"Mitch" McConnell and torture.

Pushed for Guantanamo Torture!!
April 19th, 2008 Jim Pence
(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

Senator Mitch McConnell it’s time for you to speak up on this issue or approve of it with your silence!!!!!

Go to Original
Torture and the Law
By Spencer Ackerman
The Washington Independent
With nine months remaining in President George W. Bush’s term, virtually no legal analyst expects that anyone in his administration will face indictment and prosecution in connection with the torture of terrorism detainees. However, a new admission from Bush last week has some legal analysts contending that the case for such prosecution has gotten significantly stronger.
ABC News reported on Apr. 9 that then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice chaired an informal panel of top administration officials that approved specific brutal interrogation tactics for use on three suspected Al Qaeda detainees. The panel consisted of Vice President Dick Cheney, and former administration officials - Donald H. Rumsfeld, then defense secretary, Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state, George Tenet, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and John Ashcroft, then attorney general. This group debated for use on detainees - and eventually approved - methods of abuse like being “slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding,” ABC reported.
On Apr. 11, Bush told ABC that he was personally aware of the panel’s discussions. “Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people.” Bush said. “And yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”
Read More.
Go to Original
Top Bush Aides Pushed for Guantanamo Torture
By Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian UK
Senior officials bypassed army chief to introduce interrogation methods.
America’s most senior general was “hoodwinked” by top Bush administration officials determined to push through aggressive interrogation techniques of terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, leading to the US military abandoning its age-old ban on the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the Guardian reveals today.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff from 2001 to 2005, wrongly believed that inmates at Guantánamo and other prisons were protected by the Geneva conventions and from abuse tantamount to torture.
The way he was duped by senior officials in Washington, who believed the Geneva conventions and other traditional safeguards were out of date, is disclosed in a devastating account of their role, extracts of which appear in today’s Guardian.
In his new book, Torture Team, Philippe Sands QC, professor of law at University College London, reveals that:

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 defense 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.
Read More


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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race, Torture, Guantanamo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “George W. Bush’s Top Aides Pushed for Guantanamo Torture!!”
CW Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Lies, nothing but damn lies…. “We do not torture.” yeh right!

Sunday, November 20, 2005 (CNN)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the “philosophical guidance” and “flexibility” that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.
Traveling in Latin America earlier this month, President Bush defended U.S. treatment of prisoners, saying flatly, “We do not torture.”
April 11, 2008 (ABC)
Bush Aware of Advisers’ Interrogation Talks
President Says He Knew His Senior Advisers Discussed Tough Interrogation Methods
President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.

snip…

Sunday, November 20, 2005 (CNN)

Cheney has come under mounting criticism for his position. Last week, Stansfield Turner, a military veteran who served as director of the CIA during the Carter administration, labeled him the “vice president for torture.” (Full story)
In a statement responding to Turner’s remark, Cheney said his views “are reflected in the administration’s policy. Our country is at war and our government has an obligation to protect the American people from a brutal enemy that has declared war upon us.”
“We are aggressively finding terrorists and bringing them to justice and anything we do within this effort is within the law,” the statement said, adding that the United States “does not torture.”
April 11, 2008 (ABC)
……. the Principals Committee included Vice President Dick Cheney, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of “combined” interrogation techniques — using different techniques during interrogations instead of using one method at a time — on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break……

Jim Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
When Lawyers Are War Criminals.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/10/when-lawyers-are-war-criminals.html

andy42302 Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Excellent job Jim! It’s disturbing that the media hasn’t picked up on this more than they have. Perhaps lapel pins are more important?

kilowat Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
quote jim link

For this issue, one Nuremberg case forms the key precedent: United States v. Altstoetter, also called the Reich Justice Ministry case. That case stands for some simple propositions. One of them is that lawyers who dispense bad advice about law of armed conflict, and whose advice predictably leads to the death or mistreatment of prisoners, are war criminals, chargeable with potentially capital offenses.

Jim Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I know the videos I posted are quite long, but Philippe Sands has a lot to say and the videos are worth watching. The videos are of the same interview of Philippe Sands and broke into two videos.

Kenneth Stepp Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I say let’s outlaw the torture of human beings. If Kentucky can outlaw the torture of animals, surely we can afford the same right to human beings. If elected to the U.S. Senate, I pledge to take action to outlaw the torture of human beings. Kenneth Stepp, Candidate for U.S. Senate, Democrat, Kentucky.