Torture Endorsed, Torture Denied
The April 2004 publication of grotesque photographs of naked Iraqis piled on top of each other, forced to masturbate, and led around on leashes like dogs, sent shock waves around the world. George W. Bush declared, “I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated.” Yet less than a year later, his Justice Department issued a secret opinion endorsing the harshest techniques the CIA has ever used, according to a report in the New York Times. These include head slapping, frigid temperatures, and water boarding, in which the subject is made to feel he is drowning. Water boarding is widely considered a torture technique. Once again, Bush is compelled to issue a denial. “This government does not torture people,” he insisted.
This was not the first time the Bush administration had officially endorsed torture, however. John Yoo, writing for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, penned an August 2002 memorandum that rewrote the legal definition of torture to require the equivalent of organ failure. This memo violated the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a treaty the United States ratified, and therefore part of U.S. law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
In December 2002, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved interrogation methods that included the use of dogs, hooding, stress positions, isolation for up to 30 days, 20-hour interrogations, deprivation of light and sound, and water boarding. U.S. Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora told William Haynes, the Pentagon’s general counsel, that Rumsfeld’s “authorized interrogation techniques could rise to the level of torture.” As a result, Rumsfeld rescinded some methods but reserved the right to approve others, including water boarding, on a case-by-case basis.
When Bush maintained last week that his government doesn’t torture prisoners, he stressed the necessity of interrogation to “protect the American people.” Notwithstanding the myth perpetuated by shows like “24,” however, torture doesn’t work. Experts agree that people who are tortured will say anything to make the torture stop.
One of the first victims of the Bush administration’s 2002 torture policy was Abu Zubaydah, whom they called “chief of operations” for al Qaeda and bin Laden’s “number three man.” He was repeatedly tortured at the secret CIA “black sites.” They water boarded him, withheld his medication, threatened him with impending death, and bombarded him with continuous deafening noise and harsh lights.
But Zubaydah wasn’t a top al Qaeda leader. Dan Coleman, one of the FBI’s leading experts on al Qaeda, said of Zubaydah, “He knew very little about real operations, or strategy … He was expendable, you know, the greeter . . . Joe Louis in the lobby of Caeser’s Palace, shaking hands.” Moreover, Zubaydah was schizophrenic; according to Coleman, “This guy is insane, certifiable split personality.” Coleman’s views were echoed at the top levels of the CIA and were communicated to Bush and Cheney. But Bush scolded CIA director George Tenet, saying, “I said [Zubaydah] was important. You’re not going to let me lose face on this, are you?” Zubaydah’s minor role in al Qaeda and his apparent insanity were kept secret.
In response to the torture, Zubaydah told his interrogators about myriad terrorist targets al Qaeda had in its sights: the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statute of Liberty, shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, and apartment buildings. Al Qaeda was close to building a crude nuclear bomb, Zubaydah reported. None of this was corroborated but the Bush gang reacted to each report zealously.
Moreover, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was tortured so severely - including by water boarding - that the information he provided is virtually worthless. A potentially rich source of intelligence was lost as a result of the torture.
Bush’s insistence that his administration doesn’t torture rings hollow. He lied about weapons of mass destruction and a Saddam-al Qaeda connection in Iraq. He lied when he assured us his officials would not wiretap without warrants. As evidence of secret memos detailing harsh interrogation policies continues to emerge, we can’t believe Bush’s denials about torture.
Democrats in Congress have demanded they be allowed to see the memos, but Bush said the interrogation methods have been “fully disclosed to appropriate members of Congress.” Senator John D. Rockefeller IV was unmoved. “I’m tired of these games,” he said. “They can’t say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program.”
It is incumbent upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to vigorously interrogate Michael Mukasey during his attorney general confirmation hearing. As AG, Mukasey would oversee the department that writes interrogation policy. Mukasey should know that the Convention Against Torture prohibits torture in all circumstances, even in times of war.
