Obama on torture photos: cover-up and complicity

[IndianaGreen]

Obama on torture photos: cover-up and complicity

15 May 2009

President Obama’s repudiation of his promise to comply with a court order and release Pentagon torture photos marks a qualitative deepening of the cover-up of the crimes carried out under Bush as well as their continuation under the new administration in only slightly altered form.

The president’s decision amounts to the deliberate suppression of evidence that the US military-intelligence apparatus, at the direction of the White House, carried out systemic torture.

The about-face on the torture photos is of a piece with a series of actions taken by the administration in recent months. These include the Obama Justice Department’s attempt to suppress lawsuits challenging extraordinary rendition, torture and illegal domestic spying, all hallmarks of the police-state apparatus erected under Bush in the name of a war on terrorism.

Moreover, according to press reports, the decision on the photos coincides with the administration’s finalizing of plans to hold terror suspects indefinitely without charges in the US itself. It was precisely the Bush administration’s designation of such detainees as “enemy combatants”—supposedly without the protection of either the Constitution or the Geneva Conventions—that facilitated the use of torture. Now, it appears that this status of legal limbo is going to be continued on US soil, with far-reaching implications for democratic rights.

Obama’s statement Wednesday justifying his keeping the photos secret is a mixture of political hypocrisy and outright lies.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/pers-m15.shtml

[NYC_SKP]

1. Copyright © 1998-2009 World Socialist Web Site

If they're unhappy, then I'm fucking ecstatic.

More bullshit and hype.

This would be a lovely piece for SocialistUnderground.

:patriot:

[IndianaGreen]

3. They are Trotskyites. I am a Marxist and I agree with them.

Let us know when you realize that Obama is giving you a big un-lubricated BOHICA, not just on this issue, but on health care reform as well. Why is Obama keeping single payer option off the table?

[jgraz]

16. Holy fuck. Can we at least avoid freeper-style Red Baiting on this site?

Is that really too much to ask?

[anonymous171]

20. Red-baiting is not red-baiting when you are simply stating a fact.

Calling a Marxist a Marxist is not red-baiting. Calling anyone to the left of Ronald Reagan a Communist is.

[slay]

23. It is when in the body of the post he says:

"If they're unhappy, then I'm fucking ecstatic." - PURELY because it comes from a socialist website - and DISREGARDS talking about the article at all other than to call it "bullshit and hype". What kind of reaction does NYC_SKP expect when he does shit like that? :shrug:

[freddie mertz]

26. Do you have a list?

I heard the number 17 being batted around.

##$%###&*^ Commies!

[slay]

21. Your sig line is annoying and your red baiting is inexcusable

In my book at least. Doesn't matter to you at all that they are right I guess. You're ecstatic cause they are disapointed - knowing MANY others here on DU agree with the article. Well aren't you a lovely human being.

[polichick]

2. That series of actions reminds me of Eisenhower's warning about...

...the Military Industrial Complex.

At 1:44 - "We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdrGKwkmxAU&feature=related

[IndianaGreen]

4. Ike was right.

And he did try to warn the nation.

[polichick]

7. And all these years later, the MIC is bigger and more despicable than ever...

America is like many addicts ~ learns nothing until it hits rock bottom. Guess we're not there yet.

[flyarm]

18. DANG RIGHT IKE WAS RIGHT! eom

[onetwo]

5. Where does this fit into that 'series of actions?'

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/02/justice.memos.released/index.html

[polichick]

6. imo the difference is that the memos shine a light on civilians - the Bush admin. & lawyers...

...not the military. (Especially since Obama said nobody carrying out the orders would be prosecuted.)

[Kdillard]

8. Impeach him.

[Vattel]

9. it was their designation as "unlawful combatants,"

not "enemy combatants" that supposedly denied them any protections under the geneva conventions.

[cali]

10. why it's the left equivalent of worldnutdaily. Great source?

