The Bush Administration was accused this week of helping cover-up the massacre of possibly thousands of Taliban prisoners by an American-backed warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. Dostrum is widely viewed as a butcher and war criminal. He was also on the payroll of the CIA.
Bush officials repeatedly discouraged efforts by the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups to investigate the massacre and said that it would undermine our war effort.
The report appears to show how readily Bush officials not only committed war crimes in the commission of torture but embraced war criminals as allies.
General Dostum is up for reappointment as military chief of staff to President Karzai.
We have, of course, demanded death of those responsible for massacring American troops at places like Malmédy — just as we prosecuted people for waterboarding our soldiers.
For the full story, click here.
To Mike Spindell:
Thanks for your insights and comments. I agree with most, if not all, of what you’ve said.
It must be also be said that Martin Luther King, Jr. was apparently, if not certainly, the victim of COINTELPRO. Based on my experiences, I believe that COINTELPRO is alive and well today, but I can’t prove this assertion, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
In addition to the prosecution of war crimes, we need congressional hearings “with teeth” to expose the domestic programs that continue to this day and must be stopped.
“So many Americans are worn out and/or asleep… Waking people up is, in and of itself, a difficult problem, at best.’
Anon,
Waking people up is hard but it is the beginning of the solution. We have all been inculcated with versions of the American Dream, to the extent that even those iconoclasts among us (I count myself as one but admit my own deficiencies in this)are affected to some degree. We are a controlled populace because we are a brainwashed populace. We covet material things as life’s necessities. We’ve become seekers of “status” for its own sake. We teach our foibles to our children and we also teach them our skewed values. How can any believer in Jesus and the Gospels for instance, think that they are best represented by the Republican (I hold no brief for Democrats either)Party?
The hippie Revolution of my generation was a threat not because we marched against the War, or for Civil Rights. We were a threat because we offered the country a different lifestyle, one not proscribed by wealth and status. Dr. King
became a threat as did the Civil Rights Movement because it showed an alternate view of American Reality that wasn’t how it was portrayed to most of us. When Dr. King started protesting Poverty and the War that was when he was conveniently murdered by a “lone gunman.”
The late 60’s also marked the rise of the return of heroin, brought straight from Viet Nam’s Golden Triangle and flown in on the Air American planes run by the CIA. Not conspiracy theory but documented. Heroin helped to disrupt the Civil Rights Movement and also the Hippie Movement. A few years later Cocaine was added to the mix and in the 80’s Crack, cocaine on steroids decimated the black and the impoverished communities, while a dumb, “B” Movie Actor helped loot our treasury.
People need to be reawakened, not because they’re dumb, or don’t care, or are “sheeple,” but because they have been brainwashed. We need to be their “de-programmers,” not through a sense of superiority, but with compassion for the fact that their lives are being stolen from them.
Think about it. Even freedom has been redefined by commercial America, as the ability to choose between a variety of products. Reawakening is the first step. what got Timothy Leary prosecuted wasn’t LSD per se, it was his radical dictum:
“Turn on, Tune In, Drop Out.” We don’t need LSD to open people’s eyes. If enough people get the message the damage is done and the system begins to collapse simply because they need our buying into it, to keep it going.
Jill,
Thanks for the additional information and links — I’ll read and respond. I was left with the image of Eric Holder, I believe, saying, “The United States does not torture.” I thought it had stopped. Many Americans probably think that it has stopped.
There aren’t too many things that I know for certain, but I know this. We are in deep trouble, as individuals and as a country.
anon,
To continue:
I can’t link to this article. It’s not online. It is by Luke Mitchell in July 2009 Harper’s magazine. The title is: We Still Torture:
“We still torture:
The new evidence from Guantánamo
By Luke Mitchell
Luke Mitchell is a senior editor of Harper’s Magazine.
We face the temptation to believe that an election can “change everything”—that the stark contrast between Barack Obama and George W. Bush recapitulates an equally stark contrast between the present and the past. But political events move within a continuum, and they are driven by many forces other than democratic action, including the considerable power of their own momentum. Such is the case with the ongoing American experiment with torture.
Sorry—the full text of this item is only available to Harper’s Magazine subscribers. Subscribe today for as little as $16.97 per year!”
Also, if you go to The Guardian newspaper, search under the name Binyam Mohamed. Even if you look at the last 7 days of articles, they will be quite the eye opener.
anon,
1. Here is some of Jeremy Scahill’s piece and the link:
“As the Obama administration continues to fight the release of some 2,000 photos that graphically document U.S. military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, an ongoing Spanish investigation is adding harrowing details to the ever-emerging portrait of the torture inside and outside Guantánamo. Among them: “blows to [the] testicles;” “detention underground in total darkness for three weeks with deprivation of food and sleep;” being “inoculated … through injection with ‘a disease for dog cysts;'” the smearing of feces on prisoners; and waterboarding. The torture, according to the Spanish investigation, all occurred “under the authority of American military personnel” and was
sometimes conducted in the presence of medical professionals.
More significantly, however, the investigation could for the first time place an intense focus on a notorious, but seldom discussed, thug squad deployed by the U.S. military to retaliate with excessive violence to the slightest resistance by prisoners at Guantánamo.
The force is officially known as the the Immediate Reaction Force or Emergency Reaction Force, but inside the walls of Guantánamo, it is known to the prisoners as the Extreme Repression Force. Despite President Barack Obama’s publicized pledge to close the prison camp and end torture — and analysis from human rights lawyers who call these forces’ actions illegal — IRFs remain very much active at Guantánamo.”
http://www.alternet.org/rights/140022/little_known_military_thug_squad_still_brutalizing_prisoners_at_gitmo_under_obama/
Okay,
What have I missed? The Obama administration is still torturing detainees??
gila,
The Obama administration is torturing detainees. They will not prosecute torture when they’ve decided to continue it.
