Charlie Savage writes in today’s Boston Globe:
The Bush administration is pushing to take control of the promotions of military lawyers, escalating a conflict over the independence of uniformed attorneys who have repeatedly raised objections to the White House’s policies toward prisoners in the war on terrorism.
The administration has proposed a regulation requiring “coordination” with politically appointed Pentagon lawyers before any member of the Judge Advocate General corps – the military’s 4,000-member uniformed legal force – can be promoted. …
… Retired Major General Thomas Romig, the Army’s top JAG from 2001 to 2005, called the proposal an attempt “to control the military JAGs” by sending a message that if they want to be promoted, they should be “team players” who “bow to their political masters on legal advice.”
It “would certainly have a chilling effect on the JAGs’ advice to commanders,” Romig said. “The implication is clear: without [the administration’s] approval the officer will not be promoted.”
Some familiar names crop up:
The JAG rule would give new leverage over the JAGs to the Pentagon’s general counsel, William “Jim” Haynes, who was appointed by President Bush. Haynes has been the Pentagon’s point man in the disputes with the JAGs who disagreed with the administration’s assertion that the president has the right to bypass the Geneva Conventions and other legal protections for wartime detainees. …
… One of Haynes’ allies on the Bush administration legal team, former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, recently coauthored a law review article sharply critical of the JAGs’ unwillingness to endorse the legality of the administration’s treatment of wartime detainees.
Yoo, who wrote a series of controversial legal opinions about the president’s power to bypass the Geneva Conventions and antitorture laws before leaving government in 2003, called for some kind of “corrective measures” that would “punish” JAGs who undermine the president’s policy preferences.
Yoo’s law review article did not specifically discuss injecting political appointees into the JAG promotions process, and Yoo said in an e-mail that he did not know anything about the new Pentagon proposal. But several retired JAGs said they think the proposed change is an attempt by the Bush administration to turn Yoo’s idea into a reality.
Meanwhile, Bush is threatening to veto a bill that would ban the CIA from using waterboarding and other forms of torture, all the while claiming that the U.S. doesn’t torture people. A former employee of a Boeing subsidiary says an executive bragged “We do all the extraordinary rendition flights … the torture flights.” And the Justice Department is stonewalling Congress over the destruction of CIA videotapes.
BTW, Bush is claiming ignorance of those tapes; Larry Johnson argues persuasively that Bush probably was treated to a personal screening.
And I’m not exactly holding my breath waiting for Congress to act.
See also: Mark Benjamin, “Inside the CIA’s notorious ‘black sites.'”
Yoo!
Who?
A Yahoo. That’s who Yoowho is.
Bush looked around and found two lawyer’s who had even less soul than the rest of the crop. Gonzo and Yoowho.
Bush, “Oh, whatever those two say, goes.”
Now the JAG’s will have to kowtow to Bush “JAG-off’s.”
And yet, somehow, we allow this powergrab to continue. We allow torture to continue.
Torture!
Torture…
We have faced the enemy and it is us. We are all complicit in this. Enabler’s to evil.
Here’s the list of people for The 21st Century’s “Banality of Evil” Award:
Bush, Dick, Condi, Rummy, Gonzo, Yohoo, the “Amen Chorus” that is our Congress – both past and present. And let’s not shun looking in the mirror. Do you like the reflection that stares back at you? Yes, you and me! The American people. We’re there, too.
Welcome to 21st Century America, where the same sign that Dante wrote about hanging over the Gates of Hell in his “Divine Comedy,” should also hang over the gates at the tragedy that is Gitmo. And it should be the slogan for ‘The New American Century:’ “Abandon hope all Ye who enter here.”
We are a souless, gutless, cowardly society. Kowtowing to power, money, ignorance and fear.
We stand for nothing.
We have no dignity.
Only stupid pride.
We offer no hope.
We’re only trying to hang on.
But to what?
The bullshit myth that we were fed about America?
We need a new Revolution…
Well, if the JAG corps needs a political commissariat, where better to have them report than Party HQ at the Kremlin? Er, White House.
(I get so confused sometimes. Forgive me, I was educated before the glorious revolution to think that only evil totalitarian dictatorships did things like that. Now, of course, I see how important it is that President has all power, so that he can protect us from Eastasia.)
