Oops

17 Comments

1. 

   robertdsc on April 7, 2009 at 1:15 am

   And to think Dubya got a standing ovation for throwing out the first pitch at the Rangers game today. God damn him.

   • 

     Omir the Storyteller on April 7, 2009 at 1:18 am

     I saw that and went, “What the hell is this man doing running around loose?”

   • 

     Sawgrass on April 7, 2009 at 8:46 am

     And how many times did he say, “We don’t torture”?

     Bush in Sept 2006 just a few months before the Red Cross report:

     See we’re not interrogating now, because CIA officials feel like the rules are so vague that they cannot interrogate without being tried as war criminals. That’s irresponsible.” … “I’ve said to the people that we don’t torture, and we don’t.”

     A google search on the Bush quote returns over 10,000 hits.

2. 

   Omir the Storyteller on April 7, 2009 at 1:17 am

   Is this the one that Cronyn threatened to go nuclear over if it was released?

   No, that was some US government memos. No matter. In the words of another famous blackmail victim, I say, “Publish and be damned.”

3. 

   clif on April 7, 2009 at 5:05 am

   Read it all …… if you can stomach it.

   ….then remember how bad John McCain told us all the Hanoi Hilton was ….

   What makes our actions different from those who tortured John McCain?

    …..  and we wonder why those released sometimes go join the enemy?

   • 

     Brendan Skwire on April 7, 2009 at 11:56 am

     in mccain’s own words:

     The soldiers took me into an empty cell, set me down on the floor still on the stretcher and placed a blanket over me. For the next few days, I drifted in and out of consciousness.

     My interrogators accused me of being a war criminal and demanded military information. They knocked me around a little and I began to feel sharp pains in my fractured limbs.

     I blacked out after the first few blows.

     I thought if I could hold out, they would relent and take me to a hospital.

     But on the fourth day, I realised my condition had become more serious. I was feverish and losing consciousness for longer periods.

     I was lying in my vomit and other bodily wastes, and my knee had become grossly swollen and discoloured.

     The medic, called Zorba, took my pulse.

     “Are you going to take me to the hospital?” I asked.

     “No,” he replied. “It’s too late.”
     [snip]
     For almost two months, nothing happened. Then the punishment sessions began. I was hauled into an empty room and kept there for four days. At intervals, the guards returned to administer beatings.

     One guard held me while the others pounded away.

     They cracked several of my ribs and broke a couple of teeth. Weakened by beatings and dysentery, with my right leg again almost useless, I found it impossible to stand.

     On the third night I lay in my blood and waste, so tired and hurt that I could not move. Three guards lifted me to my feet and gave me the worst beating yet. They left me lying on the floor moaning from the stabbing pain in my re-fractured arm.

     Despairing of any relief from pain and further torture, I tried to take my life. After several unsuccessful attempts, I managed to stand. Up-ending the waste bucket, I stepped on it, bracing myself against the wall with my good arm.

     I looped my shirt through the shutters. As I looped it around my neck, a guard saw the shirt through the window, pulled me off the bucket and beat me.

     Later, I made a second, feebler attempt at suicide. On the fourth day, I gave up. I signed a confession that “I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pilot”.

     The guards ordered me to record my confession on tape. I refused, and was beaten until I consented.

     No difference, no difference at all.

4. 

   Zandar1 on April 7, 2009 at 7:23 am

   Once again:

   Bush.  Cheney.  The Hague.  A courtroom.

5. 

   CabinGirl on April 7, 2009 at 7:25 am

   I kept thinking about the guy in charge of Guantanamo that was in the National Geographic program the other night talking about how he was “proud of the work they were doing with these detainees”.

   Sick fucks.  Too bad they’ll never be taken prisoner and get to be on the receiving end of what they’ve accomplished by flouting the Geneva Conventions and international law.

6. 

   Brendan Skwire on April 7, 2009 at 7:49 am

   awesome, this is great news.
   i’ll be reading, and excerpting, today.

