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?

What were they hiding?

Their arguments have always been, and continue to be especially from their propaganda machines, TV and Radio, that what they did was cleared by the administrative lawyers, as I heard one say this morning "Highly experienced Lawyers!", and they were are then legal!

The George Washington University National Security Archives have posted up the reports, side by side, from the Bush administration, in May 2008, and the newly released same report from the Obama administration, August 24th 2009.

A side-by-side Comparison of the Bush and Obama Versions of the CIA Inspector General's Report on Torture

Posted - August 25, 2009

Posted below is a side-by-side comparison of the Bush and Obama administration versions of the 2004 CIA Inspector General Report on Torture..............To View Visit Here

So if this was all legal, and they were comfortable to carryout these practices, In This Countries Name, what were they hiding when they redacted so much in their release of!

From the University E-Report sent on 8.25.09:

Washington, DC, August 25, 2009 - Today, the National Security Archive posted a side-by-side comparison of two very different versions of a 2004 report on the CIA's "Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities" by Agency Inspector General John Helgerson. Yesterday, the Obama administration released new portions of the report including considerably more information about the use of torture and other illegal practices by CIA interrogators than a version of the report declassified by the Bush administration in 2008.

New revelations include:

* Details on "specific unauthorized or undocumented torture techniques," including the use of guns, drills, threats, smoke, extreme cold, stress positions, "stiff brush and shackles," waterboarding, mock executions and "hard takedown."

* A look at the legal reasoning behind the Agency's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and the development of Agency guidance on capture, detention and interrogation.

* A brief discussion of the history of the CIA interrogation program, including the "resurgence of interest in teaching interrogation techniques" in the early 1980s "as one of several methods to foster foreign liaison relationships."

* The conclusion that, while CIA interrogations had produced useful intelligence, the "effectiveness of particular interrogation techniques in eliciting information that might not otherwise have been obtained" is not "so easily measured."

The National Security Archive also announced today the publication of the Torture Archive -- more than 83,000 pages of primary source documents (and thousands more to come) related to the detention and interrogation of individuals by the United States, in connection with the conduct of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the broader context of the "global war on terror." The goal of the Torture Archive is to become the online institutional memory for essential evidence on torture in U.S. policy. {JS: my highlighting}

With support from the Open Society Institute and the JEHT Foundation since 2006, this initial launch of the Torture Archive includes the complete set of declassified Combatant Status Review Tribunal and Administrative Review Board files from the Pentagon, and thousands of documents resulting from FOIA litigation brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Archive and other plaintiffs. The Torture Archive will continue to add documents as they are released through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation or Executive discretion.

The National Security Archive

The Torture Archive

There's a wealth of information right at the finger tips, with backlinks and your own ability to take it even further.

Accountable for Torture

The rule of law demands accountability. Will we hold accountable those who sanctioned torture in the name of the United States? Watch what some in the military have to say about it. Learn more at ACLU: Rule of Law Produced for the ACLU by Joel Engardio

Heads in the Sand

The so-called Sunni Awakening, in which American forces formed tactical alliances with local sheikhs, has been credited with dampening the insurgency in much of Iraq. But new evidence suggests that the Sunnis were offering the same deal as early as 2004—one that was eagerly embraced by commanders on the ground, but rejected out of hand at the highest levels of the Bush administration...................

Leading up to the Hype of the 'surge' {i.e. escalation} while our Soldiers, and Iraqi's, were being Killed and Maimed! The 'politics' of War 'propaganda' from the civilian leadership, as well as some in the military leadership, who's main job is Protecting Their Troops!!

This is a Must Read!!

The Sunni Awakening, when it did finally come, provided welcome relief, says Jerry Jones. But the cost of delay is quantifiable. “From July ’04 to mid-’07,” he points out, “you can directly attribute almost all those K.I.A. [killed in action] in the Sunni regions of Iraq to this fatal error, and if we hadn’t been fighting the Sunni, we’d have had a lot more resources for dealing with Shia militia leaders like Moqtada al-Sadr in places such as Baghdad. It didn’t have to happen. Those lives did not have to be lost.”

And many in this country didn't want nor still don't want Accountability???

Unopened claims letters hidden at VA offices

A new report about Veterans Affairs Department employees squirreling away tens of thousands of unopened letters related to benefits claims is sparking fresh concerns that veterans and their survivors are being cheated out of money.
VA officials acknowledge further credibility problems based on a new report of a previously undisclosed 2007 incident in which workers at a Detroit regional office turned in 16,000 pieces of unprocessed mail and 717 documents turned up in New York in December during amnesty periods in which workers were promised no one would be penalized.
“Veterans have lost trust in VA,” Michael Walcoff, VA’s under secretary for benefits, said at a hearing Tuesday. “That loss of trust is understandable, and winning back that trust will not be easy.”

