President Obama claims American officials and CIA Personnel are above the Law
It is up to Americans to decide what is a crime and what is not.
Geneva Conventions Do Not Apply to Americans, period , full stop, End of the Story.
Anyway Obama threatened by the C.I.A and others gives all C.I.A. agents who took part in abuse and torture of detainees a Free Pass
- they will not be indicted or held accountable in any way shape or form - they are after all the Best of the Best
- that is if you approve of sadistic, arrogant self-serving psychopaths
admittedly the CIA has been torturing and disappearing people all over the world long before 9/11- from Iran to Guatemala, to Chile, El Salvador etc.
- they are told to beat the shit out of someone whom they suspect is innocent of any crime and they do it anyway Gestapo Style.
Have they no shame . Has Obama no shame. Who's he trying to appease.
The Republicans, Conservatives, the Religious Right all hate him no matter what he does. So is he going to give Dick Cheney and George Bush the last laugh .
Now Obama is about to piss off his so called base all those millions of individuals who worked tirelessly for him and defended one misstep after another making excuses for him will he do something to renew their faith.
His war on terror looks a lot like Bush's War on Terror , he has shown little courage in really standing up to the WALL-STREET thugs and is allowing the "renditions" of so called Terrorists .
So has Obama given into threats by the CIA and the Republican Party and those Democrats who might have also been involved in detainee abuse in one way or another that is like Nancy Pelosi and others who knew about the abuse and did nothing- So was this part of his compromise
- How does one go about compromising one's basic principles or ideals or core values -
C.I.A. Warns Obama! Keep Bush Secrets Secret! Or Else!- Olbermann , April 15, 2009
Olbermann If Obama Does Not Prosecute he is then an accessory to these Crimes
American officials and the CIA are not above the law.
Many of the people held at Guantanamo and other US prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan were in fact innocent. How then could the C.I.A. and military personnel who took part in abuse and torture of these detainees be excused for their behavior when they knew these people were innocent and had no valuable and usable intel- They were doing it because they were told to - they could have refused - they did it because they just hated all Iraqis, Afghans, Arabs, Pashtuns, Muslims etc. or they were sadistic bastards like Cheney & Bush and enjoyed it
More Evidence Of Bush/Cheney War Crimes!- March 18, 2009- Rachel Maddow
Let's begin with the sad news Obama is not concerned about justice but rather the jobs, pensions & reputations of the C.I.A personnel who took part in the torture of detainees- going against the rulings of the Nuremberg decision Obama is letting these people off because " They Were Just Doing Their Duty " like any good little sadistic NAZIs - The Empire is Once Again secure and all those who were abused and tortured are left hung out to dry- no recourse to justice or compensation or official apology - innocent or not they the " DETAINEES " are once again victimized as Obama proves he does believe in the Imperial Presidency and in American Exceptionalism .
We can only hope some group or nation will find a way to bring to justice all those who took part in these crimes . Obama is not even going to give them a reprimand . Obama forgets all of these people knowing the law could have refused to go along with these criminal orders. Heaven forbid Americans should ever have to answer to the International Community for its illegal and arrogant actions.
Once again Americans can toss all of their dark past and all of its crimes and abuses down the old Memory Hole just like they have done before . Maybe they 'll find a few scapegoats as they did with Abu Ghraib or at My Lai in Vietnam or just make more pretty speeches to cover up the horrors they have visited upon individuals and whole nations like Iraq. The hundreds of thousands murdered in Iraq still cry out for justice and the world is silent.
If Obama does not bring those who carried out these medieval tortures on human beings maybe he'll go after those who gave explicit orders to torture. If not then we can conclude that Obama no more believes in Justice than Dick Cheney. Donald Rumsfeld , Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo , Condoleeza Rice, Karl Rove , Doug Feith or the other thugs in the former Bush Regime a Regime which at this moment in time is casting a rather dark shadow over the United States of America.
It's Official: Obama Will Not Prosecute CIA Torturers:Obama strikes a deal with CIA torturers not to prosecute them. This is a victory for Bush’s lawyers who justified torture.by Jeremy Scahill at CommonDreams.org, April 16, 2009
The White House has announced that CIA operatives, including contractors, who followed Bush guidelines for torturing prisoners will not be prosecuted for these actions, regardless of the Obama administration’s position on the legality of the techniques they used. “[I]t is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution,” President Obama said in a statement released today. This seems to be part of a deal struck with the CIA over the release of several torture memos today and it is a victory for Bush administration lawyers who sought to provide legal cover for US government torture.
