Sen. Pat Leahy with Att. Gen. Eric Holder. Photo AP
During a February 9 speech at Georgetown University, Senate Judiciary Chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy proposed the creation of a Truth Commission to explore wrongdoing during the recent Bush administration. The Truth Commission would focus on getting to the truth on a number of areas where Bush administration figures broke the law. A Truth Commission has the potential to reveal much about the secret workings of the Bush administration. Significantly, it will encourage many former officials, in exchange for amnesty, to testify about all they know and did. Many illegal activities can be revealed. This will very significant for those interested in learning more about the misuse of intelligence data to justify the Iraq war and what really happened on September 11, 2001.
Commenting on the goal of finding out what really happened during the Bush administration, Leahy said:
One path to that goal would be a reconciliation process and truth commission. We could develop and authorize a person or group of people universally recognized as fair minded, and without axes to grind. Their straightforward mission would be to find the truth. People would be invited to come forward and share their knowledge and experiences, not for purposes of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts.
Leahy’s proposal is a compromise between those wanting the new Attorney General, Eric Holder, to investigate and prosecute wrong doing during the Bush administration, and those not wanting Holder to investigate former administration personnel. If a Truth Commission goes ahead, then former Bush administration officials are given amnesty to testify about all they knew and did without fear of prosecution. While this will allow the truth to emerge, it also gives wrong doers an escape strategy from potential prosecution. This will upset some.
Historical experiences in South Africa and South America reveal that Truth Commissions emerged as a compromise between former political elites and new administrations. Truth Commissions helped smooth the way for the difficult political transition from oppressive political/military regimes to a new political era. The historical results of Truth Commissions have been mixed. Amnesty allowed many lower and middle ranking officials to come forward to reveal all they knew and did. This allowed society to learn much about what really happened behind the scenes. The Truth Commissions therefore helped promote national reconciliation and healing to a certain extent. In many cases, however, senior political/military figures remained defiant and did not participate in national Truth Commissions. The political will to prosecute former political leaders was not strong, due to the divisive effect this would have on a society still emerging from years of civil strife. This led some to conclude that the Truth Commissions were a failure.
Video: South African Truth Commission
For a Truth Commission to succeed, it must find the right mix between granting amnesty to those willing to telling all they know about crimes committed, and prosecuting those choosing not to cooperate. Therefore as Senator Leahy’s Truth Commission idea evolves, steps must be taken to ensure that political amnesty does not become a blanket response to all involved in wrong doing during the Bush administration. Those willing to fully cooperate should be given amnesty. Those choosing not to fully cooperate, or give false/misleading testimonies, should be prosecuted if they were involved in crimes. Finding the right mix of amnesty and prosecution will ensure that both middle ranking and senior officials reveal all they know, or are prosecuted for crimes committed.
A Truth Commission can succeed in exposing any crimes by former Bush administration officials concerning the preemptive war against Iraq and the 911 attacks. A number of former Bush administration figures have already come forward to reveal what they know about events on 911, and the cover up of evidence of what really happened. Their testimonies suggest that elements of the former Bush administration were complicit in what happened on the morning of 911. A Truth Commission will help the truth to emerge about 911. It will also stimulate Congressional and Justice Department investigations into what is revealed, and prosecution against those not willing to fully disclose all they knew or did on the morning of 911. A Truth Commission will also help witnesses emerge in other areas where they were involved in or saw crimes committed by personnel involved in highly classified projects. This can finally lead to disclosure of many secrets concerning alleged X-Files on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. So all in all, Senator Leahy’s Truth Commission proposal is a very positive step forward in learning the truth about what really happened during the Bush administration.
Comments
Given Leahy's weak record on holding Bush and Cheney accountable, it is hard to believe that his proposal will do anything much, other than bury important facts and whitewash certain official actions.
We the people want a Special Prosecutor with subpoena power and the authority to follow the truth anywhere it leads.
The investigation should not be limited to any particular crime or topic and the effort should be extremely well funded. If the Republicans can spend $100,000,000 investigating Clinton for a BJ, then Democrats can spend at least that much investigating the WMD lies that got the sons and daughters of over 30,000 American parents killed and maimed in Iraq.
It worries me that Leahy seems to be partnering up with Rep. Conyers on this project.
Conyers was Chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee and for years refused to allow any of the many Bush/Cheney impeachment bills to move forward, but all the while declared to impeachment advocates that he was their champion for impeachment.
Rep. Conyers was given an individual petition asking for impeachment hearings which was signed by over 1,100,000 citizens. Conyers Ignored The Petition and Had most of the Citizens Who Delivered It To Him Arrested. Other petitions with an additional million signatures were also ignored.
