[clammyc has just put a worthy post on torture up]
[note: this post originally had a title, which you can see in the "Torture a La Fox" section of the post, that disturbed some readers whose comments convinced me to tone it down - to maximize readership. My "quote" in the title is a substantially accurate version of the real, much more graphic, original.]
"The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience" - Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to reporters following Donald Rumsfeld's testimony, on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
This post, the fourth in a series [1, 2, 3] I've written on the Bush Administration and torture...
This post concerns the arc of revelations making it increasingly clear that authorization for such abuses probably came from the very highest level of the White House, and it makes suggestions on how to make the issue, of US government authorized torture, more salient. And, it provides information resources so you can learn about the issue.
A Friday ABC interview confirms: Bush "approved" of the torture techniques ABC's Wednesday story detailed. But ABC fails to mention even more severe torture techniques that were implemented by Don Rumsfeld and Stephen Cambone - did George W. Bush give Rumsfeld the authority to implement what became known as "Copper Green" ?
Did George Bush sign an NSC document authorizing sexual torture methods, then delegate to Rumsfeld authority to implement those sex-torture methods ?
That's the real question, this new ABC story is only the prologue...
ABC news has developed a new component of the torture story almost in perfect sync with my Thursday post on torture which stressed that because Bush is head, as president, of the National Security Council, of course he would have known of the overall gist of the "NSC Principals" White House meetings on torture policy because, regardless of whether Bush sat in on all meetings or not, all major NSC decisions and policy formulations have go to Bush's desk for final approval, his signature. Bush is, indeed the "decider"
As detailed in the recent ABC News story on how top White House officials in the National Security Council discussed specific details of torture, the Bush Administration torture policy was determined by the NSC.
What ABC didn't mention is that Bush is the head of the National Security Counsel and the 2002 NSC decision memo in question, shown at the bottom of this post, signed by George W. Bush, establishes that Bush was in 2002 indeed doing his job as acting head and final decision maker of the National Security Council.
An April 11 AP News study claims Bush was "insulated" from the torture decision making process but existing documents, such as showcased in this post, rebut that claim and indicate Bush was in the torture loop, the top "decider"
[last Sunday, March 30] CIA chief Michael Hayden expressed his personal belief Sunday that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but also stood by the agency's assessment that the program was suspended in 2003.
"Personal belief, yes. It's hard for me to explain. This is not court of law stuff," the Central Intelligence Agency director said on NBC television.
this just in [3 PM EST], from Mike Tronnes of Cursor/Media Transparency:
"I just got online because I'm on Media Patrol for the next three days and I like to get a little sleep saved up for that long slog. ...I couldn't be more thankful. It looks like we've raised almost $2,000 so far, part of which will go to keep the M & F Media Patrol guy happy, part of which will pay Bill Berkowitz, and the rest will buy us some peace of mind."
Beyond that immediate cash influx, which in the short term will allow Cursor/Media Transparency to keep on, there's talk of a volunteer committe to help with fundraising. That's the long term solution.
So, once again the Daily Kos community saves the day !
OK, we have a plan... if anyone reading this is a nonprofit development professional [or has that background] with time to volunteer, for an eminently good cause, to join a team working on this, please email me (see my user profile) - Best, Bruce Wilson
They're both run by the same thinly funded nonprofit and they're at risk of going down...
I've learned about this from Bill Berkowitz, who's a key writer for Media Transparency and for the larger good I'll divulge a trade secret: I watch Bill Berkowitz. I'll start there.
Few journalists are better or more dedicated at watching the slower, sub-surface movements that can emerge to shift the balance of power.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
This post interweaves several themes and subjects:
"The Storm Troopers Of Christ", a recently released documentary, by Steve D. Martin, which describes a new field of historiography and Holocaust study examining the role of Protestant Christianity in both allowing, by passive acquiescence, but also actively supporting, the role of Hitler and the Nazis.
Our collective moral complicit in the crime and tragedy of Iraq, and our collective need to re-engage (to the extent we're distant from it) in order to prevent the destructive emergence of an American Dolchstoßlegende.
The Puritan "ethnic cleansing" (genocide) of Massachusetts Indian tribes.
See the full length version of Steve D. Martin's "Renewal or Ruin" here at talk To Action
The involvement of religion in politics is not a new thing and, once upon a time and within living memory, there was a thing called "liberal Christianity"...
