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Attorney General 
Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 05:40:03 PDT
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Dear Mr. President:
We have served as Directors of Central Intelligence or Directors of the CIA for Presidents reaching back over 35 years. We respectfully urge you to exercise your authority to reverse Attorney General Holder's August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations that took place following the attacks of September 11.
~snip~
Attorney General Holder's decision to re-open the criminal investigation creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute. Moreover, there is no reason to expect that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused.
bold and italic added by diarist
The last line is especially important in my opinion, as it proves Special Prosecutor John Durham and Attorney General Eric Holder may be taking this investigation all the way to the top, as they are required to do under the Constitution and International Law.
 Thankfully, long gone are the days when the CIA could lie with impunity and the DoJ was not independant, but a political tool of the Executive branch. I guess the CIA misses the good ole days of Bush/Cheney.
Good thing those days are not coming back any time soon.
The letter was signed by former CIA directors Michael Hayden and Porter Goss, who worked for President George W. Bush; John Deutch and James Woolsey, who served during the Clinton administration; George Tenet, who worked for both President George W. Bush and President Clinton; William Webster, who served under President George H.W. Bush; and James Schlesinger, who headed the agency during the Nixon administration.
CBSnews.com
The only names of living CIA heads who have not signed are Ex President George H.W. Bush and current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
I'd say that it's safe to say that when Clinton and George W. Bush appointees oppose this investigation it can't be considered a witch hunt. I'd also say that it is safe to say that when the head of the CIA under Nixon opposes something, you are doing the right thing.
The full letter to the President plus analysis below the fold.
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Mon Apr 06, 2009 at 11:57:51 PDT
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Ralph Orlowski / Getty Images
Scott Horton, says
If the president releases the Bush torture memos, Republicans are promising to "go nuclear" and filibuster his legal appointments. Scott Horton reports on a serious threat to Obama's transparency.
As we all know, the appointment of Dawn Johnsen, as chief of the office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, has been held up for quite some time now.
Until recently, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, often considered the "brains" of the department, has been known mostly to legal experts. But for the past eight years, it was the epicenter of allegations of political manipulation and, worse, the source of infamous memoranda on torture. In tapping Eric Holder as attorney general, President Obama has promised to restore standards of professionalism to the department. For Republicans, this is tantamount to a declaration of partisan war
The real reason for their vehement opposition is that Johnsen is committed to overturning the Bush administration's policies on torture and warrantless surveillance that would clip the wings of the imperial presidency.
The more you dig . . . .
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Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 08:29:40 PST
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(6 pm. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
What a colossal disappointment. Remember when Barack Obama was going to severely curtail the use of the "state secrets" doctrine, throw the windows open, and let the sun shine in, dispersing Bushco's unnecessary secrecy? Forget about it. That was just eyewash.
Yesterday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit the Obama Justice Department astonished the three judge panel by sticking with Bushco's "state secrets" argument in the case of Binyam Mohamed.
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Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 15:57:53 PST
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cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
For most of my life, I've been passionately opposed to state killing. I remember as a child knowing that California's gas chamber execution of Caryl Chessman was unjust. I remember hearing with horror about the federal electric chair executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. And I admit that since I was 10 I have never understood how civilized people could justify state killing. From the beginning, state killing has appeared to me to be barbaric and horrific. Yes, there are lots of other barbaric things in the world, you could make a long, annotated list of them, but for one reason or another, despite all of the other terrible things in the world, something about state killing deeply appalled me. And eventually, the fight to end state killing spoke to me, so I took it up. That was a long time ago.
It's probably my feelings about barbarism that are driving me today to try to save the 49 people facing the federal death penalty. I know we are better than this. I know we are not killers. I know we are more compassionate than that. I know we are more just than that. It's my feelings about barbarism that have me writing an essay every day about the same thing. That's what has me asking you over and over again to email Attorney General Eric Holder at Whitehouse.gov or at askDOJ@doj.gov. That's what has me asking you to sign a petition. In short, I'm appalled by state killing, and I want to stop it.
