War Crimes Investigations - That's The Ticket

From the normally sensible Marc Ambinder [but see NOW HE TELLS US below]:

A provocative headline, I know, perhaps needlessly so, but it remains one of those hidden secrets in Washington that a Democratic Justice Department is going to be very interested in figuring out whether there's a case to be made that senior Bush Administration officials were guilty of war crimes.

A hidden secret?  Hidden so well that neither Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard nor Jack Balkin from somewhat further to the left have heard a whisper.

But I say, go for it.  Let's see, Pelosi and Reid have whiffed on impeaching Bush, whiffed on de-funding the war in Iraq, whiffed on legislating a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, and have allowed the situation in Iraq to drift to the point where the next President may actually be pressured into pursuing victory in Iraq.  As a demonstration of their commitment to principle they ought to reassure their base (and promote dropped jaws amongst the rest of us) by announcing they will pursure this war crimes fantasy vigorously.

As Messrs. Goldfarb and Balkin note, that would end any prospect of bipartisan cooperation on health care, education reform, immigration, or anything else, but surely that is a small price to pay.  And the investigators won't lack for targets.

From a legal perspective, Marty Lederman notes some high hurdles.

But I think it would be great if the two remaining Dem Presidential candidates were asked about the likelihood of war crimes investigations early and often.  And get Pelosi and Reid on the record as well.  Let's not have any secret agendas here, and let's not keep this good news from their troubled base.

NOW HE TELLS US:  My bad - I thought that "it remains one of those hidden secrets in Washington" meant that people were telling Ambinder this off the record.  In a follow-up post, we are given a clarification explaining that this is just Ambinder guessing out loud:

It is a fact that many liberal Democrats believe President Bush and other senior administration officials to be guilty of war crimes.

It is my educated conjecture that, in a Democratic administration, there will be some DoJ political appointees and/or administration advisers who share that belief.

Oh, well, fine.  Then it is also a hidden secret that right now plenty of House staffers would like to kick around ideas for drafting articles of impeachment for Bush, Cheney, Mukasey, and Rice.  So what?  It isn't going to happen.  Quel clown.

Comments

[Breschau]

Exactly what have you seen, over the past 8 years, that leads you to believe there would be "bipartisan cooperation" on anything, whether or not these investigations happened?

Do you honestly believe that if a Dem is voted into the White House, the Republicans in Congress are suddenly going to become cooperative? What - you mean like they were in the 90's? I mean - besides the meaningless Whitewater thing, and that whole impeachment process, and everything else they did to resist every single Democratic proposal, I guess.

[MayBee]

But I think it would be great if the two remaining Dem Presidential candidates were asked about the likelihood of war crimes investigations early and often.

Exactly. Let's do.
That would make a good Sista Solja moment for Obama, wouldn't it? He's got to have one sometime.

[Jane]

I predict the republicans will forever be at least as cooperative as the democrats have been over the last 5 years. And I stand by that prediction.

[kim]

NSA surveillance and waterboarding, AKA baptising, the leadership of al-Qaeda saved many Americans and badly damaged the bad guys. This is preschool compared to the Islamic militants' Graduate School of War Crimes. Furthermore, the programs were both administered with excellent and honest executive oversight. This is a point that McCain should really hammer home. Who trusts either Democratic candidate, or really, Democrats in general, to have the degree of probity that this administration has had?

I know. MSM deludes. It is an error. There is always correction to truth. It will just be more wrenching in this information age.

Global cooling is doing it in the Climate arena. What will it take in the Geopolitical one?
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[clarice]

Well, Hill was so great on the watergate committee, if by chance she doesn't get the nomination, put her in charge of this. And while you're at it, just to be sure all the folks in the dock have their rights protected, hire up the clowns on the various Canadian Human Rights Commission staffs that Steyn is so big on.

[DebinNC]

Pelosi's Bad Faith illustrates Jane's point.

[royf]

If there is a lawyer that could prove jihadists qualify for the protections granted under the Geneva Convention, He would be the man to hire if you were in need of a lawyer.

But the fact is I suppose in a world where OJ is innocent and Libby is guilty anything is possible.

[kim]

The LA police framed a guilty man. The Dems framed an innocent one. I'm still betting that what was bombed and buried in Syria was the Yellowcake Saddam paid Khaddafy three billion dollars for. The expertise was from Khan, and such as it was, NoKo. Saddam sure didn't get it from Teheran. And I'll bet Rice can look Putin in the eye and tell him the serial numbers of the trucks used to move the stuff. They are PowerWagon knockoffs, anyway.
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[MayBee]

Look who makes an appearance in Balkin's comment section:

The question is not war crimes prosecutions in the United States. It's war crimes prosecutions of American policy makers in foreign courts. This is not conjecture since the preparatory investigations for those proceedings has been underway for almost two years now, and we will shortly be seeing in major media an interview with one of the examining magistrates. The guidelines are also fairly simple. There will be no formal actions taken before Jan. 20, 2009, and after that date it's unlikely that matters will proceed too aggressively unless one of the targets makes the foolish decision to use his passport for travel beyond America's borders.

