In an interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN’s Book TV to promote his book Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have been indicted for “torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant.”
The judge believes that it is a fallacy to say that the US treats suspects as innocent until proven guilty. “The government acts as if a defendant is guilty merely on the basis of an accusation,” said Napolitano.
Nader was curious about how this applied to the Bush administration. “What about the more serious violations of habeas corpus,” wondered Nader. “You know after 9/11 Bush rounded up thousands of them, Americans, many of them Muslim Americans or Arabic Americans and they were thrown in jail without charges. They didn’t have lawyers. Some of them were pretty mistreated in New York City. You know they were all released eventually.”
“Well that is so obviously a violation of the natural law, the natural right to be brought before a neutral arbiter within moments of the government taking your freedom away from you,” answered Napolitano.
Hey, there’s still plenty of time…well maybe not for Dick.
Judge Napolitano is a brave and honorable man. It really takes a pair of brass balls to badmouth the Nazi elite that pose as the “good guys” working for the USG under the guise of “upholding and defending” the Constitution of the United States of America. These criminals that run our government think that the Constitution and the rule of law is nothing but toilet paper, and they treat it with contempt. They give Hitler and Stalin a bad name. We deserve the government we get.
Agree Cheney and Bush need to be extradited to Vermont or Europe to face criminal charges.
However, I believe it would be damaging to our country overall to have these guys in prison even if they are considered above the law by the Republisheep.
“Agree Cheney and Bush need to be extradited to Vermont or Europe to face criminal charges.”
And if Obama doesn’t reverse the damage wrought by Bush and Cheney, you would agree that he is every bit as guilty?
Or are you just a political hypocrite?
Cue the crickets.
“should have been indicted for “torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant.””
Does he mean the things that the O’Bama administration continue to do while placing the Black Panther party above the law, allowing them to threaten voters and incite violence?
Just curious.
#3, how does one reverse torture and arrests, once performed?
I was speaking of damage to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Unless BHO can redeem him self in the next two years I won’t be voting for him again. So far he is on the wrong side of just about every issue be it moral, policy, appointments or legislative.
#6 dont feed the troll.
ed. please delete the first “wrong” in the second sentence.
McCullough beat me to it in #3.
I remember at the time the reason nothing was done was because of the tried and true “What goes around comes around”.
Not only was the Obama Administration willing to let sleeping dogs lie, but the Clintons weren’t too too keen on pushing this due to certain poorly managed interrogations during the Kosovo-Bosnia war.
#3 Not sure how Obama would reverse a damage done but if you’re implying he is following an illegal policy, your are wrong. He is not.
You can debate if *SOME* elements of Obama’s existing policies follow those of the Cheney administration but that;s an entirely different argument. Nice red herring attempt but I prefer salmon.
#3 McCullogh
The article is about actions that were directed by the Bush administration that were not permissible by law at the time that the actions were taken, therefore illegal and prosecutable. The discussion has nothing to do with actions that have become permissible since that time since the law has changed to include those same actions.
Should Bush and others be charged and prosecuted if they broke the law as it was written at the time? Yes. The must be prosecuted for violating the law as it was written at the time. It is a basic constitutional principle that nobody is above the law. Heck, it is even one of the 5 basic Tea Party principles.
And before I get jumped on… yes, I think that there were laws written into the books under the Bush administration that are illegal, unconstitutional and anti-America, and they should be rolled back, and I am very disappointed that Obama has not done so.
It will take many years, possibly decades of effort to undo the legacy and damage that the Bush administration burdened the US people with; regardless of the president, it may take several presidential cycles to remake America into the great country that it was before GWB stepped in.
#11. Whatever, enjoy your change.
#12
So you believe that it is possible to catch the worst filth in this world by doing things by the book?
Take your lollipop and go ride on the merry-go-round with your high moral standards while the real heroes keep you and your family safe doing things that might infringe on your fragile sensibilities. As long as you don’t know it’s going on, you’ll be fine.
Please, grow up.
#14
So it is OK to discard the basic values of the USA, the very core of what has made it great, in order to try (and fail) to achieve a result?
Under Bush’s leadership, we made an ultra-right turn and were marched right into the very life that the whole cold war fought against: secret detention camps, uncontrolled wiretapping, torture as defined by our own historical standards.
