Mukasey's Litmus Test-1) Cover-up Torture 2) Block Criminal Investigations (Scott Horton)

[kpete]

This is the background against which the current acts of the new Attorney General, Michael B. Mukasey must be judged. As I noted previously, there is a strong basis to fear that Mukasey came up through a litmus test under which he was required to do two things: (1) to give his commitment to continue to provide cover for the torture system, and (2) to block any effort to have a meaningful criminal investigation that would disclose the torture system or any of its details. As things now stand, it looks like Mukasey is delivering on these test points. He’s been on the job for a month, and he continues to publicly refrain from expressing an opinion on waterboarding. This signals that there has been no change in the status quo ante, namely, torture techniques including waterboarding remain on the agenda, available for use.

..............

Update: More Evidence of DOJ Cover-Up

Just as I posted this, the Associated Press issued a story which gives much more substance to my suspicions. In submissions filed with a federal judge in Washington, the Justice Department has taken the legal position that the Bush Administration was under no obligation to preserve the tapes, and insisting that the Court look the other way and undertake no investigation. Here’s the AP’s lead:

The Bush Administration told a federal judge it was not obligated to preserve videotapes of CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists and urged the court not to look into the tapes’ destruction. In court documents filed Friday night, government lawyers told U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy that demanding information about the tapes would interfere with current investigations by Congress and the Justice Department.

It was the first time the government had addressed the issue of the videotapes in court. Kennedy ordered the administration in June 2005 to safeguard “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071215/cia-videotapes/

Let me translate this for you from the legalese. Mukasey to judge pressing queries about tapes destroyed in defiance of his court order: “Drop dead.” The political bucaneer appearing for the Justice Department, Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, explains that if the Court starts looking into the matter, it might get in the way of the Justice Department’s preliminary investigation. Mr. Bucholtz is a certified “movement conservative,” a former clerk to Judge Alito, and a man who earned his Bush DOJ stripes by successfully arguing that Dick Cheney is immune to litigation and discovery, including of what he has lurking in that man-sized safe.

much more at:
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001917

[marylanddem]

1. Let us never forget that Feinstein & Schumer

handed us this atrocity of an attorney general gift-wrapped

[NoodleyAppendage]

2. EXACTLY. Their traitorous actions have led to this bullsh*t. Thanks NY and CA!

Why or how these two DINO jerks keep getting re-elected is beyond me.

J

[disndat]

4. Diane Feinstein

is a proven traitor. There may still be hope, though very dim, for Schumer

[L. Coyote]

3. MUST READ, MUST READ, MUST READ, did I say MUST READ... eom

[L. Coyote]

5. "The only tool that will bring this Justice Department into line ... is a whipping."

"The only tool that will bring this Justice Department into line and will attune it once more to its constitutional duties before the Congress and the public is a whipping."

I was thinking more along the line of water torture AND thumb screws.

[L. Coyote]

6. Highest Rec ever. Bump this up, Bump this up, ....

[kpete]

7. everyone

must be baking cookies today, you think?

[L. Coyote]

10. kicking this important piece

[L. Coyote]

8. "Saturday Night Massacre" Redux. "The Friday Afternoon Judicial Holocaust"

This administration acts like a fascist junta, unaware of the Constitution of the United States.

In a real sense we are seeing a repeat of history. The details are very different, but the underlying reality is the same. The President has declared himself to be above the law, imposing widespread destruction on Justice. Friday afternoon is now a galvanized symbol of dumping on Justice.

The "Saturday Night Massacre" was the term given by political commentators to U.S. President Richard Nixon's executive dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus during the Watergate scandal on October 20, 1973.

Cox had been appointed by Richardson in May of that year, after having given assurances to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he would appoint an independent counsel to investigate the events surrounding the Watergate break-in of June 17, 1972. Cox subsequently issued a subpoena to President Nixon, asking for copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office and authorized by Nixon as evidence. The president initially refused to comply with the subpoena, but on October 19, 1973, he offered what was later known as the Stennis Compromise—asking U.S. Senator John C. Stennis to review and summarize the tapes for the special prosecutor's office.

Cox refused the compromise that same evening, and it was believed that there would be a short rest in the legal maneuvering while government offices were closed for the weekend. However, President Nixon acted to dismiss Cox from his office the next night – a Saturday. He contacted Attorney General Richardson and ordered him to fire the special prosecutor. Richardson refused, and instead resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; he also refused and resigned in protest.

Nixon then contacted the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, and ordered him as acting head of the Justice Department to fire Cox. Richardson and Ruckelshaus had both personally assured the congressional committee overseeing the special prosecutor investigation that they would not interfere – Bork had made no such assurance to the committee. Thus, Bork complied with Nixon's order and fired Cox. .............

Nixon defended his actions in a famous press conference on November 17, 1973, in which he stated,

"...in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. ..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

Bush has a similar denial, "We don't torture."

My experience dictates that that judgment is best made by the victim. The tortured know better.
The whole world knows better, and today they saw the holocaust of American justice at work.

[disndat]

9. A question for:

D. Feinstein, C. Schumer, Mukasey, and Naomi Wolf, is this how the Nazi Holocaust started

[alfredo]

11. Is there any way he can be removed?

[L. Coyote]

12. Easily, by impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Stay tuned. This is a turning point

not unlike Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre. Mukasey just elevated Bush above the Constitution. Congress knows when they are insulted!!

[Disturbed]

13. "not obligated to preserve videotapes of CIA interrogations"

What about the Transcripts of the CIA Interrogations?

[alfredo]

16. So if they preserved nothing, what good is gathering intelligence?

[L. Coyote]

17. Actually, there is a court order that applies, from ACLU case.

Clearly, the destruction violated one standing court order.

[mile18blister]

14. Dammit. At first I had some hope that a guy recommended by a Dem

would be a lot better than Gonzo. Guess not. He should have never made it out of committee - anyone who doesn't know if waterboarding is torture is either living in a cave or a loyal Bushie.

As a Californian, I apologize for DiFi. I voted against her in the primary, but an unknown, underfunded progressive had no chance of unseating a millionaire incumbent. Yeah, I held my nose and put a mark next to her name in the GE, but I was voting to get the Dems a majority, not because I wanted her.

[Elidor]

15. Oh, c'mon! They said he's the best we can get.

Haven't you learned to accept crooks and hacks running the Justice Department yet? Just think how much WORSE they could have done.

:sarcasm:

I believe I'm going to send Chuck Schumer a little Christmas card thanking him for fobbing this POS off on us.

[deacon]

18. He is congress' fault! They gave us another alberto! A travesty! n/t