Barack Obama has now been inaugurated as president, and the fear expressed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday night that George Bush might issue last-minute pardons of administration officials involved in torture, possibly including himself, has not come to pass.
However, the torture issue itself is not going to go away so easily. As Maddow also noted, “The calls for a reckoning are growing by the day — and not just from progressives outside the government.”
“Do you think that Obama and his team realized how hot an issue this would become and would stay?” Maddow asked Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley.
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“I don’t think so,” Turley replied. “I don’t think the people in that building thought it,” he added, pointing to the Capitol. “I mean, that building is where principles go to die. And they haven’t, because there’s been this groundswell of people saying, ‘Look, you might be able to get away with an electronic surveillance program and say that’s just a crime we’re not going to allow to be prosecuted, but these are war crimes., these are a special category.’”
“I think that the new Barack Obama, the President Obama, is going to find it very hard to go round the world and to say that we’re now again the nation of rules of law,” Turley suggested, “if the first act he commits as president is to talk away from a confirmed war crime.”
“Are we literally looking at a possibility,” Maddow asked, “where administration officials from this [previous] administration cannot travel abroad to the other 145 countries that have signed the torture treaty because they might get arrested?”
“Most certainly,” Turley replied. “The status of George Bush is not that different from Augusto Pinochet. They’ve both been accused of running a torture program. And outside this country, there’s not this ambiguity about what to do with a war crime. … Most people abroad are going to view you not as former President George Bush, they’re going to view you as a current war criminal.”
“And they’re going to view us as an outlaw regime for not arresting him on our own soil,” Maddow remarked.
“I think so, unfortunately,” Turley agreed. “A lot’s at stake.”
This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Jan. 19, 2009.
January 21st, 2009 at 5:41 am
Let the wheels of Justice turn! Thank you Jonathan Turley, Rachel Maddow!
January 21st, 2009 at 5:43 am
What’s the name of softball team does Maddox play for again ?
Please list all the countries that offended : Syria, Iran , China, Russia , Anyplace in that utopia called Africa.
Turley just another wimp in our war on terror.
Sgt.Fury Reply:
January 21st, 2009 at 5:50 am
Oh a spelling error! I must correct before the drones attack . MADDOW. MADDOW. MADDOW.
Funny why did not Bush issue those pardons ? Because he did not need them.
I wonder if Turley is just sucking up to Rachael and the MSNBC crowd for a little TV time.
Yeah he knows there no case , no chance. Yeah ! He just another walking talking smoke screen.
” Look at me I am on TV.”
"JONES"INGFORTHETRUTH Reply:
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
if I’m not mistaken, any lawyer in any state can now file charges against the president as long as a person from his state has died in the war on terror because there was no pardon? Correct me if I’m wrong here.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:15 am
Most people in the US refer to Bush as a dumbass, and a war criminal. Does that count?
January 21st, 2009 at 6:25 am
Bush murdered more than 1.5 million people in Iraq, and more than 5 million in Afghanistan. We are talking about infinitely greater crimes against Humanity here than Bush’s torture program.
THE NUREMBERG TRIALS AFTER WW2 ESTABLISH THAT AGGRESSIVE WARFARE WAS THE GREATEST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, THE MOST EVIL CRIME ANY NATION COULD CARRY OUT.
America, under George Bush, has carried out nazi-identical aggressive wars against Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Gaza. Each of these supreme war-crimes were backed, and finannced absolutely by Obama and the other powerful democrats.
Obama and Bush are more guilty of war-crimes than most of the nazis that were hung after the Nuremberg trials. How do you americans address this fact, as Obama takes power over you?
So why doesn’t Jonathan Turley mention this fact? Is he unaware of the rulings from Nuremberg? Of course not. America is 100% jewish controlled, and these acts of genocidal violence by America were carried out entirely to meet jewish agendas. Turley wouldn’t have a job if he even hinted at this truth.
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/187545
The story of a rare american jew that is prepared to speak out (as a few germans dared to do against Hitler and the nazis), and the price he has paid for doing so.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:43 am
Where’s Bushy gona run? Paraguya?
