Sunday, January 18, 2009

Dear Mr. President
an open letter from Karen Zipdrive



>snip>
Tension is building behind the scenes among Barack Obama's advisers over whether the new administration should investigate allegations of torture and other Bush administration misdeeds. Obama has said he wants to "move forward," but pressure on his team has increased thanks to recent comments in The Washington Post by a top Pentagon official that the treatment of one Guantánamo detainee "met the legal definition of torture." One transition source, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters, said that Attorney General-designate Eric Holder may be more inclined than other Obama aides to press the matter.

>snip>
WASHINGTON —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants an investigation into whether the Bush administration broke the law when it fired a group of federal prosecutors.
She says that what she calls the politicizing of the Justice Department cannot go unreviewed.
House Democrats last week recommended a criminal investigation to see if administration officials broke the law in the name of national security. The report cited the interrogation of foreign detainees, warrantless wiretaps, retribution against critics, manipulation of intelligence and the fired prosecutors.
Barack Obama has been more cautious. He has said he believes there is a need to look forward as opposed to looking backward.


Dear President Obama,

Moving forward is great, but you cannot allow the overwhelming burdens left to you by the Bush administration inundate you to the extent that you ignore the war crimes they perpetrated with such gleeful abandon.
The world is watching, sir.
Either America is a nation of laws with no one above the law, or it's not.
It's glaringly apparent that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld violated several laws, especially when it comes to torture, rendition and violation of the civil and human rights of thousands of people worldwide.
This is not a time to move forward, sir.
It is a time to enforce the American notion of justice and bring criminals to that justice.
You don't need to circumvent due process and railroad the Bush perpetrators into guilty verdicts; all we ask is thorough investigations, charges if they are warranted, and swift trials of the accused.
You simply cannot move ahead without seeking justice.
We love you. We trust you.
But we have expectations tied to those sentiments, and you will squander them if you refuse to deal with the Bush administration's misdeeds.

Sincerely,
Karen Zipdrive

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Well said, KZD! As you know, I heartily agree.

My new hero of late is Jonathan Turley. Well, I've been a fan for a few years but now I'm an UBER-Fan. Have you seen him tell it like it is on Countdown lately?

Keith gets kudos, too, for bringing this up every night.

Unknown said...

P.S. that Credo Bush Countdown on your sidebar is a thing of utter beauty today.

Lulu Maude said...

Amen.

Now, will it happen??

Dawn Fortune said...

Prosecution is the ideal situation. Let's see who gets pardoned at midnight first, though.

Matthew Hubbard said...

If no one will prosecute it, it isn't a crime. What they did are crimes.

Distributorcap said...

two things
obama may not want to talk publicly about his plans for investigations

second - it all may be moot if the douchebag in the WH gives pardons out like lollipops on tuesday

Karen Zipdrive said...

D-Cap, you make a great point.
In fact, Obama might be reaching out to an unprecidented number of Republicans as a way to soften the blow of his prosecuting BushCo.
And if Bush does hand out pardons, history will reflect that he was admitting misdeeds were done. It would be tantamount to all them pleading guilty.

Unknown said...

Glenn Greenwald has been doing excellent work writing on this, if anyone's interested. He cites the treaties and laws involved in all of this.

lisahgolden said...

It's a cliffhanger for me. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Anonymous said...

i am going to take a wait and see attitude. obama can't really say that chimpy is guilty of anything, as he is not judge and jury. it has to be up to the justice department, and they have to be seen as independent from the white house, not a political hit squad. i'm surprised that nancy pelosi has finally woken up to the fact that there were countless laws broken. maybe impeachment should have been back on the fucking table, huh, nance? if chimpy & co. get away with what they did, what they did will no longer be illegal.
i'm with helen wheels--i love jonathan turley!

Strategicus said...

good blog

Anonymous said...

I'm riding with nonnie again on this one. I think Obama is going to use a scalpel instead of a chain saw on the scoff laws. But let see how it goes. I've also heard that the Dems are nervous because it can be implied that they didn't exactly have clean hands in a lot of the illegal activities. Not that they participated, but giving Chimpy the okay may get them sucked into his web of unlawful activity.

NOW Pelosi suddenly sprouts a spine. Next thing you know, Harry Reid will have balls.