Friday, March 26, 2010

Thiessen Repudiated

The must read piece of the week is Jane Mayer's almost effortless smack down in the New Yorker of torture apologist extraordinaire Marc Thiessen's ridiculous new book "Courting Disaster". You almost feel bad that such a prominent, well-regarded actual journalist like Mayer is forced to wade through Thiessen's compendium of lies, falsehoods, and distortions in order to set the record straight. But somebody had to do it; Thiessen's revisionist history sits atop the NY Times best seller list.

The more interesting question is--- when is President Obama going to start "looking backward" to find out the truth surrounding America's dark torture secrets and hold accountable those who implemented and carried out a shameful program of barbaric, ineffectual, and illegal torture and indefinite detention.

By now I think we can all acknowledge that Obama's greatest strengths are his tenacity and his patience. This HCR triumph took a hell of a lot of courage. He spent an enormous amount of political capital. But he won the long battle. I hope his intention is not to bury the Cheney embarassment, but to revisit it at a later time, once he rings up another couple of victories, i.e. financial market reform. I hope he wins the long battle against the Bill Kristol/Cheney/Thiessen cabal as well.

As Mayer writes:
By holding no one accountable for past abuse, and by convening no commission on what did and didn’t protect the country, President Obama has left the telling of this dark chapter in American history to those who most want to whitewash it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dont wanta call attention to the Elephant Turd in the Room...but someones gotta do it
But Obama(Peace be upon Him) has been President for 430 days, 22 hours, and 55 minutes, or 546 American Troops killed in Iraq/Afghanistan ago...(I've got a dedicated counter goin on my blog)
He can appoint a Special Prosecutor to go after Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld/me anytime he wants, for invading a soverign A-rab nation, holding harmless camel hearders in Git-Mo, and inflicting casualties on innocent Muslim civillians..
Oh yeah, he might get prosecuted himself...
Watch where you step...

Frank