Bush defends interrogation practices: 'We do not torture'
USA TODAY - 11/7/2005
President Bush strongly defended U.S. interrogation practices for detainees held in the war on terrorism Monday, insisting, "We do not torture."
http://www.usatoday.com/...
Spiegel Online - 11/14/2006
More than a few bad apples
The human rights groups have not just set their sights on Rumsfeld, though. The suit names 11 other high-ranking US officials, including current US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet, and Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of all US forces in Iraq. They are all accused of either ordering, aiding, or failing to prevent war crimes.
"There crimes are not the work of a few bad apples," said CCR president Michael Ratner. "They were planned and executed at the highest levels of the US government."
http://www.spiegel.de/...
Hardball - Chris Matthews - May 7, 2004
Let‘s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I‘m Chris Matthews.
President Bush tells the king of Jordan he‘s sorry for the humiliation suffered by Iraqi prisoners and their families at the hands of American prison guards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I told his majesty as plainly as I could that the wrongdoers would be brought to justice and that the actions of those folks in Iraq do not represent the values of the United States of America.
I told him I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners, and the humiliation suffered by their families. I told him I was equally sorry that people have been seeing those pictures, didn‘t understand the true nature and heart of America.
I assured him Americans like me didn‘t appreciate what we saw. And it made us sick to our stomachs.
I also made it clear to his majesty that the troops we have in Iraq were there for security and peace and freedom, are the finest of the fine, fantastic United States citizens who represent the very best qualities of America: courage, love of freedom, compassion and decency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: The president also rejected calls that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign.
(emphasis added)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers - they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.
Donald Rumsfeld Quote
I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that.
Donald Rumsfeld Quote
'Dark Side' sheds light on Cheney
Sam Allis, Globe Staff - June 20, 2006
"Frontline" delivers a devastating look tonight at the efforts of Vice President Dick Cheney to gain control of the war on terror after 9/11. In doing so, the show purports, he compromised the integrity of America's intelligence system.
...
The title is a ripe double-entendre that applies both to Cheney and the turf on which the war against terrorists is fought. "We have to work the dark side, if you will," we hear Cheney say. "Spend time in the shadows of the intelligence world."
(emphasis added)
http://www.boston.com/...
FRONTLINE: The Dark Side - June 20, 2006 - Video Clips
Keith Olbermann With General Karpinski Video
More Than A Few Bad Apples in the Bush Administration April 22, 2009
Statement of Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) Levin's Web Site
Senate Armed Services Committee
Press Release - April 24, 2009
Detainee Abuses and American Values
Recently the Senate Armed Services Committee released the declassified report of its investigation into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The bipartisan report, which was approved by the Committee on November 20, 2008, has been under review for declassification by the Department of Defense.
The Committee’s report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration’s interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse, which occurred at places such as Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and in Afghanistan, to low ranking soldiers. Claims, such as the one made by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a "few bad apples," were simply false.
The truth is that, early on, it was senior civilian leaders who set the tone. Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that the United States turn to the "dark side" in our response to 9/11, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales called parts of the Geneva Conventions "quaint," and President Bush determined that provisions of the Geneva Conventions did not apply to certain detainees. Other senior officials followed the President and Vice President’s lead, authorizing policies that included harsh and abusive interrogation techniques.
The record established by the Committee’s investigation shows that senior officials sought out information on, were aware of training in, and authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques. Those senior officials bear significant responsibility for creating the legal and operational framework for the abuses. As the Committee report concluded, authorizations of aggressive interrogation techniques by senior officials resulted in abuse and conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody.
...
(emphasis added)
http://levin.senate.gov/...
Senate Armed Services Committee Conclusions
Conclusion 1: On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainee ...
Conclusion 2: Members of the President’s Cabinet and other senior officials participated in meetings inside the White House in 2002 and 2003 where specific interrogation techniques were discussed.
...
Conclusion 4: The use of techniques in interrogations derived from SERE resistance training created a serious risk of physical and psychological harm to detainees. ...
...
Conclusion 13: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there. ...
Conclusion 14: Department of Defense General Counsel William J. Haynes II’s direction to the Department of Defense’s Detainee Working Group in early 2003 to consider a legal memo from John Yoo of the Department of Justice’s OLC as authoritative, blocked the Working Group from conducting a fair and complete legal analysis ...
...
Conclusion 19: The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own.
Html page of Senate Report
PDF of Senate Report
Ex-Bush Official: Many At Gitmo Innocent
CBS News - Mar 19, 2009
(AP) Many detainees locked up at Guantanamo were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush administration official said Thursday.
"There are still innocent people there," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, a Republican who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, told The Associated Press. "Some have been there six or seven years."
(emphasis added)
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
And So it goes ...that is how a Country's Good Name is Tarnished and Torn ... by the drip, drip, drip of Denial ...
"What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight... is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human beings"
-- General David Petraeus - May 10, 2007
Executive Summary - Senate Report (above)
A few Good Apples, like General Petraeus and General Karpinski, can hardly make up for ALL the damage, done by so many oblivious Bad Apples --
Only the Voice of the American People (and their Representatives) can do that!
Where DID they hide that Scotch Tape, anyways???
Someone had better start repairing the Constitution, and Bill of Rights, too.
And Soon!
(Americans deserve better, than this.)