By Dennis Loo
So now we find out that the inner circle of the Bush White
House, dubbed the Principals, met secretly in the White House dozens
of times beginning in 2002 to choreograph torture in detail, even mapping
out the order and the number of times each of the different brutalities could
be used: “slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.”
Imagine the “Principals,” Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
Colin Powell, Condi Rice, George Tenet and John Ashcroft, along with Bush,
similarly meeting in emergency session in 2005 to map out in detail the rescue of New Orleans’ residents trapped in the city
after devastating Hurricane Katrina:
“We’ve got to save those marooned on their housetops and
we’ve got to dispatch truckloads of food, water and medical supplies to the
thousands stranded immediately!”
“These are Americans, I don’t care if they”re Democrats,
black and poor. They”re people, god damn it! It’s our job as the leaders of
this country!”
“Why wasn’t FEMA on the job?!”
“What is FEMA for, anyway?”
“Get it done!”
Instead of this, of course, the White House was hands off.
Bush’s hands were strumming a guitar in San Diego while New Orleans drowned,
Cheney hands were gripping his rifle, his finger pulling the trigger when
animals crossed his sights in Wyoming, Condi was lovingly handling thousands of
dollars of shoes at Ferragamo and clapping in a show on Broadway, Michael Brown
was proudly fingering his new threads at Nordstrom’s and Chertoff was handing
out memos to DHS to crack down on the undocumented coming across the border.
This government, it appears, is hands on when it comes to
committing crimes against humanity and hands off when it comes to preventing or mitigating crimes against
humanity.
Surely, however, we can count on a vigilant media and
righteous Congress to raise their hands in outcry out at these terrible acts
and thereby rescue the Republic!
In a Sherlock Holmes story (“Silver
Blaze“) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a champion racehorse disappears on the
eve of a big race and his trainer goes missing, possibly murdered. Holmes has this
exchange at the crime scene with Gregory, the Scotland Yard inspector:
Gregory: “Is there any other point to which you would wish
to draw my attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the
night-time.”
Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
Bush lies as easily as he commits a malapropism. Doing his best Bill Clinton impersonation, he admonished: “We
do not torture.”
On April 11 Bush finally admits to ABC News that he approved
the torture of prisoners.
This President – this “leader of the Free World,” this
leader of the country that everyone wants to emulate for its commitment to
human rights, freedom, democracy, and liberty – has admitted that he’s been
lying all along and has now confessed to torture!
Surely the media are now barking like a pack of guard dogs
demanding impeachment.
They have got their hands on this story!
Surely the Congress is up in arms, demanding immediate
resignations and if not this, then immediate impeachment and war crimes trials.
Dick Cheney’s hands should be busy gaveling for silence in
the cacophony of raised hands and voices in the Senate.
But – but – with the exception of a handful of news outlets,
a page A3 mention by the Washington Post,
and outrage by Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart, the rest of the media have deemed
it not
even worth mentioning.
The president has been caught in yet another bald-faced lie
and with blood on his hands, but this is not a news story.
We have a media that was hands on when it came to helping to
justify the Bush gang’s attack on Iraq and hands off when it comes to
holding them accountable for torture and mass murder.
Now is the spring of our discontent. The longest
presidential campaign in US
history continues and the presidents in waiting appeal to us that their hands should be on the ship of
state.
What hands are these?
John McCain has the hands that made a showing of opposing
torture yet were held quiet by his side when Bush signed McCain’s anti-torture
legislation but attached a signing statement declaring that the White House
was going to continue to torture.
Hillary Clinton has the hands that approved the invasion of Iraq and the
hands that have approved every funding bill for the war ever since.
Barack Obama has the hands that have scolded
Bush for pursuing “dumb” policies such as torture and illegal invasions, hands
that voted for funding the war, but silent hands when it came to opposing these
policies as criminal.
Both Clinton
and Obama’s hands have said that if they take the oath of office of the
presidency that they too will use signing
statements to negate legislative intent.
All of these senatorial hands have been silent when it came
to taking a stand in Congress and opposing – if necessary, by filibuster – the
abrogation of habeas corpus and the horrid passage of the Military Commissions
Act that legalized torture.
All of these senatorial hands have been held up in a stop
sign to calls for impeachment.
All of these senatorial hands have been busy pointing
fingers at Iran and gesturing menacingly towards Iran and Pakistan, with
McCain’s hands pantomiming the Beach Boys, “bomb,
bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” and Clinton
and Obama holding their hands up to say that they too would be willing to bomb,
bomb, bomb Iran and Pakistan.
Hands down these people are guilty.
Hands down this system is guilty of crimes against humanity.
Hands
down we will see even greater horrors to follow if we the people remain hands
off.
What hands do the rest of us have?
Hands
on, or hands off?