Cheney Confesses to a War Crime—What’s It to You?

Great segment on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, talking with Jonathan Turley. They were discussing an interview in which Dick Cheney admitted some part of his role in authorizing the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. Olbermann’s first question to Turley: Did Dick Cheney just confess to a war crime?

Turley notes the irony of a person committing a crime so shocking in nature that it paralyzes observers, in full view of witnesses and then claiming it is not a crime, because those witnesses did nothing to stop him.

Cheney is whistling past the graveyard. History is replete with examples of monsters who have committed notorious public crimes and who were not brought to account immediately. It takes people a little while to process and believe that they have actually seen the unbelievable and then organize themselves to react in deliberate way.

Or maybe Cheney is gearing up for a version of the "fifty bishops (or cop at your elbow) defense"–which is a theoretical defense tactic I learned in Law School, but don’t think I have ever seen successfully deployed. It is a form of mental incapacity defense, claiming you lacked the capacity to know that your actions were wrong or a crime.

The essence of the defense is that if you would commit the crime even with 50 bishops (or a cop) at you elbow to catch you in the act, you do not know that your act is wrong. The problem, as I contended in a law school exam essay, is that this defense does not take into account SOCIOPATHS, people who don’t give flying, erm, fig if what they do is wrong or not.

Turley points out several times, that US war criminals will only be held to account IF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC DEMANDS IT. I think he was talking to greater Left Blogistan. I think he is looking for a "to the phones!" moment. We should give it to him and hope this catches on elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Call today, good. Call next week, as well, better. Keep calling until Congress and/or DOJ gets off its ass–best. Let’s give Obama the political cover he needs to do the right thing.

BTW, there is some effort in Congress–and I have heard through the grapevine some enthusiasm within Obama’s inner circle–for a Commission. I support a Commission to do a preliminary vetting and sorting out of the crimes from the merely outrageous, but NOT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION. When this Commission finds a crime, it should be referred for prosecution, either to DOJ or to a Special Prosecutor.

After the holidays, we are going to do some more about this; Christy is working on something, but phones calls during the Christmas quiet season should get more attention because of their rarity. If you have the time, let’s get the ball rolling and don’t forget to use the "spotlight" and "share this" features. We need many more media outlets to push this, if we want to see it happen.

Selise’s phone lists. Senate. House.

Related posts:

1. Liz Cheney Warns Against “Walking Away” from Afghanistan, Apparently Forgetting that Dick Cheney Walked Away from Afghanistan
2. FAA and NORAD Changed Records to Accord with Cheney Lies
3. Whitehouse and the Corpus Delicti Leading to Cheney
4. Liz Cheney Rejects DOMA, Applauds Hillary Clinton
5. Liz Cheney: Calling My Daddy a Torturer is Libelous