What's necessary now in my opinion is to ask Attorney General Eric Holder please to review all of the decisions made by his predecessors in office that directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in federal cases and to determine whether he agrees with those decisions. If he does not think that the death penalty is entirely appropriate, he should withdraw authority for federal prosecutors to seek death. It's really quite simple. I'm not asking him to dismiss the indictments. I'm not asking him to drop cases. I'm not asking him to perform acts of mercy. I'm just asking him whether the United States can be satisfied asking for a maximum of life without parole and not death in these cases. That's all I'm asking for.
It's not much to ask for. Really it isn't. What, if anything, is the government giving up by not asking for death and asking instead for life without parole? In my view the government gains in stature and it gives up nothing of value. What it does give up are things it should have abandoned decades ago. In my view, by not asking for death, the government gives up some of its inhumanity, it gives up a horrific difference from other civilized nations, it abandons an old harbor for its racism, it leaves behind its most unenlightened, violent, hypocritical aspect. It emerges wiser, more powerful, more human, more compassionate, and more just. It acknowledges that humans are imperfect and that there are weapons that should never be used.
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Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 17:49:59 PST
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cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
The voice of him that cryeth in the Wilderness
Isaiah 40:3
Ut oh. Ut oh. Ut oh. I'm wondering whether my little, disorganized, spontaneous, repetitive campaign to require the new Attorney General to review the 49 pending federal death penalty cases and to decide that federal prosecutors shouldn't be seeking the death penalty in these cases, has worn out my readership, my welcome, and any remaining goodwill. That's how it is, sometimes, when there's more persistence than creativity. But I soldier on, vox clamatis in deserto.
The petition now has 75 signatures, for which I am incredibly thankful. If you haven't signed it yet, please do so. It is a concrete way to ask Attorney General Holder to review all of the 49 pending federal death penalty cases and to decide that his prosecutors have no business seeking the death penalty in these cases.
And many, many people have sent Attorney General emails at Whitehouse.gov or via askDOJ@doj.gov, the Justice Department's email address, encouraging him to review these 49 cases and not to seek the death penalty in them. Again, please do so, too.
Please join me in the wilderness.
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Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 12:16:20 PST
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(8 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Evidently, though I'm all fired up about getting the new Attorney General to review all of the pending federal death penalty cases-- there are 49 of them-- and to forbid prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, not so many others are quite as ignited as I am. I think I know why.
The petition now has 62 signatures. Many people have emailed the Attorney General at whitehouse.gov or at askDOJ@usdoj.gov to request that he review these cases. I appreciate everyone's efforts on this.
Please join me in DC, where things are somewhat "different."
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Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 14:56:43 PST
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(8 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
I woke up Sunday thinking that Attorney General Eric Holder could save the lives of the 49 people who are presently facing the federal death penalty. He could save their lives simply by reviewing the determinations made by the Bush Administration AG's directing that federal prosecutors should seek death in these cases, and he could decide that death wasn't an appropriate maximum penalty in these cases. He could decide, for example, that life without parole was enough. More than enough. And this simple decision could save someone's life. This simple decision could also put the United States in the main stream of civilized countries in the world that do not impose the death penalty. Ever. And it could prevent us in the United States from having even more unjustifiable blood on our hands. And it would move us slowly, gradually toward ultimate abolition of the death penalty in the United States. What a great idea!
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Sun Feb 01, 2009 at 08:07:41 PST
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(@ 9 - promoted by NLinStPaul)
cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
It might be easy to forget the Federal Death Penalty. We might not want to think about it. It wasn't an issue in the past election. For eight years the Bush DoJ used its muscle to expand federal use of capital punishment by overruling local United States Attorneys' decisions not to seek death. Those political decisions to seek death are still very much in effect: the US government continues in court to seek the death penalty in all of those cases.
As the new Attorney General arrives in Washington, it's vitally important that the new DoJ immediately remember to re-evaluate all of the federal cases in which the death penalty is presently being sought. And it's important that if these cases do not meet their professed higher standards for imposition of the death penalty (this is an oxymoron, standards that allow state killing cannot be high), authorization to seek the death penalty be withdrawn. This may save 49 lives and prevent state killings from being carried out in our names.
Please join me below.
