Ellington

The Associated Press in Texas is reporting:

A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers. The indictment, which had not yet been signed by the presiding judge, was one of seven released Tuesday in a county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles in recent years. Another of the indictments named a state senator on charges of profiting from his position. [...] Cheney's indictment on a charge of engaging in an organized criminal activity criticizes the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies. Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on Tuesday, saying that the vice president had not yet received a copy of the indictment.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.

Previous Comments

ID

140829

Comment

I don't know if this is frivolous, but if it forces the media to look at what's going on in private systems, good. CNN's story.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-11-18T19:32:58-06:00

ID

140840

Comment

Ladd, Poetic justice is a dish best served cold. A lot of crooks, criminals and miscreants get their comeuppance while being caught stealing cookies rather than for their more felonius fishing. Don't forget they got Al Capone on taxes, OJ on over aggresive reverse room service and probably Frank Melton for being rude, crude and generally un-civil. Cookie crumbs, while small and sugery, are obvious to even the most casual observer,

Author

FrankMickens

Date

2008-11-19T05:42:10-06:00

ID

140842

Comment

Got the news on the latest tweet. Dick Cheney indicted; Ted Stevens loses in Alaska, Barbour caves to a tobacco tax. What a day for Republicans, huh? Am I in some sort of parallel universe or something? Seems weird that all of this is occurring at once.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-11-19T08:21:20-06:00

ID

140856

Comment

Let me start by saying I'm surprised Cheney, the second in command republican, is accused of doing anything wrong. And, I thought that little shooting incident on the Texas lawyer had pretty much scared most Texans away from fooling with vice-president bust-a-cap. I bet Cheney is quite suprprised that he's been sought for this considering the thievery that has likely taken place on the part of Brown and Root, Bechtel and Haliburton without any dire or unfavorable consequences. Cheney, Crumsfailed aka Rumsfeld and many other big time republicans have shamelessly held high positions in the U. S. government while profiting big time from private industry or businesses that their governmental jobs and connection hooked them up with. Can you say obvious conflicts. They can't, however. Ain't no telling how many more of them are quilty of the same money grabbing infractions. I hope these people succeed in convicting and jailing Cheney. I know he's guilty because finding an innocent republican is harder than finding that needle in a haystack that Christians keeping talking about.

Author

Walt

Date

2008-11-19T11:04:16-06:00