Prior to the election he told impeachment advocates that they should stop their efforts so Democrats would win in November '08 and promised to hold impeachment hearings after the election. After the election he failed to hold hearings or even discuss the matter.
I simply do not trust Conyers.
SEE David's Swanson's excellent article on Conyers and his actions in the impeachment effort on Op-Ed-News or AfterDowningStreet.
Impeachment could have moved forward if Conyers had not blocked it.
If Bush and Cheney had been impeached, many of over 4,200 US Soldiers killed in Iraq would be alive, many of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed would be alive, many of the over 30,000 US Soldiers maimed would be whole,
and just maybe, our country would have been spared the worst of this economic debacle.
With regards to foreknowledge in the 9/11 attacks there was an article in the New York Times, Tuesday August 9, 2005 which headlined: 4 in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00 by Douglas Jehl. It reads:
Washington, Aug 8 -- "More than a year before the September 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.
In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday."
The article goes on to say that the information was rejected and was not shared because Mohammed Atta and the others were in the United States on valid entry visas.
The article then illustrates why the Able Danger program was not shared: "In the interview on Monday, Mr. Weldon said he had been aware of the episode since shortly after the Sept. 11 attack, when members of the team first brought it to his attention. He said he had told Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, about it in a conversation in September or October 2001, and had been surprised when the Sept. 11 commission report made no mention of the operation."
This was the Able Danger Program.
Continued: "Col. Samuel Taylor, a spokesman for the military's Special Operations Command, said no one at the command now had any knowledge of the Able Danger program, its mission or its findings. If the program existed, Colonel Taylor said, it was probably a highly classified "special access program" on which only a few military personnel would have been briefed.
There you have it - "Special Access Program." I know this information is out of context to the totality of the article. However, I cannot ever remember the SAP phrase ever being illustrated in a public paper.
This is what we are up against with regards to gaining access to the UFO/ET disclosure process. Please go to Michael Salla's website for an in depth breakdown on Black Budgets. And, please research this New York Times article to gain its context.
The idea of a Truth Commission sounds nice - but I don't think it will work in the US. There are too many private contractors involved into the Iraqui war. These corporate leaders are certainly not impressed about an amnesty
offer. They want to earn money - and nothing else. If they came forward with the truth, they could be pretty sure to lose all their contracts. This is all but speculation. Remember, intelligence agencies, that came forward with the hoaxed WMD-claims against Saddam Hussein, did not even consider to keep the thing under the rug. Month's later, when the war in Iraq had been started, media told us the whole story. Without any consequences. May conslusion: To break up the close relations between officials and the private contractors would take an act of god. Not of President Obama. Not worth to mention, former President Bush's library is closed away from the public for the next five years. That's a rather clever move, since the probability, a republican president would be elected after four years is all but neglectable.
So in my opionion, President Obama will run into dead ends. Particularly, since he do not have the required security clearence and the need to know.
So simple is that.
Recall the phrase, No justice, No peace. It has meaning that this proposal affrontsl
Torture is the least of the crimes that Bush and his cronies are guilty of. They used lies to have the US unnecessarily attack Iraq and in so doing they became responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans (more than died in the 911 attacks). They are also responsible for the deaths of reportedly over 100,000 Iraqis while destroying the infrastructure of the country. These are bad men. To call them criminals is a compliment. There have been times in the history of this planet that evil men have been placed in positions of power and their actions have caused tremendous suffering during their time in power and for years and even decades afterward. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and others in the Bush administration and sphere are this kind of evil. They attract one another and they must be seen for what they are and brought to justice or their kind will rise again in short order.
I think all the 'get Bush' stuff is ridiculous. The liberal press tried for 8 years to nail him and the closest they got was the phoney Dan Rather papers. But even if you assume that he was hiding something, just imagine what the Clintons were hiding if you think of all that came out! If it was just the 'tip of the iceberg' as they say with Bush, it's clear Bill & Hillary's iceberg was a LOT bigger. If you want to be concerned, be concerned that our president associated with terrorists, racists and crooks and that Hillary is now a cabinet secretary!!!
I think all the 'get Bush' stuff is ridiculous. The liberal press tried for 8 years to nail him and the closest they got was the phoney Dan Rather papers. But even if you assume that he was hiding something, just imagine what the Clintons were hiding if you think of all that came out! If it was just the 'tip of the iceberg' as they say with Bush, it's clear Bill & Hillary's iceberg was a LOT bigger. If you want to be concerned, be concerned that our president associated with terrorists, racists and crooks and that Hillary is now a cabinet secretary!!!
So,here we go again...just another plot by a seasoned lawyer(Leahy)to get his partners in crime out from the potential of prosecution(s)and sentencing.Bottom line...they(Oligarchy)only vote on the bills written by the titans of the US which keep us peasants in check.
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