Comments on: Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two)

By: Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List « freedetainees.org

Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List « freedetainees.org — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:47:44 +0000

[...] the Office of Legal Counsel’s notorious “torture memos,” written in May 2005 and released by the Obama administration last April, and there are suspicions that a number of “ghost prisoners” were sent back to their [...]

By: The Logic of the 9/11 Trials, The Madness of the Military Commissions « Dandelion Salad

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:54:29 +0000

[...] to present an insoluble problem, and that the murky world of proxy prisons and CIA prisons, and the torture regime that involved at least 150 prisoners (and maybe many more) is barely hidden behind Eric Holder’s [...]

By: CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan 8 Months Before DOJ Approval « US and Their Allys War against muslims in the world, indicate of falling US and Zionist Empire,(Inshallah)!!!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:05:06 +0000

[...] were rendered to torture in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Syria, and we now know, from one of three more OLC memos released two weeks ago – written in May 2005 by Steven G. Bradbury, the Principal Deputy Assistant [...]

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:56:32 +0000

Hi TD,
Just when I was beginning to feel a tad fatigued, up you roll with the exhortation, “this is no time for any letting up on this,” which instantly gave me a boost.
You know the right things to say, my friend.

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:54:20 +0000

Frances,
I like your comment about the spiritual realm, and its significance for Americans.
I also pledge to start looking into these stories as soon as possible — I realize that it’s not the same as the government pledging to do so, but it’s a start!

By: the talking dog

the talking dog — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:36:28 +0000

I’m glad you mentioned Jack Goldsmith, because he is an essential element in unwinding the current Republican argument that investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the torture regime “who were just doing their jobs and giving their honest opinions…” indeed, John McCain tells us that PROSECUTING acts of torture committed by a prior regime makes us “no better than a banana republic” (we’ll try to suspend our grim laughter noting that countries that torture in the first place tend to ordinarily be considered “banana republics”… but I digress…)

What Goldsmith proves is that even among conservative Republicans (who could get jobs in the Bush Administration!) the torture memos weren’t, in fact, “honest opinions” at all, so much as creative rubber-stamping of pre-ordained indefensible policies, and anyone with any integrity at all wouldn’t, and didn’t have to, stand for it.

In the end, unless they tell us, we’ll never even know if John Yoo or Jay Bybee or Haynes or Flanigan or Gonzales (or even David Addington!) actually had opinions or views of their own on this: all simply believed that they were advancing the views of their client or sponsor (that would be Dick Cheney, and perhaps whoever he answers to), and none even dreamed of giving “their honest opinion” and saying “Hey, wait a minute… this is against the law,” because none even saw actual (as opposed to the appearance of) opining and researching the law as even part of their jobs.

And even if we assume for the sake of argument that the torture-memo lawyers were simply incompetent rubes and knaves (with law degrees and some with U.S. Supreme Court clerkships!) incapable of discerning right or wrong when laid out in front of them, then their “wrong advice” was the product of criminal recklessness, as they should have known better.

We’re over a week in, and this torture story seems to be picking up momentum despite the best efforts of the “regular” media (and the Obama Administration, let alone the Republicans) to kill it… this is no time for any letting up on this.

By: the Shackle Report » Blog Archive » tortured policy

the Shackle Report » Blog Archive » tortured policy — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:23:04 +0000

[...] A Trail of Broken Lives (March 2009), Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part One), Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two), Who Authorized The Torture of Abu Zubaydah? (all April 2009). Also see the extensive archive of [...]

By: Frances Madeson

Frances Madeson — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:21:45 +0000

This idea of men being “disappeared” is absolutely unacceptable. I cannot and I will not accept it. We have to find these men, even if we have to turn over every corner of the globe to do so. There’s no such thing as “disappeared.” If they’re alive, they have to be somewhere–a specific latitude and longitude plottable on a map of the globe. President Obama, we have eighty dots that need to be connected right now. Please assign someone capable to the leadership of this urgent errand. These issues are inseparable from our economic woes. America will not prosper in any meaningful sense until these men’s lives have been recovered. To think otherwise is to deny the spiritual realm entirely, something I know most Americans would never stand for.

By: Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two) « Dandelion Salad

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:49:06 +0000

[...] Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two) Posted on April 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad by Andy Worthington Featured Writer Dandelion Salad http://www.andyworthington.co.uk Originally posted at the Future of [...]