MoveOn Torture Ad Highlights Cheney for Investigation

Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post at 1:14 PM on April 22, 2009.

"America is better than this. Ask Attorney General Holder to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate these abuses."

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MoveOn.org is set to launch an aggressive new ad campaign calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the use of torture during the Bush administration and even raising the specter of targeting former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The ad, to premier on the web and blasted out to the group's five million members, is the strongest push yet from the progressive group on this front. Set to a dark voice, the narrator asks whether a double standard is in place in terms of who has been punished for the authorization and use of torture.

"If you torture an individual detainee, you might go to jail," the script reads, with footage of Lynndie England, the former United States Army reservist involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib. "But if you authorize an entire secret torture program, you get off scot-free?"

It is at this juncture that the screen switches to a picture of Cheney, John Yoo and Jay Bybee - the latter two comprising the top components of the Bush administration legal team that rationalized these interrogation tactics.

"America is better than this," the video concludes. "Ask Attorney General Holder to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate these abuses."

MoveOn.org already has asked its members, in the form of an email petition, to call on Holder to appoint a special prosecutor. Its new video petition is based, in part, off a Senate report released Tuesday evening that shows interrogators used torture techniques to try and get detainees to admit to a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

As the accompanying MoveOn.org email announcing the video reads: "The report calls the program "a perfect storm of ignorance and enthusiasm," and it confirms that officials at the highest levels, from Dick Cheney to John Aschcroft, were deeply involved. Calls for action are growing by the hour--and getting noticed... We're delivering your signatures and comments to Attorney General Holder tomorrow--but to make sure he hears our message loud and clear, we still need more people to join the campaign."

Tagged as: moveon, john yoo, politics news, cheney torture, moveon cheney, moveon special prosecutor, torture ad

Sam Stein is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, based in Washington, D.C.

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The administration and Congress are feeling the pressure. [Report this comment] Posted by: Quannah on Apr 22, 2009 2:31 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] KEEP IT UP! We can win this battle! As an aside, I wanted to put this out there about Dick Cheney's lie that torture has saved lives, and he gives the thwarting of a plot to bring down the Library Tower in Los Angeles. "In Slate, Timothy Noah explains that the timeline doesn't add up: In a White House press briefing, Bush's counterterrorism chief, Frances Fragos Townsend, told reporters that the cell leader was arrested in February 2002, and "at that point, the other members of the cell" (later arrested) "believed that the West Coast plot has been canceled, was not going forward". A subsequent fact sheet released by the Bush White House states, "In 2002, we broke up a plot by KSM to hijack an airplane and fly it into the tallest building on the West Coast." These two statements make clear that however far the plot to attack the Library Tower ever got—an unnamed senior FBI official would later tell the Los Angeles Times that Bush's characterization of it as a "disrupted plot" was "ludicrous"—that plot was foiled in 2002. But Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wasn't captured until March 2003." The torrent of lies have begun. They aren't going to let up. WE CAN'T EITHER! KEEP THE PRESSURE ON! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: The administration and Congress are feeling the pressure. Posted by: Longdream » RE: The administration and Congress are feeling the pressure. Posted by: GerryAttric We will lose this battle. Move On knows it. Without 9/11 truth, this will all fall flat on its fac [Report this comment] Posted by: pfgetty on Apr 23, 2009 4:38 AM Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Move On, like all of the media, has been irresponsible in their job of being the opposition and bringing our corrupt leaders to justice. They have decided not to EVER address the lies of 9/11 or the coverup, and to skirt around the edges of the corruption, like the crimes of torture. Like the press, Move On seems to have made a deal with the people in control...........stay away from 9/11 truth, and we will not interfere with your handling of torture, wire tapping, etc. And so the biggest issue of all time, 9/11 truth, goes untouched by Move On. There is more solid evidence of criminal activity in regards to 9/11 than with any other issue. The evidence is there to prove that the official story is a lie. But Move On, and Alternet and the rest of alternative groups and media, will not touch it. The work is already done, by those like Tarpley, Griffin, Ryan, and Gage and others. They would love their work to be presented in the media or by organizations like Move On. But these venues absolutely will not touch it. And so we live on with illegal wars, occupations, the Patriot Act, rendition, torture, the loss of habeus Corpus, and on and on. I place the blame on the alternative media and organizations like Move On. They could have stopped it all, by presenting, continuously, the evidence of 9/11 until it became well known among most of the population. They decided not to do this, and instead play losing games about the RESULTS of 9/11. They made a deal, somehow or somewhere. Despicable. Conspiracy. Treason. And we all suffer because of it. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » The Problem is no one knows the "Truth" Posted by: ATH » All we need to do now is prove that the official story is a lie. Posted by: pfgetty What has happened to Americans? [Report this comment] Posted by: WeimMom on Apr 23, 2009 4:46 AM Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I have never seen anything so UnAmerican in my life! BO was to unite, instead he is dividing Americans, turning on our own, not to mention using the Constitution as toilet paper! This is so sad, stop and think what this will do to our Military, those allowing us to be safe. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: What has happened to Americans? Posted by: SteveO » RE: What has happened to Americans? Posted by: anok » wahtever--take your talking points somewhere else Posted by: Frankenstein Dragon » WeimMom... Posted by: Quannah » Our Military are good people in general, but they are being ordered to do illegal things Posted by: ATH Why stop with Cheney? [Report this comment] Posted by: Laplace on Apr 23, 2009 4:54 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] While he is ostensibly the most reprehensible of the gang, Bush is ultimately "the responsible guy." Read Bugliosi's "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder." [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Bad Apples [Report this comment] Posted by: robert.noll on Apr 23, 2009 10:28 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Don't forget all that torturing was the result of a few bad apples: Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Bush. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] DIDN'T ALAN DERSHOWITZ? [Report this comment] Posted by: fg on Apr 23, 2009 10:54 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Didn't Alan Dershowitz speak somewhat approvingly of torture in a Charlie Rose interview before torturing by the USA came to pass? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: DIDN'T ALAN DERSHOWITZ? Posted by: Longdream let's support the troops [Report this comment] Posted by: zgregz on Apr 29, 2009 2:25 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] How can we support the "troops"? Well, in contrast to the Bush administration we can absolve all those tasked with implementing the torture rules, as long as they did not exceed the stated limits. This is not to approve of what was done. Bottom line: Ron Reagan signed the treaty against torture, those who conspired to circumvent this lawful treaty must be accountable for this treasonous act. Few people would argue President Obama could claim to support the troops, were he to prosecute their obedience to President Bush. It is also the case that the Bush administration claimed to support our troops, all the time in full knowledge they had established the rules the troops had followed. The cowardice these top officials demonstrated, when they lied, claiming rogue military personnel were responsible, that there was NO institutional guidance, that to me should be punished as fully as possible. They lied, and the people following orders went to jail. Justice would see these 2 groups exchanged, and the enlisted men and women compensated. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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» RE: The administration and Congress are feeling the pressure. Posted by: Longdream

» RE: The administration and Congress are feeling the pressure. Posted by: GerryAttric

» The Problem is no one knows the "Truth" Posted by: ATH

» All we need to do now is prove that the official story is a lie. Posted by: pfgetty

» RE: What has happened to Americans? Posted by: SteveO

» RE: What has happened to Americans? Posted by: anok

» wahtever--take your talking points somewhere else Posted by: Frankenstein Dragon

» WeimMom... Posted by: Quannah

» Our Military are good people in general, but they are being ordered to do illegal things Posted by: ATH

» RE: DIDN'T ALAN DERSHOWITZ? Posted by: Longdream

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