[Peace-discuss] CIA torturers get off

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Obama can't afford to piss off the intelligence community, who hold unimaginable amout of power. He gave up the memos because he could claim that he had no other choice. Beyond that, it's gonna be up to congress and others to do what Obama may want to do but can't. Let's keep the pressure on.
 --Jenifer 

--- On Thu, 4/16/09, Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] CIA torturers get off
To: "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
Cc: "peace discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 10:37 PM





Very true.

 Ricky


"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn






From: John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
To: Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
Cc: peace discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 8:50:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] CIA torturers get off



On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:




Disgusting!  Obama today announced that CIA torturers who used waterboarding would not be prosecuted.  Punishment, in general, is not something I like to advocate, but it's also important that nobody be above the law.  The very idea that you can get six years for giving the cops a false name and zippo for torture is nothing short of grotesque.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/torture_memos

 Ricky
For what it's worth, I think any punishment should be meted out to the higher-ups who ORDERED the waterboarding and other violations of law, and justified them with speeches and memos and legal briefs and so on.  I don't like to see low-level grunts take the fall for the big fish, which is what almost always happens.  

I've actually been in a position where I was ordered to do something of questionable legality/morality, with firing for insubordination the alternative to obeying the order, and I can assure you that it's not that easy to discern what's "right".  You have a gut feeling about it, but not necessarily enough to put your livelihood in jeopardy.   Sometimes the rightness or wrongness of a situation becomes clearer to you later on, when you're not in the heat of the moment.

John Wason


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