Now the other issue is of course whether some of the war criminals lied to Congress or committed other more mundane crimes. It appears very clear that four of them did lie to Congress, and a case may very well be constructed against them in a new Justice Department. We can call that "Ersatz War Crimes."
# posted by Blogger Scott Horton : 10:07 PM

[Neo]

Take a little bit of Gerald Ford and mix it with a little bit of Bill Clinton and you get ..

Pardons on the last day for anything related to the administration of the GWOT.

[NARCISO]

This reminded me of a particularly annoying column by Leonard Pitts blaming Abu Graib on the Yoo memo. One of the signals that I caught
was the testimony of Eugene Fidell, who is the
husband of Linda Newhouse, and who has supplied
amicus briefs in various Gitmo cases. Fidell has this strange habit of being unable to distinguish between US soldiers covered by the
Geneva convention and unlawful enemy combatants
who do everything to disqualify themselves from said protection. And this isn't an original thought; Debra Burlingame had it
first; but this would be the argument Hani Hanjour, Mohammed Atta, or Ziad Jarrah's attorney would have made on September 10th.

[Danube of Thought]

"Do you honestly believe that if a Dem is voted into the White House, the Republicans in Congress are suddenly going to become cooperative? What - you mean like they were in the 90's?"

Let's see...Welfare reform? NAFTA? Justices Breyer and Ginsburg? And of course there was a ringing bipartisan rejection of the goofy Kyoto stuff (95-0) and a strong biparisan consensus that Hillarycare was the stuff of madness.

[Danube of Thought]

And lest we forget, that meaningless Whitewater thing resulted in eighteen felony convictions.

[narciso]

In the same vein, is yet another piece by Carol Rosenberg; where
al Harbi, a declared AQ member, refuses to accept the legitimacy of a military tribunal. Fine, keep him in jail, then

[SteveMG]

As the post from Scott Horton points out, the charges of war crimes won't be judged in American courts. It will be undertaken by leftwing courts in other countries. The left is court shopping, trying to find the most anti-American magistrate in the world to judge the matter.

After all, the entire purpose of international law and the internatational order for the left is to restrain and punish US (or Israeli) actions. They care not a whit about other countries violations of international law.

Is China committing war crimes in the Sudan by its support of the Khartoum regime? For the left the answer is: Who cares?

This has always been, at least in modern times, the problem with the US being signatory to these international conventions. To wit, they are measures to be used by anti-American elements to go after the US or Israel. Not to uphold any concern about international norms of legal behavior or law.

Disgraceful really. But who is surprised?

[Ralph L]

end any prospect of bipartisan cooperation on health care, education reform, immigration, or anything else
And the downside is...?

[narciso]

Not surprisingly my local fishwrap, didn't run any stories on Abu Ubeida's passing, they did run the Carol Rosenberg piece about
Al Harbi, a self declared AQ fighter (Embry
Riddle U, '96)related to one of the players in the Cole bombing; also the jail house lawyer for Gitmo detainees, during the strike that was the 'reward' for the Commnandant being lenient.

[richard mcenroe]

Dunno what happened there, but the link I posted is under my signature, go fig.

My comment was: "secretly" committed my ass...

[MayBee]

The left is court shopping, trying to find the most anti-American magistrate in the world to judge the matter.

You know, SMG, I had not even thought of that.

[narciso]

As Dennis Miller might say " I don't mean to go off on a rant here," a clear case of paralepsis, but this week's Time Magazine
provoked it. Aparism "Bobby" Ghosh, remember
him,he's the one that gets all the juicy exclusives with insurgents like IED maker Seif Abdallah "Sword of the Servant" one week, than laments how Americans can't stem the epidemic of violence. Well the last time we heard of him. he was covering the
Bhutto assasination; but he's come back and regards the "surge" as a "qualified success"; but conditions are fragile, yadda, yadda. Oh and by the way, the Sahwa
awakening in Diyala & Ambar provinces, are nothing but savages and uncouth would be gangsters; not unlike those decent Baathist boys, or former Republican Guardsmen turned
Jihadist "Tariq" interviewed by Michael Ware, the Aussie answer to Robert Fisk; must have been a stupid question. Newsweek
has taken a similar tack, condemning the Sahwa because, hell, they joined up with us:
there's got to be something wrong with them on principle. By the way, the Tikriti mob
(Hussein and his two doting sons; Uday & Qusay, were a 'liberating' factor on the tribesman. Seriously what kind of @!#[email protected]#$#$%$% sandwhich are they trying to sell here.

[poetryman69]

after Dubya has accomplished his goals of creating another Shiite state and increasing the profits of the oil companies, we should get out.

[M. Simon]

As the post from Scott Horton points out, the charges of war crimes won't be judged in American courts. It will be undertaken by leftwing courts in other countries.

Are we going to have to invade Belgium - AGAIN? This is getting tiresome.

[M. Simon]

pottyman,

Actually it appears he is creating a self governing Shia - Sunni - Kurd state. Have you been watching the telly again?

Yeah I hate it when those oil companies make profits. What we need is more ethanol in our tanks in order to starve third world children. A much better plan don't you think?