Dick Cheney Slams Condi Rice & Colin Powell In New Memoir! Still Supports Waterboarding

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Cheney says he urged Bush to bomb suspected Syria nuke site

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.

“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”

Mr. Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure to force the Syrians to abandon the secret program, but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007. Mr. Cheney’s account of the discussion appears in his autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” which is to be published by Simon & Schuster next week. A copy was obtained by The New York Times.

Pugnacious

Mr. Cheney’s book — which is often pugnacious in tone and in which he expresses little regret about many of the most controversial decisions of the Bush administration — casts him as something of an outlier among top advisers who increasingly took what he saw as a misguided course on national security issues. While he praises Mr. Bush as “an outstanding leader,” Mr. Cheney, who made guarding the secrecy of internal deliberations a hallmark of his time in office, divulges a number of conflicts with others in the inner circle.

He wrote that George J. Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, resigned in 2004 just “when the going got tough,” a decision he calls “unfair to the president.” He wrote that he believes that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell tried to undermine President Bush by privately expressing doubts about the Iraq war, and he confirms that he pushed to have Mr. Powell removed from the cabinet after the 2004 election. “It was as though he thought the proper way to express his views was by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government,” Mr. Cheney writes. His resignation “was for the best.”

He faults former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for naïveté in the efforts to forge a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea, and Mr. Cheney reports that he fought with White House advisers over softening the president’s speeches on Iraq.

Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the administration underestimated the challenges in Iraq, but he said the real blame for the violence was with the terrorists.

He also defends the Bush administration’s decision to inflict what he called “tough interrogations” — like the suffocation technique known as waterboarding — on captured terrorism suspects, saying it extracted information that savedlives. He rejects portrayals of such techniques as “torture.”

In discussing the much-disputed “16 words” about Iraq’s supposed hunt for uranium in Niger that were included in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address to help justify the eventual invasion, Mr. Cheney said that unlike other aides, he saw no need to apologize for making that claim. He writes that Ms. Rice eventually came around to his view.

“She came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted I had been right,” he wrote.

Detailed account of Sept. 11 response

The book opens with an account of Mr. Cheney’s experiences during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he essentially commanded the government’s response from a bunker beneath the White House while Mr. Bush — who was away from Washington and hampered by communications breakdowns — played a peripheral role. But Mr. Cheney wrote that he did not want to make any formal statement to the nation that day.

“My past government experience,” he wrote, “had prepared me to manage the crisis during those first few hours on 9/11, but I knew that if I went out and spoke to the press, it would undermine the president, and that would be bad for him and for the country.

“We were at war. Our commander in chief needed to be seen as in charge, strong, and resolute — as George W. Bush was.”

Mr. Cheney appears to relish much of the criticism heaped on him by liberals, but reveals that he had offered to resign several times as President Bush prepared for his re-election in 2004 because he was afraid of becoming a burden on the Republican ticket. After a few days, however, Mr. Cheney said that Mr. Bush said he wanted him to stay.

Waning influence

But in the Bush administration’s second term, Mr. Cheney’s influence waned. When Mr. Bush decided to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense after the 2006 midterm elections, Mr. Cheney said he was not given a chance to object.

Mr. Cheney praised Barack Obama’s support, as a senator from Illinois, for passing a bank bailout bill at the height of the financial crisis, shortly before the 2008 election. But he criticizes Mr. Obama’s decision to withdraw the 33,000 additional troops he sent to Afghanistan in 2009 by September 2012, and writes that he has been “happy to note” that Mr. Obama has failed to close the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as he had pledged.

Mr. Cheney’s long struggle with heart disease is a recurring theme in the book. He discloses that he wrote a letter of resignation, dated March 28, 2001, and told an aide to give it to Mr. Bush if he ever had a heart attack or stroke that left him incapacitated.

And in the epilogue, Mr. Cheney writes that after undergoing heart surgery in 2010, he was unconscious for weeks. During that period, he wrote, he had a prolonged, vivid dream that he was living in an Italian villa, pacing the stone paths to get coffee and newspapers.


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Sources: MSNBC, NY Times, Telegraph.co.uk, Zimbio, Youtube, Google Maps

"Damn Right!" Bush On Waterboarding Terrorists; Gave It His All

Bush On Waterboarding: "Damn Right!"


