GRITtv: David Cole: Torture and Rationalizing the Unthinkable

David Cole, editor of "Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable", on what may be one of the darkest moments in the last half century of US history, possibly longer: the authorization of torture by high level officials in the Bush administration. Cole's new book lays out the case against the architects of US torture policy. But will they be prosecuted?

Coming Soon:

Declassified Bush-Era Torture Memos

Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify—and publicly release—three internal memos that will lay out, for the first time, details of the "enhanced" interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration for use against "high value" Qaeda detainees. The memos, written by Justice Department lawyers in May 2005, provide the legal rationale for waterboarding, head slapping and other rough tactics used by the CIA. One senior Obama official, who like others interviewed for this story requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said the memos were "ugly" and could embarrass the CIA. Other officials predicted they would fuel demands for a "truth commission" on torture.>>>>>>

Inside Guantanamo


Guantanamo Detainee: Freedom Feb '09:

Prosecuting for Torture and More

Famed Prosecutor/Author Vows President Bush Will Be Brought to Justice for Mass Murder
Jan 08, 2009

The former Los Angeles County district attorney who put Charles Manson and his followers behind bars for life is not finished with outgoing President George W. Bush. Indeed—rough though the road may be—Vincent Bugliosi sees the upcoming post-Bush period as an even better time to forge ahead to try Bush on murder allegations, on the basis of Bush getting America into the deadly Iraq war under false pretenses.

PART ONE OF INTERVIEW WITH BUGLIOSI


PART TWO OF INTERVIEW WITH BUGLIOSI

"We're looking for a few good prosecutors," Bugliosi said in a December interview, describing his quest to locate some local prosecutors, among 2,200 in the nation, with the fortitude to try the president. "I have to think that there is at least one out of 2,200."

We are only one of the hundred and fifty five nations who not only signed on but formed the articles of the charter.

CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The States Parties to this Convention,

Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Recognizing that those rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person,

Considering the obligation of States under the Charter, in particular Article 55, to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Having regard to article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which provide that no one may be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,

Having regard also to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1975 (resolution 3452 (XXX)),

Desiring to make more effective the struggle against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment throughout the world,

Have agreed as follows:

With more being found at Wikipedia - United Nations Convention Against Torture and other sources with a simple search.

Accountability Is A Must

Click on the graphic and join those seeking that accountability, for Laws broken, Laws of our Country and Constitution, this time!

America pays the piper, big time pt.1

Robert Parry: After 28 years of drunken optimism and blind nationalism the US wakes up to a grim future



Parry's article at Consortiumnews.com

Bio

Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist. He was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 for his work with the Associated Press. In 1995, he established Consortium News as an online ezine dedicated to investigative journalism. From 2000 to 2004, he worked for the financial wire service Bloomberg. Major subjects of Parry's articles and reports on Consortium News include the presidency of George W. Bush, the career of Army general and Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell (with Norman Solomon), the October Surprise controversy of the 1980 election, the Nicaraguan contra-cocaine investigation, the efforts to impeach President Clinton, right-wing terrorism in Latin America, the political influence of Sun Myung Moon, mainstream American media imbalance, United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as well as international stories . Parry has written several books, including Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & "Project Truth." (1999) and Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq (2004).

KBR, Half a Billion Dollars in Payroll Taxes, Not Paid!!!!

During work today I caught the following on NPR's Here and Now which comes out of Boston, and while it was a real nice, and comfortable, bright sunny day, My Freaking Rage Level Hit Sky High!!!

IRAQI WAR CONTRACTORS:

The Boston Globe reports today that the largest war contractor in Iraq is skirting hundreds of millions of dollars in US taxes by setting up shell companies in the Cayman Islands. The Globe found that Texas-based Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) may have avoided half a billion dollars in payroll taxes by hiring employees through foreign subsidiaries. But those subsidiaries are nothing more than an address, with no phone, fax or offices. The Boston Globe's Foreign Affairs correspondent, Farrah Stockman, went to the Cayman Islands to investigate.

You can click here to bring up the audio of the show in Real Player. This is the whole hour show, but the report above is the first report and only takes the first 10min. or so.

In the discussion Ms Stockman states they Estimated the loss of payment at some $500million a year!

Now take a moment to think about this.

They are getting paid Billions of Your Money, although now All Borrowed, You and your Kids and Grand Kids, will be Paying this back, with Huge Interest Payments!

While getting Paid, with Your Money, they are Skimming Millions of that, into their pockets, instead of bothering to pay, Your Money, back into the Government Coffers of the troubled Social Security and Medicare!

The Boston Globe Article is 6 pages long, so it's abit of a long read but Very Interesting!

More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands.

The Defense Department has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars.

What does one Senator have to say about this, which is abit sketchy as to legality:

"Failing to contribute to Social Security and Medicare thousands of times over isn't shielding the taxpayers they claim to protect, it's costing our citizens in the name of short-term corporate greed," said Senator John F. Kerry

Now, I not only want Indictments, from all the suspected crimes of these last 7yrs. I Want A Full Blown Investigation into the Financial Records of bush on down the line of this entire administration, into Congress, and any lurkers of this crowd inside and out of Government, These War Mongering, War Profitteers, Must Be Brought To Justice!

