An Anti-Torture Memorandum for President Obama

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals
for Sanity
SUBJECT: Torture

This
memorandum is VIPS' first attempt to inform you on a major intelligence
issue, as we did your predecessor; thus, some background might be helpful.
Five former CIA officers established Veteran Intelligence Professionals
for Sanity (VIPS) in January 2003, when we saw our profession being
corrupted to justify an attack on Iraq. Since then, our numbers
have grown to 70 intelligence professionals, mostly retired, who have
served in virtually all U.S. civilian and military intelligence agencies.

In
our first Memorandum for the President (George W. Bush), dated February
5, 2002, we provided a same-day commentary on Colin Powell's U.N.
speech. We warned the president that "an invasion of Iraq would
ensure overflowing recruitment centers for terrorists into the indefinite
future [and that] far from eliminating the [terrorist] threat, it would
enhance it exponentially."

We
strongly urged the former president to widen the discussion on Iraq
"beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which
we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended
consequences are likely to be catastrophic." VIPS' second
pre-war Memorandum for the President was titled, "Forgery, Hyperbole,
Half-Truth: A Problem"-a reference to the bogus intelligence we
saw being ginned up to "justify" war.

President
Bush ignored our warning and the warnings of other informed individuals
and groups. The corporate media uncritically echoed the Bush administration's
misuse and misrepresentation of the intelligence, despite the questions
raised-including those raised by our unique movement. (It was
the first time an alumni group of intelligence officials had formed
expressly to chronicle and to halt the corruption of intelligence.)

The
cheerleading for war had begun-a war that would fit the post-WWII
Nuremberg Tribunal's description of a "war of aggression."
Nuremberg defined such a war as "the supreme international crime,
differing from other war crimes only in that it contains within itself
the accumulated evil of the whole."

Torture: An Accumulated Evil

Torture
is one of those accumulated evils. Violating domestic laws like
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 is another.
You were right to unceremoniously jettison former CIA director Michael
Hayden, who betrayed the thousands of NSA professionals who, until he
directed that domestic law could be ignored, had adhered scrupulously
to the 1978 FISA law as NSA's "First Commandment"-Thou Shalt
Not Eavesdrop on Americans Without a Court Warrant.

In
contrast, we believe you were badly misguided in giving a prominent
White House post to former CIA director George Tenet's protege John
Brennan, who has publicly defended "extraordinary rendition" in
full knowledge that its purpose was torture. Brennan also had
complicit knowledge of the lengths to which Tenet conspired with the
Department of Justice to distort history and the law in drafting opinions
that attempted to "justify" torture.

With
all due respect, Mr. President, it would be another mistake for you
to believe what you are hearing from the likes of Brennan and Hayden
and the journalists they have fed and domesticated. Please do
not be deceived into thinking that most intelligence officials, past
and present, condone torture-still less that they are angry that you
have put a stop to such techniques. We are referring, of course,
to what President Bush called "an alternative set of procedures"
involving cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that violates domestic
and international law. We focus on torture in the VIPS statement
that follows these introductory remarks.

The
Senate Armed Services Committee recently concluded that it was President
Bush himself who, by Executive Memorandum of February 7, 2002 exempting
al-Qaeda and the Taliban from Geneva protections, "opened the door"
to the abuse that ensued. You need to know that the vast majority
of intelligence professionals deplore "extraordinary rendition"
and the other torture procedures that were subsequently ordered by senior
Bush administration officials.

Sadly,
President Bush was not the first chief executive to find a small cabal
of superpatriots, amateur thugs, and contractors to do his administration's
bidding. But never before in this country were lawless thugs given
such free rein. The congressional "oversight" committees looked
the other way.

Tenet
and his acolytes successfully ingratiated themselves with President
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the faux lawyers who devised what
actually amounts to a very porous "legal" shield for those who carried
out the torture. It was a shield designed for and applied exclusively
to those "just following orders" at the CIA black sites, and not
for the low-ranking soldiers doing similar things at Abu Ghraib.

Some
of the latter have done time in prison; one is still there. It
would appear that some are less equal than others. And, to this day,
the organizers and apologists for torture have managed to escape the
consequences of their actions.

No
doubt you appreciate better than anyone that the official Department
of Justice memoranda you insisted be released last week are a national
disgrace. Worse still are the first-hand accounts by young soldiers
at Guantanamo of perversions like "rape by instrumentality."
You should be aware that this was a practice adamantly defended by former
White House lawyers when Congress attempted to draft legislation expressly
prohibiting it. Asked to explain their objection, Bush administration
lawyers acknowledged that they were worried that such legislation might
subject practitioners to prosecution under state and federal criminal
statutes.

