23 April 2009: Journal Notes

23 April 2009: Journal Notes.
Things are heating up in regard the torture issue. It appears that Obama is backing away from his attitude of not prosecuting those responsible for the torture inflicted on detainees; and he is doing it by saying it is up to Justice to decide what to do about what most Democrats agree is unquestionably abuse that rose to the level of torture. The rub here is the bulk of congressional Republicans don’t agree with the Armed Services Committee report just released and signed by Committee Chairman Car Levin of Michigan, a Democrat. The Republicans won’t buy it because it is a partisan document, so-called, simply because the Democrats wrote it, which means it can’t be objective. The only truth they recognize is their version of it. They don’t want the Democrats to get an investigation going because it will ultimately involved Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Tenet, McLaughlin, and the lawyers, including Yoo, Addington, and Bybee, who wrote the torture memos. The word is that Rice was opposed to the idea of harsh enhanced interrogation techniques, but lost out as she often did to Cheney and Rumsfeld, who ruled the roost in Bush’s first term. She eventually went along with the program. A Pentagon lawyer by the name of Philip D. Zelikow was on Rachel Maddow’s show on Tuesday night. It appeared that he could be a pivotal figure in this case; Rice appointed him her agent in regard the torture issue. When he took a look at the torture memos he was appalled by their poor logic and inadequate defense of harsh interrogations. They were a pathetic exercise as far as he was concerned. The memos flew in the face of logic and the law about torture. But he recognized the lawyers had their perspective and they understood what was expected of them—a legal smoke screen to hide the fact of torture. But they went a step farther: they tried to round up all existing copies of Zelikow rebuttal argument so they could destroy the copies; but they did not succeed, and hopefully the memo will surface in the near future. The fact they wanted to destroy the memo indicates there was validity to his argument and criticism.
Progressives like Rachel and Keith Olbermann are hot to trot on the torture issue, and so is my wife; they are so outraged by the abuses perpetuated by the Bush Administration they want them punished for their crimes, no matter what. I see things somewhat differently. To pursue the torture thing would be to invite a scandal as huge and dramatic as the impeachment of Bill Clinton. It would swallow up energy and time like the impeachment did, which allowed exactly nothing to get done in Clinton’s second term. That’s what I am afraid of, a snarling of purpose, a huge distraction, and a delaying of essential concerns. Congress would wallow in another legal drama and things that needed to get done would languish on the sidelines. I’m sure that’s what Obama was thinking of with his reluctance to go ahead with prosecutions. They would have to drag Bush, Cheney and the rest of them to court kicking and screaming; they would never willingly cooperate.
There is also a report that the Taliban have taken over another province, one just south of the Swat province, which put them 60 miles from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. They have already imposed Islamic law in the province just south of Swat, which means men must grow beards, women must give up jobs and school, and Islamic Law must be followed by one and all. They brook no other way. One of their religious leaders said their great purpose was to convert the rest of the world to their Faith and Law. They apparently are seriously considering invading Islamabad and trying to establish Taliban rule over the central government. Hillary Clinton addressed the situation yesterday, saying it WOULD ENDANGER US AND THE ENTIRE REGION because Pakistan is a Nuclear State. She said the Pakistani government was basically abdicating to the Taliban and other extremists.