Kathryn Witt of Gold Star Wives of America said survivors trying to receive VA benefits have long complained about problems getting accurate information and missing claims. “When they call to check on the status of the claim, they are often told that the VA has no record of their claim and that they should resubmit their paperwork,” she said.
In one case, a woman claimed she had to submit paperwork to VA three times to prove she was married and had three children, Witt said.
And having to resubmit the same claim, she added, does nothing to reduce the backlog that already forces survivors to wait six to nine months for simple claims to be approved.

Rest Here

They are Still finding hidden or mislaid unopened claims letters in VA offices, this continues the incompetency of the previous administration and the initial reports that came out late last year

The Congressional Hearing Yesterday {Brings up Video Feed}

Court Grants National Security Archive Motion - WH E-Mails {UpDated 2}

The following was in the e-notice sent out by The George Washington University - The National Security Archive which is what can be found also on the page link to the announcement.

For Immediate Release:
January 14, 2009

To Search White House Computers and Preserve E-mails



On the eve of transition, federal judge orders outgoing White House staff
to surrender electronic media containing e-mails.

Washington, D.C., January 14, 2009 – The United States District Court for the District of Columbia today granted the National Security Archive’s emergency motion for an extended preservation order to protect missing White House e-mails. With the transition from the Bush Administration to the Obama Administration taking place in six days, and all the records of the Bush White House scheduled for a physical transfer to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on that same day, the Court has directed the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to search all its computer work stations and has ordered EOP employees to surrender any media in their possession that may contain e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005.

“There is nothing like a deadline to clarify the issues,” said Archive Director Tom Blanton. “In six days the Bush Executive Office of the President will be gone and without this order, their records may disappear with them. The White House will complain about the last minute challenge, but this is a records crisis of the White House's own making.”

Counsel for the Archive, Sheila Shadmand from Jones Day made clear: “The White House has been on notice since we filed our lawsuit a year and a half ago that they would have to retrieve and preserve their e-mail. Instead of coming clean and telling the public what they have been doing to solve the crisis, they refused to say anything. At this point, it is critical to preserve evidence that can help get to the bottom of the problem and prevent it from happening again.”

Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola has scheduled an emergency status conference today at 2 p.m. to consider additional measures that may be necessary to protect the records during the transition. (Courtroom 6 of the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse)

The Archive filed its emergency motion for an extended preservation order on March 11, 2008. After considering the objections of the White House, Magistrate Judge Facciola issued two reports, on April 24 and July 29, 2008, recommending that District Judge Henry H. Kennedy issue an order requiring search, surrender and preservation of the computer workstations and external media devices, such as CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and external hard drives. Today’s order adopts those reports and recommendations, granting in part the Archive’s emergency motion.

The National Security Archive filed its lawsuit on September 5, 2007 against the Executive Office of the President and NARA, seeking to preserve and restore missing White House e-mails. A virtually identical lawsuit filed subsequently by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has been consolidated with the Archive's lawsuit. A chronology of the litigation is available here.

If you visit this link The George Washington University - The National Security Archive, which is the same link as the second one at the top, they have a number of back links along the left hand side of the page to review.

UpDate:

White House admits it has not recovered files from computer workstations or collected external computer storage media that may contain missing e-mails

Scope of missing e-mails acknowledged in court today, although Department of Justice claims they are working on a solution

UpDate 2:

White House e-mail in "true emergency conditions"

Magistrate judge orders search of all White House computers, grants plaintiffs' request for inventories and preservation of evidence

Victims of bush's "War on Terror": Children

On January 12th 2009 President bush gave his final Press Conference to the Nation.

In it he made a number of statements that have been analyzed by many, my take on his answers and spin was his showing how little a man, who is in total denial and lacking any compassion or moral feelings, of how big a failure as a person, and especially as the President, he has been!

In one of his answers he said this:

"The most urgent threat that he'll have to deal with and other presidents after him will have to deal with is an attack on our homeland," Bush said. "You know, I wish I could report that's not the case, but there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on America."

And for once I agree with this incompetent,immoral, unrepentant little man?, he's created tens of thousands, that didn't exist before, who now wish this Country and It's Citizens Harm, "Mission Accomplished", for the coming decades!!

We can all see, daily, those who are retaliating for the policies he set forth, in Iraq and Afghanistan, from the death and destruction that is ongoing, with our soldiers still dying and being maimed as well as the innocent citizens of both countries, the word is "Blowback"! These policies have also brought about a rise of Criminal Terrorism, around the World, over these last 7 years.

What does the future hold and for how long?

