The Tortured Party
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| 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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>>> Who determines whether a person is an "animal" or not; and based on what?
How they conduct themselves.
>>> When we give up our liberties (like privacy) or our morals (and start torturing), then we give terrorists a victory.
They're trying to kill us, not win some ideological or moral battle. They couldn't care less if we tortured our prisoners except to use it as a political weapon, and they're sure not going to stop killing people if we're nice. The war on terrorism is simply a war of attrition...it'll be over when they're dead. The only question is how many lives will be lost because liberals insist on fighting a "nice" war.
>>> However, since you used certain adjectives, what if another nation invaded the U.S., routed Bush and sent him into hiding, then hauled him from a hidey-hole and had a sham-trial, resulting in his hanging?
Are you suggesting that Hussein was innocent and that his trial was a sham?
>>> Wouldn't that be considered violent and murderous, particularly if hundred thousands of U.S. civilians died in the invasion and subsequent civil war?
Is our judicial system "violent and murderous" when we execute criminals? Was the US "violent and murderous" when we bombed Japan? Or when we bombed France or Germany in WWII or Iraq in 1998?
>>> Don't kid yourself that we have not killed or tortured innocents. We have--and links have been posted on the board to prove it.
Actually...no.
>>> You cannot logically or morally blame those actions on any other entities. In fact, that's my point. Choices have been made which are indefensible, untenable, and utterly lacking in either accountability or morality.
Only from the perspective of the "patriotic" left.
>>> Why has our present government decided that they want to emulate the actions of terrorists, dictators and despots over the world?
GIve us a call when the government starts hacking off the heads of prisoners.
>>> Is there nothing sickening and evil regarding the thousands of Iraqi women, children and old men who perished from our "smart" bombs - shock and awe???
Yes...the fact that Hussein put them in harm's way
>>> Were these people just animals also????
No, human shields and the unfortunate victims of a just war.
>>> Was there nothing sickening and evil of our Blackwater friends using the Iraqi people as target practice in that square?
Yes, that's what they did...targets were scarce so an evil Blackwater guy said, "hey, let's shoot those innocent folks, over there." And the other evil Blackwater guy said, "Good idea."
>>> Nobody's hands are clean in this. Not ours, not theirs - there is no absolute here - except in the eyes of those who hold themselves superior to others.
Wrong...our hands are clean...except in the eyes of liberal "patriots."
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