Bush Team Pushed Torture behind Myers' Back
The Guardian, basing itself on a soon-to-be-published book by Philippe Sands (Torture Team) reveals that torture was implemented at Guantanamo Bay in the face of opposition from Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, by White House lawyers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes, as well as Jay Bybee and John Yoo, (two assistant attorney generals). (See also Sands' article in Vanity Fair, which points the finger at the very top of the White House.)
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, is quoted as saying that the perpetrators of torture could well be arrested and tried in other countries as war criminals if they travel abroad. It is an index of the despotism to which the United States has fallen victim that we must hope for other, more civilized countries, to try our war criminals. Why can't public officials be prosecuted for violating the Bill of Rights' guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment? Why can't an International Military Tribunal be set up as at Nuremberg?
So not only did the Bush administration use the Pentagon to snow the American people via retired generals, but one of the things they were concerned to cover up was the major practice of torture at Guantanamo. They took it off the national agenda.
There were lots of innocents swept up by Rumsfeld's vacuum cleaner at Guantanamo. (See this new memoir from Palgrave Macmillan) The Bush administration resists this conclusion and has even said it would not release prisoners found innocent! The Taliban used to sell people to the Americans, and would often finger innocents; it got the Taliban out of trouble and could even be lucrative. A handful of Iraqi Shiites who had escaped to Afghanistan from Saddam, the poor bastards, were then turned over to the Americans as dangerous terrorists by their Sunni enemies. I don't know if they were ever released, even though the US then allied with Iraqi Shiites to overthrow Saddam!
Although there are some terrorists at Guantanamo, torturing them was not only illegal but also a very bad idea. Under torture, Ibn al-Shaykh Libi told the US that Saddam Hussein had training camps in Iraq used to school al-Qaeda in the use of chemical weapons. Dick Cheney and Condi Rice both cited this false confession as a reason to go to war against Iraq.
While UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray discovered the ways in which the US and its satellites were using torture to manufacture stories about al-Qaeda threats that did not exist, as a means of rounding up people and torturing them into admitting they were al-Qaeda, which in turn justified US bases, more billions for the military industrial complex, etc.
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/21/2008 01:00:00 AM
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10 Comments:
"Why can't public officials be prosecuted for violating the Bill of Rights' guarantee against cruel and unusual torture? Why can't an International Military Tribunal be set up as at Nuremberg?"
Because the Military Commissions Act gave them Congressional ordered immunity that probably cannot be constitutionally revoked retroactively.
All of which brings up a question: how the heck can I emigrate out of the USA?
Dear Professor Cole,
I have read you daily since you began ... and always .. I find you feed me well thought out fare .. although .. it is not always good for my digestion.
Just sayin' .. 'Thank you' .. for the education.
Hey, it keeps them off the streets in America. /sarcasm
US army increases use of moral waivers to meet demand for troops
Elana Schor in Washington
guardian.co.uk
Monday, 21 April 2008
The US army doubled its use of "moral waivers" for enlisted soldiers last year to cope with the stress of the Iraq war, allowing convicted sex offenders, people convicted of making terrorist threats and child abusers into the military, according to new records released today.
The army gave out 511 moral waivers to soldiers with felony convictions last year, relaxing its recruiting standards in order to admit them. Criminals got 249 army waivers in 2006, a sign that the high demand for US forces in Iraq has forced a sharp increase in the number of criminals allowed on the battlefield.
The felons accepted into the army and marines included 87 soldiers convicted of assault or maiming, 130 convicted of non-marijuana drug offences, seven convicted of making terrorist threats, and two convicted of indecent behaviour with a child. Waivers were also granted to 500 burglars and thieves, 19 arsonists and 9 sex offenders.
Please note in the NYT article that they did not cover how the NYT acted as shrills for the Pentagon and the White House. Also note this article, written in 2002:
http://www.fair.org/activism/osi-propaganda.html
The New York Times reported today that the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence is “developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations” in an effort “to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries.”
The OSI was created shortly after September 11 to publicize the U.S. government’s perspective in Islamic countries and to generate support for the U.S.’s “war on terror.” This latest announcement raises grave concerns that far from being an honest effort to explain U.S. policy, the OSI may be a profoundly undemocratic program devoted to spreading disinformation and misleading the public, both at home and abroad. At the same time, involving reporters in Pentagon disinformation puts the lives of working journalists at risk.
