"I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture, and I'm going to make sure that we don't torture," Obama said on CBS' "60 Minutes weeks after winning the election." "Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world."
Contrast this with this statement from Obama that was released to the States News Service in October 2007:
“The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security. We must do whatever it takes to track down and capture or kill terrorists, but torture is not a part of the answer - it is a fundamental part of the problem with this administration's approach. Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them. Torture is how you get bad information, not good intelligence. Torture is how you set back America's standing in the world, not how you strengthen it. It's time to tell the world that America rejects torture without exception or equivocation. It's time to stop telling the American people one thing in public while doing something else in the shadows. No more secret authorization of methods like simulated drowning. When I am president America will once again be the country that stands up to these deplorable tactics. When I am president we won't work in secret to avoid honoring our laws and Constitution, we will be straight with the American people and true to our values.”
The assertiveness and integrity found in this statement is noticeably lacking in the statements Obama is making now that he is going to be the next president of the United States.
While he ultimately decided not to appoint John Brennan, he has been considering Michael McConnell and Michael Hayden for Director of National Intelligence and CIA Director.
The excuse for considerations of those who strongly supported Bush policies has been continuity. This excuse is a result of Obama thinking that a smooth transition is more important than ending the institutionalization of lawlessness in American government.
Like most of Obama’s decisions, he seems to be making a compromise here. The worst of the Bush administration will not be serving in Obama's administration, but some will because, to Obama, this is the only way to avoid partisan bickering.
Obama’s transition has been marked by government officials constantly suggesting Obama will not be able to make changes the people want Obama to make.
For example, Rep. Silvestre Reyes [D-TX] said last week, “There are those that believe that this particular issue [torture] has to be dealt with very carefully because there are beliefs that there are some options that need to be available…We don't want to be known for torturing people. At the same time we don't want to limit our ability to get information that's vital and critical to our national security. That’s where the new administration is going to have to decide what those parameters are, what those limitations are."
The Public Record click here that Reyes is “just one of a handful of top Democrats in both Houses who in recent weeks have changed their positions in regard to the brutal techniques used by the CIA during interrogations, such as waterboarding, which has been widely regarded as torture.”
Just over a year ago, Glenn Greenwald wrote, “The Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration, beginning in 2002, repeatedly briefed leading Congressional Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees -- including, at various times, Jay Rockefeller, Nancy Pelosi, and Jane Harman -- regarding the CIA's "enhanced interrogation methods," including details about waterboarding and other torture measures. With one exception (Harman, who vaguely claims to have sent a letter to the CIA), these lawmakers not only failed to object to these policies, but affirmatively supported them.”
Greenwald went on to make the assertion that, “Torture didn't become an American policy despite the best efforts of a righteous Democratic leadership to stop that. Torture became an American policy precisely because a meek and often outright supportive Democratic leadership continuously allowed it.”
Cheney can admit to torture because Democrats have not admitted to being silent and complicit on the issue of torture.
Democrats have killed efforts to impeach Bush or Cheney for torture.
Despite the efforts of grassroots Americans and Dennis Kucinich and others, everything else but restoring the rule of law has been on the table for Pelosi and her Democratic underlings.
When did certain high-ranking Democrats learn about war crimes and when did they learn about it and why didn't they tirelessly pursue justice and accountability for members of the Bush Administration? Why the hesitation?
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