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(photo: plastic lemonade)
First, Sen. Richard Shelby put a blanket hold on all executive branch nominees to extort the executive branch into rigging procurement to guarantee that the company he favored won a bid on a defense contract. Oh, and he wanted the FBI to build a crime lab in his state, too.
And now Sen. Lindsey Graham is copycatting, placing a hold on the closing of Gitmo hostage to extort the Department of Justice into not having a civilian trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. And Graham’s not being subtle about it. In a well-researched piece for The New Yorker, Jane Mayer breaks some amazing scoops:
“Rahm had a good relationship with Graham, and believed Graham when he said that if you don’t prosecute these people in military commissions I won’t support the closing of Guantánamo. . . Rahm said, ‘If we don’t have Graham, we can’t close Guantánamo, and it’s on Eric!’ ”
[snip]
Graham told [Mayer], “It was a nonstarter for me. There’s a place for the courts, but not for the mastermind of 9/11.” He said, “On balance, I think it would be better to close Guantánamo, but it would be better to keep it open than to give these guys civilian trials.” Graham, who served as a judge advocate general in the military reserves, vowed that he would do all he could as a legislator to stop the trials.
Okay, Senators Graham and Shelby? This is the U.S. Senate, not middle school. This blackmail thing? It‘s not like, “Oh, the cool kids are wearing Hello Kitty wristwatches” and you need to follow the fad.
There is zero logical nexus between whether or not to close Gitmo and whether or not to have civilian trials, so the only reason for making the kind of statement quoted above, is quid pro quo. While I’m not suggesting that this is a Hobbs Act violation (read the link, trust me), it certainly smells just as bad.
Kate Martin, the Center for National Security Studies director, warns, “We can’t have a situation where political pressure forces the federal government to forgo criminal prosecution. That would mean the system is fundamentally broken.”
Message for Rahm, from Marcy Wheeler:
Remind me. Didn’t Rove and the Bush White House get in trouble for this kind of tampering with DOJ issues?
Really, the White House needs to BACK OFF and let the Department of Justice and the federal courts do their job. And a bunch of non-lawyers with ZERO expertise in this area should NOT be part of the decision making process, much less driving that process. Hasn’t Rahm done enough damage to the President with his mishandling of the healthcare bill? Why do you want him to screw up something he knows even less about?
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Republicans are making sure over and over again that all parties are complicit at best… in war crimes.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Cynthia Kouril and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Thanks for the post…I think we might be seein’ the end of Rahm Tiney Dancer’s bureucratic backstabbin. He’s fuckin’ around with folks who not only know the law but hold the power to investigate his sorry little ass. I know it ain’t Kosher around here to have any respect for Holder, but I think Rahm made a mistake when he tried ta kneecap the Attorny General. Rahm’s been takin’ so many deep knee bends in all of Bush-Cheney’s leftover shit that his eyes are turnin’ brown and Obama is no fool…if Holder tells “the boss” that one of his own has broken the law and will take the administration down if he’s not put back in the cage, I expect that the Darkman will pull his chain quite severely.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WARS STUPID!!
This is not high school stuff. These people are gangsters. We have a government controlled by organized criminal organizations.
I’m just relieved to see someone call this blackmail.
Because that’s exactly what it is.
And a lot more people need to speak out against the political blackmail and political extortion that has our federal government stuck in political dysfunction and paralysis.
It’s contemptible.
When Eric “Chiquita” Holder is the good guy in any scenario… you know your words are true.
The new thing is not that they’re doing it, but that they don’t try to hide it at all.
I’m still flabbergasted that Cheney admits he loves the waterboard. If Obama doesn’t speak up and get his troops in line, he’s toast.
If Cheney loves the waterboard so much, why don’t they take him out for a spin in it.
Worse, that pissy-panted WATB Graham is a USNR JAG.
They need to remove his commission for being an idjit.
Lindsay Graham is a closeted homosexual. There’s nothing more dishonest than lying every single day about who you are. That anyone would credit him with integrity or honesty on any issue whatsoever is absurd.
His life is a lie, every day. As is his military service.
Why is the Obama White House paying regular fealty to their vanquished opponent’s two best buddies, anyway? Do they think they’ll win them over somehow? Because they won’t. Lieberman has provided ample example of that.
Just because Lindsay Graham has been censured by local South Carolina GOP groups doesn’t mean he’ll play ball with Democrats. In fact, the opposite is likely. Remember the story about the scorpion and the frog:
Do you really think a reference to Darkman is cute? Appropriate? or Respectful? I think it’s juvenile, rude, and disgusting and should get the Mod’s attention.
