Showing newest posts with label torture. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label torture. Show older posts
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Weekend thoughts: Being the torturer
It used to be said of slavery that the master was a slave as well, to his need for slaves. In the same way, there are many victims of torture — and one of them is the torturer.
Sometimes the torturer is already cruel — with a childhood spent blowing up frogs, for example. But often the torturer is just a kid who joined the army, went through training, and got sent to hell. After a while, you do what others are doing, and what you're ordered to do. Then you go home — and deal with your memories and your guilt for the rest of your life, however long or short.
Over at Harpers, Scott Horton has a six-question interview with Joshua Phillips, author of a book on the subject, the appropriately named None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture. From the Amazon book description: 'The legacy of torture in the “War on Terror,” told through the story of one tank battalion.'
A taste (my emphasis):
The interview ranges from checkpoint experiences, to the role of popular culture, to the way torture techniques "evolve" spontaneously at locations where prisoners are abused, as soldiers put into practice things they had heard of, seen elsewhere, or experienced during their own training. The six-question format makes a good tight read.
There are many ways we're torturing ourselves with these practices — from the damage done to the Constitution, to the damage to the so-called "healing" profession by military psychologists and contractors, to the trauma of the soldiers themselves, many just men and women looking for work, or looking genuinely to serve. Check out the interview, and if you like, check out the book as well.
GP Read More......
Sometimes the torturer is already cruel — with a childhood spent blowing up frogs, for example. But often the torturer is just a kid who joined the army, went through training, and got sent to hell. After a while, you do what others are doing, and what you're ordered to do. Then you go home — and deal with your memories and your guilt for the rest of your life, however long or short.
Over at Harpers, Scott Horton has a six-question interview with Joshua Phillips, author of a book on the subject, the appropriately named None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture. From the Amazon book description: 'The legacy of torture in the “War on Terror,” told through the story of one tank battalion.'
A taste (my emphasis):
2. Much of your narrative focuses on two soldiers from the same unit, Adam Gray and Jonathan Millantz, both of whom died under tragic circumstances after returning home. What are the common strands of these two stories?Gray and Millantz each committed suicide after returning home.
Gray and Millantz were very different people. Gray was planning to be career military; Millantz was a combat medic who left shortly after his tour in Iraq ended, and joined the anti-war movement. While both soldiers had other traumatic experiences during their combat tour in Iraq, they also admitted that their involvement with prisoner abuse deeply troubled them. Millantz told me he felt Gray was distraught over the abuse he had been involved in, and believed that it partly led to his tragic demise. Millantz was also haunted by his own history with prisoner abuse—not just because of what he saw and participated in, but because of his inability to stop it. He and his family considered that experience to have been especially traumatic for him, and it partly explains his involvement in the anti-war movement. I interviewed other whistle-blowers who were also distressed by their inability to effectively report prisoner abuse, and some felt they had been disregarded, even discarded, by the military they served.
Both Gray and Millantz had strikingly similar experiences when they returned home. Both had violent outbursts, were involved in serious substance abuse, and spiraled into depression. Their families said that the military medical care and VA systems did not provide them with adequate mental health treatment, and often substituted drug treatment for therapeutic care.
The interview ranges from checkpoint experiences, to the role of popular culture, to the way torture techniques "evolve" spontaneously at locations where prisoners are abused, as soldiers put into practice things they had heard of, seen elsewhere, or experienced during their own training. The six-question format makes a good tight read.
There are many ways we're torturing ourselves with these practices — from the damage done to the Constitution, to the damage to the so-called "healing" profession by military psychologists and contractors, to the trauma of the soldiers themselves, many just men and women looking for work, or looking genuinely to serve. Check out the interview, and if you like, check out the book as well.
GP Read More......
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torture
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Arrest of 13 CIA agents sought in Spain
This is both breaking news and an ongoing story. From Scott Horton:
GP Read More......
