rssHolder’s on the Hot Seat
Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 11:11 am
- 6 Comments
The House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the Justice Department is off to a good start, with Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) listing the questions he plans to put to the featured witness, Attorney General Eric Holder.
Conyers promised to question Holder about all the hot-button topics that have dominated the news and prompted questioning from Democrats lately, including the department’s controversial use of the “state secrets” privilege to conceal executive action; the administration’s plans for closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; the possible prosecution of former government officials who may have authorized the use of torture and whether the department would support appointing an independent prosecutor; the release of additional Office of Legal Counsel memos relating to the “war on terror” and the pending internal Justice Department investigation of the lawyers who wrote the memos; the Obama administration’s flip-flop on releasing detainee abuse photos; and the House proposal to create an independent blue ribbon commission “to investigate and tell the American people about the real reason that we entered into a war on terror,” as Conyers put it.
Not to be outdone, ranking minority member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) laid out his list of concerns, which read like recent Republican talking points. They included a warning that President Obama’s pledge to close down Guantanamo Bay and release terrorists and bomb-makers into the United States “could in fact endanger American lives”; why Holder would consider releasing some of the 17 Uighur detainees who “are all associated with terrorist organizations” when in fact “there is nothing wrong with the Guantanamo facility” — claiming the Justice Department is “worrying about image more than substance”; and why the government is tolerating local policies that prevent police from checking immigration status, when “time and again we have seen Americans killed by illegal immigrants protected by sanctuary policies.”
In short, today’s hearing promises to be, at the very least, an uncomfortable few hours for Attorney General Eric Holder.
6 Comments
Comment posted May 23, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Obama has said he wants to rid the DOJ of politicization. He's also said he wants to look forward not backward. Good lets do it. ACTA NON VERBA. Deeds not words. Looking forward should not mean looking the other way.
Obama knows that if he lets AG Holder loose on terror investigations, the can of worms is so big and so shocking he, Obama, will lose control of the news. it will take away his control of the news and his ability to get his agenda done.
Obama may be able to reassure us that HIS administration will not torture, but without prosecutions he cannot assure that we will not again torture after another 9/11. Further Obama knows how badly an investigation will effect the CIA and the Military in a time when he needs them both to be on his side and effective.
Unfortunately the world is watching and judging, as hopefully so are Americans. Torture is one of the BIGGEST most REPUGNANT most EMBARRASSING stains on American honor. Further without an investigation and prosecutions it will never go away.
Obama needs to turn AG Holder loose and have him appoint a special prosecutor for the good of the Country now and in the future. If this is not done, someday in the future we will look back and say here we go again.
Someday in the future we will say that Obama and Holder, to keep their agenda on track, sacrificed the good of the Country.
I'm sorry, but if they don't investigate and prosecute, they along with Bush and Cheney, will be known as the Fathers of American Torture. I believe this to be true, even though unjust to Obama and Holder, both of whom are good honest men.
We need great leaders now not good honest politicians. The appointment of a First Class, Objective, Honest prosecutor is the only good way out for both Obama and Holder and for the US and her reputation as a Nation of Laws.
Comment posted May 28, 2009 @ 11:37 am
Hooray for Mr. Conyers. Your courage inspires me, sir.
“These are the times that try mens' souls”
Actually these are the times that try men's courage. I learned there were two kinds of courage, physical courage and moral courage. It seems in Washington its the moral courage that is lacking.
If the United States is to again be a moral force in the world we will have to clean out our own closet first.
That cannot be done by looking the other way.
Once that is done we can say our breaking of the Geneva Conventions and our own laws, our ignoring those that broke the law because they were too high in our own government, was a terrible and temporary aberration brought on by the trauma of 9/11.
If we SHOW not just tell, those that would derail our beliefs and tempt us to create illegal prisons, detention without due process, domestic spying and “intensive interrogation techniques”, (torture), we and law abiding nations everywhere would benefit.
If we SHOW we are a nation of laws, we can again morally tell the world that international criminals (terrorists) need to be pursued, captured and tried in a real, established court of law, and incarcerated in real prisons wherever they are found.
If we, as is planned, send the FBI out into the world to help capture terrorists, it certainly seems that their credibility would be immeasurably enhanced if we first investigate and punish those that enabled, ordered and broke the law by using torture in our own government.
Especially in that we now have the highest of (previous) government officials admitting, even boasting that he and others broke the law, and even arguing that breaking the law was good, even arguing that we should continue to break the law.
If we SHOW the world that we have the courage in the face of inevitable, horrendous, dehumanizing attacks that we still believe in and follow our Constitution and Bill of Rights, that we believe in liberty and JUSTICE for all, we will defeat terrorists and their terrorism eventually, not with guns, but with the moral force of our ideas, our generousity, and our REAL justice.
If it is true for evil to succeed good men simply have to do nothing, then we must be sure our actions are GOOD. We cannot win the hearts and minds of terrorists or their recruits if our actions or inactions are less than moral.
We cannot deflate the terrorist argument that says, see the great Satan (the US) does the very things they say we do.
