President Obama apparently did not expect the public outcry and blowback from Congress that ensued when he said on Monday he would not pursue an investigation into the torture memos.
On Tuesday, he said he would not rule out prosecuting senior Bush officials who provided the legal rationale for the harsh interrogation techniques that had been used against detainees.
On Wednesday a report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee showed that military and intelligence officials started planning harsh techniques as early as February 2002, seven months before the tactics were approved by the Justice Department. This leads to the belief that the memos were written to provide legal cover for torture already being used.
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the committee said, "senior officials sought out information on, were aware of training in, and authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques. Those senior officials bear significant responsibility for creating the legal and operational framework for the abuses." (Washington Post)
Even though much of the torture memos, written by Justice Department lawyers Jay Bybee and John Yoo, had been leaked for several months, the details were damning and shocking. The precise orchestration and planning by the Bush administration and the Justice Department was chilling.
According to a report in the New York Times, the procedures for the “enhanced interrogation techniques”, including waterboarding, simulated drowning, were based on torture methods used by Chinese Communists in the 1950’s to wring false confessions from Americans.
The “techniques” were adapted from a U.S. military program known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE), used to train American service personnel to resist interrogations if captured by an enemy that does not honor the Geneva Conventions' ban on torture. The United States helped write the Geneva Conventions’ ban on torture and prosecuted waterboarding in war crimes trials after World War II.
Since President Obama has stepped aside and will not stand in the way of an investigation, it is now up to Attorney General Eric Holder and/or Congress to take action
Jonathan Turley, law professor at The George Washington University Law School, had this to say on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
“There is an undeniable claim of a crime here. The evidence is insurmountable. We have not just Bush officials who called this torture; Obama and Holder have also defined this as torture. The International Red Cross has defined this as torture.
“Holder needs to appoint a special prosecutor and not limit it to who committed the alleged war crimes. Allow a neutral, respected person to uphold the law. There is just the enforcement of law and the investigation goes where crimes will take it.
“A war crime investigation does not look at the people who drove the train – they look at the people who told the trains to roll. Those would be George Bush, Dick Cheney, the C.I.A. director and the attorney general. They implemented, with full knowledge it was a war crime, a torture program.
“A true war crime investigation is given to a special prosecutor to follow it where it would lead. That would certainly lead to the former president or vice president and people like the C.I.A. director and attorney general who pushed this through.”
The Bush administration took it upon themselves to authorize torture, disregarding the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions, without the consent of the United States citizens and in the process sullied the good name of our country.
It is time for us to show the rest of the world that we, as a country, do not condone torture, that we enforce the laws of our land, and that nobody – absolutely nobody – is above the law.
Cheri Cabot, Politics Correspondent
Cheri’s column, “Personal About Politics,” published every week, will reflect on how the life of a 59 year-old, middle class woman is affected by politics, policy and the current state of the nation - a look at the personal aspects of politics. Her column is part of Gather Essentials.
Cheri is a freelance writer, living in Southern California. She has two grown children, one in Iowa and one a recent graduate of Columbia University, and is the proud grandmother of two. Cheri is also a purveyor of fine coffee, warm chatter and dry wit.
You can find all of Cheri’s columns on Personal About Politics at www.personalpolitcs.gather.com, The Obama Watch at theobamawatch.gather.com or her home page here, www.ccabot.gather.com.
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Comments: 66
thnx for the information
We can not call our selves any better or more civilize a people to accept this as a policy. Torture is wrong and unjust, right thinking people don't do it, nor condone it. Anyone who dose, is sick and in need of help!!!! And those who do must face and answer for their action
Loving it.
IT IS about effin time the former administration is investigated and consequences taken.
I do believe it will hurt Obama's progressive schedule, but it has to be done.
Leaving this stone unturned will open the gate for future crimes.
And what about the average American's responsibility for this? Bush's 2002 torture memo was clearly a violation of the 96 War Crimes Act and Geneva Conventions that we signed on to. Yet, most Americans didn't really care. Oh, there's plenty of guilt to go around on this.
1. We tried, convicted, and executed Japanese interrogators for "water boarding" after WWII.
2. America's poster boy for POWs, John McCain says it is illegal, doesn't work, and is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.
3. The "so called" actionable intel they were trying to get was a way to prove there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, which did not exist!
4. As someone who has been through SERE training, I can assure you that by simply making the average person "uncomfortable" you will get an amazing amount of bullsh*t out of them, but no real intelligence.