The Washington Post also reported:
For the first time, officials said that they would provide legal representation at no cost to CIA employees in international tribunals or U.S. congressional inquiries into alleged torture. They also said they would indemnify agency workers against any possible financial judgments.
“It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.
The ACLU was quick to shoot back at Obama’s announcement. “President Obama’s assertion that there should not be prosecutions of government officials who may have committed crimes before a thorough investigation has been carried out is simply untenable. Enforcing the nation’s laws should not be a political decision,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU.
This comes as the White House released the three “Bradbury” memos, drafted in 2005, detailing CIA ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques and torture. The administration has also reportedly released a 2002 memo written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo and signed by Jay Bybee. The New York Times described that memo as “a legal authorization for a laundry list of proposed C.I.A. interrogation techniques.”
The Bradbury memos are named for Steven Bradbury, the former acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under Bush.
The decision apparently came “after a tense internal debate,” culminating with a “final round of deliberations” Wednesday night over the release, which was fiercely opposed by the CIA, which said their release would threaten national security. The administration faced a deadline of today for the release of the documents under a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Bybee memo was put on the table April 2 as part of a negotiation between the ACLU and the White House after the Justice Department asked for a delay of two weeks to make a decision on releasing the Bradbury memos.
“These memos provide yet more incontrovertible evidence that Bush administration officials at the highest level of government authorized and gave legal blessings to acts of torture that violate domestic and international law,” said Romero.
The " Detainees" held by the US military or the C.I.A were human beings like the rest of us they were not beasts or dogs to be abused without any regard to their humanity and their dignity- they have names and faces , they had spouses, children, families , friends - many of them we now know were innocent. Many who survived were broken physically and mentally in order to fill the needs of those in power and to fill the American Publics need for retribution and their pound of flesh for the events of 9/11. These individuals who were tortured and abused and denied their basic rights at Guantanamo, or Abu Ghriab or Bagram or at dozens of other prisons run by the C.I.A. and under the Bush Regime are now to be forgotten since as human beings as individuals as persons never really mattered to the those in power or it now appears to the American people who are unable it seems to empathize with people especially if they are categorized as different from themselves. It is this dehumanization which now reaches its ultimate purpose and goal as Obama takes the final step in rendering the sufferings of all these individuals as meaningless when compared with the reputations and jobs and pensions of those who did them harm. In America there is no justice once the system performs its nefarious deeds.
So anyway here's a video of one of those abused by the American Government & in his case the Canadian government who sent him to Syria to be tortured by Proxy- He was not guilty of anything - the Canadian government later exonerated him and apologized to him yet the US government still keeps him on a No Fly List and refuses to apologize to him or his family.
Fault Lines - Obama's 'War on Terror' - 16 Apr 09 - Part 2
This week on Fault Lines, we talk to people on all sides of the so-called "war on terror" - from human rights lawyers to former Bush administration officials; from a former US detainee who was rendered to torture to the CIA analyst who helped author his fate.
and now a confession from Richard Armitage of the former Bush administration :
Richard Armitage On Torture: I Should Have Resigned From Bush Administration (Video) by Ryan Grim at Huffington post , april 15, 2009
Richard Armitage, the second in command at the State Department under President Bush, told Al Jazeera English in an interview to be aired Thursday that had he known then what he knows now about the torture of detainees, the right thing to do would have been to resign.
"I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign," Armitage said in an interview, according to a transcript provided to the Huffington Post.
"Fault Lines" host Avi Lewis pressed Armitage about remaining in the administration. "So when you knew that the administration of which you were a part was departing from the Geneva Conventions and sidelining them, why didn't you quit?"
"In hindsight maybe I should've," said Armitage. "But in those positions you see how many more battles you have. You maybe fool yourself. You say how much worse would X, Y, or Z be if I weren't here trying to do it? So torture is a matter of principle as far as I'm concerned. I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign."
Ray McGovern talks about how the Bush Regime could have sank so low as to abuse and torture " Detainees" and that there was not widespread protest by the American people for these crimes. There may be something rotten at the core of the American Psyche .
Anatomy of Bush's Torture 'Paradigm'By Ray McGovern April 15, 2009 "Information Clearing House"
...The report's images of sadism also include prisoners slammed against walls, locked in tiny boxes, and strapped to a bench and subjected to the drowning sensation of waterboarding.
How could it be that we Americans tolerate the kind of leaders who would subject others to systematic torture — yes, that’s what the official report of the international body charged with monitoring the Geneva agreements on the treatment of prisoners concludes — torture.
End-Run Around Geneva
But the Bush administration was just getting started.