Former President George W. Bush has stayed out of politics since he left the White House and, except for his own career, he largely keeps the subject at arm's length in his new memoir, "Decision Points."

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey to air on Tuesday when the book is to be released, Bush said he is "through with politics" and refused to offer an opinion on the 2012 presidential election.

"I am not a Political Pundit. I'm really not," Bush said. "A lot is gonna happen between now and the nominating process."

He also passes on commenting on President Obama, saying he wants to treat his successor the way, "I'd like to have been treated."

"I don't think it's good for a former president to be out there opining on every darned issue," Bush told Winfrey. "He's got a plenty tough job. Trust me. And there's gonna be plenty of critics and he doesn't need me criticizing him."

In the 481-page book Bush compliments Obama's political skills during a meeting before the 2008 election as the Financial crisis was coming to a head. He also criticizes the performance of his party's nominee, John McCain, in the same meeting.

He criticizes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the failure of his efforts to Reform Immigration laws in 2006.

Bush takes responsibility for giving the go-ahead for Waterboarding terror suspects, which has touched off a new round of criticism of Bush and calls for his prosecution. He says that he did decide not to use two more extreme interrogation methods, but did not disclose what those were.

Here are excerpts from the book, which CNN obtained on Friday:

'The choice between security and values was real'

Bush reveals the decision points that led him to choose Waterboarding as an Interrogation technique.

"CIA experts drew up a list of interrogation techniques. ... At my direction, Department of Justice and CIA lawyers conducted a careful legal review. The enhanced interrogation program complied with the Constitution and all applicable laws, including those that ban torture.

"There were two that I felt went too far, even if they were legal. I directed the CIA not to use them. Another technique was Waterboarding, a process of simulated drowning. No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm."

Though Bush confirms that he knew the use of Waterboarding would one day become public, and acknowledges that it is "sensitive and controversial," he asserts that "the choice between security and values was real," and expresses firm confidence in his decision. "Had I not authorized Waterboarding on senior al Qaeda leaders, I would have had to accept a greater risk that the country would be attacked. In the wake of 9/11, that was a risk I was unwilling to take," he writes.

Bush further declares that the new techniques proved effective, yielding information on al Qaeda's structure and operations, and leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al Shibh, the logistical planner of the 9/11 attacks who was captured on the first anniversary of 9/11.

And if there were any lingering doubts or conflict about the use of Waterboarding, Bush discloses that he received reassurance from an unlikely source: terror suspect Abu Zubaydah.

The former president writes, "His understanding of Islam was that he had to resist Interrogation only up to a certain point. Waterboarding was the technique that allowed him to reach that threshold, fulfill his religious duty, and then cooperate." Bush elaborates that Zubaydah gave him a direct instruction, "'You must do this for all the brothers.'"

Intelligence gleaned from Interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and other suspects led to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Bush writes. During a raid on Mohammed's compound, agents discovered more plans for terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

Prompted by the discoveries, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding on Mohammed.

Bush exposes his inner thoughts on what led him to reach this decision: "I thought about my meeting with Danny Pearl's widow, who was pregnant with his son when he was murdered. I thought about the 2,971 people stolen from their families by al Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect my country from another act of terror.

"Damn Right" I said."

An early political lesson

The president's political education is rounded out with anecdotes from early races, including a loss to state Sen. Kent Hance in a bid for a West Texas congressional seat.

Despite warnings that he was likely to lose, Bush writes that he felt compelled to run.

"I was having my first experience with the political bug, and it was biting hard." Fighting off accusations that he was "an East Coast outsider," he tried to change the conversation by running an ad showing him jogging to emphasize his "energy and youth."

Hance quickly turned the ad against him with one simple line, "'The only time folks around here go running is when somebody's chasing them.'" The experience, he writes, taught him that he was capable of moving on after a loss, and to never let his opponent define him.

An earlier Bush-Cheney ticket

Bush writes candidly about the ups and downs of his father's presidential campaigns and the personal toll they took on him. On a fishing trip during his father's third year in the White House, Bush tells of a conversation in which President George H.W. Bush briefly toyed with the idea of not standing for re-election.