Prosecutors attached to the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid are reportedly requesting that Judge Ismael Moreno issue an order for the arrest of thirteen CIA agents involved in an extraordinary rendition operation from 2004, the newspaper El PaĆs reports this afternoon, citing sources within the court.Read the rest — they tortured the wrong man and had to let him go. Horton's a go-to guy for these snatch-and-torture tales. From the same article:
The case relates to Khaled El-Masri, a greengrocer from Neu-Ulm, Germany, seized by the United States as a result of mistaken identity while he was on vacation in the former Yugoslavia. El-Masri was placed on a CIA-chartered jet that arrived in Macedonia from Palma de Majorca in January 2004, en route ultimately to Afghanistan. It appears that Majorca was used regularly as a refueling and temporary sheltering point for the CIA, with the knowledge of the prior conservative government. While held in the notorious CIA prison known as the Salt Pit, El-Masri was apparently tortured during extensive interrogations before intelligence officers realized that they had seized the wrong man.
The Spanish prosecutors have been closely studying the prosecution in Italy of 23 American agents in connection with another extraordinary rendition, involving an Egyptian cleric known as Abu Omar, who was seized off the streets of Milan and taken to Egypt, where he was tortured.That's 36 agents all told. It won't be long, mark my word. At some point, someone's going to stand trial. Or worse, get snatched off the streets of Milan, or Boston . . . and then stand trial. This feels like a slow-motion nightmare.
GP Read More......
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european union,
torture
Thursday, February 11, 2010
British judges: MI5 complicit in torture
So far, nobody is tripping over themselves in a Dick Cheney way to proudly defend torture though the Tories might be waiting until the election is over. The Guardian:
MI5 faced an unprecedented and damaging crisis tonight after one of the country's most senior judges found that the Security Service had failed to respect human rights, deliberately misled parliament, and had a "culture of suppression" that undermined government assurances about its conduct.Read More......
The condemnation, by Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls, was drafted shortly before the foreign secretary, David Miliband, lost his long legal battle to suppress a seven-paragraph court document showing that MI5 officers were involved in the ill-treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed.
Amid mounting calls for an independent inquiry into the affair, three of the country's most senior judges – Lord Judge, the lord chief justice, Sir Anthony May, president of the Queen's Bench Division, and Lord Neuberger – disclosed evidence of MI5's complicity in Mohamed's torture and unlawful interrogation by the US.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sup Ct upholds Obama's refusal to release torture photos
Doesn't make it right. (NB In April, the White House had no problem with releasing the photos.)
Read More......
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Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Townsend Admits CIA Documents Don’t Back Up Cheney’s Claims About Torture
Greg Sargent first reported the story. ThinkProgress and Spencer Ackerman have it, too.
Read More......
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Monday, August 24, 2009
Holder launches preliminary investigation into whether interrogation of detainees broke federal law
Att. Gen. Holder's statement is below, and here is Reuters' reporting.
STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER REGARDING A PRELIMINARY REVIEW INTO THE INTERROGATION OF CERTAIN DETAINEESRead More......
“The Office of Professional Responsibility has now submitted to me its report regarding the Office of Legal Counsel memoranda related to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. I hope to be able to make as much of that report available as possible after it undergoes a declassification review and other steps. Among other findings, the report recommends that the Department reexamine previous decisions to decline prosecution in several cases related to the interrogation of certain detainees.
“I have reviewed the OPR report in depth. Moreover, I have closely examined the full, still-classified version of the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report, as well as other relevant information available to the Department. As a result of my analysis of all of this material, I have concluded that the information known to me warrants opening a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations. The Department regularly uses preliminary reviews to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter. I want to emphasize that neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow.
“Assistant United States Attorney John Durham was appointed in 2008 by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations. During the course of that investigation, Mr. Durham has gained great familiarity with much of the information that is relevant to the matter at hand. Accordingly, I have decided to expand his mandate to encompass this related review. Mr. Durham, who is a career prosecutor with the Department of Justice and who has assembled a strong investigative team of experienced professionals, will recommend to me whether there is sufficient predication for a full investigation into whether the law was violated in connection with the interrogation of certain detainees.