   • 

     Brendan Skwire on April 7, 2009 at 9:29 am

     …adding that the pdf is secured, you can’t copy and paste.
     Does anyone have a text link?  this is stuff that needs to be blockquoted and spread around.

     Republicans and Democrats alike are complicit in this.

     shackled to a bar or a hook in the ceiling above the head for periods ranging from two to three days continuously, and for up to two or three months intermittently

     • 

       JayBat on April 7, 2009 at 2:53 pm

       Brendan,

       It’s straightforward to unlock a PDF, just Google for “unlock pdf”.

       For small PDFs like this one, you can use David Heffelfinger’s free online service. Just used it on the ICRC report, worked great.

       -Jay-

7. 

   lyvwyr101 on April 7, 2009 at 9:20 am

   Everyone who participated in any of this needs to be indicted. War crimes and Crimes Against Humanity-plain and simple. Rotten bastards.

8. 

   Brendan Skwire on April 7, 2009 at 10:12 am

   dude, nancy pelosi’s office just FLIPPED THE FUCK OUT on me. It was awesome.

   • 

     BooMan on April 7, 2009 at 11:23 am

     Nicely done.  I’m proud of you.

     • 

       Brendan Skwire on April 7, 2009 at 11:53 am

       It is the LEAST they deserve.
       Also, i am excerpting the ICRC as my status update on facebook all day, and I’ll be updating the blog accordingly.

       • 

         Real History Lisa on April 7, 2009 at 1:12 pm

         At least you were able to speak to someone. Wow – I just called, and they would not talk to me. I said I was going to write something up (I will) and all they would do is refer me to her comment line. I called the local SF office. I’m tempted to call the DC office.

         On the message I left, on the recording – I said, to hear her tell it, as Speaker, she considers herself practically equal to the president in power. She should have a statement about this ready and not cower behind a comment line.

         I’m so mad right now.

         I’m going to call my Congresswoman next and press HER to get me a statement from Pelosi, since Pelosi’s office essentially told me to get lost.

         I didn’t like Pelosi before. Now I despise her.

   • 

     Real History Lisa on April 7, 2009 at 1:40 pm

     Btw – Pelosi was of course NOT the one who objected, per the article at your link:

     Pelosi declined to comment directly on her reaction to the classified briefings. But a congressional source familiar with Pelosi’s position on the matter said the California lawmaker did recall discussions about enhanced interrogation. The source said Pelosi recalls that techniques described by the CIA were still in the planning stage — they had been designed and cleared with agency lawyers but not yet put in practice — and acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time.

     It was, of all people, Jane Harman, who is generally very supportive of the intelligence community, who raised the formal objection. Even Jay Rockefeller at least wanted to hold hearings.

     Harman, who replaced Pelosi as the committee’s top Democrat in January 2003, disclosed Friday that she filed a classified letter to the CIA in February of that year as an official protest about the interrogation program. Harman said she had been prevented from publicly discussing the letter or the CIA’s program because of strict rules of secrecy.

     “When you serve on intelligence committee you sign a second oath — one of secrecy,” she said. “I was briefed, but the information was closely held to just the Gang of Four. I was not free to disclose anything.”

     Roberts declined to comment on his participation in the briefings. Rockefeller also declined to talk about the briefings, but the West Virginia Democrat’s public statements show him leading the push in 2005 for expanded congressional oversight and an investigation of CIA interrogation practices. “I proposed without success, both in committee and on the Senate floor, that the committee undertake an investigation of the CIA’s detention and interrogation activities,” Rockefeller said in a statement Friday.

     I am ashamed that Nancy Pelosi is representing my party as Speaker of the House. I hope you’ll join me in pressuring our Congress not to let that deter a full investigation into torture, and let the chips fall where they must.

     I do not believe in my country, right or wrong, or my party, right or wrong. I support them both when they are right, only.