Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
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.
Stress Test: The content of the memos could embarrass the CIA and amplify calls for a 'truth commission' (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Because of an executive order signed by President Obama on Jan. 22 banning such aggressive tactics, deputies to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. concluded there was no longer any reason to keep the interrogation memos classified. But current and former intel officials pushed back, arguing that any public release might still compromise "sources and methods." According to the administration official, ex-CIA director Michael Hayden was "furious" about the prospect of disclosure and tried to intervene directly with Obama officials. But the White House has sided with Holder. Faced with a court deadline in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit regarding the memos filed by the ACLU, Justice lawyers asked for a two-week extension "because the memoranda are being reviewed for possible release." (White House, Justice and CIA spokesmen all declined to comment.)
The debate about torture ramped up again last week with an account in the New York Review of Books about a secret International Red Cross report that was delivered to the CIA in February 2007. The report, according to journalist Mark Danner, quotes detainees describing, often in gruesome detail, how they were locked in coffin-size boxes; swung by towels around their necks into plywood walls; and forced to stand naked for days while their arms were shackled above their heads.
"I now know we were not fully and completely briefed on the CIA program," Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein told NEWSWEEK. A U.S. official disputed the charge, claiming that members of Congress received more than 30 briefings over the life of the CIA program and that Congressional intel panels had seen the Red Cross report. But the CIA insisted that the report be treated as if it had higher than top-secret classification, precluding any public discussion of its contents. That's why declassification of the memos is significant, administration officials say: it would remove, at long last, the veil of secrecy about how detainees in the war on terror were actually treated.
18 Comments so far
Show AllJust as the most damning evidence in the Nuremberg Trials was the written records, so to will Dubya, Cheney, & Co. be similarly condemned by their own paperwork if there is a moment or two of justice in this case. Thus it is not surprising the douche bags who formulated and carried out these torture policies are now sweating bullets.
nah, they'll have had plastic surgery, identity change and gone to live in guatemala or somewhere.............
Finally! (Let's just hope the CIA doesn't sabotage the "review" process.)
Now, if only Congress would act...wait, I'm repeating my words from the last 3 years.
Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld deserve at least an official condemnation with a prison sentence for legalizing torture (not to also mention the wiretaps, the pre-emptive Iraq War based on false premises, contempt of Congress, and obstruction of justice).
Bring America Back !!!!...If and when these documents do come out, let us all
remember that it did not start with Torture, Gitmo, Abu Gharib, or with
extraordinary rendition !
****It started on and before Sept 11, 2001, and the Truth of that day
has not seen the light of day as yet, either !!!!
Wake Up America !!! We will never forget !!!!
Let's not forget the involvement and support the US has given to "friendly dictators"-and alumni of SOA- in the not-so-distant past. Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Videla and his Junta in Argentina, to name a few. Operation Condor in South America (in the '70s) received enormous support from the US government (Henry Kissinger, Nixon, and a list of names that people would recognize as being prominent members of the past administration), even at the expense of its own citizens (Charles Horman, Frank Teruggi, Ronnie Moffit). ¡NUNCA MAS!
And let's never forget the wars waged on the US population under 4 administrations by the FBIs COINTELPRO which destroyed whole communities and killed many people -- such as former Black Panther leader Fred Hampton who was brutally murdered while he was asleep in bed, to name but one individual.
"Bring America Back!!!!" Back from where? America has a bloodstained path that goes back to the arrival of Columbus and his band of gangsters. See "A Peoples History of the United States: 1492- Present" by historian Howard Zinn.
Well, I sure would hate for the CIA to be embarrassed. Golly gee, if the public trust in intelligence agencies is compromised what you recon we gonna do?
It's gonna break my heart if the lies and crimes sneaky doings that taxpayers footed the bill for become public knowledge.
Who knows, maybe the public outrage will lead to the CIA and FBI having their budgets cut by 90%, better yet just abolish these agencies altogether. These cowboys could get together with the Wall Street brokers and get jobs on public works programs. The pot holes in front of my house need urgent attention.
"Oops! Would ya look at that. Out dog ate 'em. Shuckie darns, tough luck."