"Despite the OSI’s multi-million-dollar budget and its mandate to propagandize throughout the Middle East, Asia and Western Europe, “even many senior Pentagon officials and Congressional military aides say they know almost nothing about its purpose and plans,” according to the Times. The Times reported that the OSI’s latest announcement has generated opposition within the Pentagon among those who fear that it will undermine the Defense Department’s credibility."
And the commenter above who mentioned the Military Commissions Act is correct - that piece of legislation made us all complicit in torture, because it let everyone who was involved off the hook.
Now, in this country we have a majority who want impeachment investigations to go forward, and wanted that for years. We have ample evidence of wrong-doing, yet our elected officials DO NOTHING. Even on the state level they DO NOTHING. Democratic parties in several Democratic-controlled states have asked the state legislature to file articles of impeachment - this happened in North Carolina.
Yet nothing is done.
Can we really survive as a country when our Constitution is repeatedly undermined and criminals of vast hideous crimes are let off the hook or even set up as acceptable leaders?
Now, most Americans know that something is vastly wrong, but if there is no action taken to address the wrongs and find justice for those who are responsible - will our country survive? Will voting be able to "fix" this, when the people we are voting for are complicit?
All wars start with lies.
The ones starting them are the liars.
Therefore, every American should have been opposed to these wars on Iraq and Afghanistan - they were started on a pack of lies, strictly for fun and profit.
Can we do this much evil and survive as a country?
I guess it had to happen sooner or later:
someone defending the performance of Richard Myers as CJCS.
He is the best possible argument for never putting a non-military person in that slot.
In it's narrow sense, "military" refers to the Army and USMC;
the other 3 services are properly called "armed forces."
your avid student
This congresswoman said it best about General Myers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr5np6SD8oo
Of course the Bush Team demanded torture. Never have such a depraved, degenerate group of men defaced and defiled our country and our Constitution as this group. Their vicious personalities revel in such brutality. Their petty,vile little egos require a frequent dose of grinding humanity under their jackboots so they can feel powerful and important. They easily ignore the fact that torture produces unreliable and even dangerous information. They gladly ignore the Geneva Convention, and deride its value. They throw morality, ethics, compassion and decency to the winds. They give not one second of thought to the consequences of such behavior upon our troops; the example that is set for them; the horrors that may befall them if captured.These degenerates DO NOT CARE about human rights; about justice; about taking the high road. They have lowered the bar so far into the mud, that it can no longer be found. Out of sight. Out of mind. Because they are sickened by their own lust for power and fortune; they choose to ignore any guidelines, any facts, any pleas for decency.Their dysfunctional personalities are defined by a narcissim so ingrained it boggles the mind. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and their flunkies and sycophants should face a court that is straight out of Nuremberg. They should be tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide, depraved indifference to life, and any other charge that can be thrown at them. They have caused immeasurable pain and suffering; disgraced our country; and deserve the most severe punishment that can be handed down upon them.
A different form of torture is being applied by Saudi King Abdullah in tandemm with the Russians--Their oil extraction flows will never again be as high as recently per their own admissions. Additional commentary on the gravity of the situation is also provided from Monday's ASPO-USA's weekly Peak Oil Review:
Commentary: Saudi King Abdullah drops quiet bombshell; U.S. media sleep through it
By Steve Andrews and Randy Udall:
On April 13, Reuters reported the following from Riyadh:
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said he had ordered some new oil discoveries left untapped to preserve oil wealth in the world's top exporter for future generations…
"When there were some new finds, I told them, 'no, leave it in the ground, with grace from god, our children need it'," King Abdullah said…
Saudi production capacity stands at around 11.3 million bpd, and is scheduled to rise to 12.5 million bpd next year.
The King’s remarks seem to confirm a statement made last year by Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi who, when asked “How high can your production go?” replied, “We’ll get to 12.5 million barrels a day and then we’ll see.”
If the Saudi announcement was a bombshell, American nearly newspapers [sic] ignored it. We decided to canvass experts we respect to see what they thought.
Excerpts follow:
Tom Petrie, vice president, Merrill Lynch:
“King Abdullah’s quote speaks to the fast-emerging reality of what I call ‘practical peak oil.’ The Saudis and other exporters are placing a new emphasis on elongating the petroleum exploitation and depletion cycle. This stems from a growing awareness of the challenges of conventional resource maturity, as well as rising resource nationalism. This is likely to result in an earlier occurrence of global peak oil output than many consumers yet recognize.”
