The United States of America tortures people.
This is common knowledge now. The Senate Armed Services Committee has shown the administration from Bush to military commanders are responsible for our torture policy. Dick Cheney has admitted he authorized it. Duncan Hunter, ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, specifically defended three instances of torture. The European Union has investigated our 'black site' rendition program, used to facilitate torture. And dozens of cases exist of those that have been innocent of any crime, but were tortured nonetheless. We have graphic pictures from Abu Ghraib to confirm this.
What does it mean to live in a country that routinely tortures and whose leaders speak as if they were stars on the TV series 24? It means that my leaders are guilty of war crimes in their made-up 'war on terror'.
Nothing about torture is acceptable. No instance of torture is ever justifiable. Intelligence experts tell us that torture is ineffective as a means of interrogation. Anyone that denies these things is grotesquely and disturbingly ignorant of international law.
Torture is a crime against humanity. Arguing that it is an effective and, indeed, necessary means of obtaining information is like to arguing that rape or incest is justified every now and then; or that child abuse is justified in some cases.
NO!
The Senate Armed Services Committee report on detainee abuse is a damning indictment of the Bush regime. Very clear links are drawn between senior administration officials and the policies that led "directly" to torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'd like to quote the report's conclusions in the form of an argument for bringing criminal charges against the outgoing administration for crimes against humanity.
On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees.
In July 2002, the Office of the Secretary of Defense General Counsel solicited information from the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) on SERE techniques for use during interrogations. That solicitation, prompted by requests from Department of Defense General Counsel William J. Haynes II, reflected the view that abusive tactics similar to those used by our enemies should be considered for use against detainees in U.S. custody.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) interrogation program included at least one SERE training technique, waterboarding. Senior Administration lawyers, including Alberto Gonzales, Counsel to the President, and David Addington, Counsel to the Vice President, were consulted on the development of legal analysis of CIA interrogation techniques.
Detainee abuse occurred during JPRA’s support to Special Mission Unit (SMU) Task Force (TF) interrogation operations in Iraq in September 2003.
Leaders at GTMO, including Major General Dunlavey’s successor, Major General Geoffrey Miller, ignored warnings from DoD’s Criminal Investigative Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the techniques were potentially unlawful and that their use would strengthen detainee resistance.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers’s decision to cut short the legal and policy review of the October 11, 2002 GTMO request initiated by his Legal Counsel, then-Captain Jane Dalton, undermined the military’s review process.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there. Secretary Rumsfeld’s December 2, 2002 approval of Mr. Haynes’s recommendation that most of the techniques contained in GTMO’s October 11, 2002 request be authorized, influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques, including military working dogs, forced nudity, and stress positions, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Department of Defense General Counsel William J. Haynes II’s direction to the Department of Defense’s Detainee Working Group in early 2003 to consider a legal memo from John Yoo of the Department of Justice’s OLC as authoritative, blocked the Working Group from conducting a fair and complete legal analysis...
During his assessment visit to Iraq in August and September 2003, GTMO Commander Major General Geoffrey Miller encouraged a view that interrogators should be more aggressive during detainee interrogations.
The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own. Interrogation techniques such as stripping detainees of their clothes, placing them in stress positions, and using military working dogs to intimidate them appeared in Iraq only after they had been approved for use in Afghanistan and at GTMO.
My summary goes like this:
That's six steps from Bush and Rumsfeld to the horrors documented at Abu Ghraib.
Summary
It is critical that Barack Obama not only repudiate torture, but that he bring criminals, guilty by their own admission of serious international crimes, to justice. It is time for the United States to return to the international community, adopting its laws and its justice for the members of the Bush administration. Let them defend themselves at trial instead of on TV.
SmokeyMonkey.org
http://smokeymonkey.org/blog/article.php?story=20081218172406637