Glenn Greenwald On The WaPo Defense Of Torture

This is exactly why people hate politicians of every stripe. Glenn Greenwald brings some righteous wrath upon the Washington Post editorial writers for suggesting that Attorney General Eric Holder instigate some fake, Potemkin-like inquiries into the Yoo-Bybee memos, then wrist slap few low-level CIA agents to make the whole issue go away.

That, in a nutshell, is the twisted Washington mentality when it comes to lawbreaking: when political crimes become so blatant and extreme that they can no longer be safely excused (Watergate, Iran-contra, Abu Ghraib), then it's necessary to sacrifice some underlings who carried out the crimes by prosecuting them, but -- no matter what else happens -- the high-level political officials responsible for the crimes must be shielded from all accountability.

Andrew Sullivan also has some choice comments to make on the subject.

The longer I have lived in Washington, the more corrupt it appears. That includes large swathes of the press. The cooptation of the Washington Post by the torture-mongers should therefore come as no surprise - and Obama's refusal to investigate torturers is a reflection of his own so-pragmatic-it's-cynical belief that such matters do not really count for much - certainly not as much as a successful presidency.

It is inexcusable to call for an investigation into one of the most shameful chapters in our nation's history without calling for accountability on the parts of those who engineered the circumstances that created it. Any real investigation would necessarily involve those at the top: Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington, Libby, Rice and more. But what we're going to get, apparently, is a few more Lynndie Englands going to prison so that the criminals who really perpetrated this crime, this obscene offense to America, can continue to enjoy cocktails and dinner with their pals in the press.