Out of the mouths of majors:
"Even though they were giving information and some of it was useful, while we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq."
"The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish this link... there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."
-- US Army psychiatrist Major Paul Burney quoted in the Senate Armed Services Committee's 263-page report on torture
CONCLUSION: Torture was used by Bush and Cheney in a futile attempt to establish a connection between 9/11 and Iraq and justify their illegal war. Lies about WMD were not enough.
You can read the pdf of the report here.
Today OS Blogger and military veteran Joe Blow blogged about his experiences in SERE training and how he reacted to being waterboarded while there. It is a MUST read:
Joe Blow
...On Torture, And The Need To Prosecute Bush And His Goons
KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!
Take ten minutes today to do two three four NOW FIVE SIX SEVEN painless things.
EVEN IF YOU CALLED AND WROTE THE LETTERS ALREADY, DO IT AGAIN -- NUMBER SIX IS A FRESH ACTION AS OF 23 APRIL COURTESY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL!
1) Call the White House at 202-456-1111 (or TTY/TDD: 202-456-6213)
Tell the nice staffer that answers the phone that in order to uphold and defend the Constitution, the criminal prosecution of officials - high and low - is an absolute necessity. Prosecution of Bush-era officials is not retribution. It is the maintenance of law and the repudiation of torture and other illegal acts.
2) Send a letter to your Representatives.
Clicking on the link will take you to IndictBushNow.org which has a form prepared to make it easy. They provide a prewritten paragraph which you can tweak and add to as you wish. The letter will be dispatched to both of your Senators and your Congressional representative.
***Be sure to correct their spelling of maintenance. They made an error and have it spelled "maintainance."***
Easy form to fill out and send an email to the president. The White House phone line has been pretty busy, so this is another thing to do while waiting for them to pick up.
4) AND 5) Call for the Impeachment of Jay Bybee by writing your Congresional Representative and by writing John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Use Progressive Democrat of America's web page to generate and send a letter to your Congressional Representative calling for the impeachment of Jay Bybee. Bybee is the former DOJ lawyer who authored a torture memo and now has a life appointment to sit as a federal appeals court judge. See Dave Swanson's excellent blog, ImpeachBybee.org, for the sordid details of Bybees war crimes.
Use the Center for Consitutional Right's page to generate a letter to John Conyers and the House Jusiciary Committee. Sending this letter also puts your name on their petition. Two birds, one stone.
Amnesty International has a new letter generator up that sends letters to Obama, your senators and your congressional representative requesting that "...any investigation must be independent, backed by the full force of law, and have enough funding to uncover the full truth behind the U.S. torture program." As usual, you can tweak the verbiage they provide as much or as little as you'd like.
If you are beyond disgusted and want to take the time (less than an hour to sign and call them all), here are more things you can do from your keyboard courtesy of David Swanson's AfterDowningStreet.org.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Prosecutions:
Federal:
Add your organization or individual name to joint statement requesting a Special Prosecutor. Ask organizations you're in touch with to sign on. The demand for prosecution has been supported by many members of Congress.
Sign a petition asking Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes. Sign now.
Collect signatures in the real world by printing out this PDF. Please enter the data you collect on the petition online and/or mail the completed (or partially completed) forms to JDS, 4407 Garrison Street NW, Washington DC 20016.
Phone and Email and fax the Office of the Attorney General at 202-514-2001 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov fax:202-307-6777 to request a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.
The ACLU now has its own petition to Holder: Sign it now.
Firedoglake now has one too: Sign it here.
In June 2008, 56 Democratic Congress members, led by Congressman John Conyers, wrote to Attorney General Mukasey asking for a Special Prosecutor. Conyers and Congressman Jerrold Nadler wrote to Mukasey again in December 2008. Please ask them to re-send these letters to the new Attorney General, Eric Holder. Conyers 202-225-5126, Nadler 202-225-5635. Nadler says he's drafting a new letter. Here's a letter we've drafted that you can ask your congress member to send.
Also sign the No Amnesty for Torturers Petition to Congress.
Congressman John Conyers has proposed extending statutes of limitations on Bush-Cheney crimes. Help make this happen.
Contact the State Department's Office of War Crimes Issues and urge them to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.
International:The International Criminal Court can also indict. Please request it.
And petition the United Nations to set up an international tribunal.
Foreign:
Our friends at the Center for Constitutional Rights are coordinating with attorneys pursuing prosecutions in other countries under universal jurisdiction.
The British and Spanish governments have begun criminal investigations.
Best of Torture on Open Salon that you won't see on the front page:
Dennis Loo
Obama: Gitmo Prisoners Aren't "Persons"
Obama Calls for Changes to the Criminal Code
Tugging on the Torture Thread
Penis Cutting: Torture or State Sponsored Body Modification?
Why Obama Released the Torture Memos
"Lack a Certain Polish:" Torture and the American Conscience
Maj. Gen. Taguba Calls for War Crimes Commission
_________________
The Wrong Torture Question
Torture Revealed Yet Again
Personal Torture Laws: Your Tax Dollars at Work
ImpeachBybee.org
_________________
Monte Canfield
Torture: House Judiciary Chair Asks for Special Prosecutor
President Obama Confronts Evil and Blinks, Again!
The Ethics of The President's Decision on Torture
Options for a CIA/Justice/White House Torture Probe
_________________
TadCF
WHAT ABOUT TORTURE?
_________________
norman kelley
Jesus and Torture: Or, What If Jesus Was Waterboarded?
