Home > When Torture becomes Policy
Edito Wars and conflicts Prison Governments USA
by Mike Whitney
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government." Declaration of Independence, July4, 1776
President Bush has made it clear that he will veto the $435 billion Pentagon appropriations bill because it restricts his ability to abuse prisoners in the war on terror. The bill, which forbids the "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" of prisoners in US custody, was passed by an overwhelming 90 to 9 majority in the Senate. It was first flagrant rejection of administration policy in nearly 5 years.
Bush’s veto puts the administration on the extreme end of the policy spectrum and links the president to the widely reported incidents of human rights abuses and torture at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the other American prison facilities.
It is now impossible to deny that Bush not only supports a policy of calculated mistreatment of prisoners, but was also directly involved in establishing the current regime. This implicates Bush in violations of treaty requirements under the Geneva Conventions and the 1996 Torture Treaty, as well as the 8th amendment’s provision against "cruel and inhuman" punishment.
Bush’s veto is a clear sign that the administration is a willing participant in war crimes and intends to defend that barbarous behavior before the American people and the world. There’s no longer any reason to dispute the reports from Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross, the ACLU, or the many eyewitness accounts from US servicemen or former inmates. The president’s veto clearly establishes that Bush tacitly supports "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" as official policy.
This is a positive development for those who believe that Bush will have to be physically removed from office via impeachment, military coup or revolution. It shows how disconnected the current White House is from the nearly 90% of Americans who do not believe that torture can be justified "for any reason". It also dispels the foolish notion that Bush communicates with God or is acting on his behalf.
The American people now have a stark choice between good and evil; between those who advocate the "systemic, blatant and sadistic" (Taguba Report) treatment of prisoners or those who don’t. Anyone who continues to support the current administration or who fails to support the efforts to have them removed from office and held accountable for their crimes, is equally complicit in their immoral, unethical and criminal conduct.
This week, former UN chief weapons inspector, Scott Ritter compared George Bush and Tony Blair to Nazi war criminals saying that, "Both of these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing." Bush’s veto removes any doubt about the veracity of Ritter’s comments.
Currently, there are over 25,000 prisoners in American facilities in Iraq who have been exposed to some level of physical brutality. None of these men have been charged with a crime, nor will they be. The Pentagon, acting as the surrogate for the imperial presidency, simply conducts its arrests and interrogations according to its own vicious standards. There are no rules and no constraints; just the vile application of physical coercion.
In Guantanamo, more than 200 inmates are in the 2nd month of a hunger strike. 22 of the prisoners have been hospitalized and are being force-fed by their jailors. The demands of the prisoners are both simple and reasonable; they want to have a fair hearing before an impartial judge so they can know why they are being held. It is most basic of all human rights and one that is guaranteed under international law.
Once again, the administration and the collaborative media have conspired to conceal the horror of what is taking place in Guantanamo behind a wall of government secrecy. If the president is as forthright as he pretends to be, than there should be no problem opening up Guantanamo to independent media so we can see the affects of the policies he so ardently defends.
Whether prisoners are being beaten, humiliated, starved to death or simply held without charges the facts remain the same. The policy originated at the highest levels of government and will only be strengthened by Bush’s veto. The administration is claiming the absolute authority to operate beyond the law and with complete impunity.
Torture is the widow that allows us to see beyond the public relations smokescreen into the fetid cesspool of administration thinking. The Bush regime is divorced from any sense of decency or moral compunction. Nothing they say can be trusted. They have generated an ethos of cruelty and vindictiveness that now pervades the myriad offices of government and the defense establishment. The very principles upon which American life depends, and which are laid out in the founding documents, are threatened by their conduct.
Bush’s veto tells us that the administration will not operate within the law or comply with the will of the American people. It shows us that the government now functions beyond its popular mandate and without a shred of moral legitimacy. Bush and his lieutenants are unworthy of high-office and must be removed before it is too late.
Forum posts
12 October 2005, 17:38
Well said. This is just the latest version of torture that he condones. Remember the reports that, as a child, he put firecrackers into the mouths of frogs and watched them explode? Bush is a sadistic, paranoid psychopath. As punishment after his impeachment, he should be locked up in a padded cell, or better yet, send to Gitmo or Abu Graib to experience his own policies at first hand. Afterwards, exile him to the most DU-contaminated part of Iraq, to live out his sorry days. If he is such a fundamentalist, he deserves the "Eye for and eye, and a tooth for a tooth" touch.
12 October 2005, 21:37
Mike thank you for putting this well and without thrill exageration. Try putting it on Kos?
13 October 2005, 03:06
Unfortunately, this end only leads to whats happening now.
Most countries now view the US as a threat to be countered.
The WWW is being SPLIT because of them.
Military spending over the owrld is building in preparation for battle against a new fascist world power.
Its not good... Not at all.
We need warcrime trials.
13 October 2005, 04:59
We should not forget who mastered the torture: the catholic church used it during the time of inquisition, therefore Americans are real true catholics or christian believers.
Remember 2003 when middle age started over again in America.
13 October 2005, 17:55
Mike, I found this post on Americablog yesterday. It puts BushCo/9-11/Plamegate in a much larger perspective then I thought possible. 9/11 being an inside job was about the worst thing imaginable for me. Now it just appears to be a piece of a much bigger puzzle.
