"An Incredible Day in America"
Does anyone have a comment on this?
NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN
An Incredible Day in America
By Martin Garbus
12/17/05 "Huffington Post" -- -- Today, for two separate reasons, has been
an incredible day in America. First, the United States has legitimized
torture and secondly, the President has admitted to an impeachable offense.
First, the media has been totally misled on the alleged Bush-McCain
agreement on torture. McCain capitulated. It is not a defeat for Bush. It is
a win for Cheney.
Torture is not banned or in any way impeded.
Under the compromise, anyone charged with torture can defend himself if a
"reasonable" person could have concluded they were following a lawful order.
That defense "loophole" totally corrodes the ban. It is the CIA, or the
torturing agency, who will decide what a "reasonable" person could have
concluded. Can you imagine those agencies in the interrogation business
torturing on their own in trying to decide what is reasonable or what is
not? What is not "reasonable" if the interrogator (wrongfully or rightfully)
believes he has a ticking-bomb situation? Will a CIA or military officer
issue a narrow order if he knows his interrogator believes, in this case,
torture will work?
The Bush-McCain torture compromise legitimizes torture. It is the first time
that has happened in this country. Not in the two World Wars, Korea, the
Cold War or Vietnam did the government ever seek or get the power this bill
gives them.
The worst part of it is that most of the media missed it and got it wrong.
Secondly, the President in authorizing surveillance without seeking a court
order has committed a crime. The Federal Communications Act criminalizes
surveillance without a warrant. It is an impeachable offense. This was also
totally missed by the media.
Martin Garbus is a partner in the law firm of Davis & Gilbert LLP and one of
the country's leading trial lawyers.
Copyright 2005
Our nation is moving into unknown waters. These rapid changes in the society and the laws will bring about an inevitable confrontation of wills. Torture has been gently manuevered into the american psche. First with the pictures, the more benign pictures, of Abu Graib and then with all the talk, talk, talk. This puts alot of people off, and so it goes that the day comes when the average citizen in their lazy mentality accept torture rather than grapple with the depth of thought necessary to get their minds around why it is wrong.
john
The media was not misled, they are one very important branch of the syndicated criminal organization that is ruling this world.
john