Forget truth commissions send the top ten Bushie War Criminals to the ICC and rejoin it.
The CIA is a gang of incompetent thugs, an employer for people with antisocial personality disorder who somehow got a degree. If you've ever met any of them, you understand that they're not nice people serving their country. They all knew perfectly well what the law said, and chose to disobey it with the legal fig leaves provided by the Justice Department's shysters. They deserve prosecution and punishment.
"The CIA is a gang of incompetent thugs, an employer for people with antisocial personality disorder who somehow got a degree."
Oh, no. Some of them are very, very bright. Unfortunately, intelligence and morality dont' have much of a link. You might check out Wikipedia on the JASON Defense Advisory Group. And then read "Science Against the People":
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz/SftP/Jason.html
Did you ever see a redacted document? Everything blacked out except for a few and's, the's and or's.
Welcome to AmeriKKKa!!!
Can anyone believe the incredible stupidity of Dianne Feinsteen who .. " now knows that we were not fully briefed on the CIA program". Oh really! How is it that the rest of the worlds citizens knew about the torture at least 4 years ago , But the people who have the most access to information didn't know. Complete bullshit or stupidity or COMPLICITY, in either case the whole lot of politicians have been corrupted and need to be replaced with ethical and moral individuals who will work for the people under the law and the constitution of the US. Next, their going to tell us ..." we were not fully briefed that the banks and the treasury were going to swindle the tax payer, we're shocked by the recent revelations!" It just amazing how much our leaders DON'T KNOW!!!!! The doing about as good a job as the wall street exec's and the ceo's of AIG and the other major banks! The only other people who are more stupid are the citizens who are allowing these criminals and thieves to get away with it!!!
You make a very good set of points, but I would suggest that you consider something that few people seem to mention.
The Bush administration and all of their crimes are just one of the many pictures that people are faced with reviewing. The real problem we all face is simply put with the one simple fact that all of these criminals, needed other criminals to commit all of these crimes that are being exposed; and the ones that are still "secret".
Bush and Cheney did not actually torture anyone; they had others that were perfectly willing to do it for them.
The "Wall Street Elite" did not actually commit fraud by submitting faulty mortgages or even accepting them, they had plenty of others perfectly willing to help them.
The "whistle blowers" with a few exceptions were fairly silent; until others or the situations revealed the many crimes and conspiracies.
Knowing that your fellow human is capable of the utmost good as well as the utmost bad, and the choices and individuals can go either or both or even switch back and forth between "good and bad"; in fact most people have different definitions of "good and bad".
The real test is if a society believes that committing crimes is punishable by a set of standards; then holding the offenders to the standards without considerations of their 'status" or wealth is the best that that society can do.
Most people refrain from criminal behavior for many reasons but the one true deterrent for most people is the knowledge that they will pay a price when convicted.
Rebuild Alcatraz Prison, and then confine those who are convicted of criminal behavior in these latest revelations to that island, for lengthy terms. When former President Bush and VP Cheney are in the excercise yard and share it with the other criminals who tortured, or stole, or followed the orders of the higher ranking criminal over them; then you just may see a change, in the behavior of others.
It was told to me when I was young that in the days before the Europeans came, any members of our tribe who committed crimes against others were refered to by names that usually translates to Coyote, or Bear, or Wolf "dung"----because they would be banished from the tribe,if their crimes were serious, and forced to live alone one the Prairie and Forest where they would most likely be killed, and the scavengers would have a feast. This set the example for others and a lesson on how to live; or how not to anyway; and what would happen if you chose unwisely.
So Mr. Bush and the others should be known in the future as "Bear Crap Bush"-----and "Coyote Shit Cheney"------or you can do nothing and they will set the example for those in the future who will follow the lead of today---------------
Good Luck America, you really need it.
Good for the Obama administration! The republicans were so proud of torture! They positively bragged about it all over the internet! Well, they can just be proud of all this too! I can't think of any political party that deserves this more than the republican party! Great news, in my book! The torture lovers! They deserve this!
Don't get too excited greatbear, I understand that part of the Obama plan is to let the "statute of limitations" clock run out on some of the most henious crimes of the last eight years and then cry "Gosh darn it's too late to prosecute now."