Yea, none of that disrespectful stuff allowed here.
That’s it – there’s 3 areas here, Law, Policy and Politics. Politics should simply not enter when it’s clearly a case of the Law.
Frankly, the WH Team is failing at all 3 area on this issue.
Endless American wars of imperial corporate aggression against residents of the third world.
As long as his “decency” is not in question.
(You should have stuck around on “that thread”, Raven)
;~DW
Extortion is Not Supposed to be a Fad, Senators
Oh, I don’t think that it’s a fad anymore. At some point, “fads” become Standard Operating Procedure.
We’ve been there for a while, methinks.
Blatantly so, of late, jayt.
DW
Spose I should have but I feel like I’m pissin up a slack line around here.
Your son still in Hunstville? I thought of him the other day.
I know what you mean, sometimes, Raven, but your perspective leavens some of the “loft” in the line. Seriously. While I might disagree with you at times, I am always prepared to listen carefully to what you say.
I’ve told you before, your BS meter is one of the best, and I do not ignore your use of it, ever.
DW
C, What’s the quid pro quo?
If you only have military commissions I’ll let you close Gitmo?
Or something else?
Why thanks, that sure ain’t anonymous! I was truly shocked today to learn here that there was “confusion” in the battle in Afghanistan! I always thought battles when exactly as planned.
no, he’s down at Ft. Hood.
thx, hope he’s well
I have not hesitated to bitch about Holder when I thought the facts warrented it.
However, he is 100% right about the civilian criminal trials.
Further the US Marshall’s service determined SDNY was the safest place to hold the trial (that court complex has several extra security features, in part because so many terror trials are routinely held there)
When it comes to knowing certain truths, as in the reality of what it IS, you do.
The “confusions” of “those (or these) moments” can rarely be apprehended in the heat and bombast of it all, by ANY who are truly present, all else is bullshit, contrived to excuse ourselves from being honest.
Need a laugh? This Too Will Pass
That was great!!!
Thank you, Raven.
Who are they?
Dayam
;~D
Safest? Why? Is there going to be a massive invasion of terrorizin’ terrorists flood the US landmass if a trial took place somewhere? It’s a trial. He’s already been found guilty by the United States Government, and they’ve already stated it over and over. No need for a trial. Just a need for a place for the TeeVee Networks to earn advertising dollars….”This trial is brought to you today by Ford, and McDonalds”……a public trial anywhere will do nothing but further kangarooize the judicial system and make the US an even bigger laughingstock in the world’s eyes. If there was justice or a REAL justice system, Cheney Bush and their gang would already be on trial or awaiting trial.
You’re really a slow learner, aren’t you?
HE AIN’T GUILTY UNTIL THE JURY SAYS SO.
Not the AG, not the President, not the idjits in Congress who are wetting their pants every time this comes up.
Now, since you clearly don’t intend to learn about how courts work and what trials are for, you might want to go back to your pond.
OK GO with the Notre Dame Band!
you two need to get a room
So you think that he might actually be found not guilty?
Or that he is not guilty NOW?
And won’t be guilty until the jury says he is?
I’m just respectfully curious PJ.
I’m trying to understand, not trying to tweak you in any way, or play with words.
DW
Thanks, Raven.
and it’s gooooood!
It is a cover up. There is a blackmail, drug running, child prostitute, mind control, money laundering, one world order bunch of people running our government.
I say we get rid of them by going after their crimes. They have a vast network of people under mind control and they use children for sex to keep them under control. Sexual assault results in shock from the trauma, making the person very vulnerable. It is some sort of vicious business or something and this group has taken a lot of control.
One of the things they can’t stand is publicity, for obvious reasons. Normal people do not agree with that kind of treatment of children. It is a culture though, and lives in families, especially families at the very top, like the Bushes.
Do you honestly think there is a chance in hell this man will be found not guilty? LMAO. Right. The President, his spokesman Gibbs, and everyone else in politics ANYWHERE has said he is guilty, and WHEN a trial of any kind is over, they are seeking the death penalty. Do you really want to further degrade the “justice” system by having a show trial? As I said before, if this is truly an independant worthy justice system, there would be no question that at the very least, the previous administration would be on trial or awaiting one for minimum crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Howz that trial going? Oh it isn’t. You can’t have any kind of moral trial without it. It’s that simple.