When the Obama administration is wrong, I say so, and this time they could not be more wrong. Early on, as part of his futile attempts at bipartisanship, Obama opted not to pursue Bush and his Republican minions as the war criminals they are. His reasoning was that he thought moving forward without recrimination would attract Republican support for meeting America’s needs. What a mistake that was. When rats perceive weakness, they attack as a ravenous pack, and that’s what the Republicans did. Technically it’s the job of the Attorney General to argue for government, even when the cases arise out of the misdeeds of an earlier presidency. But he did not have to defend with State Secrets doctrine. I think that had the full truth been publicly exposed in a court of law, that might well have forced Obama’s hand to honor our treaty obligations and prosecute. So using State Secrets to cover up the crime was a bigger mistake. The verdict is in.

T orn between claims of national security and pleas for redress for torture victims, a federal appeals court reluctantly dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing a Bay Area aviation-planning company of arranging CIA flights of suspected terrorists to overseas dungeons. Although much of the so-called extraordinary rendition program has been publicly disclosed, including the alleged role of Jeppesen Dataplan of San Jose, allowing the suit to proceed "would present an unacceptable risk of disclosing state secrets," the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 6-5 ruling. The ruling is a victory for both President George W. Bush’s administration, which directed the rendition program and acknowledged its existence, and the Obama administration, which promised to curb the program’s excesses but argued that it was too sensitive to be litigated in court. The American Civil Liberties Union said it would appeal to the Supreme Court. The high court has refused to review two rulings by other appeals courts dismissing suits against the government by men who said they were abducted by the CIA and flown to foreign torture chambers. "Not a single victim of the Bush administration’s torture program has had his day in court," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

Keith Olbermann and Jonathan Turley discuss the ramifications of this case.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy