Why Holder should be Fired (really) and/or Waterboarded (hyperbole)

Our nation's criminal jurisprudence is informed and given moral authority by the principle of mens rea, latin, I suspect, meaning guilty mind, knowledge of the wrongness of the act. This precept is central to our justice system, in that we do not prosecute, convict and punish acts, but instead we designate as criminals, persons acting with full awareness of the wrongfulness of their evil acts.

An example of the crucial difference is the actor's mind set - a police officer shoots and kills a kidnapper about to fatally harm his victim (legal: carrying out of the officer's sworn duty) versus the kidnapper who kills his victim to avoid subsequent identification (Illegal:pre-meditated murder). That the police officer's motive is to save innocent life making his actions laudable and not evil, is obvious to everyone, but not to our esteemed Attorney General, Eric Holder it seems.

One more example should demonstrate this obtuseness in the nation's top prosecutor. Recently, in testifying before Congress, Mr. Holder was asked whether the U.S. military officers who had waterboarded Navy SEALS as combat training should be prosecuted as torturers. He emphatically stated: "NO", because these officers in carrying out their sworn duties had no evil intent to harm the trainees they waterboarded. These government employees were motivated, he testified, solely by their patriotism, seeking to help defend our country by improving the future wartime performance and resilience of the SEALS - no evil mens rea here.

Next, Holder was asked whether the CIA officers who had waterboarded the al Queda mastermind of 911 should be prosecuted as torturers, despite these government employees, in carrying out their sworn duty, had as their only intent to help defend our country in wartime by eliciting information vital save save thousands of innocent American lives - no evil mens rea here.

Well guess what loyal listeners - Holder refused to answer this straight forward question, instead he held forth for about fourteen minutes (hyperbole again) rambling on about the verities of the Spanish Inquisition, wherein Priests, seeking to restore Jews and others to inclusion in the one true faith, had used physically coercive means, torture even, to help make these miscreants again eligible for entry into heaven with god's blessing.

Mr. Holder is himself surely not a good candidate to be prosecuted, convicted or punished, as he has no evident intent to harm our national security or to disable the brave defenders of our nation.

Nonetheless, that absence of malice makes him no less dangerous to our safety and survival. So, either Holder must go, or our nation's informed citizenry must rise up and demand that this Administration let these fine CIA officers go free, to return to their sworn duty of defending us. Just saying ...