This diary will continue discussing how Bush/Cheney have used historical precedents during their administration, and, how the same people continue to come back to haunt us, that I started in Part I.
So, without further ado...
While Part I to this diary generated little response, I decided to go ahead and do a Part II. I want to start by talking about an issue that was prompted from a comment in Part I; ties to Nazi Germany.
- Enhanced Interrogation
Andrew Sullivan addressed this issue in this article in much deeper detail than I ever could.
The phrase "Verschärfte Vernehmung" is German for "enhanced interrogation". Other translations include "intensified interrogation" or "sharpened interrogation". It's a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their "enhanced interrogation techniques" would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff, of the kind recommended by Charles Krauthammer, and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. (emphasis mine)
Sound familiar? It should. Mike Hayden is quoted saying:
He said military and intelligence missions are different. Hayden described the CIA program as a "tightly controlled and carefully administered national option that goes beyond the Army Field Manual" and has been a "lawful and effective response" to the threat of terrorism. "It will continue to be so as we work within the boundaries established by our nation's laws," he wrote. (emphasis mine)
Given that Bush/Cheney used the term "enhanced interrogation" and that the wording on how the program will be "controlled" and "restricted" is very similar to the original German rationale, we can definitely add this to a historical precedent that has come back to haunt us during the Bush/Cheney years.
- The Department of Homeland Security
Once again, an article written, this time by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, does more justice to this issue than I can:
But the state’s use of this illegitimate war to aggrandize itself goes much, much farther than this. Those Americans who are still concerned about the state’s ability to plunder us into poverty and strip us of personal liberties are extremely fortunate that Professor James Bennett of George Mason University has stepped up to explain exactly how this is happening with his new book, Homeland Security Scams (Transaction Publishers, 2006).
Read this book and the crassness, dishonesty, and plain chutzpah of the state in using the "war on terror" as an excuse to pick your pocket will boggle your mind. The average reader will also be shocked at the remarkable blueprint for fascism that has been mapped out for us by our rulers in the post-9/11 world.
Indeed, the very name "Homeland Security" has an obvious echo of "fatherland," as Professor Bennett ominously points out. "Americans have never used the world ‘homeland’ to describe their country" anywhere and at any time. The very word is un-American and reeks of fascism.
The major theme of Homeland Security Scams is stated on page 1:
"[H]omeland security is developing into the largest boondoggle in the history of the U.S. government. Fed by the . . . war on terror, homeland security is being used as an excuse . . . for a vast expansion of government power and spending." And the spending usually has nothing at all to do with "defense" or "security." "Homeland security is not making us safer: just poorer, less free, and more dependent on the federal government," Professor Bennett charges. In the following 217 pages he provides chapter and verse to prove his point.
This is the second reference made during the Bush/Cheney administration that finds its roots in Nazi Germany. As one commenter from my Part I diary pointed out, George Bush does have ties that take us back to Nazi Germany, and, it is now relevant to bring forth this information given the two issues I already brought out.
- Prescott Bush
For this, this UK Guardian article says it all:
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
So, we know for a fact that Prescott Bush continued business dealings with Nazi Germany, even during a time of war. Whether Prescott Bush was merely a war profiteer or collaborator is debatable; I side with war profiteer. What is not debatable is that there is a Bush family connection to the time of Nazi Germany, and, that during the Bush/Cheney administration we now have two direct references made that lead directly back to Nazi Germany; enhanced interrogation and the term 'homeland'.
This is not to claim that I think George Bush is a Nazi. It merely points out the historical precedents, and family link, that George W. Bush found in Nazi Germany and applied during his own administration.
- Rationale and actions given that the United States had to provide "security forces" after invasion
I referenced, in Part I, "The Panama Deception", an Oscar-winning documentary done in 1992 and focuses on the U.S. invasion of Panama. There was one aspect of the documentary I didn't bring out in Part I, but, holds significance now; the usage of U.S. military forces to provide security.
The Heritage Foundation wrote in 1989:
Last Thursday, May 11, George Bush announced a set of policy options to help remove Noriega from power and bring democracy to Panama. These proposals include sending U.S. troops to Panama, relocating some U.S. civilians to "secure zones" in Panama, recalling U.S. Ambassador Arthur Davis for consultations, and maintaining economic sanctions against Panama. These and other steps by Bush are only a start. WhAt is now needed is a clear ladder of escalation that takes advantage of the current environment in Panama. The goal should be to oust Noriega, establish democracy in Panama, and protect the Canal and U.S. security interests.
When we look at the rationale for invading Iraq, we see a clear correlation in the justifications; regime change, establish democracy, protect "American interests". But, something else occurred during both the Panama invasion and Iraq invasions; after the current regime was ousted, the security forces of both countries were disbanded which gave the President (both Bush's) the additional rationale that it was the U.S. who had to "provide security". In Panama, the forces were disbanded by the new government, which became a puppet to the United States. In Iraq, having no new government in place, the forces were disbanded by Paul Bremer.
