and campaign sloganeering, and read all the fine print, the bottom line is that Obama has promised to withdraw some US Troops at some future date "if conditions permit".

If you sift that statement for The Truth, you will arrive at the conclusion that Obama has NO intention of ending the US Military Occupation of Iraq.

[indepat]

10. All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot legitimize illegitimacy

:P

[LWolf]

8. The real "change" is that

we've now legitimized the stuff we hated a year ago by putting a Democrat in charge of continuing it.

[G_j]

2. I thought this a joke at first...

but.. not from the Onion, no sarcasm tags..



sad

[JDPriestly]

3. I don't really trust the WSWS as a news source. They are about

as reliable as Fox News in my opinion. But this quotes the ACLU, an organization I do trust. The article does not name the senators Obama claims he was placating. Besides Lieberman, which Democrats?

[chill_wind]

5. Well thank God for that. We need to have our priorities.

Deals for more drowning and dying American taxpayer money spent on more war and death, with continued protection for torturing war criminals spending it in our names.

[MadHound]

6. More evidence that the two party/same corporate master system of government is alive and well

Keeping that war machine running, making the few rich while screwing the rest of us.

Ah yes, "change we can believe in.":puke:

[AndyA]

7. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Co. thank you, President Obama.

One day you can all sit around and talk about how you pulled one over on the world.

Congratulations, you are judged by the company you keep. And allowing crimes to be covered up is almost as bad as doing them. Obama = criminal? Only you can determine your future, Barack. :(

By the way, I didn't support you, send money to you, or send a family member out of state to monitor a polling area for this type of decision from you. This isn't change, it's more of the same.

[spanone]

11. there is a timetable.