US torture not just "a few bad apples"

[nancylebov]

The US Senate Armed Forces Committee reports:

Conclusion 6: The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) interrogation program included at least one SERE training technique, waterboarding. Senior Administration lawyers, including Alberto Gonzales, Counsel to the President, and David Addington, Counsel to the Vice President, were consulted on the development of legal analysis of CIA interrogation techniques. Legal opinions subsequently issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) interpreted legal obligations under U.S. anti-torture laws and determined the legality of CIA interrogation techniques. Those OLC opinions distorted the meaning and intent of anti-torture laws, rationalized the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody and influenced Department of Defense determinations as to what interrogation techniques were legal for use during interrogations conducted by U.S. military personnel.

This is not a partisan report: The committee has 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans plus a Democratic head. None of the members dissented from the report.

I know this is old news to most of you, but it's important to have the evidence all lined up officially, even if it's disgracefully late.

And I know there are still people who hold to the "bad apple" theory, and they need to see this.

Addendum:Cheney says he authorized torture.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

For a moment I missed the period in "waterboarding. Senior Administration lawyers, including Alberto Gonzales" and thought, "I'd be in favor."

[subnumine.livejournal.com]

I still think sending Cheney to Guantanamo and letting his lawyers prove it unconstitutional is the way to go. Not that that's going to happen. ;-{

[subnumine.livejournal.com]

And then there the other new report, on the reconstruction effort, excerpted here (http://www.propublica.org/special/iraq-hard-lessons-excerpts); my favorite bits:

"While waiting out the war, senior advisors learned all they could about their ministries. Ambassador Timothy Carney, the designate for Industry and Minerals, was particularly interested in Ba'ath Party structure, but found that there was no U.S. database of party members. The most up-to-date information the government had was "two or three paragraphs in Phebe Marr's book," he said, referring to an authoritative academic analysis of Iraqi politics written in the 1980s."

"The decision about emergency payments to Iraqi civil servants took place around a concrete pillar in the parking lot of the Kuwait Hilton. "Having read various background papers, we started talking about if we could do it at five bucks, or we could do it at 50 bucks," David Nummy remembers. 'We decided that a good midpoint was 20 bucks. And that's how we established $20 emergency payments.'"

[avram]

The committee has 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans plus a Democratic head.

The head, Carl Levin, is one of the 12 Democrats. It's 12 Democrats, 12 Republicans, and one formerly-Democratic independent who loves him some War On Muslims.

[subnumine.livejournal.com]

Well, if the ID*** signed on, it must be proved beyond an unreasonable doubt....

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

If your point is that torture was ordered from higher echelons and not just a few rogue agents' behavior, yer preachin' to the choir on this one, hon. Some of us have realized this for awhile now and are trying to get it stopped...which is one reason we voted in a Democrat president. Now we have to make sure he keeps his word and begins to end the detentions and torture.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

At least one person on my friends list seems to subscribe to the "bad apples" theory.

While I believe fandom is a blue state, it's really all shades of purple.

[subnumine.livejournal.com]

It was in fandom that I met the theory that the President is the sovereign (and therefore the Senate must confirm ambassadors, as his personal representatives). Under the elder Bush, IIRC.

If it can put on an appearance of logic, some fan will believe it.