It seemed like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales barely had two brain cells to rub together on the best of days, so his defense of the Bush torture regime was simple: Na-na-na-na-na! The president can do whatever he wants.
Michael Mukasey, who prepped for the job in the federal judiciary while Gonzales was the president’s lapdog, is a rocket scientist by comparison.
After hoodwinking the Senate into confirming him because he promised that he’d have to look into this torture stuff, Mukasey has gone to great lengths to defend its use while approving an “independent” investigation into the darkest of all the dark aspects of the Bush administration that is anything but.
The crux of Mukasey’s defense is that timid lawyering as a consequence of congressional investigations and reforms that grew out of the Iran-Contra affair and other intelligence scandals in the 1970s and 80s lulled the U.S. intelligence community into a state of somnambulence that contributed to the 9/11 terror attacks. And that criticizing John Yoo, David Addington and, yes, that Gonzo for throwing down the gauntlet is to ignore that the U.S. is more secure as a result.
Speaking at the Boston University Law School commencement, Mukasey declared that . . .
Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House and here for an index and links to other posts on torture.