“There are those who will use my decision to open a preliminary review as a means of broadly criticizing the work of our nation’s intelligence community. I could not disagree more with that view. The men and women in our intelligence community perform an incredibly important service to our nation, and they often do so under difficult and dangerous circumstances. They deserve our respect and gratitude for the work they do. Further, they need to be protected from legal jeopardy when they act in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance. That is why I have made it clear in the past that the Department of Justice will not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of the legal guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the interrogation of detainees. I want to reiterate that point today, and to underscore the fact that this preliminary review will not focus on those individuals.
“I share the President’s conviction that as a nation, we must, to the extent possible, look forward and not backward when it comes to issues such as these. While this Department will follow its obligation to take this preliminary step to examine possible violations of law, we will not allow our important work of keeping the American people safe to be sidetracked.
“I fully realize that my decision to commence this preliminary review will be controversial. As Attorney General, my duty is to examine the facts and to follow the law. In this case, given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take.”
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
Cheney directed CIA to lie to Congress
This just keeps getting better. And so, those career employees at the CIA, who never ever get political, apparently got political. From the NYT:
The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.Oh, and why did Panetta only learn of this program on June 23 of this year when he started as CIA director on February 13? (Hat tip, Grey Matter.) Read More......
AG Holder might appoint criminal prosecutor to investigate torture, but Obama's "top political aides have expressed concerns"
The Attorney General could be appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate torture allegations. Prosecutors don't appoint criminal prosecutors unless they believe crimes have been committed. And, it really does appear that crimes have been committed in the name of our government. That warrants an investigation, at the very least:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with administration officials who would prefer the issues remain in the past, according to three sources familiar with his thinking.So, the AG must at least believe crimes have been committed and wants to investigate. But, "top political aides" are apparently objecting. This shouldn't be about politics. This is about the rule of law. That should preempt politics. We know craven political calculations came first in the Bush administration. We're supposed to be getting something different from the Obama administration. We'll see soon which prevails: craven politics or respect for the rule of law. Perhaps we can heed the words of Joe Biden from the the campaign, when asked about the possibility of prosecuting Bush officials over Guantanamo:
Naming a prosecutor to probe alleged abuses during the darkest period in the Bush era would run counter to President Obama's oft-repeated desire to be "looking forward and not backwards." Top political aides have expressed concern that such an investigation might spawn partisan debates that could overtake Obama's ambitious legislative agenda.
Mr Biden said at an event in Deerfield Beach, Florida: “If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution, out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president - no one is above the law."No one is above the law. That's a good operating principle -- even for Dick Cheney. And, this investigation will probably implicate Cheney. Read More......
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Dick Cheney,
torture
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
CIA Still Trying to Suppress Torture Evidence
As Barney Frank said below, we wouldn't want to be like the Bush administration. More from McJoan at DKos. (In all fairness to Barney, it's possible he hadn't read his own statement before he published it.)
Read More......
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
London police in trouble again - water torture charges
What is happening with the Metropolitan Police? Maybe I was naive but I used to have an image of the London police as one of the more reputable forces in the world. Starting with the Ian Tomlinson/G20 problems - which were widespread - and now this, it looks like a force without leadership or proper oversight. The Guardian:
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was investigating the conduct of officers based in Enfield, north London, during drugs raids in the borough last November.Read More......
Neither the IPCC nor Scotland Yard would comment on the nature of the allegations but sources said the officers were accused of pushing suspects' heads into buckets of water.
One IPCC document is said to use the word "waterboarding" – the CIA technique condemned as torture by Barack Obama – in connection with the allegations.
The torture claims are part of an investigation which also includes accusations that evidence was fabricated and suspects' property was stolen. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial, it was reported last night.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Guantanamo detainee, held for seven years, describes the torture he endured. And, he is sure it was torture.