American Water Torture: Once Is Not Enough
_________________
Norwonk
Enhanced Interrogation in Motion
Dick Cheney, National Coward
Prosecution of Torturers? That's So Banana Republic!
The Defense Phil Spector Should Have Used
Barack Obama, War Criminal?
_________________
trevor seitz
Does Torture Have A Statute Of Limitations?
_________________
libertarius
Obama and Torture: Did He Say Just Following Orders?
_________________
Gary Herstein
The Works (or, do I hear water?)
_________________
Paul J. O'Rourke
Politics and Torture
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Tom Cordle
Tortured Principles and Temporary Practicality
_________________
Kent Pitman
Hypocrisy and High Collar Crimes
Rule of Law
_________________
Douglas Moran
Torture: The Under-the-Radar Folks
Torture: The Supporters
_________________
Carey Krause
Morals and CIA Memos: Can we practice what we preach?
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markinjapan
Tortured decision
Generals and Admirals
Obama tries to put one over on us
_________________
Lisa Solod Warren
"Trickle Down Torture"
_________________
Mick Arran
Cheney Defends Torture
_________________
Noahvose
TORTURE: Principles or Security?
_________________
Paul Levinson
The Deeper Issue in Investigating Bush Admin Torture Policy
_________________
fingerlakeswanderer
Where Was the Torture Outrage in 2005?
_________________
D.M. Schwartz
Play the Torture Tapes
_________________
OEsheepdog
Torture Works? A movie that turns that idea on its head.
_________________
Faith Paulsen
My 30-Year Learning Curve on the Torture Issue
_________________
J.E. Robertson
Cheney Throws Last Shred of Credibility to the Wind
_________________
Lea Lane
Torture Prosecution: “Conviction” To Counter “Passion"
_________________
Sally Swift
Abu Ghraib Tortured Us All
_________________
Kind of Blue
Christopher Hitchens On Video Being Water Boarded.
_________________
Bart Hawkins Kreps
Decriminalizing torture
_________________
Owl_Says_Who
The Torturers Could Have Been You . . . or Me
_________________
Justin Schmidt
Average Conservatives are Pro-Torture. Period.
_________________
Hobolawstudent
The Dates: A short story, not mine to tell.
_________________
undertow
Peggy Noonan, Past and Present
_________________
Max the Communist
John Burge and the Prosecution of Torture
_________________
Rick Lucke
Obama’s Unreasoned Excuses; Who Believes Them?
_________________
Dave Edgar
Moral Torture: How to make sense of it
_________________
DJohn
Is The Speaker in Trouble?
What Would YOU Do? Remember, NO "Torture"!
_________________
Tony Wang
Obama: Torture Investigations Distracting
All Torture, All the Time
_________________
ESSENTIAL SATIRE:
Procopius
Breaking News: Solzhenitsyn Nobel Posthumously Rescinded!
_________________
The Desperate Blogger
Cheney Calls for Probe of McCain, POWs
_________________
The Nudity - lest we forget:
Comments
--rated--
They do not record my name or even my state, so why not?
(I would have included a reference to the debate with Amy T. about antibiotics and their effects, and use antibiotics as a metaphor, since she said that antibiotics' use didn't promote the mutation of more virulent viruses and bacteria, but she's not here anymore!)
The HUGE problem with what this major revealed to the Army IG is that Bush and Cheney were torturing with a political agenda. They were looking to justify invading Iraq by any means.
I am a fan of emptywheel and just chipped in some dough to the Marcy Wheeler fund. With the corporate owned M$M falling down on the job for the past seven years, it is important to support independent journalist watch dogs. And the ACLU.
Now, there's a list I'm proud to be on. Keep up the good work!
My question is...what are we to do to get information needed to keep our country safe? We are still in danger. We need to be vigilant... so how do we get the info needed from captured terrorists? Would you rather compromise the safety of thousands?
We are supposed to be different than those we're "fighting", aren't we? Do we have to become like them in order to defeat them?
No thanks. I don't want any part of that.
What's it like living in constant fear?
Torture is happening right now in Bagram, Gitmo and in secret prisons all around the world.
The intensity of the torture at Gitmo has increased since Obama took office.
Having been burned by low level people with cameras before, steps have been taken to insure photos are not being taken. CIA interrogation tapes are being destroyed illegally to keep the crimes from not coming to light.
It is not just a "few bad apples" that were torturing at Abu Ghraib. The report released this week by the Senate - the one I have linked in the blog that you apparently don't give a crap about - proves that torture was a policy conceived and implemented at the very highest levels of our government.
You are wrong on the issue. Being comfortable with people being tortured in your name is evil. Are you an evil person? Would your Jesus torture?
You might want to check out ProPublica/> where there are a number of stories collected on the Torture issue. Stories that you may find illuminating.
I have been sending my emails and doing what I can.
Thank you.
Rated.
a. sage = wise
b. sage = the stuff gwb used to play with in crawford
c. sage = parsly, ____, rosemary, and thyme.
I vote b., and suggest you stick to the black bras and bunnies, already, on your blog, of which you MAY have some semblance of knowledge..
Thank You. Then, the demented pro-war-lie?
They may find the self in a photo Hell album?
Then? They will cry because they didn't smile.
Now? They put bunny finger on the pals head.
Hades? Oy! Wear bunny pajamas with the feet.
Done and done (I hope to add at least one more "done" by mid-morning!).
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