USA - Bush Admits He Is Responsible For Torture

[Panthers007]

I suggest any US citizen who travels abroad to tell people they are Canadians..
================================================== =====

Bush admits he approved torture

By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- The American people have heard President Bush and his spokespeople say many times that the U.S. government does not engage in torture.

Whether Bush was believed or not is another story -- especially in light of the photographic evidence of the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. It's understood that many of the photos are too sadistically graphic to be made public.

Still, the official U.S. denials of torture continued until earlier this month when Bush acknowledged in an interview with ABC-TV that he knew about and approved "enhanced interrogation" of detainees, including "waterboarding" or simulated drowning.

"As a matter of fact," Bush added, "I told the country we did that. And I told them it was legal. We had legal opinions that enabled us to do it."

The president added, "I didn't have any problems at all trying to find out what Khalid Sheik Mohammed knew."

"He was the person who ordered the suicide attack -- I mean, the 9/11 attacks," Bush said. "And back then, there was all kind of concern about people saying, 'Well, the administration is not connecting the dots.' You might remember those -- that period." Bush said.

Bush also said in the interview that he had been aware of several meetings his national security advisers held to discuss "enhanced interrogation" methods.

Surely he is aware of the U.S. commitment to international treaties barring "cruel and inhumane" treatment of prisoners.

What is startling is that he feels no remorse about the cruel image he has created for us -- and the damage done to our credibility and probity.

In referring to the legality of torture, Bush apparently was thinking of a 2002-2003 memo by John Yoo, a Justice Department official who argued military interrogators could subject detainees to harsh treatment as long as it didn't cause "death, organ failure or permanent damage." The memo was rescinded.

Bush, who has insisted "we do not torture," also recently vetoed legislation that explicitly banned torture. Sen. John McCain, whose whole political persona has been defined by the fact that he had been tortured while a prisoner of war during the Vietnam era, supported Bush's veto.

For both Bush and McCain, I recall the words of Joseph Welch, the special counselor for the Army during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings when Welch asked Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis.: "Sir, have you no sense of decency?"

We expected the usual cast of characters including Vice President Dick Cheney to be in on the sinister torture-planning sessions.

But it came as a shock that Gen. Colin Powell, then secretary of state, sat in on the meetings and went along with the planning. Powell had been on record warning against U.S. torture policies on the basis that if we mistreat our prisoners, foreign countries will feel no qualms about abusing American captives in wartime.

Once revered for his integrity, Powell has lost his halo.

Now we have this week's testimony of Air Force Col. Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor, who took the witness stand at Guantanamo Bay on behalf of a prisoner. Davis told how top Pentagon officials had pressured him on sensitive prosecutorial decisions for political reasons. He said he was told that the charges against well-known detainees "could have real strategic value" and that there could be no acquittals.

Davis also testified Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann reversed a decision he made and insisted prosecutors proceed with evidence they obtained through waterboarding and other methods of torture.

Davis also testified he was told to speed up the cases to give the system legitimacy before a new president takes over in January.

Is Congress so cowed that it accepts the statements of a president who has little regard for the truth?

Is there no lawmaker who is appalled about the tarnishing of our image in world opinion? And where are the voices of the other presidential candidates who will inherit the Bush legacy of torture? Why the silence?

I count on the American people to refuse to be shamed any more.

[dodi]

Is this not pretty outdated information?

I thought everyone knew bush gave permission to the geneva convention a while ago?

[Rehab Quitter]

No comment

[enquirewithin]

It's been obvious that torture has been approved by Bush and Cheney for years but admission is something else.

They should be impeached and punished but the Democrats wouldn't like that because they are little better.

McCain should know about torture but then he yielded to it to very fast! It worked on him but is not generally an effective way of getting information.

[Panthers007]

During the Spanish Inquisition, a man was brought in for torture. They stripped him naked and showed him the tools they would use on him. Then the head of the torture squad asked him if he would like to confess. He said he would not, and to proceed with the torture. "But" - he said, gesturing to the head guy - "I will point to you and say you were there with me as we committed blasphemy."

He was released immediately. This is a true story.

[jux]

after world war two, the american government succesfully tried and convicted japanese officers for war crimes...the officers were (no surprise) sentenced to death.

and guess what they were convicted for......waterboarding.

now the us has the gall to do the same thing and act like nothing is wrong (i suppose now its not a war crime....). spectacular.

[EarlGrayUK]

History shows that war crimes have always only been commited by the side that has lost the war