Photo credit: National Park Service
I’m on the road with The Scout in New Mexico, which is pretty much an 11 on the 1 to 10 scale of life. We’re in Albuquerque, yes we ate at Sadie’s, and now we’re on our way to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings and ponder life before running water, penicillin, and cool, crisp, dry champagne.
No home-grown photos yet, because yours truly forgot the cord thingy that makes uploads happen. However, one does travel with one’s most recent New Yorker (April 13, 2009). In the Talk of the Town item “The Bench: The Bush Six” I read about Phillipe Sands’s book “Torture Team” which posits that Bush administration officials may one day “get a tap on the shoulder announcing that they were being arrested on international charges of torture.” So I was dismayed (disheartened, horrified, sickened) to hear today that the Obama administration won’t be pursuing the purveyors of torture. This is truly disappointing from a man who spoke so eloquently against torture in the Senate back on 2006.
Obama is a great peacemaker, smoother-over kind of guy, but this was one issue to take on—an issue above politics. Taking on those who sanctioned torture would demonstrate to the world that (1) We Americans know we blew it on this one, and, (2) We are going to do everything we can to ensure we never do it again. Obama got rid of waterboarding, etc during his first week in office. Not prosecuting those responsible for torture is tacit complicity with the “bad apples” (<– that’s a Slate article by Sands) excuse of the last administration. And it leaves the door open: What will the next president do?
On to the cliffs we go.
West Coast Grrlie Blather 
Enjoy New Mexico – a favorite place to visit. If you stick around Albuquerque, Cervantes (on Gibson, near Kirtland) used to be another very good restaurant. If Santa Fe and Taos are on the agenda, even better.
I am absolutely with you on the torture issue.
As I understand it, Obama’s statement was about the CIA employees who carried out the torture under orders from their superiors.
I like to hope I would not do such things even if ordered by my boss, but in light of Milgram I would never say “never.” So I think it’s fair to exempt such people from prosecution.
However, I don’t believe Obama said that those who ordered the torture, or approved of it in these legal memos, would be off limits to prosecution.
I wondered how long it would take for Obama to break your poor unsuspecting heart. It must feel great to finally pull your head out of the sand.
Headline: “Obama opens door to prosecutions on interrogations”
here:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE53K63020090422
Lucky you! is this business or pleasure or both? I’ve never been to the cliff dwellings but I have passed through Gallop on the SP Sunset limited (?) and thought I might want to return for a longer stay.
Sadie’s! Aw, it warms the cockles.
It doesn’t matter what Obama said… his administration cannot bar war criminals from having to answer to charges in other courts. The witness list against the former big guys is just growing longer.
In other news, David Kellerman, CFO of Freddie Mac just oft himself.
Enjoy the whole enchilada, Blathy.