ABC News secured an interview with Lakhdar Boumediene, who was held in Guatanamo for over seven years. He was arrested in Bosnia in the weeks after September 11th and eventually handed over to the U.S. military. Boumediene won his case before the U.S. Supreme Court against the Bush administration and was freed by a federal judge. He talked to Jake Tapper (video of the interview here). The U.S. did torture:
Boumediene said the interrogations began within one week of his arrival at the facility in Cuba. But he thought that his cooperation, and trust in the United States, would serve him well and quicken his release.More confirmation of the very disturbing practice of torture at Guantanamo. That place has to be shut down. It's a symbol of everything that was wrong under the Bush/Cheney regime. V Read More......
"I thought America, the big country, they have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks, they know I am innocent. I can go back to my home, to my home," he said.
But instead, Boumediene said he endured harsh treatment for more than seven years. He said he was kept awake for 16 days straight, and physically abused repeatedly.
Asked if he thought he was tortured, Boumediene was unequivocal.
"I don't think. I'm sure," he said.
Boumediene described being pulled up from under his arms while sitting in a chair with his legs shackled, stretching him. He said that he was forced to run with the camp's guards and if he could not keep up, he was dragged, bloody and bruised.
He described what he called the "games" the guards would play after he began a hunger strike, putting his food IV up his nose and poking the hypodermic needle in the wrong part of his arm.
"You think that's not torture? What's this? What can you call this? Torture or what?" he said, indicating the scars he bears from tight shackles. "I'm an animal? I'm not a human?"
More posts about:
Dick Cheney,
George Bush,
torture
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Obama's banned Iraq photos allegedly show US soldier raping a female prisoner
Reuters:
I'd also add that this was not just the errant acts of a few soldiers. Torture was official US policy. And the Obama administration has already made clear that there is no benefit in holding accountable those who came up with this policy. So these photos shed quite a light on Obama's decision not to hold the intellectual fathers of these acts accountable. Read More......
The images are among photographs included in a 2004 report into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison conducted by U.S. Major General Antonio Taguba.Obama:
Taguba included allegations of rape and sexual abuse in his report, and on Wednesday he confirmed to the Daily Telegraph that images supporting those allegations were also in the file....
The newspaper said at least one picture showed an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Others are said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
"The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals," the president said at a White House briefing.Well, I for one am feeling a bit had. You'll recall that the GOP line of attack on the abuse photos previously was that they were indicative of nothing more than the equivalent of fraternity pranks. Well, I don't know what fraternity these boys went to, but US soldiers raping female prisoners goes far beyond a frat prank. Yes, we knew that they scared the prisoners with dogs and humiliated them by making them stand nude in front of women. (There was also that photo of the dead prisoner on ice...) I do not believe that we had any clue that prisoners were being raped as part of their interrogation. This most certainly adds something new, if only to silence those critics who claimed that this was just another day at the office.
I'd also add that this was not just the errant acts of a few soldiers. Torture was official US policy. And the Obama administration has already made clear that there is no benefit in holding accountable those who came up with this policy. So these photos shed quite a light on Obama's decision not to hold the intellectual fathers of these acts accountable. Read More......
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torture
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Bush's torture lawyer, John Yoo, who is facing an ethics investigation, trashed Sotomayor today
Last week, the American Enterprise Institute provided the forum for Dick Cheney to give his creepy and disturbing speech espousing the virtues of torture. Today, over at the the American Enterprise Institute's blog, one of the architects of the Bush/Cheney torture policy, lawyer John Yoo, launched an attack on Sonia Sotomayor:
But, just for fun, read what the hypocrite Yoo said about Clarence Thomas. For a right-wing conservative, the personal story matters:
Conservatives should defend the Supreme Court as a place where cases are decided by a faithful application of the Constitution, not personal politics, backgrounds, and feelings. Republican senators will have to conduct thorough questioning in the confirmation hearings to make sure that she will not be a results-oriented voter, voting her emotions and politics rather than the law. One worrying sign is Sotomayor’s vote to uphold the affirmative action program in New Haven, CT, where the city threw out a written test for firefighter promotions when it did not pass the right number of blacks and Hispanics. Senators should ask her whether her vote in that case, which is under challenge right now in the Supreme Court (where I signed an amicus brief for the Claremont Center on Constitutional Jurisprudence), was the product of her “empathy” rather than the correct reading of the Constitution.An attack from Yoo should pretty much guarantee Sotomayor's nomination. Yoo is facing an effort to have him disbarred for his advocacy of torture. And, Yoo is the subject of an ethics investigation at the Department of Justice, which he's desperately trying to have altered. So, let's just say, his legal credentials are already suspect, at best.