January 21st, 2009 at 7:15 am
Many people abroad are still pissed at Clinton for Bosnia.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:22 am
well duh johnathon turley, you can throw israel in their too, the whole world hates you both for your evil crimes, ‘people abroad’ will murder bush in clear view on the street if given the chance.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:29 am
YOU FUCKING DEAF FUCKING FUCKERS DIDNT YOU HERE OBAMA SAY RESERVE PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION GO TO YOUR CAMERAS AND RECORDERS AND LISTEN TO HIS SWEARING IN TO RESERVE MEANS TO SET ASIDE FOR ANOTHER DATE. HAS THE CONSTITUTION BEEN SET ASIDE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LISTEN TO ME FIND SOMEONE WHO RECORDED THIS WITH THERE OWN CAMERA AND THEN TELL ME IM WRONG
January 21st, 2009 at 7:48 am
Okay NOW is the time to prosecute George W. Bush, the master of all that is criminal:
http://prosecutegeorgebush.com/book.htm
January 21st, 2009 at 8:07 am
I view Bush, the neocons, the congress, the enabling press, the courts, all as war criminals. And of course their masters, the hidden controlling elite. They all turned a blind eye to the 9/11 inside job, or had an active part in doing it.. The congress, republican and democrat, funded it at every turn. So who does that leave to carry out justice?
We must continue to press for justice and accountability but who will execute justice? One of the reasons we had all these crimes was the public which refused to take off their blinders and actively enabled all this sinister activity. We still have a large percentage of our country that remains blissfully ignorant.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bush doesn’t need to pardon anyone involved with torture.
The defense authorization act, cleared all involved pre & post bill.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:09 am
It’s not just Baby Bush who’s the war criminal; the entire Bush family are mobsters, going back at least as far as Prescott Bush. They are an organised criminal gang and the dead bodies pile up around their family as they pursue wealth and power with ever greater alacrity. For some reason, America only elects criminals to the White House.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:16 am
The arrest and the trial against GWB will have to be brought by the People. Don’t count on the congress to bring justice to this world. Remember that Pelosi was also involved in the torture descision. There is no chance the Democrats will go ahead with any criminal charges against those involved. They made sure they could bring a lot of people down with them if that happened.
RayB Reply:
January 21st, 2009 at 11:06 am
To add to this… Eric Holder’s nomination is on hold and my guess is that because he did say that waterboarding was torture, so that means that all involved must be put on trial for torture, his chances of being nominated are cut down to almost nothing.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:30 am
Congress will never prosecute Bush or his buddies nor will anyone else.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:47 am
The problem with getting ANY kind of crime to stick is the fact that the planet and it’s political minions have all been payed off to protect the criminals involved in the creation and execution of the NWO. This means that they cannot go against their handlers and move towards any conviction of the crimes they perpetrated during their eight ILLEGAL years in office no matter how serious the crimes.
There are too many players in this global crime syndicate to currently affect any change towards any form of governance but Global Governance. The only way this can change now is for the people of the world to work TOGETHER to fight on all levels this EVIL SYSTEM.
GOD BLESS THE AWAKENED MASSES
January 21st, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Bush will always be viewed as a war criminal, not will be, but is already. Obama Hussein will never be trusted the world over if he doesn’t see that Bush is prosecuted. And that will never happen because Obama Hussein doesn’t have the balls. So it will continue to be same shit differant day as usual.
When has ever the US admitted to guilt by prosecuting a President? Because that is what it will take to make things right in the world. Its easier for Obama Hussein to stick his head in the sand in hopes it will go away.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
What’s wrong with this picture:
2:50
“That building is where principles go to die.”
You would need to go a long way to find a person that didn’t agree with these words. It is overwhelmingly common for people to feel that politicians, by and large, are self-serving, greedy, unprincipled people.
Approval ratings in the teens for the Congress are a perfect example.
Yet so many people still pay their taxes and run out to vote like obedient little slaves … I mean … citizens. We still support the criminal bankers that effectively fund the political system by using their money and paying interest on loans to their member banks.
A good definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Criminals run your society and all you have to do to dissolve their power is to stop using their money. The money is the control mechanism that keeps all of us economically enslaved. When we stop using the currency that they supply to us, the Federal Reserve will dissolve and the politicians they employ will be out of a job.
Don’t fight the system:
Replace it
http://socialviability.com/
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:58 am
politicions are like cigarettes they stink their nasty and you cant wait to put them out
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:12 am
There are a number of people leaving the US–just on time. The country is beyond dangerous–it is a powder keg waitin to explode. Come to Costa Rica, here there is clean water, clean air, no army, and the chance to step away from what is coming. If you are reading your news on Prison Planet, the government knows and they will look for you 1st to put you in the REX-84 camps. Centuryfortuna@ice.co.cr
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
What about Clinton in the 90s? 1,000’s of Serbs were killed for no reason? When’s his trial?