Torture is a war crime. Those who commit or order torture can be convicted under the U.S. War Crimes Statute. Techniques that don’t rise to the level of torture but constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment also violate U.S. law. Congress should provide for the appointment of a special independent counsel to fully investigate and prosecute all who are complicit in the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law. Her articles are archived at http://www.marjoriecohn.com/
© 2007 Marjorie Cohn
I suspect one of the reasons Cheney condones torture even though he knows it produces bad intelligence is because truth is not among his priorities – Cheney wants hype-able intelligence, the scarier the fabrication the better. Torture is very well suited to producing such “intelligence.” Torture and secret prisons also play a major role in stifling dissent during a country’s descent into fascism. Full rant here: www.spectrumz.com/z/alejandro/why_make_stupid_choice.html
It really gets under my skin how all this is right in our faces everyday but we don’t do anything about it. We have elected officials that don’t do anything about it. I didn’t even know it was possible to just Break the Law like this, lie about it and still get to keep your job. Its amazing.
I think it will take a Cataclysmic Event for people to wake up and by then it will be to late.
It saddens me because the only way I feel I can keep the ones I love safe is to move to another country. I feel this is the only way to avoide being picked up and taken off some where for some made up reason.
This country has changed to the point of no return.\
Our very lives hang in the balance and I can’t find 10 people that even care or know about what is goin on.
I DON’T want to live in this place any more. It’s terrifing and frustrating.
I get so angry I almost for get to use my intelligence when trying to wake people up. I just get mad cause they are so freakin stupid. Just plain Dumb.
HOW can people not see whats going on ? HOW ?
~Future~
The medieval rack and iron maiden were certainly torture devices, but if used in moderation wouldn’t result in Woo’s organ failure. Sounds like he’s trying to rewrite centuries worth of understanding since the middle ages that there are many forms of torture prior to organ failure.
In any case, if this article’s main thrusts are true:
* The Bush admin. condoned and practiced torture.
* Torture is a war crime, and in fact a direct violation against the US Constitution.
Then why hasn’t a branch of the military, FBI, etc. arrested him?
Answer: They probably would have done so by now, except that there’s no safe political quarter. Pelosi’s taking impeachment off the table is a tacit nod of approval.
Bush/Cheney have no other choice but to plow ahead with their mayhem or be tried for war crimes.
Don Alejandro: “I suspect one of the reasons Cheney condones torture even though he knows it produces bad intelligence is because TRUTH IS NOT AMONG HIS PRIORITIES – Cheney wants hype-able intelligence, the scarier the fabrication the better. Torture is very well suited to producing such “intelligence.” Torture and secret prisons also play a major role in stifling dissent during a country’s descent into fascism.” [EMPHASIS mine]
Yes, this is an aspect of totalitarianism that so many people don’t understand. The purpose of torture, of “disappearances,” of “black sites”/gulags is not for any PRACTICAL PURPOSE, insofar as gathering intelligence goes.
The point is to instill fear & uncertainty– it is a psychological weapon aimed not so much at the prisoner as much as at everyone else. It is the systematic dissolution of any recourse to any stable law.
This is what people don’t get about the gulags of the Soviet Union– THERE WERE QUOTAS & if necessary, crimes were invented in order to arrest people. The whole point is there was no LOGIC. Terror has nothing to do with logic or rationality.
The growing American gulag system is a warning to Americans: don’t fuck with us or you’ll be next.
But most Americans are still blindly following along (I personally no of ANYONE who is outraged by any of this– oh they may be opposed to the war in Iraq so as to “pull our boys out” but there has been no vocal opposition I have personally encountered to these growing totalitarian methods).
I just hope I can get the hell out of the country in time before the shit really hits the fan…
~ Proud Unamerican
Unlike other posters here, I do know of many people who are aware of what’s happening. They just don’t know what to do about it. I’ve been reading articles and posts on Common Dreams all day, and if they are any indication, there are lots of people who know what’s going on in this country, are indignant, have written and called their representatives, and are completely frustrated at the stonewalling of congress to take action.
If the calls, letters, and editorials for impeachment don’t move Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues, I don’t know what will. My only consolation is that the US has seen other dark times including McCarthyism, Japanese-American concentration camps, the lifting of habeus corpus, and the suppression of dissent during the Vietnam war. Somehow we seem to have come through these disasters without annihilating ourselves. Perhaps we can withstand this onslaught also.
Sick criminal bastards.
And the rest of the country sits like bumps on a log letting it go on.
Wake up folks! This is done in your name. Do you give a shit or have the bastards got you down so far you don’t feel anymore?
Get up! Stand up! Fight! They cannot, they must not prevail. Please get off your duff, you have no place to run, there will be no safe haven anywhere, this made in the USA problem must be cauterized in the USA.
It has been obvious for quite some time that the Bush Cheney gang is really twisted.