First, Panama:
Officially, Panama abolished its military by a 1994 constitutional amendment after the old Panama Defense Forces were defeated and disbanded in the December 1989 US invasion. But US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently declared that Panama's National Police are "an army in all but name," a member of General Manuel Antonio Noriega's old general staff, Colonel Daniel Delgado Diamante, is the Minister of Government and Justice and Noriega's adjutant, Major Severino Mejía, is the vice minister. The president has also evaded the legal requirement that the National Police director be a civilian by promoting Police Commissione Jaime Ruiz as "acting" director. (emphasis mine)
Now, Iraq:
Wrong Turn at a Postwar Crossroads?
Decision to Disband Iraqi Army Cost U.S. Time and Credibility
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 20, 2003; Page A01
In both cases, once the existing forces were disbanded, the United States claimed that the U.S. was then obligated to provide security in the region. This rationale is driving the current negotiations in Iraq for security agreement.
- John Negroponte
During the Iran-Contra affair, John Negroponte was the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.
The thrust of the envoy's "back channel" July 1983 message to the men running the contra war against Nicaragua was contained in a single cryptic sentence: "Hondurans believe special project is as important as ever."
"Special project" was code for the secret arming of contra rebels from bases in Honduras -- a cause championed by Negroponte, then a rising diplomatic star. In cables and memos, Negroponte made it clear that he saw the "special project" as key to the Reagan administration's strategy of rolling back communism in Central America.
As Negroponte prepares for his Senate confirmation hearing today for the new post of director of national intelligence, hundreds of previously secret cables and telegrams have become available that shed new light on the most controversial episode in his four-decade diplomatic career. The documents, drawn from Negroponte's personal records as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, were released by the State Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post.
John Negroponte went on to become the U.S. Ambassador of Iraq in 2004:
Negroponte currently serves as US ambassador to the United Nations. But it is his reputation as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 that earned him a reputation for supporting widespread human rights abuses and campaigns of terror. As ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte played a key role in US aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua and shoring up the brutal military dictatorship of General Gustavo Alvarez Martínez in Honduras. During his term as ambassador there, diplomats alleged that the embassy’s annual human rights reports made Honduras sound more like Norway than Argentina.
According to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, in 1982 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by the Honduran military. In a 1995 series, Sun reporters Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson detailed the activities of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army unit, Battalion 316, that used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." In 1994, Honduras’s National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights reported that it was officially admitted that 179 civilians were still missing.
Former official Rick Chidester, who served under Negroponte, says he was ordered to remove all mention of torture and executions from the draft of his 1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras. During Negroponte’s tenure, US military aid to Honduras skyrocketed from $3.9 million to over $77 million. Much of this went to ensure the Honduran army’s loyalty in the battle against popular movements throughout Central America.
Over a year ago I wrote this diary documenting John Negroponte's Ambassadorships in both Honduras and Iraq, how both countries had death squads operating, and how people "disappeared" in both countries. While I only brought out the facts in the diary how Negroponte was the Ambassador of both countries, and how both countries experienced death squads and people being "disappeared", I was "warned" in the comments about making "extraordinary claims" anyway.
John Negroponte isn't the only individual who was involved in the "Iran-Contra affair" that found a home with George W. Bush; another is Robert Gates:
Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a private group that has collected hundreds of thousands of pages of documents on the scandal and published several books on it, calls Gates "the ultimate hear-no-evil see-no-evil high official during Iran-Contra."
In a final report, Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh said that, "like those of many other Iran-Contra figures, the statements of Gates often seemed scripted and less than candid."
In rebuttal, Gates said Walsh’s 1994 report was "unjustifiably disparaging, unbalanced, filled with innuendo and insinuation, and draws conclusions not supported by the evidence."
What did he know?
Questions about Gates focus not on what he did in Iran-Contra, but on what he knew. CIA Director William Casey had his own parallel chain of command that excluded Gates. At the time, however, Gates was the agency’s No. 2 official.
"You would think he had to know, but was he involved? No," former CIA officer Vincent Cannistraro said of Gates.
In addition to John Negroponte and Robert Gates, Elliot Abrams found a home with George W. Bush:
Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair, was promoted to deputy national security adviser to President Bush.
Abrams, who previously was in charge of Middle East affairs, will be responsible for pushing Bush's strategy for advancing democracy.
I'm going to end Part II here and save the rest for my final diary. What we've seen so far is how Bush/Cheney have tapped, not only into historical precedents, but, the same persons who were involved in former scandals from various administrations as well.
I'll leave you with a few quotes:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-- George Santayana
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
-- John F. Kennedy
Have a good night and thank you for reading...