[A three-judge panel from the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia] has upheld the conviction of David Passaro, the first US civilian found guilty of abusing a detainee in Afghanistan, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by AFP Tuesday.
But don’t worry folks. The same panel looked out for the rights of the defendant by ordering a review of the 8 year, 4 month prison sentence … because it was longer than the federal guidelines suggest!
Okay, Obama isn’t looking out for this particular good little Nazi, this pile of irradiated waste (ie of no value whatsoever to anything), but let’s remember some of what has occurred that Obama doesn’t want to bring to public account.
At the interrogators’ behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.“Leave him up,” one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.
Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.
(In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates’ Deaths, NY Times, 05/20/05)
Yeah, we need something done about health insurance in this country, and we need it to be done urgently. Yeah, we need something done about the economic situation, and we need it to be done urgently. Yeah, we need something done about the deterioration of our only source of food, water, air and shelter (aka the physical environment), and we need it to be done urgently.
But with this cancer of torturers and their apologists running loose in our nation, we need to fix our country’s soul, and that we need most urgently of all.
One of the few campaign promises I’ve found Obama to flagrantly violate is his promise of open government … a place where we can hold our elected officials and those who act in their names accountable. Instead Obama continues to obstruct court cases involving detainees from the cheney/bush war on terriers tourists terrists whatever is out there (there’s also White House visitor logs, torture photos and more, but some other time maybe).
Obama’s man in the DoJ, Eric Holder, has said he will pursue the bad Nazis who went beyond the blatantly illegal instructions to torture that emanated from the cheny/bush administration .. BUT .. he will not pursue the good Nazis who did a better job of just following (blatantly illegal) orders. There is absolutely no intention to hold those who issued the top level orders accountable for their crimes.
Obama and Holder have actively made themselves complicit in torture, and by international treaty (which by constitutional definition are the law of the land) that too is illegal.
I guess it’s a good thing liberals understand “feet to the fire” as nothing more than an idiom. I guess it’s a bad thing liberals continue to believe this idiom means “no matter what you do I’ll vote for you next time”.
Torturers and those who instructed them need to be held accountable for their crimes. Period.