But, just for fun, read what the hypocrite Yoo said about Clarence Thomas. For a right-wing conservative, the personal story matters:
Justice Thomas speaks from personal knowledge when he says: "So-called 'benign' discrimination teaches many that because of chronic and apparently immutable handicaps, minorities cannot compete with them without their patronizing indulgence." He argued that "these programs stamp minorities with a badge of inferiority and may cause them to develop dependencies or to adopt an attitude that they are 'entitled' to preferences."Expect a lot of this kind of hypocrisy from the Republicans and their minions over the next couple months -- aided and abetted by the traditional media, for example, Politico. Read More......
By forswearing the role of coalition builder or swing voter -- a position happily occupied by Justice Anthony Kennedy -- Justice Thomas has used his opinions to highlight how the latest social theories sometimes hurt those they are said to help. Because he both respects grass-roots democracy and knows more about poverty than most people do, he dissented vigorously from the court's 1999 decision to strike down a local law prohibiting loitering in an effort to reduce inner-city gang activity. "Gangs fill the daily lives of many of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens with a terror that the court does not give sufficient consideration, often relegating them to the status of prisoners in their own homes."
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Supreme Court,
torture
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
CNN's Cafferty: Prosecute the sins of the Bush-Cheney era
CNN's Jack Cafferty on prosecuting Bush and Cheney.
The Bush presidency is thankfully over...but the damage he and Dick Cheney did continues to press on the nerve of the American people like an impacted wisdom tooth. And until the questions surrounding arguably the most arrogant and perhaps most corrupt administration in our history are addressed, the pain won't go away....Imagine what the Republicans would do if a Democratic president had done all of that? Of course, they'd have never sat back and let a Democrat get away with all of that. Read More......
It's the secretive meetings with Enron and other energy executives and the wholesale firing of federal prosecutors. It's trying to get the president's personal attorney seated on the Supreme Court and that despicable Alberto Gonzales sitting in front of congressional investigators whining, "I don't remember, I don't know, I...etc."
It's the domestic eavesdropping in violation of the FISA Court, the rendition prisons, and the lying. It's looking the other way while the City of New Orleans drowned and its people were left to fend for themselves.
It's the violations of the Geneva Conventions, the soiling of our international reputation and the shredding of the U.S. Constitution. It's the handing over of $700 billion to the Wall Street fat cats last fall, no questions asked. Where is that money? What was it used for?
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torture
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Are we a nation that lets its leaders torture for political reasons?
Do the American people support torture purely for political reasons? That is the operative question. And, that's what the Bush administration, led by Dick Cheney, did. They wanted to show links between al Qaeda and Iraq. Those links didn't exist. But, Dick Cheney was determined to find them -- even using torture.
Watch David Waldman from DailyKos explain it:
The traditional media wants a sideshow. But, the American people have to know what our leaders did. Read More......
Watch David Waldman from DailyKos explain it:
The traditional media wants a sideshow. But, the American people have to know what our leaders did. Read More......
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Dick Cheney,
torture
Friday, May 15, 2009
Here's an actual news story: Cheney used torture to prove non-existent Al Qaeda/Iraq link
Dick Cheney wanted to got to war against Iraq. He lied about it. Bush lied about it. But, we're supposed to believe that they never lied to Congress about torture. Right. That may work with D.C.'s traditional media, but not anyone who actually remembers 2002.
