Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions
Published: May 7, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
Under fire from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that he had approved of rendition — essentially, legalized kidnapping — apparently more than once during his tenure as President Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general.
Cautioning Holder that any potential investigation into the Bush administration’s torture program could result in Democrats being roped in, “Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed Holder on the CIA’s ‘rendition’ program that moved terrorism suspects from one country to another,” reported Domenico Montanaro with MSNBC.
“Didn’t that happen during the Clinton administration?
“Yes, Holder said.
“‘How many did you approve?’ they asked.
“Holder said he’d check the record.”
Despite frequent condemnation of the practice around the world, rendition — the secret capture, transportation and detention of suspected terrorists to foreign prisons in countries that cooperate with the U.S. — remains in the CIA’s playbook, thanks to a Jan. 22 executive order issued by President Obama.
Under President George W. Bush, renditions became “extraordinary renditions,” in which suspects were handed over to nations where torture was not illegal. Rendition under Presidents Clinton and Obama has not been linked to torture.
Holder has been, at least in public, an opponent of the torture program.
“Waterboarding is torture. My justice department will not justify it, will not rationalize it and will not condone it,” Holder said in a speech to the Jewish Council of Public Affairs in March.
“The use and sanction of torture is at odds with the history of American jurisprudence and American values. It undermines our ability to pursue justice fairly, and it puts our own brave soldiers in peril should they ever be captured on a foreign battlefield.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was briefed in 2002 on the torture tactics the Bush administration wanted to use against terror war prisoners. At the time, she did not object. In April of 2009, she denied knowing the techniques would ever be applied to prisoners.
“[They] did not tell us they were using that,” she said. “Flat out. And any — any contention to the contrary is simply not true.”
RAW STORY was the first news outlet to identify the exact location of one of the sites in the CIA’s secret prison network, used in conjunction with Bush-era extraordinary renditions. RAW STORY identified a prison in northeastern Poland, Stare Kiejkuty, that was used as a transit point for terror suspects.
According to filings, the CIA has over 7,000 documents related to Bush-era renditions.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said that “no one is above the law” and that his office would “follow the evidence.” He has not appointed a special prosecutor.
President Obama said Holder will be the person who ultimately decides whether to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who wrote opinions providing a legal basis for interrogation techniques widely denounced as torture.
President Obama also said CIA agents who tortured prisoners will not be prosecuted.
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I’m not comfortable with this AG pick, no more than Rahm E.
BTW, THANK YOU RAW for returning to the old format, its readable and always did look great!
I’m fully in favor of rendition. I can’t wait until foreign agents show up here to haul away Yoo, Bybee, Gonzales, Feith, Wolfowitz, Addington, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush
And, for those individuals you list, may the renditions be extraordinary!
Ditto prissy’s comment above about the return to the old front page format.
All politicians should be held accoutable.
Holder should RESIGN !
He has a conflict of interest that is too profound to allow him to continue in office. We the people have a right to expect that Obama would nominate someone that had “no ties” to the evils of the Bush Administration. Then we find out that his connection to evil was in the Clinton Administration, where some of this Evil Started.
We Must have Rule of Law in this Country. Otherwise we have a double standard of justice. That must stop Now. And if some Democrats go to jail, so be it. The time to start running this country according to our Constitution and Federal Law IS NOW!
And of course the lawyers that conspired to legalize Torture should be prosecuted. US Law clearly states that Conspiracy To Torture IS A Federal Crime.
(a) Offense.—… commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined…or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
(c) Conspiracy.— A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.
SEE the Law http://tinyurl.com/besdd3
Obama is Soft On Crime If He Ignores The Bush Crimes.
Obama clearly supports a double standard of justice in America if he fails to prosecute, one for common citizens where we can’t escape obeying the law and another for politicians where Bush and his appointee lawyers are protected from prosecution by their successors, in this case,
Obama and his appointee lawyers.
Sign the Petition To Prosecute Them
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
and forward this url to your friends
We can’t let them bury these crimes.
Over 250,000 signers so far.
.
Just what this country needed, another war criminal for AG. No wonder he is covering the asses of bush & co.
But did he write memos saying that waterboarding is not torture like the rethuglicans did? That is the question.
