Here's the part that bothers me: Pres. Obama claiming that it was A FEW PEOPLE...

[polichick]

...involved in prisoner abuses, people who have already been dealt with.

WTF - The numbers of photos and sites prove otherwise, and the Senate committee who looked into the abuses earlier reported that the orders came from higher up. As Tweety just said on Hardball, even McCain and Graham signed off on that report.

Why is Pres. Obama going back to the "few bad apples" story??

[masuki bance]

1. What's your theory?

[polichick]

9. Don't really have one, but I wouldn't be surprised if he just means to delay...

...the release for a while because of his speech in Egypt ~ which still doesn't explain why he'd bring up that old debunked story.

[Thrill]

2. It is a few. When you consider the military as a whole.

[EFerrari]

7. CIa, FBI, State Department, Ireland, Spain The Netherlands, Poland

Syria, Morocco, Thailand, Canada, Pakistan, camps in Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq.

How does that sum to a few?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. maybe he means the real perpetrators Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney

they were a few

[polichick]

12. No, because he also said they have been punished or brought to justice...

...however he put it.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

40. the little guys who had to do the torture were only following orders

[EFerrari]

17. He was minimizing.

It's not helpful and it's unnecessary. It acts to prematurely foreclose an investigation we haven't really had yet.

[EFerrari]

3. Yeah, that's disturbing. It has already been shown to be policy,

not the bad behavior of a few cowboys. This was a global torture program that even involved the cooperation of many countries. That's not a few anything.

[polichick]

11. Yeah, it's already been debunked - so who does he think he's kidding?

[EFerrari]

13. Obama is probably trying to reach the biggest possible audience

It isn't necessarily a reflection of what he knows but, I'd appreciate it if he didn't do that.

[leftofthedial]

4. They Live

[polichick]

24. Who lives?

[leftofthedial]

38. they look just like us

if you're not wearing the sunglasses...


John Carpenter movie

[ShortnFiery]

5. Just like he has RENEGED on "renditions" for our prisoners to go to other countries to be TORTURED.

Just like our SURGE of troops to Afghanistan will make even more troops in the ME than last summer under BushCo. JUST LIKE the prisoners kept in Bahrain are NOT extended rights under the Geneva Conventions.

We now have PERPETUAL WAR with "a smiling face."

Mark my words, Obama will cease to be popular in The World given these facts that have been sweep under the rug by our corporate M$M.

[polichick]

16. Good point - I'm starting to wonder if he's a great magician...

...disappearing all the ugly stuff with that amazing charisma.

[ShortnFiery]

26. It makes me wish that I was either brilliant or stupid. Being average but intellectually curious

is not enough to comfort my soul. :shrug:

[opihimoimoi]

6. Perhaps its the truth as told to him? The man is clean....he is good, he is a visionary

We hate this, we wanna take high profile peeps down as a blood sport...thats the GOP way...win by making others look worse

Obama is priceless....get them guards to triple their staff.

[incapsulated]

8. 2000 photos of a few bad apples

Real shutterbugs.

[polichick]

18. Lol - I had the same thought!

[EFerrari]

19. And from the detainee reports, there were video cameras all over

whether they were held in Afghanistan or in Gitmo.

:shrug:

[OneGrassRoot]

14. It gets curiouser and curiouser....

We can speculate about so much of this. And we have...and shall continue to because, well, that's one of the functions of this public board. Trying to make sense of things.

I'm clueless, but if I tried to think of a good reason Obama may have for that particular irritating aspect of this situation (him reverting to the "few bad apples" insinuation), perhaps it's the same reason he's not releasing the photos?

To maybe try to avoid more tensions and retaliation in the Middle East? If he downplays this and doesn't release photos, it may serve that same purpose.

HOWEVER, stating that those at the highest levels will be prosecuted would go a long way to do the very same thing, IMHO.

All I know is that if BushCo isn't held accountable for their crimes against this country and the world, it will be intolerable....

[polichick]

20. I agree - saying that the perps will be held responsible would help a lot!

[slipslidingaway]

15. I agree, disturbing comment ....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=311886&mesg_id=311886

President Obama...