Charles T. Maxwell, senior energy analyst, Weeden & Co:
“If Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves are not going to be made available to the world in future years, beyond the expansion they have already signaled (to 12.5 million barrels/day), then the geologic oil supply constraints that we are feeling in many other parts of the world are going to close in on us earlier and more severely than we previously thought. It’s a major change in policy. It’s a powerful message. It makes the geologic message that much more decisive.”
Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review:
“King Abdullah’s statement represents the final seal of approval on an emerging Saudi policy of restricting output to save oil for future generations. In recent years the Saudis have been managing expectations of future capacity steadily downwards. No one now talks of their reaching 15mn b/d. If they reach 12.5mn b/d, while maintaining 1-2mn b/d of ‘spare’ capacity, we should plan for Saudi production to be 9-11mn b/d for the foreseeable future.
“High oil prices and bulging treasuries are giving producing countries the option of maximizing plateau production. We may never know if these decisions are being dictated by geology or driven by a political imperative of ‘saving oil for later generations.’ I suspect it’s a mixture of the two.
“In any case, there is now a broad-based move by energy exporters, including Russia, Angola, Azerbaijan, and Norway, to restrict expansion to maximize plateau flows. If this takes hold, then global supplies will reach a peak rather earlier than analysis of future projects would indicate.”
Matt Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International:
“This statement by the Supreme Ruler of Saudi Arabia has far-reaching implications. That King Addullah would now instruct his servants to conserve the oil they pump and save some for the kids and grandkids of today's Saudi citizens is most profound.
“King Abdullah has exhibited a sense of wisdom not seen since his brother, King Faisal ruled the Kingdom until his tragic assassination. Assuming his health continues, he might lead Saudi Arabia successfully into a post-peak world and create sustainable middle class wealth for the 90% of Saudi Arabia who had accidentally been left behind.
“The world should bless this intelligent pronouncement. It is a reflection that Twilight set in on the oilfields of Arabia a few years ago.”
Richard Nehring, president of Nerhingdatabase.com
“This development is part of what I’ve called the ‘Prudential Plateau.’ Some key countries with large reserves and resources have decided to maintain production at current levels—but not increase it. This is a two-edged sword: you can no longer count on these countries for increases, but you can count on them for the base. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar will probably join in this shift.”
Jeffrey Rubin, chief economist, CIBC World markets
“A far more plausible explanation for faltering growth in Saudi production and exports is that they are rapidly approaching maximum production. Given soaring rates of internal consumption for oil, they will soon be exporting less not more crude to world oil markets.
“Russian Natural Resource Minister Yuri Trutnev’s has said that Russian production and exports will fall this year, for the first time in a decade. We forecast that exports from OPEC, Russia and Mexico will actually decline by 2.5 million barrels per day between now and 2012. It’s far from obvious who is going to fill this supply gap, let alone meet the need of future global crude demand growth.”
Jeremy Gilbert, BP’s retired chief petroleum engineer
“I have no idea whether there was a real choice for the Saudis to make. Perhaps it's all 'spin'; perhaps there were discoveries, but there was some property of the reservoirs which made them very difficult to develop, and it made sense to delay development until improved technology or much higher prices arrived; perhaps it's the plain basic truth - a very rare commodity.
“What I do know is that several countries in the Gulf have long chosen to operate their fields with depletion rates far below those that a Western company would consider optimal, or even sensible. Depletion rates of between 1 and 2%/ per year are not uncommon in the United Arab Emirates. Local leaders have repeatedly said that they feel an obligation to preserve some of their natural resources. These feelings must be intensified when their recent production has been sold for US dollars which have depreciated by 25% or more against other strong world currencies over the last four years.
“The countries around the Gulf, which would once have come to the aid of a faltering U.S., now are either delighted about the U.S. plight or just don't care. They are not going to do anything to reduce world oil prices. Instead, they are going to maximize their economic take while minimizing depletion of their sole natural resource.”
Herman Franssen, president of International Energy Associates
“King Abdullah's remarks reflect the new thinking in the Middle East, where the Kuwaiti parliament has also expressed a need to stabilize oil exports. Higher oil prices enable producers to focus more on domestic investments than on increasing exports. All Gulf countries have seen huge growth in domestic demand for power and fuel. By 2015, Iran may consume as much of its crude oil as they export. The King’s remarks mean that we in the industrialized countries better start looking for other solutions.”
I will add: biofuels are no solution; they are a form of terrorism, or as a senior UN diplomat said, "biofuels are a crime against humanity." How many more millions will die to support the perverse American lifestyle?
The really egregious aspect of this is that Myers didn't resign in protest and then reveal the administration's despicable plan. So much for patriotism.
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