Bush writes that his father's doubts were attributed to blame he felt for the intense media scrutiny his son Neil had gone through during the savings and loan crisis. But the notion is quickly forgotten when in the next paragraph Bush describes his relief "when Dad told the family he had one last race in him."

In the summer of 1992, as the presidential race was heating up, Bush expressed concern that the campaign was languishing.

"I told Dad he ought to think about a bold move to shake up the dynamics of the race," Bush writes. "One possibility was to replace Vice President Dan Quayle, whom I liked and respected, with a new running mate." Bush's suggestion was Secretary of State Dick Cheney, and although his father dismissed the idea because it would look "desperate and embarrass Dan," Bush later admits that he "never completely gave up on my idea of a Bush-Cheney ticket."

The struggles of his father's campaign effected Bush emotionally. He confesses that he felt the media were treating his father unfairly, and on a last-minute campaign trip with his father in the days before the election, he "unleashed" an angry outburst on two reporters who asked about the mood on the campaign plane. "What the press did not understand was that my outbursts were driven by love, not politics," he writes.

After his father's loss in 1992, Bush says this love turned to "pain," and then ultimately to "the itch to run for office again," and a "sense of liberation," that he was out from under his father's shadow. "I could lay out my policies without having to defend his," Bush writes. "I wouldn't have to worry that my decisions would disrupt his presidency. I was free to run my own life."

Bush writes that the loss had a similar effect on his brother Jeb, "What had first seemed like the sad end to a great story now looked like the unlikely beginning of two new careers. Had dad won in 1992, I doubt I would have run for office in 1994, and I almost certainly would not have become president."

'Marquee event' in political theater

During the battle over passage of his 2008 "financial rescue package," Bush describes a heated White House meeting between congressional leaders and both presidential candidates. Despite warnings from several of his top advisers about the effectiveness of such a meeting, the president agreed to convene the group at John McCain's request for fear of the public message it would send if he rejected the suggestion of his party's nominee.

Bush describes the event as "the marquee event in Washington's political theater," and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "a volcano ready to erupt" prior to entering the Cabinet Room. Following remarks by the president and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the speaker deferred to Obama, her party's nominee, whom Bush portrays as having a "calm demeanor" while speaking about the scope of the proposal.

From a political perspective, Bush says that Obama was "smart when he informed the gathering that he was in constant contact with Hank," giving the impression that he was "aware, in touch, and prepared to get a bill passed."

In a somewhat harsher description of his party's nominee, Bush recalls that he was "puzzled" with McCain's decision to pass when it came his turn to speak next. "He had called for this meeting," Bush writes. "I assumed he would come prepared to outline a way to get the bill passed." In Bush's telling, the meeting quickly devolved into a "verbal food fight, which would have been comical except the stakes were so high."

Why Immigration Reform failed

Bush blasts Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for letting a comprehensive immigration reform bill die in the Senate.

At one point during his push to get the legislation passed, Bush reached out to the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy -- urging him to ask Reid to keep the Senate in session before the July 4 recess.

"Given the importance of this legislation, I thought it would be worthwhile to allow them a little extra for the bill to pass," Bush writes.

"Apparently, Harry Reid did not ... If Ted Kennedy couldn't persuade the majority leader of his party, my odds were not good."

And he was right. The Nevada Democrat called for a vote to end debate, which failed. The Senate then adjourned.

"Senators went home and listened to angry constituents stirred up by the loud voices on radio and TV," he writes. "By the time they came back to Washington, immigration reform was dead."

And because of that failure, Bush says "coyotes are still in business, immigrants continue to cross the border illegally, and a divisive political issue remains unsolved."





Bush Writes Of Anger, Resolve After Sept. 11 Attacks

The terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001, gave his administration a clear goal and him the resolve to find out who was responsible and "kick their ass," former President George W. Bush writes in his new book.

In "Decision Points," Bush describes his reaction when his then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice informed him of the crash of a third airplane into the Pentagon.

"I sat back in my seat and absorbed her words. My thoughts clarified: The first plane could have been an accident. The second was definitely an attack. The third was a declaration of war," the former president writes in his 481-page book, which goes on sale Tuesday.

