America’s Concentration Camps category archive
Enhanced Interrogation Techniques–the Ones that Work 0
The Philadelphia police have not had a good two weeks. First, a good officer was cut down doing his job, and then the Fox29 helicopter caught some other officers indulging what appears to have been, at first glance, a Rodney King moment. For more details about what happened, you can read Monica Yant Kinney’s column from today’s local rag here.
It seems that the tip which led to the capture of the last suspect in the cop killing was phoned into a retired FBI agent by someone he once interrogated. The agent in question has a reputation for being extremely hard-nosed and extremely fair–according the story about him (link below), two person he sent up the river have named kids after him.
Buried in the middle of this story was this little gem about how to conduct interrogations that work (hint: nudity and water are not involved):
(snip)
“As soon as you heard you were getting the information from one of Jesse’s sources, you knew it was gospel,” Carbonell (another retired agent–ed.) said. “He’s been gone a year, and agents still call him for help. Even the bad guys found him honest and fair.”
Leonard Wideman, a self-described former Philadelphia methamphetamine dealer and addict, met Coleman for the first time during an FBI raid. . . .
“Jesse was a straight-up dude from the giddyup,” said Wideman, who would later testify for the government. “Jesse was police, but he was a gentleman.”
Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle, who has cross-examined Coleman in several high-profile trials, said jurors could sense his credibility on the stand. “You’ll never see him shade the truth or lie.”
Clearly, there would be no future for Mr. Coleman in the Vice President’s Office.
Torture Is Their Pornography (Updated) 0
From the Guardian:
· Senior Bush administration figures pushed through previously outlawed measures with the aid of inexperienced military officials at Guantánamo.
· Myers believes he was a victim of “intrigue” by top lawyers at the department of justice, the office of vice-president Dick Cheney, and at Donald Rumsfeld’s defence department.
· The Guantánamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the exploits of Jack Bauer in the American TV series 24.
· Myers wrongly believed interrogation techniques had been taken from the army’s field manual.
The lawyers, all political appointees, who pushed through the interrogation techniques were Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes. Also involved were Doug Feith, Rumsfeld’s under-secretary for policy, and Jay Bybee and John Yoo, two assistant attorney generals.
Via Le Show.
Addendum, 4/21/2008:
Froomkin:
One reason, of course, is that many who might have objected to Vice President Cheney’s torture cabal were bypassed or moved out of the way. Others just followed orders.
But a new report suggests that at least one man who couldn’t be entirely bypassed — and who should have known better — fell victim to another tactic: He was duped.
Follow the link for a discussion of whose fault this was.
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire 0
It’s a Bushie thing–that is, lying, not to protect one’s sorry anatomy, but lying as a tool of governance:
I feel like Syvester Jr. I want to put a bag over my head and wait for them to all go away.
Torture Is Their Pornography 0
Booman talks of our shame:
As recently as March, the president vetoed a bill banning torture. And the international press is covering the news that torture was authorized at the highest levels, even if our domestic press is more concerned with meaningless back and forth arguments in the Democratic primary.
(snip)
It is hard to believe that just ten years ago this nation impeached a president for lying about his sex life in a civil deposition in a case that was eventually tossed for lack of merit. Ten years ago the media could not grant enough coverage to the crimes of the president, but now even confessed felonies are covered over in favor of silly campaign coverage.
Jason asks the question of the day.
And This Surprises Us How? 0
As I have remarked on several occasions, torture is their pornography.
And they shame the United States of America, its people, and the ideals of the founders.
If there ever was an “un-American activity,” this was it.
The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings at which CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, were discussed and ultimately approved.
I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of Senator Edward Kennedy, but it is hard to disagree with his comments:
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.) lambasted what he called in a statement “yet another astonishing disclosure about the Bush administration and its use of torture.”
“Who would have thought that in the United States of America in the 21st century, the top officials of the executive branch would routinely gather in the White House to approve torture?” he said.
Shame.
Kangaroo Courts 0
If they speak Arabic, they are guilty until proven innocent. From Josh Marshall:
Roll of Infamy 0
The list of those who voted against overriding the veto of the Torquemada Bill.
Let us hope there is water in their future.
Gitmo (Updated) 0
Why is the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, still open.
Even the Current Federal Administrator has said that he wants it closed.
One answer is obvious.
If it were closed, the truth of what has been going on there will come out. We can pretty much expect to hear more stuff like this, as Bushies loose their grips on the handles of secrecy (emphasis added):
(snip)
Today Garzón ruled the pair were suffering severe mental and physical problems after their time in Guantánamo and were not fit to stand trial in Spain.
Garzón, Spain’s leading investigative judge who sits at the national court in Madrid, archived the case against the pair, basing his decision on medical reports on their condition provided by the British authorities.
According to the judge’s order, two British doctors, Jonathan Derek Fluxman and Helen Bamber, examined the pair at the Harrow Road health centre in February and diagnosed serious medical conditions caused by torture at the hands of their captors and the inhumane conditions in which they were kept for five years.
Banna is said to be severely depressed, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to have diabetes, hyper-tension, back pain and damage to the back of his left knee. Deghayes is also suffering from PTSD, depression, is blind in his right eye, and has fractures in his nasal bone and right index finger. Both men are said to present a high risk of suicide.
The doctors’ report on Deghayes, signed by Fluxman, concluded that “given all these factors, I don’t see how Mr Deghayes would be able to give instructions to his lawyers, listen to evidence and give his own accurate testimony”.