5. Want to know what "water boarding" feels like? Put your head underwater in the bathtub and inhale deeply. See how many times you can do this. I highly recommend this to any of the "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" crowd.
Sleep depreivation; loud obnoxious music; water boarding; excessive light; made to stand naked in a room; etc. This isnt torture.
Also to point out that Nancy Pelosi didnt say anything bad against water boarding when she had the chance after 9/11. Neither did McCain. Neither did anyone. We wanted to make America safe and would do what was necessary to accomplish that.
Spartan... do you know that the CIA ops get water boarded multiple times so they know what it feels like? They get done to them whatever gets done to the enemy. They are fine.... so whats wrong with it?
Water boarding is not torture. Where are we going to draw the line? Is sleep deprevation torture? If we keep them awake 1 minute past their normal bedtime, is that torture? Do we need to feed them ethnic food, or is not catering to them torture as well?
~M
And the other things you mentioned, whether you call them torture or not, enduring these things over time will cause any human being to become insane. Look at what happened to Padilla. He ended up a blithering idiot (in the true sense of the word) obsessively complaining that his trial wasn't fair to Bush. They completely drove him out of his mind. Whether you call that torture or not isn't really relevant. It's destroying a human being.
Michael, torture is not just physical. It's psychological as well. Have you ever experienced something that didn't physically cause damage to your body, but led you to think you were endangered? Ever had someone shove you into the deep end of the pool when you didn't know how to swim? If you get out, you're not physically damaged, but you're probably going to shy away from that area until you learn to swim well.
If someone repeatedly makes a person feel endangered, that is torture. You never have to lay a hand on someone to torture him.
If the current Administration and Congress do not investigate then they will become part of a cover-up. If we as the American people do not investigate but rather stand back and accept what was done in our name, then we are guilty also.
Notice that Cheney says the proof of the success of these "interrogations" is in unreleased classified information. It seems his proof of everything is in information that is not available to those who would disagree with him.
Those who seem to endorse waterboarding, or for that matter any type of "enhanced interrogation" have never endured anything close to torture. I'm guessing they wouldn't last long. My suggestion....let those who endorsed the torture be put under the same treatment and see how long they last. Not long I'm sure.
Bruce...you are absolutely correct! Cheney keeps talking ( and talking and talking and talking) about all the valuable information that was obtained by using torture....but nobody has seen it. He said he has asked for such information to be released but there is no record of such a request. But then, it's not like he hasn't lied before.
"The question is whether you could have produced information of equal value in an interrogation process that didn't use these extreme techniques," he said.
He said there has been too much focus on waterboarding with little or no mention of other techniques, such as "hanging people from ceilings with chains, naked, so they couldn't fall asleep for days at a time, manipulating their diet, cramming them into boxes in stress positions, slapping them around — all these other things are employed in combination as part of a program."
This is part of an interview that was on NPR this morning. You can read the entire script - which I highly reccommend - at npr.org. You wil find it under Nation- " Was Critical Note Muzzled By Bush White House?"
All that being said, there are many people here on Gather who have been very, very supportive of me and my writing. I have had my own personal posse as it were, and there were many times I called on them for support. I am very grateful to those people.
It is so very nice to finally be on the "winning" side. It is nice to not be under the shadow of fear. After all, the freedom of speech is what sets us apart from counties with Communism or Dictatorships, and we almost lost that freedom during the Bush regime.
I feel quite angry that as Spartan pointed out, "is the lowest enlisted personnel who are languishing in prison today for following the orders of then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld". Of course, it is not resolution of my anger that is important but that those in power learn that this cannot be tolerated...as Susan just said.
and Bruce; good analogy about cleaning the wound before it can heal. Well put.
PS Prolonged solitary confinement, especially with no end date specified, is also torture (speaking of Padilla).
That's probably where Cheney got he information that we knew " with certainty" that Saddam has reconstituted his nuclear weapons program. Or, he just made it up, which he tends to do.
Lets be honest about the whole thing. In regards to our National Defense and matters of security, we aren't involved in those things everyday or play an active role of participation. We can't go down aisle 5 at the grocery store and pick up a box of terrorist repellent or a can of security. WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER ANYTHING BUT OURSELVES! Certain methods of communication have to be used to play our part in the game so that others understand the consequences of their actions. It is a deterrent, not a preventative measure. There is no real "War on Terror" or "War on Drugs" or "War on Violence" and so forth and so on.
