Tuesday, February 02, 2010

No Action Against Bush Era Attorneys For Legal Advice On Terrorism

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/352393292_e17abf0914.jpg?v=0

One giant sand castle, that's what the Obama Administration is - and a pretty poorly built one at that. And every so often, another wave crashes down on it and washes some of the bogus structure away.

Remember how Obama and the Democrats campaigned on how the evil BushHitler had tortured those poor jihadis, how illegal it was and how they were going to hold the Bush Administration to account?

Remember how Obama said that regardless, he wasn't going to prosecute any Bush Administration officials for anything that had happened before?

And remember how thrilled the Angry Left was when Prez Zero announced a switcheroo and had his attorney general Eric Holder announce that, yes indeed, the were going to prosecute Bush era lawyers after all. Remember how Obama released those infamous 'torture memos' no matter how much damage it did to our counter-terrorism efforts or America's image overseas?

Well whaddya know - Obama's changed his mind again:

We’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for news to come down from the Justice Department on what might become of John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the two Bush administration lawyers largely responsible for authoring the famous torture memos.

Well, we finally have word. And it appears that the DOJ will largely let the pair go with little more than a slap on the wrist. Click here for the story from Newsweek, which broke the news; here for a followup from over the weekend from the Washington Post. (Hat tip: Nuts & Boalts)

According to a forthcoming ethics report issued by the DOJ’s ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility, Yoo and Bybee will be wrist-slapped for exercising poor judgment but will not be referred to authorities for possible sanctions.

The news represents a bit of a reversal from what the DOJ had initially concluded, it seems. A draft report prepared at the end of the Bush years recommended that Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and Bybee, now a federal appeals court judge in Nevada, be referred to state disciplinary authorities for sanctions that could have included the revocation of their licenses to practice.

But then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip blasted the analysis in the draft and sent it back to the ethics office for more work. Current AG Eric Holder assigned the project to his new leader of the professional responsibility office, veteran D.C. prosecutor Mary Patrice Brown. Brown took months to carefully review and revise the lengthy report.

Ultimately, however, it seems the decision to stop short of disciplinary recommendations for Yoo and Bybee fell to David Margolis, who has spent more than three decades at the center of some of the most sensitive issues at the Justice Department.

As Newsweek points out, handling the case is really a no-winner for Holder. Had he pushed for disciplinary actions against Bybee, Yoo and a third former Bush administration lawyer, Steven Bradbury, it clearly would have been seen as a political move. But this news is almost sure to anger many on the left.



This is classic. First, Zero says he's taking the high road while waving the Bush 'torture' flag, then he takes the banana republic step of attempting to prosecute the opposition once he gets in, and totally destroys our counter terrorism setup, not to mention the morale of the people actually charged with interrogating jihadis.

And then he just abandons it.

For the record, it isn't only the lawyers. No CIA officials at all have been brought up on charges in connection with any enhanced interrogation techniques...maybe, just maybe because - wait for it - they were actually legal,hmmm?

After all the garbage about Bush supposedly trashing American values and breaking the law, the Democrats have absolutely nothing to show for it in any concrete legal sense. Nothing.Nada. Nichevo.

Now, I wonder...was the whole crusade that Obama and the Democrats waged against the Bush Administration's successful efforts to defend the country and avoid another terrorist attack just a political ploy to massage their base and use as a talking point to win elections, no matter what?

Nah....couldn't be. I mean, to do something like that in wartime just for partisan politics would be downright unpatriotic.

Wouldn't it?








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