A similar conclusion was drawn in the case of Banna. The doctors said were he to be separated from his wife and children again, he risked a severe deterioration of his already fragile mental health.
Garzón’s order said these medical conditions had been confirmed by two forensic doctors in Spain, and said the “PTSD and depression mark a before and after in the lives and psychiatric” condition of the two men. It said their recovery was “uncertain”, meaning they were not capable of defending themselves in any potential trial.
The order blamed the medical condition of Banna on the “five years [he spent] in secret prisons in Gambia and Afghanistan and latterly in Guantánamo … in inhumane conditions”, during which time he was tortured, resulting in the “progressive deterioration of his mental condition”. In the case of Deghayes, it said he was tortured and badly treated in prisons in Islamabad, Bagram and finally Guantánamo before his release at the end of last year.
Balloon Juice has more.
Addendum, Later That Same Evening:
The Group News Blog.
Paying the Bill of Rights 0
The Bill of Rights is, arguably, what distinguishes the United States of America from other countries–that it chose to codify at its inception rights reserved to the citizenry.
We can use an executive who understands what the Bill of Rights actually means and understands that, if the concept of the “rule of law” is to have meaning, it applies to everyone; that occupancy of high office does not exempt one from obeying the law, even laws he or she doesn’t like or finds inconvenient.
Hell, that’s really the point of the law. To be inconvenient, so that persons can’t go off and conveniently do bad things.
Like torture.
Addendum, Later That Same Evening:
More evidence from Duncan.
Torture 0
I’ve made my opinion on this subject fairly clear, I think.
So I won’t say anything more today. I’ll just ask you to go read this.
Fear Mongering (Updated) 0
Today, the House of Representatives finally mustered up the guts to stand up to the Current Federal Administrator.
And, in true George W. Bush form, the Current Federal Administrator threw a hissy fit because he didn’t get his way.
And what happens to national security if the Protect America (Yeah. Right.) Act does not get extended?
Absolutely nothing. Follow the link to hear the full analysis:
President Bush says to delay is dangerous, but many intelligence experts, including Suzanne Spaulding, say very little will actually change Saturday, even if the bill is allowed to expire.
Spaulding, who spent 20 years working on national security issues for the government and is now a private attorney in Washington, D.C., talks with Michelle Norris.
Of course, some of the telecommunications companies might have to pay for violating the trust of their customers.
Gasp!
We can’t have that.
Violating trust is the Bushie way.
Addendum, 2/15/2008:
Dan Froomkin documents the hypocrisy.
John Cole asks, “Why are they lying?“
Perfidy 0
I could not have asked the questions better myself. Dan Froomkin (emphasis added):
Those, at heart, are the questions raised by the Senate’s passage yesterday of a bill that would ban harsh interrogation tactics used by the CIA — a bill already passed by the House, and a bill President Bush has vowed to veto.
The debate is not just about waterboarding. It’s about whether other tactics — such as prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, mock executions, the use of attack dogs, the withholding of food, water and medical care and the application of electric shocks — should be part of our official interrogation toolkit.
Whether you call them torture or not, they are undeniably cruel. They are undeniable assaults on human dignity.
They are all prohibited by the Army Field Manual, which covers all military interrogations. They are all off limits to the FBI. Now Congress wants the CIA to adhere to the same restrictions.
But Bush says no.
The propagation of our values has long been a hallmark of American foreign policy. Chief among those values has been respect for human dignity. But the message we’ve been sending lately is altogether different. How can we tell other countries to respect human dignity when we have made it optional for our own government? When our official policy is that the ends justify the means?
Violating American values is not a defense of America. It is a rape of America.
Betraying American Values 0
Eugene Robinson:
This is a moral outrage, people. At least, it should be. There simply cannot be any kind of pro-and-con debate over the use of torture — whatever anodyne phrase you hide it behind — by agents of the United States government on persons in custody. Torture is not debatable. It is forbidden by U.S. and international law. It is a vile implement used by tinhorn despots, not by the elected leaders of great democracies.
Personally, I think “tinhorn” is too kind to describe the Current Federal Administrator.
Via Dan Froomkin.
Swept under the Rug 1
We we don’t know won’t save them.
Or us.
Director Alex Gibney agreed to sell the rights of Taxi to the Discovery Channel because executives convinced him they would “give the film a prominent broadcast.†Now, however, Discovery has dropped its plans to air the documentary because the film is too controversial.
How long are you going to countenance the evil done in your name?
Via Atrios.
Catch 22: It’s the Best Catch There Is 0
Bush’s Star Chamber.
Josh Marshall sums it up:
It is as brazen a defense of the unitary executive as anything put forward by the Administration in the last seven years, and it comes from an attorney general who was supposed to be not just a more professional, but a more moderate, version of Alberto Gonzales (Thanks to Democrats like Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer for caving on the Mukasey nomination.).
Q. Why Do Bushies Love Torture? 3
The medieval practice is illegal and morally indefensible.
Mukasey’s twisted arguments in defense of waterboarding only serve to further diminish America’s standing in the world.
And for what?
The effectiveness of torture in obtaining intelligence is questionable at best.
It produces false confessions and undercuts legal interrogation and intelligence gathering techniques that actually work.
If anything, torture further inflames those who want to harm the United States. In other words, waterboarding could be causing more harm than good.
Mukasey tried to justify waterboarding and other extreme interrogation techniques while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
But it’s impossible to make a convincing case, given that waterboarding has long been considered torture and violates international law and U.S. statutes.
A. It is their Viagra.