http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-photos14-2009may14,0,1797091.story?track=rss
Informant: Fred Feldman
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A Special Prosecutor Is Who Needs To See New The Torture Pics
The big fuss this week was President Obama's total turnaround on releasing the new torture pictures. Despite stating that they were "not particularly sensational", in the next breath he argued that releasing them would put our troops at greater risk, two statements which when combined make no logical sense.
What's really going on here is that Obama has so far resisted in every possible way his duty under the law to appoint a special prosecutor, despite his affirmation that waterboarding is torture, and the arrogant public confessions of those who ordered that torture. Having underestimated the furor for prosecution that the previous release of the torture memos would cause at home, Obama now well knows that these pictures would just increase that pressure.
So we say give the pictures to a special prosecutor, who can then show them to a grand jury. That's who really needs to see them. Obama said long ago, "Make me do it." We don't need more pictures to do that, we KNOW what they did, we just need to keep speaking out about it.
Special Prosecutor Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum984.php
Just submit the one click action page at the link directly above and your message to "Appoint A Special Prosecutor For Torture Now" will go directly to President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and all your members of Congress too!
We need to each of us continue to speak out for a special prosecutor once a week from now on, until Obama and Holder finally get the message that no matter how many people THEY don't torture, there is no accountability for the past, and no deterrent for the war criminals of the future, without prosecutions NOW.
And after you speak out and submit the action page above, you can get one of the new "Convict Dick & W" caps which you are starting to see everywhere, custom embroidered with a cute little cowboy hat on the "W". Or you can request yours at this page directly.
Convict Dick & W Caps:
http://www.peaceteam.net/convict_cap.php
Let us be very clear. Cheney and Bush started torturing people for the purpose of making a FALSE case for invading Iraq, not to try to protect us in any way from another terrorist attack, like the one they were so negligent in not stopping in the first place. It started with al-Libi, now mysteriously dead in prison, who was tortured into falsely confessing a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, a lie that defied all other intelligence to the contrary.
The torture started long before they commissioned legally preposterous opinions to say the OLD torture was suddenly now new and OK, from sycophant lawyers one of whom (Bybee) was rewarded for his collaboration with an lifetime seat on the appeals court.
Which is why it is all so very interesting that Cheney has been all over the corporate media lately doing the equivalent of a Limbaugh torture teaching tour. Why is Dick Cheney now taking such a PERSONAL interest in trying to retroactively sell a policy of torture to the American people?
The answer of course is that torture was HIS program, it was his initiative. He was the driving force in charge of it, and he's the one who made it happen. Listen to Cheney's answer on Meet To Press to the question of whether Bush knew everything about the program that he did. Listen to Cheney mumble out of the side of this mouth that Bush "knew a great deal" and "basically authorized it", and you can picture Cheney doing everything but forge Bush's signature on it, not that the little decider is himself any less responsible.
Special Prosecutor Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum984.php
After all the lies they BOTH told over and over about weapons of mass destruction, which there weren't, the lies about "We don't torture," when they were, and everything else, now Cheney is out there pushing the lie that torture works and gave us swell intelligence, when every serious career military interrogator who ever was knows that it doesn't work, except to produce BAD information.
Our troops are not at risk because torture is exposed, they are at risk if it is not prosecuted. This has NOTHING to do with protecting our troops, and everything to do with protecting ONE very cowardly man, who dodged his own military service with 5 deferments, and has been hiding behind our troops ever since ... Dick Cheney.
In trying to defend the torture he himself ordered Cheney now says, "If I don't speak out, where do we find ourselves?"
Most ironically, that is the very question WE need to ask OURSELVES. If we don't speak out, his shame and guilt and crimes become our own. But if we DO speak out, and keep speaking out, Cheney will ultimately find himself where war criminals belong ... behind bars for a very long time.
Special Prosecutor Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum984.php
And yes, you can also respond to this action through the new Twitter gateway. Just send the following Twitter reply, and add any personal comment you like.
@cxs #p984
And if you want a step by step explanation of how to set up the Twitter thing here is the link for that.
Twitter Activism Step-By-Step:
http://tcxs.net/step_by_step.php
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
usalone315b:314477
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture