Oh Geez

These two excerpts, courtesy of Salon's Glenn Greenwald:

Robert Jackson, U.S. Attorney General and Chief Prosecutor at Nuremberg, Closing Address:

One of the chief reasons the defendants say there was no conspiracy is the argument that conspiracy was impossible with a dictator. The argument runs that they all had to obey Hitler's orders, which had the force of law in the German State, and hence obedience could not be made the basis of an original charge. In this way it is explained that while there have been wholesale killings, there have been no murderers.

This argument is an effort to evade Article 8 of the Charter, which provides that the order of the Government or of a superior shall not free a defendant from responsibility but can only be considered in mitigation.

Mort Kondracke, Editor of Roll Call, yesterday:

I think one of the most important statements that Barack Obama has got to make right soon is that there will be no punishments or purges or witch hunts of people in the intelligence community for what was done during the Bush administration.

As Charles [Krauthammer] said, the country was kept safe ever since 9/11. There has not been an attack. These people did what they did under orders and with patriotism. And Obama should make it clear that none of them is going to be held to account for what they did.

When did we become this country? When did we decide that if you work for us, you are not accountable? When did we decide that we can violate human right but no one else?

It's true. Some of the President Elect's people have said they are not interested in prosecuting intelligence officials for acts of torture and kidnapping. They say they are "focused on the future." That's a fine argument as long as you apply it consistently. I suspect there are numerous people sitting in jail cells now, awaiting trial , wishing the prosecutor would just focus on the future and not the nasty murder or burglary of the past.