If the terrorist can say they (we) don't follow the law. If the terrorist can say they (we) pick and choose what laws we will follow and enforce. If they (we) don't prosecute the rich folks that steal from their (our) tax payers bailout money or break the laws on torture, or spy on their own citizens.
If they don't investigate their own HIGH POWERFUL OFFICIALS that unquestionably broke these laws, what gives them the right to rail and complain about our governments having graft and political favoritism.
Do as I say not as I do does not work with young kids, adults or nations. We as a nation will be tolerated and to some degree accommodated because we have great wealth, however that wealth is decreasing.
Further both at home and abroad the idea that we can tell the world what is moral and what is not is at risk.
If we and other nations are to be safe we must again be a true leader, just as our politicians must return to openness, honesty and integrity.
In today's world a leader will one day emerge that is more than a slick politician, he or she will be a strong voice for honesty, for integrity, for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That leader will demonstrate moral courage in the face of political and terrorist opposition. He will advocate and act in a manner that shows the world that true leadership follows the law and revers true justice, not expedient justice, not revised “better justice”. Modern “terrorist justice”, created to ensure conviction where the legal process cannot be “relied on” is not an answer the world will admire.
We are Americans. We need to remember the circumstance under which the courageous men and women lived when they created the most impressive documents the world has ever known, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We need to look to them for examples of leadership.
Comment posted May 28, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
Hooray for Mr. Conyers. Your courage inspires me, sir.
“These are the times that try mens' souls”
Actually these are the times that try men's courage. I learned there were two kinds of courage, physical courage and moral courage. It seems in Washington its the moral courage that is lacking.
If the United States is to again be a moral force in the world we will have to clean out our own closet first.
That cannot be done by looking the other way.
Once that is done we can say our breaking of the Geneva Conventions and our own laws, our ignoring those that broke the law because they were too high in our own government, was a terrible and temporary aberration brought on by the trauma of 9/11.
If we SHOW not just tell, those that would derail our beliefs and tempt us to create illegal prisons, detention without due process, domestic spying and “intensive interrogation techniques”, (torture), we and law abiding nations everywhere would benefit.
If we SHOW we are a nation of laws, we can again morally tell the world that international criminals (terrorists) need to be pursued, captured and tried in a real, established court of law, and incarcerated in real prisons wherever they are found.
If we, as is planned, send the FBI out into the world to help capture terrorists, it certainly seems that their credibility would be immeasurably enhanced if we first investigate and punish those that enabled, ordered and broke the law by using torture in our own government.
Especially in that we now have the highest of (previous) government officials admitting, even boasting that he and others broke the law, and even arguing that breaking the law was good, even arguing that we should continue to break the law.
If we SHOW the world that we have the courage in the face of inevitable, horrendous, dehumanizing attacks that we still believe in and follow our Constitution and Bill of Rights, that we believe in liberty and JUSTICE for all, we will defeat terrorists and their terrorism eventually, not with guns, but with the moral force of our ideas, our generousity, and our REAL justice.
If it is true for evil to succeed good men simply have to do nothing, then we must be sure our actions are GOOD. We cannot win the hearts and minds of terrorists or their recruits if our actions or inactions are less than moral.
We cannot deflate the terrorist argument that says, see the great Satan (the US) does the very things they say we do.
If the terrorist can say they (we) don't follow the law. If the terrorist can say they (we) pick and choose what laws we will follow and enforce. If they (we) don't prosecute the rich folks that steal from their (our) tax payers bailout money or break the laws on torture, or spy on their own citizens.
If they don't investigate their own HIGH POWERFUL OFFICIALS that unquestionably broke these laws, what gives them the right to rail and complain about our governments having graft and political favoritism.
Do as I say not as I do does not work with young kids, adults or nations. We as a nation will be tolerated and to some degree accommodated because we have great wealth, however that wealth is decreasing.
Further both at home and abroad the idea that we can tell the world what is moral and what is not is at risk.
If we and other nations are to be safe we must again be a true leader, just as our politicians must return to openness, honesty and integrity.
In today's world a leader will one day emerge that is more than a slick politician, he or she will be a strong voice for honesty, for integrity, for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That leader will demonstrate moral courage in the face of political and terrorist opposition. He will advocate and act in a manner that shows the world that true leadership follows the law and revers true justice, not expedient justice, not revised “better justice”. Modern “terrorist justice”, created to ensure conviction where the legal process cannot be “relied on” is not an answer the world will admire.
We are Americans. We need to remember the circumstance under which the courageous men and women lived when they created the most impressive documents the world has ever known, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We need to look to them for examples of leadership.
Comment posted August 5, 2010 @ 9:32 am
Actually these are the times that try men's courage. I learned there were two kinds of courage, physical courage and moral courage. It seems in Washington its the moral courage that is lacking
Comment posted August 5, 2010 @ 12:56 pm
Actually these are the times that try men's courage. I learned there were two kinds of courage, physical courage and moral courage. It seems in Washington its the moral courage that is lacking.
Comment posted August 20, 2010 @ 8:51 am
It seems in Washington its the moral courage that is lacking
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