The largest of the Cayman Islands shell companies - called Service Employers International Inc., which is now listed as having more than 20,000 workers in Iraq, according to KBR - was created two years before Cheney became Halliburton's chief executive. But a second Cayman Islands company called Overseas Administrative Services, which now is listed as the employer of 1,020 mostly managerial workers in Iraq, was established two months after Cheney's appointment.

Cheney's office at the White House referred questions to his personal lawyer, who did not return phone calls.

I want a Public View of Financial Records before they came into Power compared to what they have now, Hidden and Non-Hidden!

As the Democratically Controlled Congress refuses to bring Impeachment, a must first step to Justice and Accountibility, and seems to continue to back off on the fight for our rights and the protection of the Constitution, than one must believe that some, on that side of the isle, are Complicit to what has been going on, Profitting on the Blood Money!

I would hope I'm wrong, as there are numorous Democratic Representatives that really seem to do what they were hired to do, but my instincts tell me some are as Guilty as this Cabal that has been Raping not only this Country but the Innocents of Other Countries along with All the Death and Destruction they've brought forth!!

It isn't only Social Security and Medicare not being paid:

In addition, the practice enables KBR to avoid paying unemployment taxes in Texas, where the company is registered, amounting to between $20 and $559 per American employee per year, depending on the company's rate of turnover.

Why? Because their employed by a Foreign Company!

In interviews with more than a dozen KBR workers registered through the Cayman Islands companies, most said they did not realize that they had been employed by a foreign firm until they arrived in Iraq and were told by their foremen, or until they returned home and applied for unemployment benefits.

Up untill any decide to seek damages or what should be due them, than:

But there is one circumstance in which KBR does claim the workers as its own: when it comes to receiving the legal immunity extended to employers working in Iraq.

Nonetheless, KBR's top competitors in Iraq do not appear to have gone to the same lengths to avoid taxes. Other top Iraq war contractors - including Bechtel, Parsons, Washington Group International, L-3 Communications, Perini, and Fluor - told the Globe that they pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for their American workers.

As I said above, I want a Complete, and I mean a Complete Investigation into what has been going on In and Out of the Peoples House, the White House, all these last seven years!!!

Why are Wives or Husbands, Mothers or Fathers Sacrificing...

So much, while the Country isn't asked to Sacrifice a Damn Thing?

Today the puppeteers pulled the puppets strings and the puppet says it will veto the Defense Department bill passed by the House and Senate containing

The bill is important to members of the military and their families, since it provides for a 3.5 percent pay raise for the troops and contains measures intended to improve the much-criticized health-care system for veterans.

And what do the puppeteers have the puppet say as to reason why the pending veto:

because of concerns by the Iraqi government that Iraqi assets in American banks could be vulnerable to claims from victims of Saddam Hussein, the White House said Friday in Texas.

“The new democratic government of Iraq, during this crucial period of reconstruction, cannot afford to have its funds entangled in such lawsuits in the United States,” Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.

My one question to above is, "How much of those billions, in Iraq assets sitting in U.S. banks, is actually our money to begin with?"!

You know some of the missing billions thrown into the quagmire, or reconstruction monies not doing any reconstruction, or payoffs to their puppet government we set up in the aftermath of "Mission Accomplished"!

But this isn't about the above, except as it relates to this:

Mothers Sacrifice to Help Wounded GIs

This is only one story about one mother and son, repeated almost silently over and over and over, but with wives and wounded husbands, husbands with wounded wives, other mothers and fathers with wounded daughters or sons...........................!

She would exchange her two-story house in Atlanta for a hotel room on an Army post, watch her nest egg shrink and spend her days helping a 30-year-old son change bandages and wriggle into garments meant to reduce scarring.

The sacrifices of injured soldiers, airmen and Marines are recognized with medals and commendations. But the mothers and wives who arrive here wide-eyed and afraid make their own sacrifices - abandoning jobs and homes and delaying retirement to help their wounded children reclaim their lives.

Why are they being asked to Sacrifice Anything? Why Isn't this Country Picking up the Whole Tab?

Markelz said it's especially hard on the wives of guardsmen and reservists and on the middle-aged mothers of soldiers - women who had well-established civilian lives away from the typically nomadic life of active military families.

"They didn't sign up for that," she said.

We, as a Nation, apparently could only afford those little magnetic ribbons to pop onto our vehicles, untill they got boring, or whatever, and started disappearing!

Or like a number of supporters of the puppets policies and the War, they won't bloody their own hands with, say "gimmee money" when they read something about Military/Veterans care or PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injuries!

There are a number of these programs, like the one in the article, Returning Heroes Home, that are privately funded and staffed with volunteers.

Another just getting off the ground through the efforts of a 'Goldstar Mom', Veterans Village

Where are the Federal Funds when some of these become Successful Programs?