AMERICAblog.com
I apologize for the length of this post, but I think the implications for our foreign policy are important. You’re not hearing anything about what’s below in our press. NOT A THING. There is an insurrection going on in the Mossad. Over 300 agents have left in protest over what Mossad Chief Meir Dagan is doing; namely: concentrating on "international terrorism" and "overseas commando operations." Considering that there are only 1200+ Mossad agents, this is huge.
I read the Israeli papers daily, but I dont speak or read Hebrew, so I am stuck with the English versions. It is the Hebrew papers that report what is really going on. You need to read Mid-East area translations of Hebrew articles to find this information out. (Grant you, these translations are self-serving: they only translate what speaks to their audience.)
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The reason what’s happening is important is that we have these fascist right-wing Israeli wing-nuts dictating to, hood-winking, and operating within, our government, defense department, and media stateside, all under the old saw of allowing Israel to exist and protected by the anti-semitism mantra. People with Israeli passports (Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, etc), and in league with Sharon’s xenophobic pan-Israel view, orchestrated the phony gin up to the Iraqi War. And since, as 911 Commission Head Philip Zelikow admitted publicly last year, we went to war in Iraq for Israel, what’s really happening in Israel is important to know. The fact of the matter is Israelis are having as much trouble dealing with their war-hungry extremist right-wing government as we’re having with ours. And that includes high-level Mossad agents who have resigned in protest.
Ex-Mossad Official Admits Occupation is the Reason Behind "Terror Attacks" against Civilians
GAZA, Palestine, October 10,2005 (IPC+ Agencies)---Amiram Levin, the then-Deputy Chief of the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service "Mossad, took the unprecedented step in stating that Israel’s continued policy of controlling the Palestinian people will inflict a resounding defeat of the Hebrew state.....
Levin [delivering a speech at Van Laer institute in occupied Jerusalem] who said to be one of most Generals of the Israeli army in making a good deal in combating the Palestinian resistance movements admits " it is an eventual result that controlling another people and occupying his land produce terrorist operations."?The ex- deputy chief of Mossad strongly criticized the command of the Israeli army due to the pursuit of intimidation, harassment and abuse against the Palestinian civilians.
read more
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/en....asp? name=11122
Mossad rocked by resignations
JERUSALEM:Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, has been rocked to the core by an internal crisis provoking an avalanche of resignations since Meir Dagan was appointed its chief in 2002, a newspaper reported yesterday.
“Earthquake at heart of Mossad,” ran a headline on the front page of the Yediot Aharonot, detailing a “wave” of unprecedented departures from staff accusing their boss of driving the elite agency into a “dead end”.........
The latest report comes just over a year after Israel’s private Channel 2 television claimed in November that more than 200 agents, including seven department heads, had resigned over the policies of its controversial boss.......
When Dagan took over in October 2002, Mossad switched its sights on international ‘terrorism’ with a renewed focus on overseas commando operations....
read more:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/0710200...isis- press.html
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=interna...l&alt=&hn=25129 [Turkish paper]
overseas commando operations??!! Like in Iraq? Or Bali?
and then this.........
Outing Plame Allowed the Mossad to Grab Russian Nukes ?Was London Just a Warm-Up?
Valerie Plame and many CIA agents were working under the cover of a company called Brewster-Jennings and Associates. They were active in Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and Syria.
Outing Plame meant exposing this company as CIA front and thus destroying and compromising all these agents. Basically, the most important CIA human intelligence agents are all gone. The Mossad destroyed the CIA using the White House.
In Russia, these agents were the only people monitoring loose nukes, making sure that nothing goes missing, and tracking and locating missing items.
Across the southern areas of the former Soviet Union there are numerous nuclear devices, fissionable material and delivery systems that are barely guarded by the locals.
For years now, and since outing Plame, these Russian nuclear devices and materials have remained unguarded, available for the Mossad to grab. The Mossad would use the nukes to stage terrorism and blame it on "Al-Qaeda" or Arabs or Iranians.
The pending indictments in the Plame outing case are threatening to shed a lot of light on the real purpose of outing Plame and the Mossad operatives and sayanim involved in grabbing the Russian nukes both in the US and overseas.
Will the Mossad now accelerate the staging of nuclear terrorism? Where will they strike?
Look for nuke-proof stolen Arab passports.
Better yet, keep your eyes on the right people this time, not the Arabs. Maybe you will catch them before they do it.
http://www.libertyforum.org/ show...umber=293765825
Lest some of you consider this last post a wing-nut stretch, I urge you to do your own searching back to 1997-2000, and read what US defense and military analysts [try Jane’s Defense] had to say about the effect of the Cold War/Russia dissolution on weapon availability. Certain scientists and military people, previously employed by the state in the Russian outback, were selling Russia’s portable military and nuclear arsenal on the black market in desperate acts of survival to make ends meet. Sales were going on in boats anchored in the coves of of Indonesia’s 11,000 uninhabited islands. Indonesia has 17,000 islands along its 3,000 mile coast.
Time to get our collective heads out of the sand, sports fans...and BTW, go back and re-read this article:
Tell us who fabricated the Iraq evidence
http:// comment.independent.co.uk...ticle318195.ece
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