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Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 10:50:53 PST
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(10 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
As US Attorney for DC in 1996, Reported Attorney General nominee Eric Holder responded to a battle for control of street dealing in weed by pushing the DC City Council to escalate penalties for possession, and for the DC Police to step up enforcement, endorsing New York Mayor Rudolf Giuliani's arrest 'em all "quality of life" clampdown.
X-post at kos' place
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Tue Nov 18, 2008 at 16:10:21 PST
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(@ 10 Now that's a headline! - promoted by On The Bus)
The indictment criticizes VP Dick Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds
interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers.
Vice-President Cheney Indicted!
Associated Press
McALLEN, TX -- A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.
The indictment criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.
Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.
Another indictment charges state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. with profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies.
The indictments were first reported by KRGV-TV.
There have been numerous reports of torture and abuse in private prisons. Looks like Cheney just can't stop himself!
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Mon May 26, 2008 at 20:00:00 PDT
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Your resident historiorantologist has lately been puzzling over the matter of how it is that Alberto Gonzalez and the current rubber-gavel-wielding "Chief US Law Enforcement Official" have not been brought before the World Court to stand for their crimes. Clearly, it doesn't take the piercing legal intellect of a Harriet Miers to recognize that torture goes against everything Americans believe in - our nation is, after all, a product of the Enlightenment, that 200-or-so-year period starting around 1650 in which thinking humans chose to recognize science, redefine the roles of government and the governed, and repudiate things like tyranny. Given this definition, of course, the aforementioned "legal" experts clearly are not Enlightened individuals, but closer examination of what actually went on before the bar back then shows that the Gitmo Gang would find themselves right at home dispensing "justice" in a court of that era.
So join me, if you will, in the Cave of the Moonbat, where tonight we'll look at criminal justice in the Age of Powdered Wigs - and may find that the current cadre of ethics-averse thugs running our penal/information extraction system would have been right at home in an Enlightenment court.
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Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 12:09:33 PST
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We're talking here about that sunny bright goodness, the very nobility of corporations, that dear, quaint eagerness which just might fade if they were to act legally, and for pay. Aspects of the AG's "New Justice"--Lawbreaking Without Consequences--meaning no disrespect or disapprobation, I promise! --will be parsed. (I've been watching too much Jane Austen or can't you tell? - Heh.)
In this corner:
We have the dad, Michael Mukasey, a powerful
figure in charge of JUSTICE in this country,
defending the telecoms, going to bat for the
corporations, for their retroactive immunity
for spying illegally on us.
In the other corner:
We have the son, Marc Mukasey, a young warrior,
defending the telecoms, seeking immunity for
corporations that illegally spy us, turning
over our calls and emails to the government
without warrants.
I'm wondering if it bothers you.
Crossposted on the orange board.
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Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 12:51:46 PST
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TERRORISM TAKES A HOLIDAY: So, today is http://www.infopleas... >the day the Brits celebrate an anti-Christian, civilian-bombing, government-hating insurgent by going door-to-door and asking for money ("Penny for the Guy?"). Why do the British hate America? . . . . Michael Mukasey would approve: After he was captured, before he could detonate his bomb that was intended to destroy the Protestant Parliament, Fawkes was tortured, at the explicit direction of King James, who instructed that the torture should be gentle at first, and increase in severity. (And yes, I'm sure King James had a note from his solicitor general saying that the whole thing was perfectly OK, provided there was no organ failure.) "The torture only revealed the names of those conspirators who were already dead or whose names were known to the authorities," according to Wikipedia. Why does Wikipedia hate America?
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Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 23:14:07 PDT
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(Topical enough for the afternoon? Hello, Fall.
Sorry I'm late with this, crew...
(FP'ed at 12:50 pm, PDT, September 17, 2007) - promoted by exmearden)
First, I'll confess a minor bias in favor of federal judges. I've clerked for federal judges, and I've had personal interactions with quite a few of them. By no means are they all perfect, but compared to the politicians from the other two branches of government, I think they deserve a much higher degree of regard.
That said, I think liberals could do much, much worse than Michael Mukasey as AG. He's not an idiot like Gonzo, and he's not a partisan hack like Ted Olson or Lawrence Silberman.
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Reform Immigration -
March for America
Sunday, March 21
March on Washington
Saturday, March 20
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