Yes, you do whatever is necessary, but you do it by the book. If the book, in this case being the Laws of the United States, is not correct for the task, you correct the book, you don’t just say “Screw it, I’ll ignore the law and do whatever I want.” And that is not idealism, it is moral values. The book changed, but only after the fact. Laws were violated.
In the end, “Your way” didn’t work anyway. Show me one piece of evidence that breaking the law had ANY positive results. Osama Bin Laden is still free, the Taliban has regrouped to the point where Afghanistan may have passed the turning point and the USA can not win, there are new terrorist organizations forming throughout the world (the terror attack in Uganda being a huge deal). And America lost not only the respect of it’s allies, it lost the respect of it’s own people.
Take your lollipop and go ride on the merry-go-round with your high moral standards while the real heroes keep you and your family safe doing things that might infringe on your fragile sensibilities. As long as you don’t know it’s going on, you’ll be fine.
I spent 8 years in the military. I know that having military service is irrelevant to many here when it comes to being a patriot, but just keep in mind when you throw shit like that towards people, you may not know what sacrifices they may have done themselves. By saying what you say, you spit on those of us that have served honorably and disagree with you. So F.U.
@Jason75
That is the kind of philosophy that leads to the wonderful government we have today. You know, the kind that shits on the Constitution and the rule of law. It sounds like you will be happy living in fascist America. Go out and buy yourself a brown shirt if you don’t already have one.
#14 – Jason75
Please relinquish your freedoms and liberty, you deserve neither.
#14, Your points are dead on target. I too am EX AF TS Crypto, and as such, we have paid our dues to this country. Judge Napolitano correctly ( and bravely, I might add) pointed out that “old honest abe lincoln” was quite possibly the worst POTUS (President Of The United States)we’ve ever had, since he threw away the rule of law, & suspended the USC. Abe was the worst hypocritical President we’ve ever had, and since he set a precedent for POTUS TO OPENLY BREAK THE LAW, we are paying for his criminal actions to this day..
Lincoln no more set the slaves free than I wrote the Magna Carta. Slavery was nothing more to lincoln than a political tool.
sorry . I meant # 15
How about this libtards. If Clinton would have done his job after the first attack on the world trade center and destroyed al qaeda in its cradle than none of this would have happened. Ouch!
#20 If you’d like to go back into ancient history, then Daddy Bush and Ron Reagan should take root responsibility.
Al qaeda formed against the US when Reagan decided to occupy the holy land of Saudi Arabia in order to subsidize the true cost of oil with US military protection.
Instead Reagan’s CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union giving rise of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda. I believe Daddy Bush was merely guilty of giving King Fahd blow jobs which really pissed off Osama cuz it’s just wrong.
It will be interesting to watch the US if it is ever involved in a land war where invaders attack the US. Especially, given the invaders immediately acquire US citizens rights on their arrival. I guess we just roll over and die…
Note to China for future use…
Wow many of you didn’t even listen 5 minutes into the article where he follows up on questions about why Obama is doing MORE things wrong than Bush & Cheney is being blamed for.
Andrew Napolitano, John Stossel, and Glenn Beck are all employees of Fox and all are publicly Libertarian.
Someone just got fired from the Fox Propaganda Network.
# 14 Jason75:
“So you believe that it is possible to catch the worst filth in this world by doing things by the book?”
Yes.
Why even bother to fight “the worst filth in this world” if it means becoming just the _other_ “worst filth in this world”? Might as well just throw in with them and divvy it all up.
If they want to destroy this country, why should we do the job for them?
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# 15 Awake:
“… Under Bush’s leadership, we made an ultra-right turn and were marched right into the very life that the whole cold war fought against: secret detention camps, uncontrolled wiretapping, torture as defined by our own historical standards. …”
It never occurred to me during the Cold War that I’d ever say or even think this: sometimes I miss the Soviet Union. We used to have to at least _try_ to be better than the Red Menace. Now, apparently, not so much…
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# 22 Brock:
“It will be interesting to watch the US if it is ever involved in a land war where invaders attack the US. …”
Huh! Have you _seen_ what kinds of guns people have?