It would seem Bush/Cheney era toture/waterboarding supporters should be pleased with Obama trying to avoid releasing photos,or going after top officials responsible.
The Obama segemnt of the ruling elite currently in charge need to walk a tightrope,by seeming to do one thing for their staunchest supporters,while protecting their abilty to carry out the greater publicly undiscussed agenda.
The contradicitons growing ever wider in many areas will spell trouble for the American Empire,and would vex any person in charge.
[SIZE=+2]Obama Channels Cheney [/SIZE]
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By DAVE LINDORFF[/SIZE][/FONT]
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Excerpt below from:[/SIZE][/FONT]
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff05142009.html
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I[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]n reversing himself and declaring that the US government will not release further photos in its possession of torture being practiced on captives held by the US military and the CIA,
President Obama is sounding increasingly like the Bush/Cheney administration before him.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]It may well be that, as Obama says, release of those photos could lead to anger in the Islamic world and perhaps to recruitment gains among groups like Al Qaeda that are attacking American troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, but this is only true because at the same time,
the Obama administration is opposing taking any legal action against the people who authorized and promoted that torture.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]If the Obama administration were to open a full-scale legal investigation into torture, with an independent prosecutor assigned to go after anyone who violated the Geneva Conventions and the US Criminal Code outlawing torture and the authorization, condoning or covering-up of torture, quite the opposite would happen: people in the Islamic world would see that this nation was coming to terms with those who abused the law.[/SIZE][/FONT]
Torture was a major part of the Bush/Cheney so-called "War" on Terror, and was being conducted on an industrial scale, with White House lawyers providing legal cover, the Secretary of Defense sending memos urging every more aggressive techniques, and government doctors and psychologists working assiduously to make them more "effective."
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The illogic of Obama's position on these photos is stunning. Since we know the photos exist, the refusal to make them public can only feed a sense that they must be worse than the horrific photos of torture at Abu Ghraib Prison which were already released. Nobody is going to assume that the photos in the White House's possession are
less offensive than what has already been discovered and made public--for why would the administration be worried about that?[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The truth is always better than a cover-up, and what we now have the president advocating is a cover-up of American torture.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]But
that's only part of the president's slide into Cheneyism. We have the president now calling for the possible indefinite detention of terror suspects--an idea that only insures that there will always be an incentive for recruiting more terrorists (to avenge those in captivity)--and
that makes a joke of our own Constitution, which guarantees everyone--not just citizens--the right to a trial, the right to a presumption of innocence, and protection from "cruel and unusual punishment," which indefinite detention certainly is.[/SIZE][/FONT]
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The war in Afghanistan, which now must be called Obama's War, thanks to his policy of escalation, is also becoming Cheneyesque, with the firing of Gen. David McKiernan, and his replacement as head of the Afghanistan War by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Gen. McChrystal hails from the Special Forces, and played a role in the torture that was integral to the US war and occupation in Iraq. Far from being put in charge of operations in Afghanistan, where public backing for the US military is virtually non-existent at this point, McChrystal should be facing investigation and possible prosecution here at home for his role in torture of captives.[/SIZE][/FONT]