Torture techniques and interogations methods have always been around and WILL CONTINUE TO BE AROUND. If this upsets you to a point where you find it difficult to be an American, don't let the door hit you on the ass.
Spc. Breedlove
US Army
As already observed, it is more than merely important that the United States of America prosecute those who violated the constitution and broke the Geneva Convention in order to regain the respect of the world as a nation that honours its treaty obligations and obeys the rule of law. Other nations will never again trust America if the country does not do that.
But it is even more vitally important that Bush and his Criminal Cartel are held to account for domestic reasons. If you want to ensure that future leaders respect your constitution and observe treaty obligations then there have to consequences for those that do not. There has to be a deterrent.
Otherwise the constitution is nothing but a piece of paper and will increasingly be irrelevant.
//so whats wrong with it?// "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. "
We spent years (and LOTS of dollars) prosecuting Bill Clinton for getting a BJ. It is much more vital to our national interest (and reputation) that we find, and punish, those responsible for this direct contravention of both the US Constitution and the Geneva Conventions!
Good article as usual, Cheri.
Since torture has been around for years this means we as United States Citizens should accept it? I thought we as Americans worked hard to be humane. I thought we agreed to follow the Geneva Convention. If we as a country are not willing to abide by the Geneva Convention then what makes us different from other countries who engage in torture. I would rather live in country that sets a standard for humane treatment of all then condone torture because it may, again MAY deter someone from an act of terrorism. In my opinion to use torture as a possible derrent (which from all I have read and understood does not happen) for terrorism is very unlikely. (perhaps unlikely should actually read fantasy.)
What more needs to be said?
And if torture doesn't bother you, you would have been quite comfortable with the practices of Nazi Germany.
What has happened to our moral compass? Have we gone down the road of moral turpitude so far that we can't find our way back? I certainly hope not.
BUT. The number of citizens not directly involved that are now accepting of this is something I am struggling to understand. Is it in defense of the Bush administration? I have read very little if any expert testimony to the success of torture. Just the arguments that waterboarding, for example, is not torture sounds like movement toward acceptance of inhumane treatment as perfectly normal.
The arguement of whether it is successful or not would be better determined with an investigation. I do assume that some people do accept torture not because it is successful but because they want revenge. Hopefully, they are examining their personal feelings about this issue and are attempting to base their opinions on objective information, not a desire for revenge.
It seems true that you do not hear much uproar about torture nowadays.
I believe it may be due to the twofold attack of American's short attention span
as well as the masses being shaken to the core by this economy.
As for the short attention span, ah, what were we talking about?
Lol.
Let's hope Obama gives the D.O.J. free reign to get the ball rollin'.
A special prosecutor may be the way to start.
I wonder if Ken Starr is available!!!
Just kidding, don't anyone puke now!
2) Jan apparently prefers representatives who must take a 'poll' before making any decisions.
I would prefer representatives with the intelligence and morals and conviction to DO THE RIGHT THING without needing to 'poll' the electorate in search of an opinion.
But then Jan appears to be a Republicon. We all know the Cons dare not have an opinion without checking in with Rush the Junkie or Newt the Hypocritical adulterer.
One of the results of Torture Gate is my own wondering just what kind of nation America really is. I was raised to see our country as the most humane on the planet. I was so convinced of this that I joined our military after high school so I could do my patriotic part to serve and protect our great nation. Now, with so many people saying that our torturing and abusing people is okay, I'm left wondering if the that "most humane" label was just a sham.
I'm left wondering if the only really great thing about America is our size; and that is quite disheartening. I really liked thinking and feeling that I lived in the "best" country in the world.
How our nation finds its way through this moral dilemma will greatly effect me.
In America we have elections every four years . Thank god for term limits .
Are we creating a bigger problem and will it make more difficult for the economy and other problems we have?
Of course we should pursue it but I am not sure about the consequences.
http://www.truthout.org/042709J
Geneva Convention Laws are written and in place for people like You to feel better. The reality is that it has little weight on the battlefield or when dealing with terrorism. It is a set of global rules that, for the most part, our allies agreed to. To think a North Korean soldier or Middle Eastern terrorist would abide by these rules during combat is f*#king absurd.
The dues for conservative's support for something they know nothing about will of course be paid by GIs who are taken prisoner, kidnapped or otherwise end up in hostile hands in the Middle East or around the globe.