And who chose Holder?
“Change we can believe in” messiah Obama.
We could have had Nader or McKinney—neither of which would have chosen this piece of trash—but no, most people didn’t have the intelligence to vote for either of them because neither Nader or McKinney charade as a Dem. Instead, most people allowed themselves to fall for the Repug who charades as a Dem. It really comes down to party-line indoctrination in most people, which is really no different than the organized religion indoctrination in most people.
imsam,
It could have been something they said or didn’t say that caused them to loose the election.
You have to do better than being a curmudgeon, grump bag, and accuser of the people to get them to vote for you.
Ask the republicans, especially (R-TX).
Uh Dredd,
Your first paragraph: That is true for all politicians. The reason Nader and McKinney didn’t win is quite simple: No D behind their name. Neither had any corporate media coverage to be heard because the corporate media ate the ass of Hillary of the Borg Collective and messiah Obama. Neither had the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ of Hillary and Obama. The corporations choose the candidates. Not The People. That’s why messiah Obama hasn’t changed anything other than a little bit of “window dressing” stuff. That is enough to fool the sheep.
Politicians say buzz words/phrases that sheep allow themselves to fall for, such as “hope” and “change we can believe in.” Or “building bridges” or “pushing the envelope” or “I’m leaving to spend time with my family” and other nonsense. The sheep actually fall for this stuff.
Seems like you did….didn’t you vote for messiah Bush-accomplice Obama?
And who will you vote for next time? Obama? Because you’ll say, “Well, he may not be perfect and I’ve haven’t agreed with everything he’s done, but he’s better than so and so who has a R behind his name.”
Little is going to change until somebody who doesn’t have a D or R behind their name is given the opportunity, such as a Nader or McKinney.
Nader offered REAL solutions - like getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan post haste, and single-payer health care. Which one does that make him, a curmudgeon, a “grump bag”, or “an accuser”?
But instead we have Obama, defender of torturers, enemy of habeas corpus, escalator of the war in Afghanistan (not to mention Pakistan) — but WOW is he charismatic.
Until America GETS IT that the “two-party system” is the best mechanism for STIFLING democracy, we will continue to live as our masters, not WE THE PEOPLE, think best.
Let us hope that another country will give us the justice that we so urgently need. It is apparent that the Obama administration has dirty hands in this matter, and won’t deliver on their promises. It is so strange that Obama, who is 1, 000 times the man Bush was, has such a blind spot when it comes to the Constitution. You would think that someone who taught the law would be better at enforcing it. From FISA to torture, his performance has been on par with Gonzo and Mukasey. Shame on these pinheads.
“From FISA to torture, his performance has been on par with Gonzo and Mukasey”
but you think this is a “blind spot”?! Get the man a seeing-eye dog, with a “blind spot” like his, he’s a menace!
He’s like every other politician our “two-party system” allows to rise to power: he knows who his real bosses are, and he serves them, not us.
I love how the right wing always says “They did it too” and that’s supposed to make what they did OK, they never fess up for making a mistake just like a little kid. And the end justifies the means is their mantra. It was done 10 years ago and the Republicans who were in control then didn’t say anything about it, why is that? If someone makes a mistake and fesses up like Holder did he should still be banned from service, always tainted. The first pure person please step forward……………………….. Obama has 4 years to do what he said he would do so……………relax.
Relax?
What happened to “we will hold his feet to the fire” that I kept hearing the Dem kool-aid drinkers chanting all during the campaign?
You can’t do THAT by RELAXING!
I don’t see the people doing ANYTHING to “hold his feet to the fire.” Nothing. Some are admitting they were (once again) duped. Duh. Some of us tried to tell you but we were dismissed. Others are remaining silent because they can’t bare to criticize their messiah because he’s from their “Dem Team.” Ugh. It it were Bush/Cheney doing the same thing that Obama’s doing, they would be screaming on here.
He was not my candidate. I voted for Nader/Gonzalez.
@tarlipps
Yeah, Holder taking part in activities under Clinton is not Obama’s fault — that’s obvious. But below are some VERY ACTIVE things that the Obama administration has done SINCE TAKING OFFICE — not things he “hasn’t gotten around to”. What’s the excuse on these?
1.