"My blood was boiling. We were going to find out who did this, and kick their ass," Bush writes.

"In a single morning, the purpose of my presidency had grown clear: to protect our people and defend our freedom that had come under attack."

CNN on Friday obtained a copy of the book, being released by Crown Publishers.

In the book, Bush also recounts the government response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

He calls the response "not only flawed" but "unacceptable," and describes his own failures in this way: "As the leader of the federal government, I should have recognized the deficiencies sooner and intervened faster. I prided myself on my ability to make crisp and effective decisions. Yet in the days after Katrina, that didn't happen. The problem was not that I made the wrong decisions. It was that I took too long to decide."

Bush writes he also failed to "adequately communicate my concern for the victims of Katrina" -- a problem he calls one of "perception, not reality."

"Yet many of our citizens, particularly in the African-American community, came away convinced their president didn't care about them."

The former president recently told NBC's Matt Laurer that the "worst moment" of his administration was when rapper Kanye West declared during a Katrina celebrity telethon that "George Bush does not like black people." West this week expressed a sympathetic view of Bush's reaction to the comment.

Bush writes the Katrina had a lasting legacy on his second term.

"Just as Katrina was more than a hurricane, its impact was more than physical destruction. It eroded citizens' trust in their government. It exacerbated divisions in our society and politics. And it cast a cloud over my second term."

In "Decision Points," Bush also details how he came to utter those infamous words "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" about Michael Brown, the FEMA chief who was leading the government's response to Katrina in the days immediately following the storm.

Bush writes that he was in Mobile, Alabama, meeting with the Alabama and Mississippi governors and asked them if they were getting adequate federal support. "'That Mike Brown is doing a heck of a job,' Bob said," referring to Alabama governor Bob Riley. "I knew Mike was under pressure and I wanted to boost his morale," Bush writes, so he repeated Riley's words a few minutes later when he spoke to the press.

"I never imagined those words of encouragement would become an infamous entry in the political lexicon. As complaints about Mike Brown's performance mounted, especially in New Orleans, critics turned my words of encouragement into a club to bludgeon me."

The former FEMA head, who resigned two weeks after the compliment, told CNN in August that he winced when Bush uttered the line.

"I knew the minute he said that, the media and everybody else would see a disconnect between what he was saying and what I was witnessing on the ground," Brown said. "That's the president's style. His attitude and demeanor is always one of being a cheerleader and trying to encourage people to keep moving. It was just the wrong time and the wrong place."

Bush in recent years has talked about his past problems with alcohol abuse and his 1986 decision to give up drinking completely.

Just days before the 2000 presidential election, news broke that Bush had been arrested for driving under the influence in Maine in 1976. In his memoir, Bush writes, "Not disclosing the DUI on my terms may have been the single costliest political mistake I ever made."

He says he had decided against doing so because he didn't want to undermine his admonitions to his daughters about drinking and driving.

After the news came out -- so close to election day, Bush writes, he went to bed that night on the campaign trail thinking, "I may have just cost myself the presidency."


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Sources: Amazon.com, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, Google Maps

Bush Discusses Waterboarding, Other Decisions & Mistakes

Bush Says New Orleans Flyover After Katrina A "Huge Mistake"

Former President George W. Bush said he made a “huge mistake” in not stopping in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and allowing photographers to take pictures of him looking at New Orleans as he flew over the city.

The photograph, taken on board Air Force One, made him look “detached and uncaring,” Bush said in an interview scheduled for broadcast on NBC next week in connection with the Nov. 9 release of the former president’s book, “Decision Points,” about his time in office.

Bush was widely criticized for the federal government’s botched response to the 2005 storm that devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf of Mexico coast and for not going to the area soon after the hurricane hit.

“I should have touched down in Baton Rouge, met with the governor and walked out and said, ‘I hear you. We understand. And we’re going to help the state and help the local governments with as much resources as needed,’” Bush, 64, said according to excerpts from the interview with Matt Lauer scheduled to air at 8 p.m. New York time on Nov. 8.

In his book, Bush writes that a low point in his presidency was a remark by rapper Kanye West shortly after Katrina hit that the government’s response to the disaster showed Bush “doesn’t care about black people.”