Where's the Full Support for not only the Troops but their Immediate Family Members as well?

Where's Our Sacrifice?

War’s Arab supporters bitter over its results

Gee I wonder why!

Resentment speaks volumes about U.S. standing in the Middle East



"What's coming is worse than what is now," columnist and editor Ghassan Tueni wrote in Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper.

Slowly the mainstream are finally putting out what has been stated over and over outside of them for these past tragic years, Too Little and Way To Late, Damage Done and the Blowback nobody wants to see will be the Reality for many coming years!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forced To Recruit Convicts

Escalating the war in Iraq means the military will grant more "moral waivers" -- permitting recruits with criminal records and emotional problems who would otherwise be unfit to serve.


And not only those with records, of which how serious, but those who would normally be found that are not as stable as a professional military would require. And as the article points out, what of the ones who once were but after this debacle, especially multiple tours, are no longer!

News Crawl 1-21-07

Pentagon sees U.S. war cost in Iraq rising

The steadily rising Iraq war price tag will reach about $8.4 billion a month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said on Thursday, as heavy replacement costs for lost, destroyed and aging equipment mount.
The Pentagon has been estimating last year's costs for the increasingly unpopular war at about $8 billion a month, having increased from a monthly "burn rate" of around $4.4 billion during the first year of fighting in fiscal 2003.

For war zone workers, a new fight

US companies employing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan have refused to settle workers' compensation and medical benefit claims for hundreds of war-zone injuries that range from back pain to post-traumatic stress.
A Globe review of rulings by administrative judges that resolve disputed claims found that Halliburton Co. , DynCorp International, and other US contractors have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in compensation to workers whose claims they initially denied. In some cases, the companies had fought the claims for years even though their own doctors agreed that a worker had been injured.
Judges ruled in favor of the employee three times as often as they ruled for the companies, according to the review.

Show Me The Intelligence

Have you noticed? Neither President George W. Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney have cited any U.S. intelligence assessments to support their fateful decision to send 21,500 more troops to referee the civil war in Iraq. This is a far cry from October 2002, when a formal National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was rushed through in order to trick Congress into giving its nihil obstat for the attack on Iraq.

The Central Question

Government routinely lies, and so do many corporations. That mysterious commitment to the public good, which once joined Americans from many different classes and positions, seems to have dissolved. Integrity, which simply means being true regardless of consequences to one's own beliefs, seems to have no market value in America today.

US Plans Envision Broad Attack on Iran: Analyst

US contingency planning for military action against Iran's nuclear program goes beyond limited strikes and would effectively unleash a war against the country, a former US intelligence analyst said on Friday.

Cheney's Dead-Enders

"With the departure of his longtime friend Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton's resignation as UN ambassador, and Democrats taking over Congress, times seem grim for the Dick Cheney wing of the Bush administration. The vice president's vision of a 'unitary executive' - otherwise known as the imperial presidency - will almost certainly be challenged by congressional oversight committees, and perhaps by the courts."

Protesters Will Urge Congress to Stand Up to Bush

Americans angered by Bush's plans to escalate the Iraq war will flood the streets of Washington on Saturday, January 27, in a massive national peace march organized by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Marchers will call on Congress to listen to the voters, not Bush, by using its power to end Bush's war and bring the troops home. The last three national marches organized by UFPJ each attracted between 300,000 and 500,000 people.

"I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of
gratitude" - The pResident {Yep up to 655,000 are really Grateful, many in
their Mass Graves, as are their Survivors}


"I think once they get in harm's way, Congress's tradition is to
support those troops," Mr. Hadley said. {Harms Way, shows what the
administration thinks of the Troops, it's called a Strong Defense!}

The Failed Policies will Haunt Us and the World for Decades!

Niger To Sue U.S. - Over 2 Billion

NGOs to sue US over WMD claims
From correspondents in Niamey
January 14, 2007

SOME 30 non-governmental organisations in Niger said overnight they are going to sue the United States for nearly two billion dollars for "unfairly accusing" Niger of selling uranium to the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"Our lawyers are about to file a lawsuit against the US calling for damages of about 1000 billion CFA francs ($2.42 billion dollars) for the harm suffered" by the country, Moustapha Kadi, president of the Collective of organisations in Niger defending the right to energy (CODDAE).
The lawsuit by the collective will be filed at either French or Belgian courts, Kadi added.
In January 2003, US President George W. Bush accused Saddam of having bought uranium from Niger to make weapons of mass destruction.
The Niger collective said in a statement that investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), world media and US officials, all concluded that it was a "false accusation" against Niger.
That false information was used by Bush "to invade Iraq," said the collective's statement, which also called for support from Niger's President Mamadou Tandja, who back in 2003 said the US allegations were "harming Niger's image".
Niger is the world's third-largest producer of uranium with about nine percent of the global market, according to 2003 figures.
The country's two uranium deposits have been mined for 40 years by the French group Areva, number one in civil nuclear energy.