Call it Karma. Pelosi, Rockefeller, and other Democrats knew for YEARS about the interrogation techniques being used against captured arch-terrorists, and they did nothing. They knew in great detail. Then when the interrogation techniques were revealed to the public, those same Democrats who had been briefed in great detail for years, pretended to be shocked. They claimed they didn’t know. They even attacked the Bush Administration for having used those interrogation techniques (though they themselves had been completely silent and approving in secret for years). Then, the issue faded away after the 2006 elections in which Democrats took control of both houses of Congress. It disappeared until 2009 when-on the eve of President Obama’s 100-days report card, the “torture” memos were released to distract people from his lack of accomplishments, his historically high spending, and his foreign policy failures. Unfortunately for President Obama and the Democrats…they pissed off the CIA too much. It was a lesson the Bush Administration should have taught them. The CIA fought back by releasing and leaking more documents showing that the so-called “torture” saved thousands-perhaps tens of thousands of Americans, and-worse yet-the CIA showed in several documents that the Democrats who claimed to have been so shocked and outraged….had known all along.
Now, instead of Democrats trying to use the Bush Administration as a scapegoat and distraction again via hearings, investigations, and indictments, it’s those Democrats who are coming under the legal looking glass.
During a scantly noticed exchange in a Thursday Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) asked Attorney General Eric Holder a potentially explosive question — given the furor over Nancy Pelosi’s 2002 interrogation briefing.
Alexander wanted to know if the AG would consider investigating what House and Senate members knew about torture and when they knew it. And Holder didn’t exactly reject the idea.
ALEXANDER: Should you follow these facts and continue in an investigation if you’re investigating lawyers at the Department of Justice who wrote legal opinions authorizing certain interrogations, wouldn’t it also be appropriate to investigate the CIA employees or contractors or other people from intelligence agencies who asked or created the interrogation techniques or officials in the Bush Administration who approved them or what about members of Congress who were informed of them or know about them or approved them or encouraged them? Wouldn’t they also be appropriate parts of such an investigation?HOLDER: Well there is, as has been publicly reported, an OPR inquiry into the work of the attorneys who prepared those OLC memoranda. It is not in final form yet and I have not reviewed that report. I will look at that report and make a determination as to what we want to do with it. It deals, I suspect, not only with the attorneys, but people that they interacted with, so I think we will gain some insights by reviewing that report. Our desire is not to do anything that would be perceived as political or partisan. We do want to report, to the extent that we can do that, but as I said, my responsibility is to enforce the laws of this nation and to the extent that we see violations of those laws, we will take the appropriate action.
HOLDER: Hypothetically that might be true
Author of “Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War
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Of course Holder won’t go with the hearings… Uncle O won’t like that… can’t hold the dems accountable – but it would be wonderful!
How pathetic you people are; attempting to shift the blame from the evil-doers, to those who merely stood by.
Which Evil-Doers?
The lawyers who said it’s not torture?
The policy makers, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc who said, “well, if it’s not torture, if all other options have been tried, and if it’ll save lives…then go ahead”
The power in America (see, in the U.S. the real POWER rests w Congress) those Congressional officials who were informed and said, “yep, if it’s not torture, and all other options have been tried, and it’ll save lives…then go ahead/we won’t stop you.”
Perhaps you mean the people who did the “torture”; people who Pres Obama said absolutely will not be held to account?
Seriously, who’d ya mean? Could it be you just want a certain someone indicted for something/anything and you’ll find the excuse for it because you don’t like their swagger and accent?
MOVEON. Bush is gone. Obama’s the one w Gitmo and secret CIA prisons still open, and don’t think for a moment that enhanced interrogations have stopped. Waterboarding might have (though only 3 people ever got that), and things may be nicer, but no way is a secret CIA prison or a prison ship a nice place.
Clowns to the left of me… jokers to the right.
This is not only petty politics, it’s embarrassing. Congress members should not be investigated anymore than the lawyers giving legal opinions on the law’s interpretation should. This type of childish behavior is moronic, and does nothing to elevate the GOP in my eyes as having “backbone”. Horse manure.
Congress needs a serious cleaning of “house” and senate… all these bozos need to go, and replaced with new bozos who can’t stay long enough to be so damaging and corrupt. IMHO, haven’t seen any one of ’em worth a snip.
David Craig.. “evil-doers”? Another sound byte educated brain trust weighs in on colonialist issues from across the pond. Oh goodie…
We waterboard tens of thousands of our own soldiers, but it’s “evil” and “torture” when it’s done to three terrorists with known connections to designated terror groups.
“merely stood by”??? This would mean, of course, that you would consider a group of citizens on a street, casually watching a murder, rape or other crime being committed, as innocent bystanders. Rather nailed yourself as morally depraved voyeur, and possessing a cavalier attitude towards stepping up to the plate to help your fellow man, don’t you think?
Look, it’s as simple as this… if waterboarding is “torture”, then the US is guilty of “torturing” our own soldiers during training, and there will be a lot of investigations and discipline going on.
If it’s a prosecutable offense to give a legal opinion as counsel, then all of Congress needs to be prosecuted for daring to create legislation without first asking the SCOTUS for a prior opinion – putting their High Court stamp of approval on each and every bill as Constitutional before they put it to a vote.
And if standing by, not lifting a finger to stop a crime, is nothing more than innocent rubber necking, I’m pretty sure the social graces and humanity has hit yet another low from which they will not recover.
Pathetic? You betcha… but mostly when applied to you. Why don’t you just go lobby to keep your expense pilfering, nanny blacklist Jacqui Smith in office instead of bothering us with nonsense.
I am increasing coming to the conclusion that there is a certain amount of hypocrisy amongst the ranks of the Democrats in the Whitehouse, Congress and the Senate.
Is it possible that they may all be self-serving lying bastards?
These are the same people that gave Clinton a pass for lying to a federal grand jury and failed to impeach him when it was made plain what he did. Do you really think they are going to have a show boat hearing on who knew what and when on the Dems side?