Notice what was thrown in the FND? (Friday News Dump)

[Political Heretic]

'Torture Memo' Lawyers Cleared of Misconduct

The Justice Department ruled Friday that lawyers who authorized CIA interrogators to use waterboarding are not guilty of professional misconduct, but did show “poor judgment,” after an internal investigation into the Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies. Though Obama campaigned to abolish the method, which simulates drowning, the Justice Department was responsible for deciding if those previously authorizing such tactics would be punished. Though an initial review concluded that the two former government lawyers, John Yoo and Jay Bybee, had committed professional misconduct, the Justice Department’s most senior lawyer disagreed after re-examining the case. But he wrote in a memo, “This decision should not be viewed as an endorsement of the legal work that underlies those memoranda.”
Read it at Associated Press

Source: AP, via The Daily Beast

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERROGATION...

[aquart]

1. Yeah, I did.

And note to senior lawyer: An endorsement is EXACTLY what this is. More. It's blanket permission.

[Canuckistanian]

2. It's past due for Obama to address this question

"Is torture now legal?"

Because there's every indication that it is and Obama just CHOOSES not to use it.

[jgraz]

6. He's addressed it. Clearly.

Any pretense that he disagrees with Bush and Cheney is now gone.

[MissDeeds]

25. Exactly

His silence speaks volumes.

[dbmk]

28. Except he made it clear he did not agree with policy?

It might be a wuss move not to prosecute them. But that hardly implies that he agrees with the position.

[jgraz]

30. Torture is not "policy", it's a war crime.

If you refuse to prosecute war crimes, that makes you an accessory after the fact.

[G_j]

3. "..should not be viewed as an endorsement.."

pardon me but, what a weasel!

the Justice Department’s most senior lawyer

[Solly Mack]

8. No kidding.

[G_j]

12. totally disheartening

I'm not sure what can be done now.

[hisownpetard]

14. Ditto.

[Solly Mack]

15. It is....very much so.

Not unexpected though.

Couldn't just stop at the lawyers, so had to shut that avenue down...what with trying to pass Bush off as a humanitarian and all that

America is taking the cowards way out.

Anyone expecting to bring the country together by allowing war criminals to go free is an idiot.

'Good' people don't pretend torture isn't torture. 'Good' people don't protect war criminals.

[G_j]

4. kick

[jimlup]

5. Yeah this should have lead the news tonight...

Not Tiger Woods for C. sake...

We just dismantled Nuremberg...

[ThomThom]

23. but we learned so much from the hours of coverage especially

the whole hour of speculation before hand. He made a mistake, he is sorry, he will try to do better was unexpected and breaking news.


NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Foo Fighter]

7. Well gee, the next time I get stopped for speeding, can I use the same

argument to avoid a ticket and a fine. After all, it was nothing more than 'poor judgment' on my part.

"This decision should not be viewed as an endorsement of the legal work that underlies those memoranda."

IOW, just because we let them get off scott-free doesn't mean we approve of what they did. Except that we do. No misconduct here. Move along now.

[kentuck]

9. Finally !

bi-partisanship!

[upi402]

10. I clicked it twice, couldn't belive it

I almost posted it here, but decided to not. What's the point anymore?

[fan of the arts]

11. What a wonderful "justice" dept huh -- Approves torture and its conspirators

It's so outrageous it could only happen in our Orwellian version of "democracy" we have now wherein troop increases = Nobel Peace Price (War is Peace) and propaganda equals truth (Ignorance is Strength).

[Mari333]

13. knr. setting the precedent for obama and future officials.

that was the point I guess. Imperialism takes over for good.

[graywarrior]

16. I've been pissed since I heard yesterday

Makes me realize that nothing is gonna change. I'm so fed up with government it makes me sick.

[Mari333]

17. This video succinctly says what I feel like now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVdKQ0I35qo

[graywarrior]

18. Very appropriate

[merh]

19. The OPR found differently

They were just overruled by those that think the department matters more than the nation.

The Office of Professional Responsibility, led by another veteran career prosecutor, Mary Patrice Brown, disagreed.

"Situations of great stress, danger and fear do not relieve department attorneys of their duty to provide thorough, objective and candid legal advice, even if that advice is not what the client wants to hear," her team wrote in a report that criticized the memos for a "lack of thoroughness, objectivity and candor."

The internal report also faulted then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and then-Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff for not scrutinizing the memos and recognizing their flaws, but the report did not cite them for misconduct.



Finding fault but not recommending prosecution or punishment, that's like saying you understand why the Alabama Professor did what she did and not recommending she be tried for her crimes. I mean stress and all that.

[Lothrop]

20. Disappointing

but not surprising.

It's a protection racket.

[City Lights]

21. "poor judgment"

[ThomThom]

22. Did they take into account what Cheney said last Sunday that

they were told to give that advise? They knowing gave bad advise because they were told to, so the administration could make it look like there was a reasonable difference of opinion on the legality of torture. They should still be disbarred for giving such clearly wrong legal advise but I don't think it was criminal what they did. The criminal part comes in when Bush invaded and tortured no matter what advise was given to him. If someone told me it was not against the law to rob a bank and acting on that advise I knock off the Bank of America branch down the street, when I was caught I would be convicted. The person telling me it was ok would walk away, laughing probably. Bush should have known invasion was wrong, torture was wrong, holding people with out legal representation or trial is wrong and because he did these things he should suffer the consequences. Cheney too.

[Joe Chi Minh]

24. It reminds me of a ruling by that old rogue that the British Establishment and media used

to lionize, Lord Denham, one-time Master of the Rolls, namely, that a professional man could not 'blunder', but could only 'make an error of judgement'.

[SlingBlade]

26. It's that "Change" Thingy, Remember Watergate, Iran Contra ..

Bush V Gore, Plamegate, October surprises .. On and on it goes.

They ALWAYS come back
Your children can thank Obama and this Dem congress for the next batch of fascist that come crashing through the door. Who knows, Perhaps next time they simply won't leave.

[tom_paine]

29. That is so very well and concisely said, it deserves it's own OP

Sadly, I said this MANY times in the years 2001-2008, that my worst nightmare was that our next Leader (long before Obama was a blip on the radar) would merely be a placeholder for the Bushie Imperium, who would replicate the mistakes of gutless Democratic predecessors. Specifically Clinton on Iran-Contra & Iraqgate, though I mentioned every one of your examples at one time or another - as it was so obvious.

Kind of creepy watching it, especially after having such foolish high-hopes for Obama & his administration against the Corporate Media/RW Lie Machine Fusion and the rest of the Corporate Infrastructure of Power that now dominates damned near every aspect of our political system.

There can be no doubt that we are 100% correct in our assessment.

The only question left is, in 2013 (and 2017 is possible but unlikely in that the Bushies, who remain essentially the true Rulers of America, seem to be moving VERY fast indeed as they get closer to whatever their Final Solution will be) and on, will the American Corporatists be the same as their antecedents, the 1920s and 30s German Industrialists, and lose control of what they create.

Will we see in our lifetimes actual CLASSICAL Totalitarianism from our future Bushie Overlords, or will they be able to maintain the hothouse flower of current "plausibly deniable" Inverted Totalitarianism in the face of future building of societal stressors, many of which they personally cultivated through the Corporate Media/RW Lie Machine Fusion?

We get to watch it unfold, whether we want to or not.

[SlingBlade]

31. Great Post. And yea, It's like watching a very slow trainwreck

right in from of your eyes while folks walk by like nothing is happening

Till Next Time !

History, It just messes with your mind.

[Bluebear]

27. It's time to move forward beyond this so we can heal.