With the incoming House in January, there has been lots of copy on the possibility of hundreds of investigations by Rep. Issa…..there are some things that I agree need investigating and then there is my thought that all this drama is a witch hunt against Obama…political theater that will waste millions of taxpayers money…..but beyond that there are a few things that I feel need a closer look….like how government contracts are awarded or why lies and character assassination are allowed in campaigns……unfortunately I am talking about some of the stuff from GW presidency…..and from his days a gov of Texas….
First of all on the subject of torture….from his interview with NBC Matt Lauer…..
“The lawyer said it was legal and it did not fall under the Anti-Torture Act. I’m not a lawyer. I have to trust the people around me.”
Bush defended the tactics of CIA officers during the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, who was suspected to be a member of al Qaeda with information on the 9/11 attacks. He said the tactics “saved lives” and that he was protecting America by allowing what many Americans, including President Barack Obama, would call torture.
The rest of the world considers water-boarding as torture…many people have been tried and convicted on this issue to include Japanese soldiers during WW2 and some police officers in the US…to mention just a few….and since it is recognized by the world as torture and GW admitted to knowing and approving of the technique……should he be held accountable?
Then there is when he was governor of Texas…..and he sent a bunch of people to the other side in the executions in the state….but there is one that stands out….
Claude Howard Jones was convicted of murder during a liquor store robbery in 1989 and put to death on December 7, 2000.
His murder conviction was based on a single piece of forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene — a strand of hair that prosecutors claimed belonged to Jones.
The Texas Observer magazine on Thursday said the DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project indicate that Jones was “excluded as the contributor of this questioned hair.”The day before he was put to death in the Texas execution chamber, Jones had asked for a stay of execution so that the strand of hair could be submitted for DNA testing.
His request was denied by the then governor of Texas George W. Bush.
What could have it hurt to delay the execution to determine if the man was innocent of the crime? Now how does the state of Texas repay for this abortion of justice? How does it make amends?
Should GW be held accountable for these two cases?
Yes. OK. Part of me agrees. However, these people we are talking about in the torture thing are (if the CIA has f*cking clue what it is doing – which is I agree questionable) at least sympathisers of the AQ bunch of hoodlums. I just wonder if strapping explosives to aid workers held captive, hiding behind women and children, beating the sh*t out of people they capture, stoning women to death and so on and on doesn’t kind of fall into the same category?
Sure, two wrongs don’t make a right, but then we should also (IMO) fight fire with fire. So, I’m not quite sure where we go from there. Frankly, though I don’t personally support torture because I think it usually VERY unreliable and often counterproductive and any saddistic element is simply disgusting, I can’t say I give much of a toss what they do to these assholes – PROVIDED they have the right guy – which is doubtful at the very least.
That brings me onto the point you make about the man Jones who was executed – I don’t know if you could hold GW accountable for that. I think you should, but he was after all just being American. Put it another way, if you brought the whole US justice system to the UK, they would never get it past the “Trades Description Act” which requires that any goods or services offered are “fit for purpose”! IMO (again) US justice is anything but “just” and is either a very lucrative talking shop for highly expensive and often pointless lawyers, or it’s simply a means of carrying through and satisfying the prejudices and bigotry of local people and groups – you choose which you think is most apt…
Well, I had a post about torture a couple of years ago and it said…..”Try it….then we will talk”. That was the total word count and of course I got little response……In Vietnam I was held by the Viet Cong for 10 days and while I was not water-boarded I was enticed to divulge info…….a cup of coffee and a cig would have been more productive…..
I agree about GW but I still think that if the procedure is available and a person is to die…then every opportunity to right a wrong should be found and if not then someone owes society for a false killing of a citizen….