There is an even more disturbing aspect to this story. It may be too much for the traditional media to handle. We're learning that Cheney used torture to "prove" the links between al Qaeda and Iraq -- because nothing else was finding the information he wanted.
Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson explained his findings at The Washington Note:
Instead, reporters and pundits are agog that Nancy Pelosi would have the audacity to say the Bush administration lied to Congress back in 2002-3. The Bush administration lied to the American people every day. And, torture was the only way they could connect al Qaeda to Iraq. Digby succinctly explained it for us:
A lot of people died because of Bush's lies and Cheney's torture. But, you know, the D.C. establishment doesn't like to re-visit the past, especially when it exposes their failures. Read More......
There is an even more disturbing aspect to this story. It may be too much for the traditional media to handle. We're learning that Cheney used torture to "prove" the links between al Qaeda and Iraq -- because nothing else was finding the information he wanted.
Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson explained his findings at The Washington Note:
Likewise, what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002--well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion--its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.That same assertion was made by an Army psychiatrist who monitored the torture:
So furious was this effort that on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.
There in fact were no such contacts. (Incidentally, al-Libi just "committed suicide" in Libya. Interestingly, several U.S. lawyers working with tortured detainees were attempting to get the Libyan government to allow them to interview al-Libi....)
And an Army psychiatrist assigned to support questioning of suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba told the service's inspector-general that interrogators there were trying to connect al Qaeda and Iraq.That's the story the traditional media should be covering -- intensely.
"This is my opinion," Maj. Paul Burney told the inspector-general's office. "Even though they were giving information and some of it was useful, while we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between aI Qaeda and Iraq and we were not being successful in establishing a link between aI Qaeda and Iraq. The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish this link ... there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."
Instead, reporters and pundits are agog that Nancy Pelosi would have the audacity to say the Bush administration lied to Congress back in 2002-3. The Bush administration lied to the American people every day. And, torture was the only way they could connect al Qaeda to Iraq. Digby succinctly explained it for us:
By now there is overwhelming evidence that Cheney was desperate to find a connection between Iraq and 9/11. He pressured the CIA. He outed a CIA agent. He went on television and said that it was proven. What we didn't know until recently was the extent to which he was pressuring the CIA to torture false confessions out of prisoners to back up his claims. Much of that still remains cloudy, but it's quite clear to sentient beings that there were people involved in the torture regime who had to know very well that the torture they employed was designed to produce false confessions. The CIA and the top echelons of the Pentagon and the White House simply aren't that dumb.But, the Bush White House knew it could count on a compliant press corps, which simply was -- and is -- that dumb or dumbstruck.
A lot of people died because of Bush's lies and Cheney's torture. But, you know, the D.C. establishment doesn't like to re-visit the past, especially when it exposes their failures. Read More......
More posts about:
Dick Cheney,
Iraq,
torture
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Lindsey Graham: Bush admin saw law as unaffordable 'nicety'
From The Hill:
In the midst of a spirited defense of the Bush administration's intentions in developing interrogation techniques, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dropped a phrase that liberals may seize upon.Read More......
The Bush administration, while not committing any crimes, viewed "the law as a nicety we could not afford," the former prosecutor said. That's a view that squares pretty well with liberals' view that the Bush administration circumvented the law to reach conclusions it desired.
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torture
Obama reverses self on releasing detainee abuse photos after seeing them first-hand
They're that bad. From the Hill:
Read More......
President Obama reversed his previous decision to release photos showing possible detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan after growing concerned that the pictures would endanger American troops, press secretary Robert Gibbs said today....The logic is a bit Bushian. The photos don't add anything new to our understanding of the crime, but they're so bad that they'll incite violence against our troops? Uh huh. Yes, because actually witnessing a crime in progress does nothing to shed light on the crime itself. Sure.
Today, Gibbs said that the President had not seen the photos in April when he made the original decision. Now he has.
"The president believes that the existence of the photos themselves doesn't actually add to the understanding that detainee abuse happened," Gibbs said, adding that the Pentagon is already reviewing interrogation practices for wrongdoing.
Read More......
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