9 Responses to Link to Today’s 2:30 P.M. EST House Appropriations Committee – Witness, AG Eric Holder

1. acquarius74 April 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm «

   Now 3:28 p.m. EST, video died right in middle of a word. Was on Firefox. Tried again on Internet Explorer. Still nothing. What gives?
2. acquarius74 April 23rd, 2009 at 2:06 pm «

   For those who missed it, the final wrap was fantastic. Chairman David Obey D-WI on torture, quoted Marcy’s numbers for waterboarding of KSM and Zubeydah and said, “if that’s not torture, then I’m Alice in Wonderland”. He does not advocate massive sweeps to drag in all who had any connection to it, but there does need to be investigations to sort out those responsible. As for prosecutions, he said we’ve already had them, but those prosecuted were only the ‘grunts’.

   Broken connection so I missed a lot.
3. Hmmm April 23rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm «

   So did the petition presentation happen? If so, how’d it go?
• acquarius74 April 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm «

  I got in late and then connection died and I missed a lot. Don’t know if the petition got delivered or not. Jane should have something on it since FDL was included. Just checked my e-mail, nothing there on it.
4. perris April 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm «

   great stuff here asquarious, thanx for keeping me up to date
• acquarius74 April 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 pm «

  Thank you, perris. Did all of you catch the first-timer burqa here at Oxdown? He put together real experiences of several real interrogators (Vietnam to Iraq I,II) who all condemn torture. Great diary.
5. Leen April 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm «

   Holder “enforce the law” “full extent of the law”

   I am so tired of hearing people describe holding people accountable for very serious crimes “witch hunts” WTF? How many ways can they spin this “vengeance, blame game, retribution” Christ all mighty enough of this stupid fucking debate. Follow the law. Hold these people accountable.
6. ubetchaiam April 23rd, 2009 at 6:40 pm «

   I was at the gym today and spoke with a 51 year old black man who works with kids whose parents are in jail or strung out on drugs.

   He’d never seen ‘The Wire’ but my points about institutional corruptness he understood and he confirmed what David Simon said about there being more people than the economy needs and these(and other ‘city’ kids) kids realize that and what that implies for them (besides getting over the anger and fear that dominates their lives).

   We started a discussion of the current torture news, and though he said he was a democrat, this was an issue he agreed with the Republican’s on (meaning he is against any prosecutions).

   His perspective was the people who were tortured weren’t Americans but thugs; that the Bush Admin was just protecting us from such thugs and their desire to attack us; that 9/11 justified torture.

   I pointed out to him that 9/11 was an intelligence failure because of turf wars, that it could have been prevented, that it was a real stroke of luck that it worked (given it had been years in the planning), and that once you’ve sacrificed one’s morals, there is no going back.

   He didn’t have a response to my points but I know I didn’t change his mind. Today.
7. acquarius74 April 23rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm «

   His perspective was the people who were tortured weren’t Americans but thugs; that the Bush Admin was just protecting us from such thugs and their desire to attack us; that 9/11 justified torture.

   So sad….that same thinking kept his people slaves for over 200 years, and justified brutality to the slaves. Even sadder, he doesn’t see that, and is not open to enlightenment to that view.