Olberman has the must-see on John McCain's little "temper problem", showcasing statements from a number of Senate colleagues and prominent US military leaders who worry about John McCain's anger-management issues and don't want him close to any sort of buttons that can impact the collective fate of humanity. "I decided I didn't want this guy anywhere near a trigger," said GOP Senator Pete Domenici and GOP Senator Thad Cochrane said "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He loses his temper and he worries me."
A new Financial Times op-ed, by Anatol Lieven and entitled Why we should fear a McCain presidency dovetails with what commentators across the politically spectrum, from the libertarian Matt Welch, who has a new book out on McCain, to the moderate right Ivo Daalder of Brookings, and over to Pat Buchanan, have been saying: McCain, as President would start new wars, bigger ones even.
This is uncomfortable to McCain supporters; the Senator's ideas on foreign policy, which I'd characterize as a "maximally aggressive US interventionist approach", will at best will lead to more war. As for the worst, well...
Meet, or revisit, "Dr. Strangelove" ; if Senator John McCain, Jr. is elected as US predsident in 2008 we'll all be thinking of Strangelove... a lot. [below: "Dr. Strangelove" presented classified US secrets on nuclear war fighting as 'fiction'. As George E. Lowe, who lived some of the reality behind "Strangelove" tells me, John McCain's father would not approve of his son's pro-war mania: Admiral McCain would, in fact, be turning over in the grave.]
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged ...the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
I am not aware of any writing which more accurately forecast, and along a range of fronts, the political dangers which would beset American Democracy in our era. George E. Lowe says he worked with John McCain's father [and told me, in an interview, that Admiral McCain would be "turning over in the grave" at his son's current political behavior], and he did substantial writing on nuclear deterrence and served in the Reagan Administration. In the late 1990's Lowe clearly foresaw the coming peril, that right-wing American fundamentalists would make a concerted push to grab political power in the period from 2000-2012 after which, Lowe forecast, demographic changes would erode fundamentalist influence and so reduce the danger.
As someone who was over a year ago covering McCain's snuffling after the power that issues from John Hagee & his fundament I feel a special glee that pastor Hagee has opted to reopen the controversy, over his endorsement of McCain, by getting interviewed by a New York Times Magazine reporter concerning Hagee's views on gays, the Catholic Church and other hot-button positions. It's like watching nude mud wrestling, while a mob tries to catch a greased pig, at a monster truck rally.
I was in the bathtub drinking a beer: a low pressure situation. My wife, long a Hillary Clinton supporter, had just listened to Barack Obama's "Reverend Wright" speech.
"I really want Hillary Clinton to win," she said.
She sighed...
"But, I really don't want McCain to win and I think Barack Obama can beat McCain. I'm not sure if Hillary can this election."
Afterwards, I asked her if I could put this on record. She agreed.
Words coming out of her mouth, about Obama's speech, were strong:
"nuanced","true","brilliant" and "a work of art".
The last comment was strong coming from an artist:
I suppose Joe Lieberman has decided, in his infinite wisdom, that pushing Christian nationalist symbolic resolutions is a fine way to compensate Americans for expanded government surveillance powers and the degradation of Habeus Corpus. American Muslims, especially, will no doubt get a warm and fuzzy feeling from Lieberman's co-sponsorship, along with Sam Brownback, of a new Senate Resolution for a national Ten Commandments Weekend.
S. Res 483 is chock full of Judeo-Christian religious supremacist goodness:
"Recognizing the first weekend of May 2008 as `Ten Commandments Weekend'.
Whereas the Ten Commandments are precepts foundational to the faith of millions of Americans;
Whereas the Ten Commandments are a declaration of fundamental principles for a fair and just society;
Whereas, from the founding of the United States, the Ten Commandments have been part of America's basic cultural fabric"...
George E. Lowe has served in US Navy, in a presidential administration and done award winning writing on the theory of nuclear deterrence. According to Lowe in the early 1960's he was in a secret naval intelligence group under Senator John McCain's father, Admiral John "Godamn!" McCain (known for his cursing) working against would-be Christian and secular 'fascists' in US government and especially in the military. Lowe has strong praise for the late Admiral and also told me, in an interview on Sunday, that Senator John McCain's father "would be turning over in his grave" at his son's association with the American Christian right and elements in US government who want to fight preemptive and preventative nuclear war. [ YouTube below has several minute audio excerpt from interview].
My real name is Bruce Wilson. I co-founded Talk to Action, a blog dedicated to the intersection of politics and religion, with Frederick Clarkson.
