Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Cheney And Gonzales Indicted For War Crimes...So What?

Yesterday Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and several other minor officials in Texas were indicted for an assortment of crimes. Cheney and Gonzales take the cake of course, since the charge of war crimes is a serious one. Few people deserve a lifetime in jail than Dick Cheney, who has a reckless disregard for the law and humanity in general. His crimes should land him in jail for several hundred years at a minimum. So am I excited about this development? Nah, not really.

From RawStory:


Cheney's stake in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies that run the detention centers, was cited in the indictment. Cheney is accused of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees through his ownership interest.

Gonzales is accused of using his position during his time as Attorney General to block an investigation into abuses at the detention centers, located in south Texas.

Democratic state Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. is also named in the indictment, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra said. Lucio's attorney, Michael R. Cowen, called Guerra a "one-man circus." "In the March 2008 Democratic Primary," he added, "70 percent of the Willacy County voters elected to remove Juan Guerra...Now, with only a few weeks left in his term, Mr. Guerra has again chosen to misuse his position in an attempt to seek revenge on those who he sees as political enemies."
What a shame that of all the District Attorneys out there, this was the one to have moved ahead on an important case like this. Sure, it is a nice protest but not one with much credibility behind it. Earlier this year a few towns in Vermont indicted him too, but did anything come of that? Of course not. A lawsuit currently filed against Gonzales in another instance of his politicization of the DoJ has resulted in him paying for a private attorney on our dime.

Cheney and Gonzales are career criminals of the worst sort, because they in essence have legalized their crimes. In the case of FISA, they even had Congress retroactively approve their de facto abolishment of the fourth amendment in the Constitution. So, the only way we are going to get justice is from a Congress that is led by the neck by our next President. Though we on the left should know better, and the likelihood of justice for the scum that has worked around the White House in the last eight years is smaller than winning the lottery...three times in a row.