I would agree that this has to be approached “with collective creativity”, but it’s difficult to know where to begin. I’ve read Naomi Wolf’s books: “Give Me Liberty” and “The End of Amercica”. She offers suggestions, but her approach seems limited and I doubt it’s efficacy, given what we’re up against.
So many Americans are worn out and/or asleep… Waking people up is, in and of itself, a difficult problem, at best.
I agree w/ Mike & Jill’s remarks. What continues to baffle me is why Obama & his administration remain complicit in all these crimes. The only reason I can come up with for their lack of spine (as JT put it on Countdown last night) is that they are equally culpable. Am I wrong? I’m asking the legal minds here, Who’s job IS it to prosecute? Why isn’t it being done when the crimes committed are so obvious?
“The Family”, equally disturbing. What ever happened to separation of church & state ….. HA
I’m very happy about the brainstorming that has been going on and hope this brainstorming will continue. I’m not underestimating what we’re up against. We should just keep putting out ideas. It will take collective creativity to figure out what to do and how to do it. I agree with Itheduk that it must be done in the open. Our ideas will be known by the govt. anyway. More importantly, we will benefit from openness and the free exchange of ideas.
Regarding Mike S’s remarks: Yes, I agree. And if we do nothing, or don’t take take action “smartly”, we’re all screwed. I’ve seen the fascism firsthand. Let’s hope it isn’t too late.
I agree with the coup part, but my sense is that it has been going on since the founding of our country. We are all merely pawns in the game, with our only strength being our numbers and the need of the oligarchs to maintain some semblance of freedom to keep people playing the game. That is the thin wedge we have to take away the usurpers power and that is why I urge that we think our moves through carefully, while fully understanding that which is arrayed against us. The fight is worthwhile, but any fight I’m in I’m in to win and all I ask for from my compatriots, the real patriots, is that we do it smartly.
Jill said: “We are in a bad spot here. We are a Republic in name only.”
Well said.
rafflaw,
I think the Obama administration is very clear about the fact that crimes have been committed. They simply have no intention of prosecuting these crimes. Indeed, worse than their lack of prosecution is the fact that they continue to uphold Bush’s most heinous practices. If you read Jeremy Scahill, Harper’s July issue and The Guardian on Binyam Mohamed, it will no longer be a question as to whether the Obama administration tortures, it will be known to you as a fact.
Therefore, I think this is the wrong question to ask: “what will finally make the Obama administration aware that crimes were committed?” They already know about the crimes. They sanction them and are committing these same crimes.
Many people feel Obama is a victim of his advisors. To believe this is to believe Obama is a much weaker man than Bush. Bush was able to fire generals and the highest level attys. within hours of their disagreement and lack of willingness to go along with his insanity. If Bush was able to fire his advisors, how can it be that Obama cannot? We are in a bad spot here. We are a Republic in name only.
Jill is right — “The Family” clip is a must-see and truly alarming. I would agree that “we have had a coup in our own country.” And many Americans seem too busy to care and/or react.
My experiences comport with some sort of process or program that is absolutely contrary to the rule of law and, yet, it continues. Because there is no evidence, those who should be helping (local law enforcement and/or the FBI) make the claim that their hands are tied until “someone is hurt” or there is tangible evidence. In some cases, they take it a step further and “blame the victims”, apparently going to great lengths to do so.
Those involved in what seems to be some sort of “out of control” parallel (and arbitrary) justice system target individuals, keep them under unbelievably close surveillance, attempt to discredit them, and enter homes surreptitiously. There have been cases of vandalism and theft of personal property. It’s a sadistic, Machiavellian process that strips people of their 4th Amendment rights and leaves them with no recourse. It’s taking place in plain sight, but under the radar of most Americans. These are clearly campaigns of psychological harassment.
There is no justification for these campaigns of terror against many good, law-abiding, patriotic Americans. When the targets speak out, they are dismissed and labeled as paranoid or delusional. It’s a pretty brilliant scheme that permits what appears to be a state-sanctioned process to continue unabated.
I would stake my life on these claims — I know that what I’m saying is true beyond any shadow of a doubt.
These are truly perilous times. Someone needs to expose and stop what is yet another “program” being carried out all across America.
These most recent disclosures of crimes by the Bush Administration should convince even the Obama Administration that investigations need to start Now.
War crimes are now “policy differences” and therefore accountability does not apply, it is off the table.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/when-indoctrination-is-enlightenment.html
This should be the video interview on The Family. It has a 28 sec. commercial first:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/
I truly think Jeff Sharlet’s book, “The Family” explains so much of what we see, including this. Rachael Maddow did an interview with him last night (which I will try to find). The Family represents our ruling class in a religious ideology of murder and authoritarianism “for Jesus”. She had a video of their minister, Doug Coe, extolling the virtues of a member of the red army cutting off the head of his own mother. This was Mr. Coe’s highest virtue– unquestioning obediance to authority. He called this authority, Jesus, but I would say what he really means is obediance to himself and the rest of the ruling elite. Jeremy Scahill at rebelreports is one go-to guy on the reporting of the CIA and their many connections to unsavory actors. Here’s an older article from Sharlet:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525
I think we must come to terms with the fact that we have had a coup in our own nation.
If true and I do believe why are they not being charged. Jill, I am moving closer to your side.