I've done a few posts, this is but one, about that probable future and the possibility of reaching into the coming generations, how many, who knows right now. But it only takes a few who carry the hatreds that they have grown up with to create destructive blowback, and that builds towards more of the same.

Michael Haas has a recent write on just this probable future, more geared in the present of who should be brought to accountability, but there are certainly more who actually created the failed policies we've been party to. The name of Michael article is: Children As Unlamented Victims of Bush's 'War On Terror'.

He starts it out with:

Torture has received the most attention among the many war crimes of the Bush administration. But those who support Bush’s pursuit of the “war on terror” have not been impressed by recriminations over torture.

Some will try and argue that certain forms of torture really aren't, or that it's needed to get information, it isn't for it only gives weak or false information, yet we as a Nation have not only participated but helped write the laws on torture and ratified these laws making them our own. The link only gives one of the World Wide conventions held for the purpose of writing these laws that aim to end the use of inhumane treatment of torture, and more, that doesn't return what is sought, reliable intelligence. We were also the major contributor to the Geneva Conventions and major condemner of countries who don't follow what was done in Geneva. We are now publicly one of the participants, we can condemn no more.

We've all watched, most in total disbelief and rage, what has happened under this president and his administrations policies along with his political parties affiliation rubber stamping their wants, and we've done virtually nothing but allow it to continue.

Haas goes further into what most haven't paid attention to:

The best kept secret of the Bush’s war crimes is that thousands of children have been imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise denied rights under the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements. Yet both Congress and the media have strangely failed to identify the very existence of child prisoners as a war crime. In the Islamic world, however, there is no such silence. Indeed, the prophet Mohammed was the first to counsel warriors not to harm innocent children.

The first example of war crimes against children, which are well documented, occurred during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, when the children’s hospital in Kabul was bombed, its patients thereby murdered, contrary to the Red Cross Convention of 1864. Other children were killed as “collateral damage” during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, contrary to the Geneva Convention ban on indiscriminate killing in wartime, though numbers of dead are unknown. During spring 2004, during the assault on Falluja, Iraq, some 300 children, including peaceful demonstrators, were killed. Their dead bodies were filmed live on al-Jazeera Television throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

In 2008, the Bush administration reported to the UN-assisted Committee on the Rights of the Child that the United States from 2002 had detained 2,400 children in Iraq and 100 in Afghanistan, though another source claims that the figure for Afghanistan is at least 800 boys, aged 10 to 15, from whom as many as 64 were sent to Guantánamo, of which there were 21 as of May 2008. That month, the Committee upbraided the United States for charging minors with war crimes instead of treating underage persons as victims of war. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s two children, aged 7 and 9, were separately detained to intimidate him to confess.

Think about the above, as parents what would You do if your country was and is being destroyed and the children of were being treated as enemies or used for other purposes and excused as being in War! But there's more:

While detained, several children have been brutalized and tortured. At Abu Ghraib, American guards videotaped Iraqi male prisoners raping young boys but took no action to stop the offenses. Perhaps the worst incident at Abu Ghraib involved a girl aged 12 or 13 who screamed for help to her brother in an upper cell while stripped naked and beaten. Iraqi journalist Suhaib Badr-Addin al-Baz, who heard the girl’s screams, also witnessed an ill 15-year-old who was forced to run up and down Abu Ghraib with two heavy cans of water and beaten whenever he stopped. When he finally collapsed, guards stripped and poured cold water on him. Finally, a hooded man was brought in. When unhooded, the boy realized that the man was his father, who doubtless was being intimidated into confessing something upon sight of his brutalized son.

Those that want to denie, for argumentative our some twisted form of political ideology, what torture or inhumane treatment of others actually is or isn't, look at your's or other little kids, young teens, and ask if you would want them treated like animals, and if so to what purpose!

Michael Haas has a book out George W. Bush, War Criminal?: The Bush Administration's Liability for 269 War Crimes I haven't read as yet, as I just ordered it, but it will be read and added to the others and all that is now being written and discussed as to what this Nation must do, not only for our own survival of what we are, but the World view of us as a Leader of Nations and an Example to Emulate and Strive towards.

We must find the ways to bring Accountability for the Crimes against our Laws as well as the Laws we've helped form towards World stability and make our Constitution strong again, or we will collapse as a society and be scorned by the World!

And we must find a way, amongst All People, to stem the possibility of many of the children of today, growing up under occupation, death and destruction, don't become even more violent and destructive towards others than that we've already created through our failed policies of the past and the near past!

Guantanamo "Abandoned Our Values and Defiled Our Constitution!"


The video is a combination of three BBC News reports on Guantanamo from Dec. '08 to Jan '09, it's about 141/2 minutes long, the links to each individual video at their site found below.

