Category: Torture

Finally, the APA Sh&^s and Gets off the Can

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Finally, the American Psychological Association come out against torture.

The American Psychological Association has ruled that psychologists can no longer be associated with several interrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism prisoners in US custody. The methods are immoral, psychologically damaging and counterproductive in eliciting useful information, they say.

Psychologists who witness interrogators using mock executions, simulated drowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleep deprivation are required to intervene to stop such abuse. They must report the activities to superiors and report the involvement of any other psychologists to the association. It may strip those professionals of their memberships.

I’m not sure whether to be heartened that they have taken action, or to be depressed that it’s taken 5 years for them to reach the obvious conclusion that waterboarding, chaining people in excruciating positions, subjecting them to heat and cold, etc. is a bad thing psychologically.

This actually may have significance, because in a number of US states, membership in the APA is required to hold a license.

The US Tortured British Agent for 4 Years

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It turns out that a major source for MI5 was rendered, and tortured by the CIA in one of their gulags.

An Iraqi who was a key source of intelligence for MI5 has given the first ever full insider’s account of being seized by the CIA and bundled on to an illegal ‘torture flight’ under the programme known as extraordinary rendition.

One of the items of significance is just how much MI5 were the poodles of the CIA.

A report by Parliament’s intelligence and security committee last week disclosed that, although the Americans warned MI5 it planned to render al-Rawi in advance, in breach of international law, the British did not intervene on the grounds he did not have a UK passport. The government claimed he was the responsibility of Iraq, which he fled as a teenager when his father was tortured by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

This had to come from 10 Downings street. Once again, Blair is Bush’s poodle.

Disgraceful.

Bureaucracy that Works, the CIA , a Case Study

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As you may be aware, the Council of Europe issued a report on American Gulags in Poland and Romania.

It now appears that CIA bureaucrats provided much of the information.

“There were huge conflicts between the CIA and Rumsfeld. Many leading figures in the CIA did not accept these methods at all,” Marty told European Parliament committees, defending his work against complaints it was based on unnamed sources.

The report issued last month said the Central Intelligence Agency ran secret jails in Poland and Romania, with the complicity of those governments, and transported terrorist suspects across Europe in secret flights.

Poland and Romania have repeatedly denied hosting CIA prisons on their soil.

“People in the CIA felt these things were not consonant with the sort of intelligence work they normally do,” Marty said.

He said he had based his findings largely on conversations with “high officials of the CIA (and) highly placed European office-holders, who for different reasons, often honorable reasons, were ready to explain what had happened”.

Since he had no power to summon witnesses, subpoena documents or search buildings, he was forced to rely on such evidence, Marty said.

As much as we may complain about bureaucracy when we are waiting in line at the DMV, the truth is that a competent and honest bureaucracy is essential to a properly functioning democracy.

Even with the Dems back in power in the Congress, the actions of honest bureaucrats who know the rules, and follow them, has been the most effective push back against Bush and his evil minions™.

Sharrod Brown Just Impressed Me

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Hat tip to Bob Geiger.

If politicians were more willing to admit error, the world would be a better place.

Straight Answer Of The Day At TBA

It was a great day at the Take Back America conference yesterday and one of the best sessions was a town-hall meeting Monday night with Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

Brown had to know this was coming and it occurred near the end of the question-answer session when an Ohio constituent asked Brown about his vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act while he was still in the House of Representatives.

Here’s the interaction in its entirety:

Audience Member: ‘In 2006, when you were still a member of the House of Representatives you voted for the Military Commissions Act, which had as one of its elements, the suspension of Habeas Corpus. Given your recent efforts to restore Habeas Corpus, would you still cast that same vote today.’

Brown: ‘No, I was wrong.’

Period.

Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Nope…No Coverup Here.

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NPR : Abu Ghraib Investigator Says He Was Forced to Retire

Audio link.

Ret. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who was the lead investigator of military personnel working at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, tells New Yorker magazine that he was forced into retirement because of his findings. Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter for the magazine, talks with Michele Norris about his interview with Taguba, who gave some details that were not made public before his comments were published this week in the magazine.

Dan Froomkin Nails it on Torture

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Froomkin’s analysis is clear, concise, and to the point.

The full article by Seymour Hersh is horrifying.

They all knew they were torturing, and they directed and actively encouraged it.

Impeach Dick Cheney today, impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.

Dan Froomkin – New Questions About Abu Ghraib

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 18, 2007; 2:12 PM

A New Yorker article is raising uncomfortable questions for the White House about what President Bush knew about the horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib, when he knew it — and whether he and his top lieutenants bear more responsibility for it than they have acknowledged.

The shocking news and appalling photographs chronicling the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. personnel first emerged in April 2004, deeply damaging America’s reputation, particularly in the Arab world. Bush responded by expressing disgust at the behavior of a small number of people who, he said, were acting on their own. He said those responsible would be held accountable. And he said he had not seen the photographs before they were made public.

But according to Seymour M. Hersh’ s blockbuster story in the New Yorker, Bush was told about the abuse Abu Ghraib long before the photographs went public, failed to respond appropriately — and may indeed have recognized what happened at Abu Ghraib as the predictable result of administration policy rather than the random act of a few bad apples.

Hersh’s story is based on interviews with Antonio M. Taguba, the former two-star general who submitted a scathing (and career-killing) secret report about Abu Ghraib in March 2004. Hersh also concludes that then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew more than he admitted and that the abuses were in some cases similar to treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But from a White House perspective, the most significant aspect of Hersh’s story is that it threatens to associate Bush with a sordid chapter of the Iraq war from which he has managed to remain largely disconnected by pointing fingers down the chain of command. Hersh’s report raises the possibility that those truly responsible for Abu Ghraib have never been held accountable.

Here’s Hersh talking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN yesterday: “The question you have to ask about the president is this: No matter when he learned — and certainly he learned before it became public — and no matter how detailed it was, is there any evidence that the president of the United States said to Rumsfeld, ‘What’s going on there, Don? Let’s get an investigation going.’

“Did he do anything? Did he ask for a — did he want to have the generals come in and talk to him about it? Did he want to change the rules? Did he want to improve the conditions?

“BLITZER: And what’s the answer?

“HERSH: Nada. He did nothing. . . .

“BLITZER: Here’s the White House response. We asked the White House for a response to your article: ‘The president addressed this fully. He first saw the pictures on TV and he was upset by them. He called for the investigation to go forward. He found the actions abhorrent and urged the Defense Department to get to the bottom of the matter.’

“HERSH: It’s not when they saw the photographs. It’s when they learned how serious it was. They were told in memos what the photographs showed.”

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Of note is the statement by Taguba that he was Forbidden to invistigate higher ups.

CIA ran secret prisons for detainees in Europe, says inquiry

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Whoopie. We have gulags. I want my country back.

Impeach Dick Cheney Now. Impeach George Bush Tomorrow.

CIA ran secret prisons for detainees in Europe, says inquiry
Stephen Grey
Friday June 8, 2007
The Guardian

The CIA operated secret prisons in Europe where terrorism suspects could be interrogated and were allegedly tortured, an official inquiry will conclude today.

Despite denials by their governments, senior Polish and Romanian security officials have confirmed to the Council of Europe that their countries were used to hold some of America’s most important prisoners captured after 9/11 in secret.

None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subject to what George Bush has called the CIA’s ‘enhanced’ interrogation, which critics have condemned as torture. Although suspicions about the secret CIA prisons have existed for more than a year, the council’s report, seen by the Guardian, appears to offer the first concrete evidence. It also details the prisons’ operations and the identities of some of the prisoners.”

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