* * *

Statement of Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity on Torture

Interrogation Abuses
and Those Responsible Must Be Fully Exposed

Inasmuch
as we have gone on record as strongly opposed to torture, both on moral
and practical grounds, from the first public awareness that the Bush
administration had decided to violate international and domestic law,
treaty provisions, and American tradition;

As
former intelligence officials we understand that unless intelligence
is "actionable"-accurate, specific, and timely enough to be acted
upon with some confidence-it is ineffective. Equally important,
we acknowledge our responsibility to expose fallacious reasoning regarding
the utility of torture in acquiring actionable intelligence. This
issue comes to the fore especially in the celebrated, but specious "ticking
time-bomb hypothetical"-a regular feature of Jack Bauer TV fiction.

The
fact that the exploits of Jack Bauer have injected a dangerous level
of fiction and fear among impressionable viewers, and have misled not
only interrogators at Guantanamo but also the chair of the House Intelligence
Committee, Silvestre Reyes-not to mention Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia-leaves no doubt that such illusionary scenarios need to be
addressed by professionals with real-life experience.

Inasmuch
as the recently released legal memos that comprised part of the "golden
shield" constructed by Bush Administration lawyers do shed some light
but also provide inadequate information on "harsh interrogation tactics,"
and that the memos sow confusion regarding which officials were responsible
for institutionalizing those methods-not to mention whether they were
actually effective, as former vice president Cheney continues to insist;

Inasmuch
as it has come to light that two detainees were waterboarded at least
266 times, throwing strong doubt on various rationalizations regarding
the effectiveness of waterboarding in providing timely actionable intelligence
(in a "ticking time-bomb" scenario, for example);

Whereas
CIA Director Leon Panetta has insisted that the "harsh interrogation
tactics that some officials have declared to be torture" (the circumlocution
now in vogue in the corporate media) might again be used in a future
"ticking time-bomb hypothetical;"

Whereas,
when the torture technique of waterboarding, a practice with antecedents
in the Spanish Inquisition was applied by Japanese troops in WWII to
American and British prisoners-Japanese officers were later tried
and executed;

Whereas
there has been no better system devised- despite some shortcomings-to
ascertain the truth of potential wrongdoing than the criminal investigative
and judicial adversary process, which provides the right to attorney
and right to jury and is governed by judicial rules which attempt to
ensure fairness;

Whereas
we recognize that the criminal justice process serves the important
goal of stopping and deterring criminal actions and cannot be dismissed
as merely "retribution;"

Whereas
92 videotapes showing application and results of the "harsh interrogation
tactics that some officials have declared to be torture" have already
been destroyed, and there is understandable concern that other evidence
is being destroyed as the days go by;

Whereas
other civilian and military intelligence professionals have also gone
on record (see attached Annex) with respect to how torture tactics are
not only ineffective in terms of getting reliable, actionable intelligence
but have fueled recruitment by Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to
the point that, arguably, more U.S. troops have been killed by terrorists
bent on revenge for torture than the 3,000 civilians killed on 9/11;

Whereas
the false confessions that were elicited by the torture of Ibn al-Shaykh
al-Libi, for example, were used by the president, vice president, and
the secretary of state (at the U.N.) to claim that proof existed of
operational ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and whereas such
false confessions also diverted limited investigative resources to pursue
bogus leads;

We
of VIPS call for a full, truthful, and public fact-finding process to
begin without delay. We ask that you give careful consideration
to Senator Carl Levin's suggestion that the attorney general appoint
retired judges with solid reputations for integrity to begin the process.
Another viable possibility would be the appointment of an independent
"blue-ribbon commission," perhaps modeled on the Church Committee
of the mid-Seventies, to assess any illegal or improper activities and
make recommendations for reform in government operations against terrorism.

We
commend the administration for releasing the Department of Justice memos
attempting to legalize torture. We believe the remaining relevant
information must be released promptly so that the citizenry
can make informed judgments about what was done in our name and, if
warranted, an independent prosecutor can be appointed without unnecessary
delay. We believe strongly that any judgments regarding amnesty,
forgiveness, or pardon can only be made on the basis of a fully developed,
public record-and not used as some sort of political bargaining chip.
Finally, we firmly oppose the notion that anyone can arrogate a right
to ignore the Nuremburg Tribunal's rejection of
"only-following-orders" as an acceptable defense.

