Hell, all it takes is a memo ordering you to do something and you are immune from punishment!

[KansasVoter]

I think that is a great policy for future administrations to follow!

Stack the Justice Department with crooks writing memos and nothing will be illegal!

[Windy]

1. Ever in the Military????

and again, he NEVER said that he would not prosecute those who ordered the torture...those who came up with and drafted the policy...
And because of Obama, the world has full access to these memos also. Not only did Bush and Cheney violate federal law, they violated international law. They can be tried at the Hague. The international courts now have the evidence thanks to Obama.
And remember, it was the Nurenburg trials that brought the Nazis to justice and not every underling they ordered to commit the horrendous crimes they authorized.

[KansasVoter]

2. Plenty of underlings were executed!!!! Do you know your WWII history???

[sharp_stick]

3. Depends what you consider an underling

and it depends on whether you think all the trials during WWII were in all honesty fair. The number of executed, really legally executed, underlings is very small.

[Windy]

6. I was discussing the nurenburg trials. I've been to Nurenburg and the Nazi documentation center

and Dauchau...

Yes, some were prosecuted, certainly not all. If you go to Germany right now, you will meet many older citizens who were conscripted and worked at the camps. Do you even have any idea how many concentration camps were spread between Germany, Austria, Poland, former Czechoslovakia?

I suggest that you actually read the memos...ALL of them. I can understand why he gave those that followed the very specific orders immunity. And actually, by giving them immunity, they are free to testify against their superior officers with fear of self incrimination.

The heirarchy of the CIA is like the military by the way... or a police department.

[Windy]

7. Must underlings were given long prison sentences... read up on it. nt

[cali]

8. you really don't know your WWII history.

relatively few underlings were executed.

[KansasVoter]

9. Many were jailed!! Any doubt about that??

[cali]

10. lol. you claimed they were shot. they weren't.

and more were not jailed- by a long shot- than were.

[KansasVoter]

12. Many were jailed, many were not. And here are some executed ones dumbass....

The following female guards were tried postwar, convicted of war crimes and executed: Sydonia Bayer of Litzmannstadt (Lodz), date unknown (in Poland); Juana Bormann of Bergen-Belsen, hanged December 13, 1945; Ruth Hildner of Helmbrechts, hanged May 2, 1947; Christel Jankowsky of Ravensbrück, date unknown (in East Germany); and Gertrud Schreiter and Emma Zimmer of Ravensbrück, both hanged on September 20, 1948.

[Windy]

11. Exactly right. They were given prison sentences if prosecuted at all...nt

[high density]

4. So what do you recommend?

Should the Justice Department stop interpreting laws? If so, who then interprets the laws and tells our bureaucracies how to function?

Obama can't change what the Bush Justice Department did. He can only make it better from this point going forward.

[sharp_stick]

Perhaps the summary execution

of everybody that ever held a parking pass at the CIA?

:sarcasm: because some numbnuts would probably take it seriously.

[AllentownJake]

5. This is alot more complex than that

You also have to look at the judicial landscape. You know all those GOP Presidents we've had. They've appointed a shit load of judges.

[Phx_Dem]

13. A memo from the DOJ. And tell it to the courts who

dismissed cases against lower-level guys involved in Watergate. John Dean explained it on Countdown.

But, naturally, you're wrong in your assessment. What a surprise. Those who wrote the memos and those who ordered the torture are not immune from prosecution.

[LittleBlue]

14. Exactly! A corrupt DOJ can immunize anyone with just a memo

[Supersedeas]

15. rightwing thinktanks have a recipe for a fascist state--just need an appropriate crisis for an

excuse to move on it