. . . soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Dpartment issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was . . . an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.
The New York Times dug up this information in relation to the controversy about the Bush administration's use of illegal torture techniques on terror suspects. This is an extremely important issue and Glen Greenwald has a typically excellent post on the pervasive lawbreaking of the Bush administration in relation to interrogation policy here.
But the point I want to make is that the secret memos on torture are unlikely to be the end of the story. It's most likely that lots of confidential memos have been written to justify the illegal, corrupt, or inept practices of Bush administration appointees. For better or worse, there's no reason to think Bush appointees have been any more interested in following the law or adhering to their own procedures in managing the Department of Homeland Security or the EPA than the Justice Department. Little bombs like the secret torture memos unearthed by the Times may be set to go off all over the federal government.
As bad as the situation looks now, it's probably going to look a lot worse after a more complete picture of the Bush administration emerges.
And that more complete picture will begin to emerge if Bush is replaced by a Demcratic president in 2008.
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4 comments:
A more competent Congress would have been a help too.
I am absolutely shocked that not only did they lie to us, they did in violation of America's moral superiority and our ideals. They are purely disgusting.
Still waiting for that first "torture of human beings is bad" post from Protein Wisdom. Maybe freedom from torture isn't part of being a "classic liberal." I seem to remember Hume and Locke were convinced it was a grand idea.
You're suprised that these people lied to us and violated our ideals. I too am disgusted by their actions, indeed outraged, but not particularly suprised.
The people who have had charge of the US government for the past six years do not regard the tortured as human beings. They view their victims as obstacles. They torture and snuff out the lives, reputations, careers, etc of people here and around the world with the same careless nonchalance that you or Ric or I would swat a fly. You must understand that they come from a world where nothing THEY do is unnaceptable. They do not apply to themselves the set of norms that most of us accept as "life." They are drunken with power, lives of unbelievable privildge, and unnacountability undreamed of by ordinary people.
Ironically, my faith informs me on such issues as much as anything else. My LDS faith teaches me that we should support honest political leadership. Leaders who do not manipulate the American people into supporting unnecessary foreign wars that destroy the native populations and destabilize the region.
The war in Iraq has indeed brought destruction upon an innocent civilian population, bringing the Iraqi people to the brink of annihilation and the outbreak of a civil war.
Torture certainly is beyond all moral, social, and humaitarian boundaries.
A leader of my religion once said, "We are a warlike people...When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of...steel--ships, planes, missiles, fortifications...and depend on them for protection and deliverance... in the manner of Satan's counterfeit of true patriotism, [we pervert]the Savior's teaching: "Love your enemies..."-Spencer W.
Kimball
Of course, I do not expect others to believe my religious beliefs to be relevant discourse. Nothing is sacred in the responces I read here so let's turn to a different argument which perhaps speaks to the subject at hand in a much more direct fashion.
Ric, in your post you said this;"As bad as the situation looks now, it's probably going to look a lot worse after a more complete picture of the Bush administration emerges." I have no doubt that this is a true statement. What we already know makes my skin crawl. We already know The intent of this administration and this Vice President has been to silence all dissent. Fear is the method employed. Fear is the only public discourse this administration understands and practices and abhorrent physical abuse is the way they get their version of the truth. Why follow the law, when you believe you are above the law?
While President Bush claims that the United States does not condone the use torture, he seems to be leaving out a crucial part of that claim: The U.S. does not condone the use torture by the U.S. If other countries do it, that's their problem. And so our prisoners end up in places like Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is not a place renowned for its celebration of human rights. I think that's one of the places where human beings are boiled alive. This does not stop this Administration from using intelligence obtained by torture in that country even though torture, aside from being and inhuman practice also would, to my mind, not be an effective tool in information gathering. If someone is enduring intense physical torture, would it not stand to reason that this individual would say whatever his/her captors want to hear in order to make the torture stop. I know I would.
For a president who prides himself on his morality and promotion of "a culture of life," this kind of duplicity is not only hypocritical; it's unconscionable.
Okay "ef", get ready to mock me for quoting a movie again. Another description of the murderer, Michael Myers from "Rob Zombie's Halloween", a description that applies perfectly to the kind of people in a Presidential Administration who very quietly condone the acts of which we are speaking. HERE IT IS: "“These eyes will deceive you, they will destroy you. They will take from you, your innocence, your pride, and eventually your soul. These eyes do not see what you and I see. Behind these eyes one finds only blackness, the absence of light, these are of a psychopath.”- Dr. Sam Loomis, (Rob Zombie’s Halloween.) LET THE MERCILESS MOCKERY COMMENCE. I EXPECT NO LESS THAN YOUR BEST INSULTS PW GUYS.
An Administration who deceived us and destroys what it means to be an American. Loss of our "innocence", "our pride", in who we are. An Administration and a movement that has demoralized the very "soul" of the nation. Leaders who "do not see what you and I see." Psychopaths.
That will be the "picture", the legacy of the Administration of George W. Bush and the five years he ruled with total control of the legislative and executive branches of government.
tim,
to think that America has ever had moral superiority is worse than nieve. In the name of America, africans, indians, polynesians, japanese americans, irish americans, catholics, french, women, arabs, jews, and every other group has been harrassed, butchered and attacked (and that is just within our own country). we don't have moral superiority, and we never have.
I must be honest though, i'm not worried about the torture policy because it is a policy that many presidents have implemented (though none have been cuaght with it). the problem for me though is the destroyed reputation and diplomatic networks of america.
but in the end it doesn't matter how much people dislike bush - he won. Congress approved two conservative judges to the supreme court. He did the largest restructuring of government since fdr. and he helped create one of the largest and strongest economies America has ever had. so with the tarnished reputation of scandals (just like every president) and a poorly executed though well intended war, bush still won as far as lasting impact. in 10 years, america will still have in some way been shaped by Bush.
"We already know The intent of this administration and this Vice President has been to silence all dissent"
If that is the case, they have been wildly unsuccessful, no? How have they managed to not run you, timb, and Caric off to Gitmo. Obviously, your dissent has not been silenced.
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