:rofl:

[IndianaGreen]

12. WSWS opposed war in Iraq and PATRIOT while many of you went for the ride

The Left has turned out to be right, while self-described moderates and centrists ended up with egg on their faces, and with less freedoms.

What happened to single payer health, how come it is not on the table?

[creeksneakers2]

13. Single payer health was never promised

nor is it achievabble in the short run. Why put something impossible on the table that would crowd out the possible?

[IndianaGreen]

15. It's not even on the table, yet the industry that gouges consumers has most of the chairs

That industry will stab Obama in the back, just as they did Clinton. Surely, Obama can't be that naive!

[creeksneakers2]

25. I looked down the list of witnesses at the last hearing

It included the Chamber of Commerce, which is open to the idea of universal health care. Much of the business community is, because the costs of the present system are so high. The opposition to Hillary-care was fairly monolithic but its different now. All those chairs are not going to the insurance industry.

[kid a]

11. I love the smell of turtle soup in the morning.

[creeksneakers2]

14. Some things look easy but turn out to be hard

when the critic actually tries doing them. What are they to do with an individual who they are certain would attempt to cause massive death if released? What if the only evidence against that person is classified for a good reason? Perhaps some of it is from an informant who is still not exposed. Then there is the other side about encroachment on rights growing into fascism. Its not an easy decision. If Obama releases such an individual, he runs the risk that the released individual will cause great harm and Obama would be blamed for it.

I believe Obama when he says he was persuaded by others to change his mind. I'm glad he can change his mind. The last president couldn't and that played a part in the disaster that followed.

[flyarm]

19. it's the whole right and wrong thing..right is always harder..eom

[creeksneakers2]

24. It's hard to tell wrong from right often

We have our endless debate here between idealism and pragmatism.

[flyarm]

28. no it isn't..not at all. eom

[flyarm]

17. but but but ..you are not defending Obama on this?????????

Ok so you are a great American..but a lousy democrat for not defending the indefensible!!
:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :rant: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:


AND THEN THERE IS THIS.......WE ARE NOT ONLY BEING LIED TO..BUT THE DEMAND IS ON FOR THE BRITS TO LIE TO THEIR PEOPLE AS WELL!!!!!!!!


Obama Justice Dept. Again Warns Britain Not to Reveal Details of Torture of Gitmo Detainee


May 14, 2009

LONDON — Renewing a warning given to Britain while President George W. Bush was in office, the Obama administration has threatened to curb the exchange of intelligence information between the countries if a British court makes public the details of the interrogation techniques used against a former Guantánamo Bay detainee who claims he was tortured.

In a letter forwarded to the High Court in London by British government lawyers this month, the Obama administration said the flow of information could be affected if the court made public a summary prepared by the Bush administration for Britain’s Foreign Office on the treatment of the former detainee, Binyam Mohamed. Mr. Mohamed, 30, a citizen of Ethiopia who was arrested as a suspected terrorist in Pakistan in 2002, was released from Guantánamo and flown to Britain three months ago.

{snip}

Lawyers involved in the court case are bound by a court order not to disclose the contents of crucial documents, including the letter threatening curbs on intelligence cooperation, at least until the judges decide whether to order the publication of the summary of Mr. Mohamed’s treatment. That decision is expected within weeks. But the lawyers confirmed the accuracy of the quotations from the letter that appeared in The Washington Times.

The letter warned that if the British government “is unable to protect information we provide to it, even if that inability is caused by your judicial system, we will necessarily have to review with the greatest care the sensitivity of information we can provide in the future.”

The letter also said the “seven paragraphs at issue are based upon classified information shared between our countries,” and that “public disclosure of this information reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the United Kingdom’s national security” if the United States withheld intelligence information in the future.


read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/world/europe/15britai ...

[IndianaGreen]

22. It's like the old George and Tony show.

This was a core issue in the primaries, and in the election.

[flyarm]

29. Yep, you got it!! eom

[snowdays]

27. This issue will not go away and will haunt his administration. But Repugs are HAPPY.

so all is well.


OINK