They constantly spin outright lies as the truth.
And when it comes to re-defining torture… the Bush Cheney gang has a definition that would put smiles on the faces at an S&M party.
There is no doubt they are guilty of torture. Now they are hiding the truth behind “State Department Secrets” and the Supremes that put them in power to begin with are singing the same tune.
People should be in the streets demanding justice for these traitors.
Here in the good old USA apathy runs rampant in a society filled with fools who continue to be brain washed by corporate media.
Does anyone here know that over 1,000 people converged on the United Nations a few weeks ago when Bush was there speaking to have him arrested?
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070926091533497
Apparently Bush has made an attempt to exempt himself and his administration from war crimes:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/3/12413/49075
I think this legislation slipped through at the end of the Republican’s majority in Congress. Would love to hear Marjorie Cohn’s opinion on this.
The entry “Nancy Pelosi” needs to go next to “Benedict Arnold” in the lexicon. Except Arnold’s sell-out failed, while Pelosi’s sell-out has been completely successful.
WE ARE THE 801: Insightful analysis.
LEE ANN: Good historical perspective and I wish I could concur; but the astrological cycles the US will be facing are not indicative of much leniency as the forces of darkness (political repression) fight with those of light (the freedoms we were born to accept as our “inalienable rights.”) Just as the “Weather Channel” sees developing storm systems and can’t always accurately predict their exact touch-down zone, the gathering celestial storm is REAL but free will and Divine Grace can alter its scenario somewhat.
If every American made a peace offering and sent $, gifts, and items to persons of nations whose treasure ours has stolen (or equivalently co-opted through covert trade deals) it would mitigate this force. I’d love to see a ritual performed at the UN where all nations that have been preyed upon stand in a circle, as ambassadors from the trespassing nations provide them with token gifts. Just as Councils on Truth and Reconciliation worked to heal the chasm of racism in that once Apartheid state, symbolic ritual can help to ease the gulf (between haves and have nots) that today’s corporate titans have managed to exacerbate.
Thank you for the opportunity and context in which to share this message:
It seems that the freedom to speak out without fear of intimidation, death, or being disappeared and tortured, is being revoked before our very eyes. Peace activists are being treated the same as supposed terrorism suspects.
When Uncle Sam’s dragons come after you or a loved one, will there be anything you can do other than bear arms? Is the Second Amendment about to be repealed? Will you wait for someone else to stand up, or will you fall back into the multitudes of other individuals waiting for someone brave enough to stand up and form a united front against the foundations of illegal presidencies and the police brutalities that come with them?
We need to take action to find the action that we must take to insure that no one is subjected to such unpardonable abominations while the masses remain unaware of what is happening because of broadcast censorship.
Have a glimpse of those pulled behind the veil of suppression and the evil inflicted upon them, and imagine the desolation of not being able to cry out to anyone for deliverance. Scroll to the bottom of the page to watch this 6 minute 24 second video. The opening article is a lead-in to the video. (Think about this while you watch: If police officers are brazen enough to do the things they do in front of witnesses, what kinds of atrocities might occur behind closed doors?)
http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/280907Cake.htm
ESSENTIAL READING (in no particular order):
George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” [this is a short essay & you can find it online, just Google it]
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
George Orwell, 1984
Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind
Albert Camus, The Rebel
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem
Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
Thomas Merton: Cold War Letters
Martin Luther King, Jr., A Testament of Hope (essays, lectures & letters)
Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
There’s so much more, but that’s just off the top of my head…
There is a National Religious Campaign to end torture. Today it was announced that Ploughshares has cited it as candidate for funds in recognition of the advances being made.
http://www.nrcat.org/storage/nrcat/documents/nrcat_brochure.pdf
Agreed. But with all due respect, we lock away Americans convicted of crimes everyday, in tiny, barren cells from which they are allowed to exit an hour per day, and, no matter the crime, they are humiliated and degraded and “roughed up” as a way of, er, life, and are forced to deny their most primal drive, their sexual one. (Why is denial of sex considered proper punishment for stealing anyway?)
Imagine five years of that (plus the violence, constant stress, bad food, lack of light, etc) for smoking a joint.
Waterboarding is worse?