“I faced a lot of criticism as president,” Bush wrote, according to the NBC excerpt. “I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all- time low.”

‘Not True’

In the interview Bush said, “I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency.”

The former president, who served two terms in office, defended his decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003, saying the world would be much more unstable if Saddam Hussein were still in power.

Bush began the U.S.-led attack on Iraq on March 19, 2003, because, he said, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had scorned the United Nations’ 12 years of mandates to get rid of its chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.

He wrote that he felt “sickened” when the U.S. found no weapons of mass destruction. In the interview, Bush said he never considered apologizing for the decision to go to war.

“Apologizing would basically say the decision was a wrong decision,” he said. “And I don’t believe it was the wrong decision.”

In the interview and in his memoir, Bush talked about his struggles with alcohol. Drinking “became a love,” he said, according to interview excerpts. “And therefore, began to compete for my love with my wife and my daughters.”

He said he was able to quit on his own because he was never “chemically addicted.” He described himself as a “habitual drinker” before stopping at the age of 40. He said he has not had “a sip” of alcohol since 1986.


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Sources: Bloomberg.com, MSNBC, National Geographic, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Condi Rice Rates Obama's US Troop Withrawal Strategy As Disastrous...Stanford Student Video

(Stanford Unv. Students question Condi Rice about the Bush Admin's use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques on Terrorist Detainees imprisoned at Gitmo.)



(A fourth grader asked former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about interrogation methods during the Bush administration. Rachel Maddow is joined by NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell.)

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Condoleezza Rice: "If You Want Another Terrorist Attack In The U.S., Abandon Afghanistan"

Those in Congress who would like to see the U.S. begin to pull out of Afghanistan don't have a supporter in former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In a new interview with Fortune Magazine, Rice offered extremely sharp criticism of the idea of withdrawal and painted the consequences of this course of action with an almost Cheneyesque bluntness.

"The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan," she said, "that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th. So our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists.

"It's that simple," she declared, "if you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan."

As the Washington Post reported Monday, Pres. Obama is rethinking all aspects of the U.S. strategy in the Afghanistan in light of the disputed presidential election, an increase in U.S. casualties and waning public support here in America.

In the interview, Rice did acknowledge the recent election as a setback. But she argued that our own experience with democracy proved that it takes time to get things right: "Our democracy wasn't so perfect at the beginning either," she said, citing her own family's experience in the pre-Civil Rights era.

Rice's comments come at a time when the talk of the threat of a possible terrorist attack in the U.S. has re-emerged following a series of arrests in Denver and New York related to an alleged bomb plot. "Counter Terrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists' desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels," the AP reported today.




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Sources: Huffington Post, Fortune, Washington Post, AP, CNN, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow Show, Stanford Unv., Youtube, Google Maps

Chicago Right Wing DJ "Mancow" Experiences Waterboarding...Now Admits Its Torture!

Today Chicago Right Wing radio shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller, a guy who has been a thorn in President Obama's side ever since he was presidential candidate Barack Obama, decided to experience Waterboarding firsthand to convince listeners of his radio show that the Obama administration is wrong as it relates to using Enhanced Interrogation Techniques on prisoners of war.

By participating in this experiment "Mancow" was attempting to prove that Waterboarding is NOT really Torture.

The results? He almost drowned. Literally!

After 6 seconds of having water poured on his face, then catching his breath and appearing visibly shaken, "Mancow" humbly admitted Waterboarding IS indeed Torture!

Well former V.P. Dick Cheney and daughter Liz, what do you have to say about this?

Note: Parents please prevent/ educate your kids from trying this experiment at home.


("Mancow" almost drowns during a Waterboarding experiment.)



("Mancow"'s remarks after the Waterboarding experiment.)

"It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke ... It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back… It was instantaneous… and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture."


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Sources: MSNBC, The Moderate Voice, Day Life, The Inquisitr, Youtube, Google Maps

Dick Cheney's Counter National Security Address....Supports Enhanced Interrogation Techniques

After President Obama delivered his speech on National Security, former V.P. Dick Cheney expounded on the subject with his own perspective in support of the Bush administration's use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.

Oh boy, now I'm really confused!

