You know, I don’t know who to blame other than Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis for the failure to hold Judge Jay Bybee and Professor John Yoo accountable for their “reckless disregard” of their ethical obligations. I’m not sure why the decision rested with an Associate Deputy in the first place. I don’t know that I can blame President Obama for Margolis’s decision. In theory, the decision was made independently. And it should have been made independently. Politicization of the Justice Department is a problem the administration should solve, not perpetuate. So, it would have been inappropriate for anyone outside the Justice Department to tell them how to decide the case.
Yet, at a minimum, the Attorney General had the authority to make the final decision. And Eric Holder seems to have delegated his authority to Margolis. Is that the standard of practice for ethics investigations at the Department of Justice? I don’t know. But I am not happy with the outcome.
We may decide to hold no one accountable for the brutality of the Bush administration, but the rest of the world isn’t going to move on. And history will not be kind to us.
I can imagine the rest of the world reaching for the barf bag every time our President makes some statement about us being “the greatest nation on earth,” or the “leader of the free world,” or a “beacon of democracy.”
I can’t believe that a Constitutional scholar like Obama failed to understand the importance of getting this one right. Imagine the shitstorm that would have taken place in this country if a foreign government was torturing Americans and denying them fair legal treatment.
that you are:
Surely you are familiar with the term “fall guy”. Mr. Margolis was apparently third in line after the bag got passed from Obama to Holder.
No Republicans are going to vote for his agenda, not one. Not Olympia Snowe, not Susan Collins. Second, as soon as they get power, they will try to impeach him. Mark my word. Giving Republicans ANY good faith on matters such as these is a fool’s game, and he’s a fool for letting war criminals go untouched.
My only hope is that Spain, England or another country makes some headway and forces him to do something.
Look, I don’t favor prosecutions because I don’t think they’d be helpful in healing this broken country. I have never favored them. Sometimes the human in me demands them for justice, because that’s just how human emotions go. The logical side of me almost always wins, though, and this is no different. A truth and reconciliation with pardons was the best way to go.
Just like with crime and criminals, you reduce crime by reducing human suffering, not threatening to put them in cages. If Cheney was as insufferable during the T&R process as he is now, then I suppose we’d have no choice but to prosecute. That’s where you start, tough, just as Caesar offered his enemies pardon for their crimes. That’s what brings the country together, that’s what keeps this country from torturing again, and that’s true justice.
a commenter at the orange place suggested re: Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon convening an investigation of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity allegedly committed by U.S. government officials and others during the Bush administration, beginning feb 15 that Garzon’s inquiry can only move forward because our Justice Department won’t do even a cursory investigation. “According to international law, that would supersede any other jurisdiction…”
Careful, the Justice Department is surrounded by a nation full of suicidal lone nuts.
If it’s not formalized somewhere – in a court decision or a law – forbidding torture will be meaningless. Obama says we’re not torturing anymore. Great. But if the question of whether to torture or not remains an administrative decision, it will be used again.
The rest of the world now has the first, second, and final drafts of the OPR report, the CIA IG report, the responses from Yoo’s and Bybee’s lawyers, and the Margolis memo. No doubt the intelligence services of other countries can fill in the redacted blanks.
There is a fundamental basis of facts from which further investigation and legal action can come.
And there in now basis to investigate Margolis and his 20-year career of covering up some incidents and punishing others.
And we now know how easy it is for lawyers to avoid disbarment. According to Margolis, Pennsylvania where Yoo is registered has a 4 year statute of limitations on cases of lawyer misconduct. And California does not require other lawyers to report instances of misconduct that they witness. So much for attorney ethics.
But will anyone follow up on this information?
A rhetorical question, perhaps, but not totally unrelated, will Dawn Johnsen ever be confirmed?