“President Robert Mugabe’s top lieutenants are trying to force the political opposition into granting them amnesty for their past crimes by abducting, detaining and torturing opposition officials and activists, according to senior members of Mr. Mugabe’s party.
“Mr. Mugabe’s generals and politicians have organized campaigns of terror for decades to keep him and his party in power. But now that the opposition has a place in the nation’s new government, these strongmen worry that they are suddenly vulnerable to prosecution, especially for crimes committed during last year’s election campaign as the world watched.”
Meanwhile, back in the bizarro-America wept over by Glen Beck:
“…the Obama DOJ filed the government’s first response to EFF’s lawsuit, the first of its kind to seek damages against government officials under FISA, the Wiretap Act and other statutes, arising out of Bush’s NSA program. But the Obama DOJ demanded dismissal of the entire lawsuit based on (1) its Bush-mimicking claim that the « state secrets » privilege bars any lawsuits against the Bush administration for illegal spying, and (2) a brand new « sovereign immunity » claim of breathtaking scope — never before advanced even by the Bush administration — that the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is « willful disclosure » of the illegally intercepted communications.”
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/8/717729/-Olbermann-Smacks-Down-Obamas-Loss-of-Credibility
Which was the subject of Keith Olbermann’s stern reality check to the President and Justice Department officials on his show Countdown last Monday. This was considered newsworthy because Olbermann has, to this point, never significantly criticized the President for anything, and staunchly defended his financial and foreign policies over the last 10 weeks of the new administration. Some liberals are (ludicrously) angry that KO hasn’t given the President immunity.
But nothing says “failed Third World dictatorship” like immunity for top-level criminals. With Dick Cheney wearing his war crimes like a badge of honor, defending Alberto Gonzalez and John Yoo, the systematized torture policy of Donald Rumsfeld, the admission of known fraudulent evidence to gain support for the war in Iraq as well as war profiteers like his ‘no-bid contract’ multibillion dollar scamming corporation Halliburton, and the rest of what now may never be known, the Obama administration must restore the Justice Department to the level where it can begin again to administer the rule of law and prosecute the guilty.
“Mr. Mugabe’s lieutenants, part of an inner circle called the Joint Operations Command, know that their 85-year-old leader may not be around much longer to shield them, and they fear losing not just their power and ill-gotten wealth, but also their freedom, officials in the party said.”
We know about our ‘inner circles’ now. Olbermann said the President asserted he will keep his promise to withdraw from Iraq, “But given what was done today here, in his name, defending invasion of privacy and domestic spying, he will have to forgive us if we invest less in his assurances and listen less closely to his words and instead attend more closely to the possible sound of other shoes dropping.”
Yes, indeed. What is it, Mr Obama? Are you saying the truth is worse than anyone can even imagine, and prosecutions would endanger people you’d ‘agreed’ to ‘protect’? That’s what Mugabe is saying. Are you saying you have a reason to fear for your security from those « strongmen » who « worry that they are suddenly vulnerable to prosecution »? I hope I’m hearing you wrong.
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