On Jan. 18, 2002, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advised the President that the Justice Department had issued a formal legal opinion concluding that the Geneva Convention III on the Treatment of Prisoners of War (GPW) does not apply with respect to al Qaeda.
Gonzales added that he understood that Bush had “decided that GPW does not apply and, accordingly, that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees are not prisoners of war under the GPW.”
On Jan. 19, 2002, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told combat commanders that the President had “determined that al-Qaeda and Taliban individuals under the control of the Department of Defense are not entitled to prisoner of war status for purposes of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell asked the President to reconsider his decision and to conclude, instead, that the GPW does apply to both al Qaeda and the Taliban. But Powell’s protest was couched in bureaucratic politeness, rather than in anger and outrage. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Cowardice in the Time of Torture.”]
...The next step took the form of the fateful memorandum of Jan. 25, 2002, signed by Alberto Gonzales but drafted by counsel to the Vice President David Addington. That memo outlined for the President “the ramifications of your decision and the Secretary’s [Powell’s] request for reconsideration.”
It described a “new paradigm” that, the writers claimed “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners, and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
Gonzales and Addington urged the President to disregard Powell’s misgivings and move ahead. But they cloaked their argument in lawyerly language that obscured what was to come.
The lawyers argued that it was “appropriate” and “consistent with military necessity” to waive Geneva regarding the treatment of al Qaeda and Taliban detainees, but they inserted assurances that the prisoners would be treated “humanely” and “in a manner consistent with the principles of GPW.”
...The smoking-gun memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, was released to the media, together with other documents, by Gonzales on June 22, 2004, but it did not receive the attention it deserved until recently.
On Dec. 11, 2008, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released, without dissent, the summary of their committee’s report on the abuse of detainees.
The report’s first subhead was: Presidential Order Opens Door to Considering Aggressive Techniques, and the first words of the first sentence of the first paragraph were, “On Feb. 7, 2002, President Bush signed a memorandum stating…”
Referring to the “President’s order,” the first paragraph adds that “the decision to replace well-established military doctrine, i.e., legal compliance with the Geneva Conventions, with a policy subject to interpretation, impacted the treatment of detainees.”
“Conclusion Number One” of the Senate Armed Services Committee report states: “Following the President’s determination [of Feb. 7, 2002], techniques such as waterboarding, nudity, and stress positions … were authorized for use in interrogations of detainees in U.S. custody.”
Once Bush had opened the door with his Feb. 2, 2002, memo, other actions followed to implement the President’s “new paradigm.”
And now there are more recent allegations & evidence being brought forth in Poland proving that the Polish government took part in the US crimes of " renditions" and abuse and torture of prisoners held by US personnel ie C.I.A. in Poland. Of course as we are told Obama has been continuing with the practice of such "extraordinary renditions " at various "Black Sites" or sending " detainees " to other countries so they can be " Tortured by Proxy.
Renditions in Poland
Polish reporters claim CIA jail evidence, UOI.com, April 15, 2009
WARSAW, Poland, April 15 (UPI) -- Polish journalists claim they have uncovered new evidence that Poland allegedly leased a military base to the United States for a clandestine CIA prison.
Reporters of Polish Television and the Rzeczpospolita daily said the evidence included documents and witness statements that were part of a Polish judicial investigation to determine whether the alleged CIA prison undermined the country's sovereignty, the EUobserver reported Wednesday.
The journalists said the Polish government in December 2001 reportedly leased a section of the Stare Kiejkuty military base in northwest Poland to the CIA, and assigned 20 secret agents to assist U.S. officials in anti-terrorist activities.
also see:
ACLU fears Obama Administration may destroy evidence at CIA 'black sites'Greg Fulton at The Raw Story.com, Wednesday April 15, 2009
The Bush Administration's legacy of torture interrogation may dip further into obscurity if the Obama Administration's vow to decommission overseas detention black sites means evidence of torture would be destroyed.
That's the fear the ACLU is voicing in a little-publicized letter this week to preserve any and all evidence relating to the recently-disclosed CIA black sites where terrorism suspects were held.
Days ago, it was reported that Spanish officials would seek indictments against members of the Bush Administration for allegedly authorizing torture, and a Wall Street Journal article claimed that the current administration "is leaning toward keeping secret some graphic details of tactics allowed in Central Intelligence Agency interrogations."
"Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner's head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator, according to people familiar with the memos," the paper reported. "Another approved tactic was waterboarding, or simulated drowning."
The ACLU letter specifically wants evidence preserved on behalf of a detainee currently held in Guantanamo, and was sent directly to CIA Director Leon Panetta.
and so it goes,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment