I should hold hearings on that.

That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Thanks, David.

I’ve just about run out of adjectives to describe my reactions to things happening in DC. I’ll try and fend off despair for yet another day and instead hope Nadler gets that old “fire in the belly” over this and pursues vigorously.

Many thanks for this and all the other issues you cover and explain so clearly, David.

I was surprised that I know more about this issue than a politician. I was really surprised that I knew more about this than a powerful politician. And I was especially shocked to know more about this than the ranking official on the relevant subcommittee in the House. If the Newsweek story is true, the Administration is making no effort to soften the blow in Congress.

Who said the WH is in charge? I smell Rahm.

Nadler reiterated his call for a special prosecutor in the matter of torture. “We are treaty-bound, and legally bound by federal statute, to investigate the commission of this crime. If Dick Cheney said he personally authorized waterboarding, and Eric Holder says waterboarding is torture, we are obligated to do something about that. So I think there should be a special prosecutor. I’ll try to do what I can to investigate, hold hearings, and open it up somehow.”

Is he serious or is this just more talk.

There’s something I’ve been wondering about.

Is there no organization outside of government that can take up the issue of lawyer’s misbehavior?

Where is the American Bar Association, whose motto is “Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice” ?

Lawyers for the OLC are allowed to rewrite the Constitution and International Law as they see fit to provide cover for criminal enterprises run out of the WH?

No one on Nadler’s staff reads Newsweek and reports to him matters of interest?

There are some moves to have bar assns look at Yoo and Bybee. Scott Horton was on democracynow.org this morning & covered it. It was a bit after the halfway mark, iirc.

it is unimagineable that he wouldn’t know his own report was changed, which means someone is acting behind the scenes, this smells like the work of cheney obama

We are treaty-bound, and legally bound by federal statute, to investigate the commission of this crime. If Dick Cheney said he personally authorized waterboarding, and Eric Holder says waterboarding is torture, we are obligated to do something about that. So I think there should be a special prosecutor. I’ll try to do what I can to investigate, hold hearings, and open it up somehow

my heart, be still

Compare the lack of response by lawyers here with what the lawyers accomplished in Pakistan with Black Flag Week.

Nice observation the guy was lying politicians have staff they love to read about themselves and issues they deal with in the press.

Yeah, hopefully he can send a stern letter too.

remember when obama said “if crimes were committed we will persue them” or something along those lines

what a neo con this guy has turned out to be

Crimes have been committed Obama has to go after them or he gets busted for covering it up.

He really didn’t make any promises. Clearly, Nadler has no ability on his own to name a special prosecutor.

This is what happens when a president leaves a former administration’s moles all thru his administration and doesn’t fight for his appointees.
I swear, Obama acts like he’s merely a placeholder for President Palin or some other equally hideous piece of work.

It smells like Bush to me. sorry for the pun!

Can he hold hearings televised hearings can he get evidence?

Wow!

Our legal community could learn something from Pakistan’s lawyers, of course our State dept. is probably busy at this moment, asking Pakistan’s ISI why they can’t keep a lid on these guys.

We just need to get the evidence on tv and public opinion will force Obama to act.

He can and almost surely will hold hearings on this topic. And they will get all the attention of other House Judiciary Committee hearings – a post on FDL :)

Oh, comeon. They’ll probably issue some sternly worded letters too.

I’m betting that the White House has made the calculation that they can’t afford to hold anyone accountable for crimes of torture, because that would open a huge can of worms that they don’t want to deal with. Even one trial would trigger all sorts of revelations that would inevitably lead to a widening trail of complicity, and that trail leads straight to Cheney.

Sounds like you and bmaz are hanging out together. *g*

Televise them sensationalize them any politician with some ambition can see that they could use torture hearings to ride into the Presidency does Jerrold have any ambition is the question.
How to sensationalize the hearing invite the Iraqi government and Iraqi immigrant communities in other countries to present evidence. I’m sure the Gorilla Guides blog people know who to ask for evidence.
Get the guys from the Hague to monitor the hearings and have members of the Hague testify about what is a war crime.

Yep. Can’t be too cynical.

Nadler is usually one of the good guys. I hope he follows up on this. After him, it seems like John Conyers and bupkiss.

Scott Horton has a good piece on Margolis up at Harpers. It would seem that one of the first things you’d want to do to restore the reputation of the Justice Dept. would be to get rid of this guy.

Jerrold can hold boring hearings or he can kick himself when the Hague and not him starts getting all the publicity.

Annual run up the 86 flights of steps in the Empire State Bldg was won by a German, his fourth time. 10 minutes, some seconds. When he got to the top, he collapsed in pain.

From the Harpers story;

Carol Lam, the former U.S. attorney in San Diego and now general counsel of Qualcomm, said that the Bush Justice Department essentially rid itself of people who behaved professionally and were determined simply to do the right thing. It was instead dominated by those who were motivated by politics and oblivious to ethics. David Margolis was supposed to have been a watchdog against this process. Instead, he facilitated it. The failings he seeks to cover up in the OPR report were made possible by the ethics-free culture that he promoted at the Justice Department.

I guess we should be happy that they even answer the phone over at DOJ when the Senate calls?

Actually, even when the WH calls, they probably have to leave a message.

Holder said waterboarding is torture at his hearings.
Cheney said he waterboarded SUSPECTS.
We signed a treaty stating that we would immediately DETAIN a suspect using torture, as per treaty requirements.
When knowledge comes out about war crimes the ATTORNEY GENERAL must LOOK BACK and investigate or become a war criminal in the cover-up, while the President looks ahead.

Torture is TREASON as it requires the overthrow of the constitution and attendant treaties. Torture as Treason is a growing cancer which is eating this country up, as we speak.

Sorry, but with all due respect to Nadler, I don’t believe him. Cheney said he authorized waterboarding on National TV.

“If Dick Cheney said…”

WTF do you mean “IF”. Nadler’s comments have all the earmarks of someone wishing this would all just go away.

Actually, I was looking at two pieces about Margolis by Horton. One was from a couple weeks ago which was linked to in the second piece — Prosecutorial Ethics Lite.

You’re partly right. The trail doesn’t lead only to Cheney, but to decades of crimes of torture, illegal activities, renditions, continuing human experimentation using drugs, a plethora of covert activities and interventions into the sovereign affairs of other nations, the facts behind bogus wars like Iraq, and even further revelations about surveillance and intervention domestically.

The entire establishment has become complicit in a pact of silence. No one is actually signed on to such a pact. It works like natural selection. Anyone with morals or curiosity is screened out early through lack of support or promotion. By the time you’ve “made it”, only the most corrupted and compromised are left (for the most part, barring the very few exceptions).

Nadler knew the story. He’s giving you a line of BS. If he didn’t know, it’s because “not knowing” has become a survival mechanism. A politician doesn’t get anywhere by knowing things that aren’t in his lane (as the intel and military folks are fond of saying).

They should call you Astute Observer.

Jerrold Nadler,blissfully unaware, because he is in an “altered” OPR state..

Prediction: Nadler won’t do squat.

I’d love to be wrong, but I’ve been right way too often about Very Bad Things to have any hope.