Russ Feingold's Reaction

[ProSense]

Russ Feingold's Reaction

From the office of Sen. Russ Feingold, a suggestion that the administration is open to future prosecution. Do know that Feingold and other key members of Congress have been formally briefed on this, so he presumably is not thinking wishfully here:

"The president has stated that it is not his administration's intention to prosecute those who acted reasonably and relied in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice. As I understand it, his decision does not mean that anyone who engaged in activities that the Department had not approved, those who gave improper legal advice or those who authorized the program could not be prosecuted. The details made public in these memos paint a horrifying picture and reveal how the Bush administration's lawyers and top officials were complicit in torture. The so-called enhanced interrogation program was a violation of our core principles as a nation and those responsible should be held accountable."

[rateyes]

1. Give 'em hell, Russ. Hold their feet to the fire. nt

[defendandprotect]

2. Is it my imagination . . .

or is DU very quiet . . . flying very below the radar on this one?????

Olbermann did a nice job on it tonight --

Obama's decisions on this -- "national security" and "taking orders" -- stinks

and the stink will fly around the world!


PS: Rachel and Olbermann have to STOP giving so much space/time to film of right-wing

and their leaders -- especially the irrelevant Newt -- and if you're going split screen . . .

give the right-wingers the smaller side of the screen, please!!!

[bbgrunt]

8. I love Russ, but why is he always the lone voice?

[defendandprotect]

9. I know what you mean . . .

Courage is a rare commodity in Congress ...

IMO, because so many ethical candidates were targeted by campaign money --

and so many corrupt candidates were elected by the same campaign money.

Sadly, I don't think we can deny that.

I love that Feingold made this clear . . .

complicit in torture

You know our Founders also made it clear that we could have CONSPIRACY between

presidents and vps ... and if that happened we should SUSPEND the presidency!

Well, here we have CONSPIRACY/COMPLICITY between Judges/lawyers/officials of

every kind and I say there is a lot of work ahead of America if we hope never

to see another 8 years like the one before. In fact, another time round, and

I think it would be even worse!



PS: I also think many at DU are trying to live in denial on this one, again.

We have the Geneva Accords, we have Military Law -- we have the precedent of

the Nurember Trials --

and we have our Constitution which says . . . "no cruel and unusual punishment"--!!!

And, yet many here are trying to suggest that the CIA was too dumb to get any of that?????

[bbgrunt]

10. yep. I've been aware of the problem with

campaign money for a long time.....but nothing ever gets done about it because it is an incestuous relationship and the people we depend on to change the system are the very ones who think they are benefiting from it. In fact, they have killed the goose......and only a handful of principled people in government seem to care.

Sometimes I suspect that he is allowed to make such statements so that people not paying attention will think they are working in their best interests. But it is so strange that the dems never seem to make these stands in groups and come out publicly to support one another. Conyers, Leahy, Whitehouse, one by one they all make these statements and then slink away under pressure. It is all very suspicious to me.

And yes, there are way too many naive people who have been conditioned by our culture to "BELIEVE"....and it is very tempting because I do believe that on the micro scale you create your own reality, but public policy does not work that way.

[defendandprotect]

13. Yes . . . campaign money is the corporate hold on government . . .

Teddy Roosevelt told us back in the 1800's that corporations should be barred from
any participation whatsoever in our elections --- and here we are with a private
corporation even running the debates!

As you can see, I totally agree with you!

[stillcool]

3. sounds good to me..

the people, at the very least need a good show.

[Barack_America]

4. Logic? Reason?

These values are not welcome at DU.

(btw, good on Feingold)

[Fgiriun]

5. Hopefully

I believe theres a lot more to this issue than meets the eye, something that Obama and his administration are aware of but wont tell the general public. The CIA is after all a very devious institution. I'm not advocating any conspiracy theories but I hope and credit that what Obama is doing is the right thing for the Democratic party and the nation as a whole but in the end justice will prevail.

[Scurrilous]

6. K & R

:thumbsup:

[AzDar]

7. K & R

:kick:

[ThomWV]

11. Kick alone because its too late to recommend. But it needs recommending, as you'll see.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

[defendandprotect]

14. Late K&R ---

[hootinholler]

15. Which means that all who tortured BEFORE the memos are fair game!

There needs to be popular pressure on the DOJ to pursue these bastards. Otherwise, the administration will be seen by the CIA as sniping for spooks. Pressure gives the administration cover, support and motivation by being able to legitimately claiming that the citizenry will not stand for torture.

-Hoot