Previously classified memos from the White House confirm that torture was directly approved at the highest level of the government. The Administration has previously suggested that it rescinded the infamous torture memo signed by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and treated that memorandum as an aberrant mistake. However, it is now confirmed that the White House approved a known form of torture to be used on detainees.
Ironically, the new memos are more of an embarrassment for Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi who continue to insist that there was no evidence supporting even in investigation into President Bush’s commission of criminal acts.
The pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 explicitly endorses the agency’s use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. Notably, the memos were demanded by the CIA, which clearly feared a criminal prosecution for committing an act previously found to be a war crime.
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‘… The pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 explicitly endorses the agency’s use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. Notably, the memos were demanded by the CIA, which clearly feared a criminal prosecution for committing an act previously found to be a war crime…’
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JT, I sometimes research your site to remind myself of former posts – mine, and notable other’s – which I distinctly remember making
and/or reading. I do very well at locating those uppermost in my memory.
It would be great if you could update your past articles with relevant notable additions, when appropriate, in concert with linking the old articles to the new ones…
p.s I don’t get the ‘automatically generated’ stuff, more often than not. Where does that stuff come from?
Buddha,
I hope you are right about Pelosi’s chances of getting ousted from her district seat. It would be a benefit to the Party and to the country if she was sent to an early retirement.
gah
Lots.
Bad fingers. No Coffee.
raff,
From what I hear from my friends in Pelosi’s district, she’s going to pay with her office next election. They are not happy with Ms. Impeachment’s Off The Table. One of them, a pollster, thinks she’ll be lucky to garner 30% next time she goes to stick her snout in the trough. Lot’s of grassroots Bush anger in the Bay area and she’s seen as an enabler by the worst group possible (for her) – her constituents.
This issue is close to the heart of why Cheney and Bush must face criminal charges. Torture is the most un-American of activities. Hugh said “An Orwellian solution to an Orwellian regime.” What do you think will happen when Bush flees to Paraguay and Cheney to Dubai? Having a SEAL team drag them across the lawn to Blackhawks waiting to whisk them away to trial is a possible (if not likely) outcome. One I hope to live to see come to fruition. They are war criminals and ordinary run of the mill thieves. RICO may be too good for them although the RNC and PNAC are ripe targets for such prosecution. The important thing is that they and their criminal lackeys like Stephen Hadley be brought to justice one way or another. It’s the only way to repair our international standing. But make no mistake. Hugh is on to something with extraordinary rendition comparisons. Bringing these criminals to trial will require extraordinary process. They won’t go quietly or legally. They’ve proven that.
Nancy Pelosi and most Democrats (not to mention all Republicons) may be too timid to press for impeachment, but in time it won’t matter. Many of these Bush administration war criminals will spend the rest of their lives avoiding many countries for fear that they will be called to account, even if the dogma in the US is that “No American can commit a war crime”.
My understanding is that Henry Kissinger avoids several European countries for similar reasons.
Moreover, as the Israelis established with the abduction and arrest of Eichmann and Vanunu (two very different cases) and as the US did with Noriega, there is precedent for abducting Herr Bush and company and rendering them extraordinarily to a third country for prosecution.
An Orwellian solution to an Orwellian regime.