The Tortured Party

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2008
The Tortured Party
472
Fri, 12-12-2008 - 11:15pm

Now that he's got nothing to lose by dropping the pandering, McCain issued a joint report just that found that Rumsfeld was right in the middle of authorizing the torture:

"Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld Approves Aggressive Techniques (U)
(U) With respect to GTMO’s October 11, 2002 request to use aggressive interrogation
techniques, Mr. Haynes said that “there was a sense by the DoD Leadership that this decision
was taking too long” and that Secretary Rumsfeld told his senior advisors “I need a
recommendation.” On November 27, 2002, the Secretary got one. Notwithstanding the serious
legal concerns raised by the military services, Mr. Haynes sent a one page memo to the
Secretary, recommending that he approve all but three of the eighteen techniques in the GTMO
request. Techniques such as stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of
dogs), and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli were all recommended for approval.
(U) Mr. Haynes’s memo indicated that he had discussed the issue with Deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith, and General
Myers and that he believed they concurred in his recommendation. When asked what he relied
on to make his recommendation that the aggressive techniques be approved, the only written
legal opinion Mr. Haynes cited was Lieutenant Colonel Beaver’s legal analysis, which senior
military lawyers had considered “legally insufficient” and “woefully inadequate,” and which
LTC Beaver herself had expected would be supplemented with a review by persons with greater
experience than her own.
(U) On December 2, 2002, Secretary Rumsfeld signed Mr. Haynes’s recommendation,
adding a handwritten note that referred to limits proposed in the memo on the use of stress
positions: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?”
(U) SERE school techniques are designed to simulate abusive tactics used by our
enemies. There are fundamental differences between a SERE school exercise and a real world
interrogation. At SERE school, students are subject to an extensive medical and psychological
pre-screening prior to being subjected to physical and psychological pressures. The schools
impose strict limits on the frequency, duration, and/or intensity of certain techniques.
Psychologists are present throughout SERE training to intervene should the need arise and to
help students cope with associated stress. And SERE school is voluntary; students are even
given a special phrase they can use to immediately stop the techniques from being used against
them.
(U) Neither those differences, nor the serious legal concerns that had been registered,
stopped the Secretary of Defense from approving the use of the aggressive techniques against
detainees. Moreover, Secretary Rumsfeld authorized the techniques without apparently
providing any written guidance as to how they should be administered. "

http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/Detainees.121108.pdf

What a surprise! There will be a lot more on this. If we don't hold those who broke the law accountable, the rampant rate of lawbreaking in the Republican Party will not slow down in the slightest. It will also be a good message to Democrats not to make the same mistakes.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-20-2008
Tue, 12-23-2008 - 9:23am
And yet the example does fit what has gone on in the military during this administration and perhaps since the beginning of time.
.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 12-23-2008 - 11:55am
it does not really have to do with their rights. It is against US law for a US citizen to torture someone else or cause someone to be tortured.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-19-2008
Tue, 12-23-2008 - 10:03pm
Yep.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-19-2008
Tue, 12-23-2008 - 10:06pm
A better example of what? The Jessup quote explained, quite nicely, the hypocrisy of those who do not defend this nation but feel comfortable in attacking those who do.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-20-2008
Wed, 12-24-2008 - 12:02am
How about the hypocrisy of those who tout war from the comfort of their couches?
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-19-2008
Wed, 12-24-2008 - 12:34am
"Tout war?" I guess that's lib-speak for support the country, the military and the President...much as "patriotic" means attack the country, the military and the President.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-16-2007
Wed, 12-24-2008 - 1:54am

Listen, I'm not some crazy person going around saying "Yay for torture!"


That's RIDICULOUS to assume that anyone who is not mentally ill would be in favor of such tactics if they were not deemed necessary.


A

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 12-24-2008 - 3:25am

Many of the countries in which bombings and terrorist attacks are commonplace DO use torture.

This is really not an argument.

Conversely, in my own little country, Denmark, several terror plots have been rolled up in the post-9/11 years, all with old-fashioned police and intelligence work and zero torture.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-10-2008
Wed, 12-24-2008 - 3:51am

~That's RIDICULOUS to assume that anyone who is not mentally ill would be in favor of such tactics if they were not deemed necessary.~


Well.. the Spanish Inquisition was "deemed necessary", too, but, that said,

Kate

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-19-2008
Wed, 12-24-2008 - 4:24am
Have the Danish police caught any high-level terrorists?

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