Even though calls intensify for prosecution of the Bush Administration by human rights groups, Obama is still not budging
Michael S. Swenson
A leaked report by the Red Cross this week has caused a stir among human rights groups and those who demand the prosecution of the Bush Administration.According to an article posted on Raw Story today, the report details torture tactics carried out within the walls of "secret prisons" across the globe, including the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Despite this report (amongst many government reports that have surfaced since Obama took office), it looks as if Obama and his Administration still have no plans to go after the Bush Administration for war crimes. According to the Raw Story article, "President Barack Obama has so far sidestepped calls from some fellow Democrats and from civil liberties activists to go after officials from the previous administration over torture allegations, saying he wants to "look forward."
This is certainly not the first time this issue has been addressed since Obama took office. Here, in a clip from Keith Olberman's "Countdown" program on MSNBC back in January, Olberman addresses the issue:
According to Olberman's report, visitors to Obama's famed website "Change.org" have made this the number one HOT issue. A man named Bob Fertik from New York City directly addressed Obama, asking "Will you {President Obama} appoint a special prosecutor (ideally Patrick Fitzgerald) to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?". The response Fertik received was one that was given by Vice President Joe Biden back in December, in which he stated "...that is something for the Justice Department to decide...Obama and I are not sitting here thinking about the past...we're focusing on the future...I just think we should look forward, not backwards".
This may come as quite a disappointment to most Obama supporters who had hoped that his Administration would seek to prosecute the Bush Administration for its various war crimes. However, it seems Obama is doing just the opposite, as he has yet to change his position on this issue.
As far as the wiretapping issue that Mr. Fertik asked about on the Change.org website is concerned, Obama is clearly not going to go after the Bush Administration on it. In fact, he enraged many supporters by actually SUPPORTING wiretapping, according to an article posted on the International Herald Tribune website posted back in in July of 2008 when Obama was running for office and serving as Senator. According to that article, "Senator Barack Obama's decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters."
According to the Raw Story article, detailing the recently leaked Red Cross report, "his administration will face renewed pressure to take action following the leaking of the internal document from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which describes abuse in harrowing detail.
"The more these kind of reports come out, the more pressure it puts on the government to do something," said Sarah Mendelson, director of the human rights and security initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Providing the most detailed account yet of the treatment of detainees under former president George W. Bush, the 2007 report by the ICRC describes beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and "suffocation by water," of 14 suspected Al-Qaeda members.
The abuse described by the detainees, including being slammed into walls and deprived of sleep and solid food for days, "constituted torture," the Red Cross document said."
In an article I wrote last week here on Underground Brooklyn, I detailed how Obama Administration wants to remove the term "enemy combatant" from the vernacular, but has no immediate plans to close down the torture-ridden prison at Guatanamo Bay.
These facts further indicate how little difference exists between this Administration and the Bush Administration, as well as the false "left-right, conservative, republican" paradigm that exists throughout American culture and politics. I encourage everyone to watch Alex Jones' new film "The Obama Deception", which can be viewed, in high quality, on this website for further insight into the Obama Administration.
Sources for this Article:
Leaked Red Cross report renews call for probe of Bush era
Obama's wiretapping stand enrages many supporters
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