Shame! Our Leaders Approved Torture
Information is coming out to day that meetings in the White House in 2002-03 that included Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Powell, National Security Advisory Condoleeza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and the Attorney General John Ashcroft. The meetings approved enhance interrogation techniques in other words torture. They did so on a case by case basis. There were lawyers at the justice department that were found to sign off I suppose as some sort of legal protection.
These are war crimes!
Will anyone care? Will the Congress get a backbone? The Congress should at the very least censure each one of the participants for this. What ought to happen is impeachment hearings against those officials still in office and criminal proceedings against those involved.
Of course, we're also led to believe that Bush was not in any of these meetings. It seems odd that the commander in chief would not be in meetings in which he seemed to be discussing in public with so much bravado.
Surprisingly, Ashcroft comes up off a bit better saying, "Why are we talking about this at the White House. History will not judge us kindly." How right he is.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080410/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/interrogation_tactics
- Stephen Rockwell's blog
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the sad thing...
isn't that our leaders knew and approved, but that we as the churches were silent. Let's be honest, we knew -- but false patriotism and dreams of political power, kept us silent, and now we are all walking around in our pride and arrogance, exposed and naked before the world, and so far removed from a sense of morality that we feel no shame or embarrasment. It's time to bring back the old testament fashion statement, sackcloth and ashes.
the REALLY sad thing...
Some of us were not silent. A LOT of us were not silent.
I bet if I asked here, more than just a few of us would know, from first-hand experience, that you can get arrested if you refuse to move to "the free speech zone" several blocks from the presidential route.
The really sad thing is we weren't seen, we weren't heard, and I suspect all the letters I wrote to the White House were unread. I always got form letters back.
Back in the good old days (that really weren't so good at all) the whole country, every inch of it, was considered a free speech zone.
Bush and Torture
There is an outside chance that it is true that Bush wasn't in on the meetings themselves. The stories that he rides his bike , works out, and says his scripted lines for the public while Cheney runs the show might very well be true.
During that time period, though, he is on camera speaking about "tough interogation techniques" so he was probably apraised of the situation.
Bush confirms he knew
In an interview today with Martha Raddatz, ABC News White House correspondent, Bush rather surprisingly confirmed that the original story was correct, saying:
"Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people. And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."
He must agree with Nixon who said after his resignation "if the president does it, that means it's not illegal." Given the following information from the original story, he's admitted to being fully complicit in what appear to be criminal acts, though he seems to feel that he has the kind of immunity that Nixon claimed:
"The high-level discussions about these 'enhanced interrogation techniques' were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.
"These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news."
In addition, there were other techniques that were used. It remains to be seen how many more can be linked directly with this president.