The real reason modern governments torture is not to get accurate information. It’s to spread terror among a target population.
frank1569,
I am worried about what will happen to Marc Emery, who has been dubbed the “Prince of Pot” by the media. His extradition hearing will be held in another 27 days. I wonder if Canada’s Prime Minister will commit treason on the Canadian people and hand him over to the United States, knowing full well what awaits him, even though Revenue Canada legally collected taxes from his Internet cannabis seed business for years. Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to upgrade the war on drugs, so I don’t imagine Emery is in for a smooth ride.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/
Oops ..
What about this? ..
Military Commissions Act of 2006
September 28, 2006 • The Senate passes a landmark bill for trying and questioning terrorism suspects, in a 65-34 vote that split along party lines.
ON THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS
Coercive Interrogation Tactics
The bill prohibits “grave breaches” of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. That includes “cruel or inhuman treatment.” But many legal analysts and government officials believe the definition of cruel or inhuman treatment as written in the bill does not encompass some of the severe interrogation tactics that the CIA has reportedly used against terrorism suspects. The bill also prohibits enemy combatants from filing lawsuits claiming a violation of their rights under the Geneva Conventions. That could make it difficult to hold accountable those who do engage in torture.
Presidential Power
The bill gives the president the power to “interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions.” Critics fear this means that the president can unilaterally authorize interrogation techniques that many people would consider torture.
War Crimes Act
The legislation would narrow the range of offenses prohibited under the War Crimes Act. This would protect civilians (such as CIA interrogators and White House officials) from being prosecuted for committing acts that would have been considered war crimes under the old definition. The change is retroactive to 1997, which means any crimes committed since 1997 would be prosecuted under the new standard, not the old one.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6161830
“Tell the truth and shame the devil.” Francois Rabelais
After all of the political maneuvering and the dirty tricks that the DEA has invested in making a public example out of high profile cannabis liberator Marc Emery, the magnitude of rejecting their demand for him on November 5th should be quite apparent.
Emery’s extradition would virtually symbolize Prime Minister Harper’s compliance with opening Canada’s door to Bush’s tyranny.
MARJORIE COHN,I JUST READ THAT BUSH IS TRYING TO OVER RIDE A TEXAS PRISON.BUSH is overstepping his authority and pulling strings,bush WANTS THE RELEASE OF A CONVICTED KILLER..A MEXICAN THAT LIVED IN THE STATES,MOST OF HIS LIFE..HE STRANGLED TO DEATH,TWO TEENAGE GIRLS AND NOW BUSH IS DEMANDING HIS RELEASE.BUSH MUST NEED A KILLER OF LITTLE GIRLS,FOR HIS MERCENARIE PRIVATE ARMY.article in the guardian and watching america
I just spent four months on a relatively activist campus, in a strongly left west coast college town, as an older Vietnam era political activist….new anti-war signs daily, a good professional air of seriousness within the surreality….in short a serious attempt to engage the students, mostly with re-prints from Common Dreams of course…I am a long time student and teacher or critical thinking…AND I MUST CONFESS that I was astounded at the lack of serious and competent thinking I found, even among those few who realized that the time has arrived for a sink-or-swim last try to get folks out in the streets while we still have something worth saving in this benighted country…….the system has landed us in a place of nearly complete nihilism and disempowerment. We have no one to blame but ourselves, and this is depressing to those few willing to analyze….
There is no will in this country to emply neo-Ludditeor other strong organized methods, although they might have been extraordinarily promising…..we will never know. Only a totally dedicated, young, educated and politically savvy subculture could have effected the sorts of non-violent media stunts and media relations necessary to demand some changes….( think Subcomandante Marcos and friends)…..it is a shame that such a promising bunch of good people as the back-to-the land hippys and their city cousin freaks couldn’t have gotten off their collective asses long enough to consider some political action, but hey this is the 21st century and as I say,the N word (for nada) reigns…. After having personally lived thru 17 years of Pinochet’s madness in Chile, it especially grieves me to see the final and total collapse of the American Dream….which will likely end up with the a similar military-managed government, to “defend us” from our “enemies”…which unfortunately, will indeed probably be REAL next time….
I patiently await a miracle. Any ideas out there?
“Torture endorsed, torture denied” - As usual.
Is it a news or unusual for a country that is built on innocent blood, feeds on innocent blood, and celebrates Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day (the days that symbolise genocide, slavery, racism, and greed) as special days?????