(signatories are listed alphabetically
with former intelligence affiliations)

Gene Betit, US Army, DIA, Arlington,
VA

Ray Close, National Clandestine Service
(CIA), Princeton, NJ

Phil Giraldi, National Clandestine Service
(CIA), Purcellville, VA

Larry Johnson, CIA & Department of
State, Bethesda, MD

Pat Lang, US Army (Special Forces), DIA,
Alexandria, VA

David MacMichael, National Intelligence
Council, Linden, VA

Tom Maertens, Department of State, Mankato,
MN

Ray McGovern, US Army, CIA, Arlington,
VA

Sam Provance, US Army (Abu Ghraib), Greenville,
SC

Coleen Rowley, FBI, Apple Valley, MN

Greg Theilmann, Department of State &
Senate Intel. Committee staff, Arlington, VA

Ann Wright, US Army, Department of State,
Honolulu, HI

*****

Annex

We
list below other experienced intelligence personnel, who have spoken
out publicly about the inefficacy and counter productiveness of torture:

FBI: Ali Soufan, Dan Coleman, Jack
Cloonan

CIA: John Helgerson (former Inspector
General), Bob Baer, Haviland Smith

Military: Navy General Counsel
Alberto J. Mora; Major General Antonio Taguba (who probed Abu Ghraib
and concluded that Bush officials committed war crimes: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/41514.html);
Air Force Col Steven M. Kleinman; Rear Admiral (ret) and former Judge
Advocate General for the Navy John Hutson; former Naval Intelligence
officer and Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Reagan Administration
Lawrence Korb; former U.S. military interrogator (pseudonym) Matthew
Alexander; and former military intelligence officer Malcolm Nance,

Links

FBI

Ali Soufan Op-Ed Contributor;
My Tortured Decision; Reclaiming America's Soul - NYTimes.com
Apr 23, 2009 www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23soufan.html

Soufan was an F.B.I. supervisory special
agent from 1997 to 2005.

Dan Coleman; The Torture Memos
Are Not Just Sick, They're Full of Lies:
Coleman was with the FBI; says "I can
give you two reasons why Cheney wants more torture memos..." www.alternet.org/rights/.../the_torture_memos_are_not_just_sick,_they're_full_of_lies:_a_closer_look_at_the_bybee_memo/

Jack Cloonan: How to Break a Terrorist
Foreign Policy: FPTV
Cloonan is a veteran FBI interrogator
who spent 25 years as an FBI special agent and interrogated members
of al Qaeda
www.foreignpolicy.com/extras/torture

CIA

CIA IG John Helgerson: CIA
official: no proof harsh techniques stopped terror attacks Washington
- The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive
proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped. www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66895.html

Ray Close (VIPS) and Haviland Smith,
both are retired CIA Station Chiefs who served in various senior positions
in the Operations Directorate, including in Europe, the Middle East
and (Smith) as Chief of the Counterterrorism Staff.

Two former top CIA officials on
the efficacy of torture, by Stephen Soldz
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Two-former-top-CIA-offical-by-Stephen-Soldz-090425-265.html

Military

Former Navy General Counsel Alberto J.
Mora: Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are
'first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq.'
https://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/17/mora-abu-ghraib-and-guantanamo-are-first-and-second-identifiable-causes-of-us-combat-deaths-in-iraq/

Air Force Col Steven Kleinman, senior
intelligence officer:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/6222229/
Senate-Testimony-Col-Steven-M-Kleinman

Malcolm Nance: Why the Bush torture
architects must be prosecuted
Nance is a former military intelligence
officer and the Founding Director of the International Counterterrorism
Center for Excellence at Hudson N.Y. and author of "The Terrorist
Recognition Handbook - A Practitioner's Manual for Predicting and Identifying
Terrorist Activity."
www.nydailynews.com/opinions/.../2009-04-19_why_the_bush_torture_architects_must_be_prosecuted_a_counterterror_expert_speak...
Also at: https://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004617.php

Former U.S. Interrogator Matthew Alexander
(pseudonym) author of Torture Policy Has Led to More Deaths than
9/11 Attacks
"I'm Still Tortured by What
I Saw in Iraq"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802242_pf.html;

Sunday, November 30, 2008.
Also
on https://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004036 and
https://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/109792/former_u.s._interrogator:_torture_policy_has_led_to_more_deaths_than_9_11_attacks/