I have to say that I am not surprised by the way the administration wants to take control of the promotional process to ensure that only JAGs who kowtow to the administration get promoted. It’s simply another way to make sure the ranks of the service and the government are stacked with Bush’s supporters. We’ve already seen what they did to Navy Lt. Commander Charles Swift when they refused to promote him for actually doing his job as an attorney and serving as an advocate for his client.
No one in the present administration, and very few in Congress or the mainstream press actually seem to possess the spine to stand up to this administration and its crimes.
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Well Maha, after reading your latest 2 posts along with information I have read across the blogosphere I have reached the conclusion that NOTHING will be done about ridding the world of the Bush/Cheney train wreck. Much like a very bad flu-bug, we will need to sweat, shake, and shiver with the virus none will combat.
We will continue to be bombarded with useless celebrity gossip, jingoistic slogans, and bullshit reporting about how well things in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the financial world are as the nation sinks into recession, both financially and morally.
This week in central Florida, a derranged man entered an insurance office, doused two women (one pregnant) with gasoline, and set them on fire. He then shot a man who was trying to aid the women in the face.The murder rate in Orlando is off the charts.Miami? Fugget-a BOUD it!
Last week, a young man in Colorado killed a number of church-goers and was himself shot dead by a church security officer.
This is one f’ed up country.
Praise the lord……………
It occurs to me that this really reinforces the question of independence in the Gitmo detainee hearings. It’s already an issue that the officers are under command authority of the executive. Establishing a procedure where the careers of JAGS are in direct control of political appointees seems to me to make ‘independence’ even more fictional.
Since the White House really wants kangaroo courts, having the JAGs in their pouch, er, pocket, is important to them. I hope the Supreme Court disposes of this nonsense.
Perhaps years from now, when Americans want to wake up and see what the hell happened they will turn investigators loose on the bush cheney criminal empire and they themselves will be waterboarded(what? Its NOT torture right?) by authorities to get to the whole truth.
And if it so righteous why not apply it to presidential candidates before they take office to be sure their intent is honest?We could have saved ourselves the grief of the past 8 years had we done that in 1999 because bush never would have run if he had known he might have to actually earn the job by honest means….set up the dunk tanks at the debates!
Lets not rush to judgement on this too fast about being humane to everyone…perhaps bush/cheney administration would know better than any of us that not all people are worthy of being treated human. I wonder how fast righties who are now “pro” torture will change their minds about it when they are no longer the ones in charge of torture?
Maybe we shouldn’t close those black sites just yet,, the American people are owed a lot of answers.
If the people whom our government torture don’t themselves think it is torture and have spent years saying so, is it still torture?I am just askin
I find myself wondering what it means that the administration will spend effort in the 11th hour of the inquisition trying to prevent the release of Gitmo prisoners. While I do not doubt that some of these people will try to hurt the US if released, that’s true of a lot of people – more than there were before Bush implemented torture as policy.
I wonder if they don’t present the same threat as a rape victim after the deed is done. If she is freed she will tell what happened and who did it, which is why rape victims often finish up as murder victims.
Bush would find it akward to explain a succession of suicide victims. (I undertand he hanged himself, but how did he tie his hands behind his back?) So is the reason for confinement w/out honest representation simply part of a cover-up?
Which begs the question – what would they have to say?
Why the American people have put up with this group of organized criminals is beyond me. Why they have allowed them to destroy this country is beyond me. I am so glad I do not have any children; buecause it is the children who will suffer in the years to come.
I just read the article on Alternet you linked ‘waiting for Congress to Act’ which suggests that Pelosi was briefed on illegal torture and was complicit back in 2002? And I was over on Glenn Greenwald; he’s saying that Harry Reid is bringing to the floor the version of the FISA bill which will give the telecoms amnesty.
Jesus Fucking Christ – these are our Democratic leaders in the Senate and House and they are sold out on torture and can’t run to the telcoms fast enough. And you wonder why I pray for a white knight 3rd party candidate who can convey apropriate public contempt for the 2 parties who reperesent the ‘best government money can buy’. And shame and bully the candidates into campaign reform so that elected officials are not bipartisan corporate lackeys for an incresingly fascist state.
Have you seen Wexler’s petition to impeach Cheney? You can sign it here: http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/