Dick Cheney: "Keep in mind that these are hardened terrorists picked up overseas since 9/11. The ones that were considered low-risk were released a long time ago... I think the president will find, upon reflection, that to bring the worst of the worst terrorists inside the United States would be cause for great danger and regret in the years to come."

"In seeking to guard this nation against the threat of catastrophic violence, our administration gave intelligence officers the tools and lawful authority they needed to gain vital information."

"Our government prevented attacks and saved lives through the Terrorist Surveillance Program, which let us intercept calls and track contacts between al-Qaida operatives and persons inside the United States."

"In the years after 9/11, our government also understood that the safety of the country required collecting information known only to the worst of the terrorists. And in a few cases, that information could be gained only through tough interrogations... The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts failed. They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do."

""The administration seems to pride itself on searching for some kind of middle ground in policies addressing terrorism... But in the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed."

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When Addressing "Torture Gate" President Obama Must Fairly Apply Rule of Law

Dr. Condoleeza Rice recently discussed America's right to Torture Prisoners of War with a group of bold Stanford University students.

While its true those students did ask some challenging questions, I must admit as usual Condi held her own.

Check out some of her statements:

"The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture."

"I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency, that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department's clearance. That's what I did."

"Foreign Policy is full of tough choices."

"The United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture, and so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture."

Does any of this sound familiar? I can sum it up in one word: Nixon!

Do I still think that some members of former George W. Bush's Administration should be subpoenaed and prosecuted for Human Rights violations?

Yes, however.......Only if the U.S. Dept. of Justice also chooses to prosecute Employers who knowingly and intentionally hire Illegal Immigrants. These workers were then exploited or abused. Some until they died prematurely.

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice also agrees to prosecute crooked District Attorneys and Law Enforcement Officers who intentionally tampered with cases or "padded" cases with trumped up Federal charges, for the sole purpose of imprisoning thousands of African-American/Hispanic young men and women.

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice also decides to conduct an investigation into how School District Superintendents nation wide used the No Child Left Behind Act as Stare Decisis for Re-Segregating America's Public Schools.

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice will also prosecute all those responsible for intentionally steering Toxic Mortgages and Car Loans into the hands of numerous unqualified buyers who couldn't repay them, therefore contributing to the Meltdown of our Economy.

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice seeks to look into how thousands of Law Enforcement Agency Dept Heads and District Attorneys across the country, chose NOT to investigate or prosecute citizens who intentionally committed Hate Crimes even when the evidence slapped them in the face!

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice chooses to hold State Attorney Generals and State Legislators nationwide accountable for NOT establishing and enforcing Fair, Equitable Tax Laws.

In addition that also includes holding those same State Attorney Generals/ State Legislators accountable for intentionally withholding Unemployment Benefits from citizens legally and rightfully entitled to them, for no just cause other than Corporate Loopholes or Corporate Incentives.

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice will allow Congress to subpoena Health Care Plan Provider CEOs just as they summoned Banking/ Car Industry CEOs, for the purpose of them explaining to Congressional Members why their companies charged such exorbitant fees when processing claims and why millions of eligible claims were denied. Especially claims for Mental Health Care treatment and Medicare for the Elderly.

Yes, only if the United States Dept. of Justice will subpoena thousands of DSS Directors from all 50 states to testify before Congress regarding:

a) Keeping Foster Children in the system until the age of 18 just to help bring in more Federal money for thirsty state budgets.

b) Encouraging/ Allowing Teens and Low-Income, Single Mothers to continue birthing baby after baby after baby, again for the sole purpose of bringing in more Federal money.

c) Allowing "Deadbeat Dads" to not pay Child Support due to Teen Mothers and Low-Income Women with Children (who by the way received Welfare Checks provided from Federal funding), refusing to cooperate with Child Support Enforcement agencies regarding the whereabouts of those lazy "sperm donors".

d) Continuing to dole out Welfare Checks, Food Stamps, Medicaid, Child Care Assistance and Free Housing to Teen Mothers or Low-Income Women with Children, even when they were NOT attending School or Working.

e) For allowing millions of Children/ Youth to die each year by training and ordering Social Workers to ignore blatant, clear signs of Child Abuse/ Child Neglect.