"It’s therefore my belief that the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals."

[polichick]

22. "would not add any additional benefit to our understanding"

Thanks for posting that ~ I first heard it on NPR and actually said out loud in my car, "Huh???"

[slipslidingaway]

29. Why President Obama is repeating the excuses of the prior adm.

is beyond me, there was no reason to include the line of a few bad apples or a small number of individuals.

:(

"And the individuals who were involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken."

[polichick]

35. Thanks again - for more of that quote. :)

[slipslidingaway]

37. YW, here is the video and at least a portion of the transcript....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=311886&mesg_id=311886

[EFerrari]

25. It's not his job to censor information for the American public. Period.

[slipslidingaway]

30. Correct and the ACLU says these will help to show the widespread

use of torture at other locations, furthering the argument that it was not just a small amount of individuals who acted on their own.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/39455prs20090423.html

"...include images from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan at locations other than Abu Ghraib.

"These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU. "Their disclosure is critical for helping the public understand the scope and scale of prisoner abuse as well as for holding senior officials accountable for authorizing or permitting such abuse."

[Zen Democrat]

21. But the photos are not of Rumsfeld and Cheney inflicting torture --

but lower level military ordered to do this evil stuff -- I think that may be what's going on here. If we had pictures of Cheney doing some head-banging and waterboarding and turning the dogs on people, there would be no photo censorship whatsoever.

But -- I feel certain we'll see these pictures ere long. There will be a lawsuit and the courts will order them released, and the Obama administration won't have had a thing to do with it, which is the plan, I believe.

[polichick]

23. It's not the delay that bothers me, but his use of the debunked "few bad apples" story...

That's the part that makes no sense to me.

I do think you're right that the photos will eventually be released and Obama is trying to stay out of it (though I'm not sure that's admirable).

[EndElectoral]

27. He ignores what Karpinski said. And why is Sibel Edmonds still not allowed to speak about 911. WTF

[polichick]

28. Two excellent points - Karpinski was terrific (and angry) on Rachel's show!

[slay]

31. Great post polichick - why would he stir up a mess over these pics?

Cover-up is my first answer. He could have easily done nothing and just let the pics come out on the 28th and said - it was what the court had ordered. But NO - he is once again covering for the Bush administration. I think you are exactly right that it will totally disprove the "few bad apples" story and for some reason, Obama is engaging in a cover-up. Do they have something on him? Is this some kind of trade off to end Don't Ask - Don't Tell policy? I do not understand why he would do this - at the VERY least, he is not being honest with us as to why he now SUDDENLY opposes the release of these pics, when he campained on just the opposite. Senators Harkin and Feingold seem quite bothered by turn of events as well - with Feingold all but saying it's a cover-up.

"Senator Russ Feingold became one of the first elected officials to criticize Barack Obama for his reversal on releasing of detainee abuse in a statement Wednesday afternoon. Saying he saw no "compelling reason" to object to the release of the images, the Wisconsin Democrat said:


"I am generally opposed to keeping the American people in the dark for no other reason than to shield misconduct, avoid embarrassment or other reasons not pertaining to national security. From what I've heard so far, I'm not convinced there is a compelling reason these photos shouldn't be released."

More Feingold at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/13/feingold-whacks-obama-for_n_203158.html

[polichick]

34. Thanks - you're right, it seems like a cover-up (whether it is or not).

[rocktivity]

32. Is he?

Maybe he "few" he's referring to are the "few" at the top--of the pyramid! Even Keith Olbermann was smart enough to refer to it as a "version" of the few bad apples "theory..."

:think:
rocktivity

[polichick]

36. Then he wouldn't have said, "And the individuals who were involved have been identified...

...and appropriate actions have been taken."

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Bluerthanblue]

39. I believe he said that about those specific 44 photos- I'm not so

sure he is saying it about all the evidence the Pentagon has in its possession.

I gotta admit I find the statement kind of disturbing as well.

Pres.Obama has an incredibly fine line to walk-

:shrug: