Pelosi Open To Prosecution Of Bush Administration Officials” “The Law Might Compel Democrats To Press Forth On Some Prosecutions Of Bush Administration Officials.”
The House speaker suggests to "FOX News Sunday" that the law might compel Democrats to press forth on some prosecutions of Bush administration officials, saying they may not "have a right to ignore" them.
Pelosi open to prosecuting Bush DOJ - Alexander Burns - Politico.com
Jan 18, 2009 ... House Speaker said Sunday that she was open to pursuing investigations of abuses by the Bush Justice Department.
www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17573.html - 1 hour ago –
Transcript: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on 'FNS'
FOXNews - USA
You've got John Conyers, head of your Judiciary Committee, who wants to set up a commission to do exactly that. WALLACE: Mr. Obama says that at this point ...
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Washington Times - Washington,DC,USA
AP House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants an investigation into whether the Bush administration broke the law when it fired a group of federal prosecutors. ...
THINK AGAIN FOLKS!
Kucinich Bid To Impeach Bush Running A Little Short On Time
Just a little update: (I Have Responded Via Comment To This Article (Ed.))
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who came within nearly 2,000 delegates of beating Barack Obamafor the Democratic nomination for president, is still trying to impeach President George W. Bush.
Time is running down as the issue becomes moot Tuesday morning Texas time.
But an agent for Kucinich sends word that the former mayor has still assembled 35 articles of impeachment in a small new book titled "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush." It is available from Feral Books for $12, at least through Tuesday.
Kucinich is said to make the case that Bush should be impeached anyway even though he would no longer have a federal office to be impeached from or over. So far, no great ground swell of support from fellow members of Congress of either party.
-- Andrew Malcolm
We are a nation of laws, not men | By Robert F. Jakubowicz
Berkshire Eagle - Pittsfield, MA,USA
The rule of law was substituted by the founders of this country for the rule of kings, so that America would have a government of laws and not based on the whim of any person. To this end, the founders mandated in the Constitution that presidents must first make a solemn oath to "preserve, protect and defend" this system of governing. Within days, Americans will be putting their trust in president-elect Barack Obama that he will indeed keep this solemn promise that he will make at his inauguration.
These formal promises, invoking a divine witness with hands on a Bible, made by some recent presidents who have later acted in a contrary manner, have raised some serious concerns about the faithful devotion of this country's leaders to a government of laws.
One glaring and shocking past example is former President Richard Nixon. Despite his solemn inaugural oath to uphold the Constitution, his administration created a gang of criminals who engaged in burglary, illegal wiretapping, the illegal collection and use of campaign funds, and perjury. This bunch of lawbreakers acted with the consent and leadership of Nixon's chief national law enforcement officer, Attorney General John Mitchell, and Nixon's chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman.
The objective of this gang of hooligans was to spy on, discredit and disrupt persons and organizations that were deemed to be political enemies of Nixon. That included just about all of Nixon's critics and potential political opponents.
Fortunately a bungled burglary at the Democratic Party's office in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. led to the unraveling of this criminal activity by Nixon's administration. And many of the offenders who were high government officials were convicted of crimes and received prison terms. Nixon escaped being impeached and ousted from office by resigning. He avoided prosecution by being pardoned of any crimes that he may have committed by his successor, Gerald Ford.
Despite all of this, Nixon had the chutzpah to say at the end that he was no "crook." A crook means a dishonest person, one who engages in illegal activity, or a lawbreaker. Not only was Nixon engaged in all such activities — albeit not tried and convicted, thanks to the pardon — but worse, he was the nation's leader sworn to uphold a government of laws.
President George W. Bush is another example of a nation's chief executive bent on tearing down rather than preserving, protecting and defending the rule of law under the Constitution. One of his more glaring and shocking example was his signing off on enhanced interrogation techniques of suspected terrorists which is widely believed to include "waterboarding." He had the unmitigated gall at his press conference this week to publicly admit this. He personally seems to think that his war on terror required this, and for his legal cover he said he received legal opinions that this technique is not torture.
But there is a clear legal precedent that this technique is torture and a war crime. For example, the United States had successfully prosecuted a Japanese military officer after World War II as a war criminal for using this technique on American prisoners of war. "Waterboarding" has been considered a form of torture since it was used during the Spanish Inquisition, later by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, as well as other times in other areas of the world. The United States by its own laws, international treaties to which it is a party and presidential orders has prohibited the use of torture.
Bush's defenders say that he acted based on legal opinions that "waterboarding" was not torture. Such quack legal opinions are patently wrong and in any case offer no defense to Bush because it is the same unsuccessful defense used by German war criminals who tried to hide behind merely following orders or being told it was proper to act as they did. If something is obviously wrong (e.g., forcing a person to physically feel he is drowning to elicit information), someone telling the wrongdoer that this is right because it is not torture does not make it right.
In view of Bush now joining Vice President Dick Cheney in making public admissions of knowingly allowing what has commonly been heretofore considered torture and seemingly doing so without any concern about possible prosecution for it, Obama was recently asked if he would have his Justice Department investigate the use of torture by the Bush administration and pursue prosecutions if the evidence warranted this.
Obama's reply that such things were in the past and we should look forward has concerned supporters. This response prompted Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley to comment on television that such a notion by Obama is no different from a criminal defense lawyer telling a judge that a defendant's crime was something in the past and that it was time to move on and overlook it. Can you imagine a criminal justice system being run in this manner.
Nobody is above the law. Any person from a former president, vice president to a common criminal should be subject to prosecution for a crime, and any person who holds an office based on a solemn vow to uphold a government based on the rule of law should see to it that crimes are prosecuted. I hope Obama will act accordingly.
Robert "Frank" Jakubowicz, a Pittsfield lawyer, is a regular Eagle contributor….
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End of an Era — Exit the Six-Shooter
Khaleej Times - Dubai,United Arab Emirates
But Cheney it was who gave the Bush administration its motto: pay any price (you, the people, are to pay the price) to get what we want. ...
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NABNYC: The 12 Steps To Recovery From The Bush-Cheney Years.
By NABNYC
We have spent 8 years with Bush and Cheney as national leaders. We have allowed them to use the entire U.S. treasury and military to bully, murder, bomb, rape, pillage, and loot many nations of the world, while terrorizing and ...
NABNYC - http://nabnyc.blogspot.com/
The President is Not Above the Law | Civilianism News
Various Congressmen have felt that beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheneywould undermine their political careers more than the Constitution. They are doing the U.S. a big disfavor by ignoring broken laws and changes ...
Civilianism News - http://www.civilianism.com/gate/
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