With all due respect to President Obama's Administration, the Rule of Law can't be used for Political purposes.

That is NOT why the U.S. Constitution and Geneva Convention Treaty were drafted.

In order to create a substantive legal standard for improving the lives of all Human Beings, the Rule of Law must be fairly and equally applied.

If the United States Dept. of Justice takes necessary steps in conducting thorough investigations proceeding with prosecutions of individuals who have committed the actions I mentioned above, then and only then will I agree that some members of former President George W. Bush's administration should be bought before a court of law for authorizing acts of Torture.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and guest dissects Condi's discussion on "Torture Gate" with Stanford University students.





Nixon: "If the President does it, that means its not illegal".




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Sources: Young Turks, Huffington Post, Stanford University, Whitehouse.gov, Healthreform.gov, Ed.gov, Speaker.gov, MSNBC, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Think Progress, ABA, Black's Law Dictionary, Rutgers Law Record, Newsobserver, NC Dept. of Public Education, NC Dept. of Health & Human Services, Biz Journals, NCGA, Youtube, Google Maps

Condi Rice Takes the Fall for Bush Administration Torture

Earlier this week as the White House and Congress agreed to release CIA documents regarding Torture techniques used in Iraq on Prisoners of War during the Bush Administration's reign, new revelations have surfaced which places a significant amount of the blame on former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Senate documents some more than 126 pages long, reveal that in July 2002 Condi who was at the time our country's National Security Advisor, authorized CIA Intelligence officials and the U.S. Military to execute severe methods of Interrogation techniques for the purpose of obtaining information about Al-Qaeda Terrorist groups.

According to those Congressional documents, Condi gave the "OK" to former CIA Director George Tenent from former President George W. Bush for the use of Torture, not excluding "Waterboarding", during Interrogations. Such acts violated the Geneva Conventions Treaty which prohibits such use, even on Prisoners of War.

These latest reports are in contrast to what Dr. Rice stated during her testimony to Congressional members of the Senate Armed Services Committee last Fall.

When previously questioned by Armed Services Committee members about her role in the execution of Torture techniques used by CIA Intelligence and U.S. Military personnel, Rice's explanation was that she only sat in on discussions regarding the use of Torture.

So it looks as if Condi is taking the fall for "Dubya" on this issue.

If Condi did in fact lie for former President Bush about such a critical issue the sixty billion question is why? Why would she risk ruining her excellent reputation to protect this man?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Condolezza Rice used to be one of my heroes but not anymore unless....

She steps forth to refute these accusations regarding her character as it relates to Bush Administration Torture.

In the meantime I wonder if "Dubya" is going to come to her defense.

Hmmmmm

Stay tuned.

Kieth Olbermann and MSNBC proved that Condi Rice lied when she said the Bush administration did all it could to stop Osama bin Laden's terrorist plots prior to 9/11.




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Sources: Telegraph.co.uk, Reuters, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, NY Times, Timesonline, MSNBC, Yahoo News, Youtube, Google Maps

Why Waterboarding Should Be Called "The Drowning Torture"!

According to Wikipedia, Waterboarding is defined as "a form of torture that consists of immobilizing the victim on his or her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die. It is considered a form of torture by Legal Experts, Politicians, War Veterans, Intelligence Officials, Military Judges, and Human Rights organizations. As early as the Spanish Inquisition it was used for Interrogation purposes, to punish, intimidate and to force confessions."

Now do you fully understand why President Obama opposes this so-called Interrogation technique and why new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls it Unconstitutional?

Holder further explains how Waterboarding is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, because Presidents cannot (according to that Treaty), allow Torture. This includes Prisoners of War.

Former P.O.W. and U.S. Senator John McCain also calls the use of such a Torture technique unacceptable.

After viewing the video below entitled "Waterboarding 101", I believe we can all agree that it should in fact be re-named "The Drowning Torture".

Do you think former President George W. Bush needs to be disposed and publicly reprimanded for these acts against other Human Beings?

Or....Due to "Dubya" keeping our country Safe from other Terrorist Attacks, should he be excused from further scrutiny?

What's your take?




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Sources: Wikipedia, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, NY Times, Oregonlive, C-Span, Flickr, Youtube, Google Maps