U.S. May Revive Guantánamo Military Courts
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/us/politics/02gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself.
======================================================
2.
Obama Legal Team Wants To Limit Defendants’ Rights
Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Ruling Favorable To Criminal Defendants
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/23/ap/politics/main4964737.shtml
(AP) The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant’s lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights.
======================================================
3.
White House: Obama ‘absolutely’ stands behind effort to throw out warrantless wiretapping suit
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/White_House_says_Obama_absolutely_stands_0410.html
======================================================
4.
Bagram prisoners can contest detention in U.S. courts
The ruling is almost certain to be appealed by the government
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090402.wafghan02/BNStory/International/
WASHINGTON — Prisoners held by U.S. forces in Afghanistan can challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal judge ruled Thursday, rejecting the Obama administration’s position.
Although Mr. Obama pledged to close Guantanamo, his administration had fought right groups seeking to win the same rights for prisoners at Bagram and other U.S. detention facilities aboard.
this is a fascinating story, makes me wonder if the current crop of democrats are at all capable of prosecuting this particular crime. if they were judges they would largely have to recuse themselves.
i dont get the whole ‘go after the lawyers thing’. this line of attack if tenuous, they even say in the memos ‘we dont endorse this behavior operationally, this is just legal advice’. yes there are RICO laws, conspiracy laws, etc…. but you dont see Mafia lawyers going to jail do you?
i also dont get the ‘CIA will not be prosecuted’… there are autopsy reports from the Army saying that ‘other government agency’ people killed a guy during interrogation. If the DOJ is not going to go after that, can the JAGs go after it?
What about the CIA ‘contractors’? The psychologists that CIA hired? do they get covered under holders ‘no prosecution’ statement?
gnocchi… what about the law? u cant just rendiion people.
also, feith says he was for keeping Geneva, look at his website. best bet is to ‘flip’ him against addington. the man loves -loves- –loves– to talk. it would be wise to use some ‘rapport building techniques’ with feith to figure out any more details he might wish to share with the public.
i mean wtf dont you guys watch Law and Order?
as for john kennedy, i am not willing to give up on obama yet. there are a lot of people dying and suffering from lack of health care in america, and he knows if he goes after this, health care will never get done, just like it didnt get done in the 1990s.
no president keeps the same AG through the whole presidency. Holder will be gone some day, obama will pick a new one, we will see what will happen then. it is very good to have holder around right now, he knows the ins and outs of washington, obama didnt know crap about the executive branch … i am willing to let him learn his way around up there, and see what happens eventually with this whole thing.
just beccause holder doesnt prosecute, doesnt mean a future AG couldnt. and if holder went off half cocked, then wed really be screwed because of double jeopardy laws. the only thing that could truly save some of these guys is an Obama pardon, and i dont see that happening… hell bush didnt pardon them, why would obama do it? there is no statute of limitations on murder, and some of these iraqi families could well sue them for what they did.
i also like to point out that eichmann was put on trial in 1961. yes it took 20-25 years to get him, but they got him eventually. (of course, i dont believe in the death penaty so thats a whole nother story…)
now if obama screws this up, i doubt i wil vote for him.
I can’t wait till the republicans say they must impeach Clinton for the kidnappings.
Clinton was already impeached. No need to impeach the poor guy twice.
BTW, the people that claim republicans are saying “they did it too” rather then just admitting they were wrong are missing the point.
Democrats did it too, because it needed to be done and was perfectly legal.
The only reason democrats made any noise about it was because they wanted to use it for political purposes.
Just like the latest stories that Pelosi, et al knew about the interrogation methods being used.
Just like Obama is going to be bringing back the Miltary commissions.
Hope you guys enjoyed being used.
So, even the congress wants to get in on the old J. Edgar Hoover style of governing by blackmail?
Raw Story:
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for returning to the original look of Raw Story.
I’m sorry to insult whoever it was that had the harebrained idea to change the original look of Raw Story to something that only an Oxycontin addict would suggest. That person HAD to be stoned to think that their idea was bettter than the original.
About 10 years or so ago, some idiot had the idea to change Coke Classic, and that was the dumbest idea that Coke had ever come up with.
DON’T MESS WITH SUCCESS: DMWS