Guantanamo 'a stain on US military' Dec 3rd '08

Guantanamo closure plan ordered Dec 19th '08

Former guard on Guantanamo 'torture' Jan 9th '09

The Special Prosecutor Petition

Hug Your Kid, if you've got one,

And think of the Children and what they are now, and have been, living in and with, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Westbank, Israel, way too many places in Africa the forgotten continent and peoples, and other area's around the world, would You Want Your Kid Growing Up As They Are!!

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!

Philippe Sands Considers A Legacy Of 'Torture'

Fresh Air from WHYY, January 7, 2009 · Although the Bush administration has stated that the interrogations techniques used at Guantanamo Bay came from the bottom up, British lawyer Philippe Sands disagrees.

In his 2008 book, Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, Sands argues that the harsh interrogation policy that emerged after Sept. 11 came from high-ranking government officials and top military figures.
Sands warned in a June 2008 Fresh Air interview that the impact of the Bush administration's conduct would be felt internationally:

Read Rest Here

Listen To Todays Show With This Link

The June 2008 Discussion

You Can Listen To That One With This Link

The Pentagonization of US life

Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch.com, in the second part of their interview to Pepe Escobar, talk about the ramifications of militarism in American life - how over 100 contractors are now in the Pentagon's payroll. This is closely connected to the way the Bush administration expanded militarization abroad through the worldwide US "empire of bases." The backlash was inevitable. Engelhardt says the Bush administration "may have single-handedly given birth to a multipolar world."

The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives

Summer Reading: A Childrens Book for You Adults

As we wait for the many coming books, I'm sure more will be surfacing, as many try to cleanse their souls, of these last eight years plus, in seeking their higher kingdom, we might have the time to take this seemingly telling descriptive tale into the fold of good reading. We could even make the copies a collective item reminding us, in a comfortable way, of what we've been put through, us and the rest of the world. Comfortable because it might not enrage as we read and study the pictures, like the hard reality of the history will.

And I give you the title right off, Intriqued?

I didn't catch this when it aired, but while a visit to the NPR site, to relisten to another report, I caught this little tidbit in their list.

All Things Considered had it on yesterday, July 8.

The full title is: Goodnight Bush: A Parody.

It's a riff of the Margaret Wise Brown's classic children's book Goodnight Moon and satirizes the Bush administration.

But look closer and you'll see that the painting over the fireplace shows an oil derrick with stealth bombers flying around it.

In the fireplace, there's a ballot box burning that says, "Florida 2000."

And snaking around the side of the fireplace is a tiny microphone.

In place of the bunny rabbit character in the children's book, a childlike George Bush is tucked safely in bed "surrounded by toys that represent different facets of the Bush administration's legacy," Golan says.

A tiny Osama bin Laden peeks out from many of the pages, and a shotgun-toting Dick Cheney whispers, "Hush."

"The book obviously isn't for children," Origen says. "At the same time, it lets us look at the past eight years through the eyes of a child.

And it lets us see how far Bush's reality is from the reality anyone would want for their children."

The authors say the book is illustrated with "naked simplicity" to show respect and sensitivity.

You can take a listen in with this link to bring up their player

I just ordered my copy before writing this, I'm Intriqued, it looks like a fun, but serious, look at the state we find our country, and our world standing, today and for the forseeable future, at 59 that future should cover any time I have left, plus!!

LOCK THEM UP!

I haven't put together a video to song in awhile, than I came across "Lock Them Up"

The song in video is by 'Nam Veteran Pat Scanlon brother member of Vietnam Veterans Against The War and Veterans For Peace.

LOCK THEM UP!

After viewing you might want to hear another of Pat's songs Blue State Liberal, the link will bring up the mp3 in your player.

Awhile back I put together another video presentation of another of Pat's songs with photo's of our Memorial 'Arlington South' on Memorial Day in Statesville NC

"Where Is The Rage"

with discription at the google video site

Visit Pat's site for more info on him as well as some other songs.

Arrest Warrant for Bush/Cheney

What do ya Say Folks, Defend The Constitution, Or Stay In The Gutter, Heading Down The Storm Drain, They Placed Our Country and Citizens!!

The following link on Amazon.com will allow readers to
pre-order copies of the Winter Soldier book coming
this fall.
Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is," - George W. Bush, Texas Gov., 1999

Citizen's Arrest

Citizen's Arrest - Andy Griffith Show



Arrest Warrant for Bush/Cheney



What do ya Say Folks, Defend The Constitution, Or Stay In The Gutter They Placed Our Country and Citizens!!

The People vs. the Profiteers

This is a Must Read found at Vanity Fair

Americans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers' behalf. Whose side is the Justice Department on?
by David Rose November 2007