It is “business as usual”.
bandido..you just answered your own question..by confessing that you are”PATIENTLY AWAITING A MIRACLE”is this not the ineffectivness you deplore? well,i am lost too,the magnitude of the evil and the complicities so enormous, it is surreal..a hellish nightmare that even the people who could do something about it,,,dont..it is why pelosi was elevated-to impeach and she quickly slammed the door shut-no way out…i wish i knew what to do,because i think i would try whatever antidote might work…..you,tell me…professor.bush certainly fits the endtime script..the vilest,foulest man in the most highly elevated position…yes,i think we need a new script.
abu garib=pictures worth a thousand convictions.
Bush maintains that he needs to have the right to “aggressively interrogate” (torture to the rest of us) for our protection. What we really need is something to protect us from his madness and cruelty. If we had stopped after finishing in Afganistan our country and the world would be in much better shape today but the warmongers had to have their way. We have plenty of enemies in our own land, without hauling an army halfway around the world just to demonstrate our power and prop up our war machine.
America has been shocked into inaction by the actions of her leadership. Over time, Americans will come to realize that the most repugnant acts in their country’s history are being committed by the most repugnant leaders in their country’s history. Once Americans understand this, once they understand that what has happened is not their fault, they will find the strength to go forward, they will see the importance of electing leaders whose minds are not so small.
This hope assumes that elections are fair, and the MSM isn’t spoonfeeding the electorate the usual propaganda without fact-correction. It appears that the MSM can convince 30-40% of America of just about anything, and a little Diebold magic is good for that remaining 10-20% to push the results into a “win”.
This whole torture business is grotesque. bush’s “we do not torture” is right out of Orwell’s book “1984″; in which the government tells the people “War is Peace”.
bush continues to bamboozle, befuddle and hornswaggle the American people
and they love him. PT Barnum should have said there are a thousand suckers born every minute and they all live in America.
bush says “we do not torture” and then tells us that “we get important information from detainees”. That means we beat them up until they talk just like on TV and in the movies. The reporters need to ask him directly, does America waterboard, head slap, and chill detainees?
This whole business makes me want to puke,
Keith Campbell
Denver
The president’s job is NOT to “protect the American people.” His oath is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The stupid shit didn’t even understand the oath he took.
Or chooses to mischaracterize it for political reasons.
Carter: U.S. has tortured detainees and Bush approved it
In an interview with CNN, former President Jimmy Carter said he believes that the United States has tortured detainee and that President Bush has authorized the abuse, which he said violates international laws.
Despite that, Carter said formal charges or a trial “would be inappropriate.”
Addressing Iraq, he said that all 168,000 U.S. troops could be withdrawn in 18 months and that he disagreed with the 2013 timetable proposed by fellow Democrats Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.
Here are excerpts from the interview with Wolf Blitzer:
Regarding the Bush administration and allegations of torture:
BLITZER: President Bush said as recently as this week the United States does not torture detainees.
CARTER: That’s not an accurate statement. If you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored, certainly in the last 60 years, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated. But you can make your own definition of human rights and say, we don’t violate them. And we can — you can make your own definition of torture and say we don’t violate it.
BLITZER: But by your definition, you believe the United States, under this administration, has used torture.
CARTER: I don’t think it, I know it, certainly.
BLITZER: So is the president lying?
CARTER: The president is self-defining what we have done and authorized in the torture of prisoners, yes.
BLITZER: But that raises a really important question. Those who are engaged in torture, who commit torture, potentially that could be a violation of international or other laws.
CARTER: Yes, I think so.
Regarding “holding someone accountable” for violations of international laws:
CARTER: Well, I think we — the best way to hold people accountable in this country is through the election process.
BLITZER: That is the best way to get — in other words, from your perspective, to get rid of the incumbent administration and move on. But you don’t want to see any formal charges or a trial…
CARTER: No, I don’t think so. I think that would be inappropriate. That has been done in some cases, as you know, but I don’t think it is appropriate at all.
Regarding leaving Iraq and Republicans wanting “to stay there permanently”:
BLITZER: So on this issue, you disagree with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
CARTER: Absolutely. We ought to get out earlier than 2013.
BLITZER: How quickly do you think the U.S., realistically, could withdraw all 168,000 troops from Iraq?
CARTER: I think over an 18-month period, we could be totally out, if that’s our desire, but I never have seen anybody in this current administration or the Republican candidates advocate that we ever get out of Iraq. I think they want to stay there permanently.
Carter: US has tortured detainees and Bush approved it