Misblog

Originally Published June 18, 2008; Last Updated and Republished November 30, 2009:

A few bad apples on the Abu Ghraib night shift included Rumsfeld and other top officials, according to newly released documents:

"The newly released documents show that in the summer of 2002, Pentagon officials compiled lists of aggressive techniques, soliciting opinions from the CIA and others, and ultimately implementing the practices [at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib] over opposition from military lawyers who argued that the proposed tactics were probably illegal and could harm U.S. troops."--Washington Post--

Web:

• UPDATED 11/30/2009 UPI, Court bars release of detainee abuse pics.

  Our Supreme Court has vacated the lower court judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings in light of the recent legislation permitting the Secretary of Defense to withhold the torture photos (§565 of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010).

  Fortunately those seeking disclosure of these most unfortunate photos have stated they intend to continue pursing efforts to ensure these photographs are publicly disclosed.

  Our president must do more than talk about transparency and then withhold these photographs—our congress must repeal §565 if required to ensure these photos are publicly disclosed.

  Transparency is especially required when the information relates to possible criminal conduct on the part of our government or its representatives—every government supports transparency when the information is perceived to be favorable to the government.

  Amending FOIA each time there is a potential for disclosing criminal governmental conduct would quickly eviscerate FOIA and lead to the very type of government FOIA seeks to discourage and eliminate.

• UPDATED 11/15/2009 UPI, U.S. aims to block release of abuse photos.

  This is like the criminal president Nixon trying to withhold disclosure of the tapes—not only is it a bad idea but one that will fail in a big way to prevent the disclosure of the Abu Ghraib torture photos.

  Notwithstanding the misguided efforts of our Congress and secretary of defense these photos will eventually be disclosed, most likely accompanied by the phrase "what were we thinking".

  In fact the more our leadership tries to prevent their disclosure the stronger with be the pressure to disclose the photos.

  The good news is that disclosure while perhaps tactically harmful is strategically helpful. It sends a very strong message to all future wannabe American torturers—your private torture will be public in a very BIG, as in Internet, way.

  As a bonus we have the opportunity to confront the deprave treatment torturers inflict in secret—pretending their torture does not exist only guarantees it will continue in the future. Public disclosure and discussion significantly reduces the probability that the torture will recur.

• UPDATED 04/25/2009 NYT, Pentagon to Release Detainee Photos

• UPDATED 06/19/2008 Time Mag, Seeking Answers on Detainee Abuse. Lieutenant Colonel Diane Beaver is the military female counterpart to John Yoo.

  Cheney, Rumsfeld, Haynes, and Addington were working at both ends to implement the administration's torture regimen.

• UPDATED 06/18/2008 BBC, US-held terror suspects 'abused' Those familiar with the torture news from the current administration over the last several years will recognizes the following shameful list.

  The list was not developed on the Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo night shift by a few bad apples, it's a zerox from the CIA's KUBARK torture manual¹:

  • Stress positions
  • Beatings and other forms of physical assault
  • Use of extremes of temperature
  • Waterboarding or any other form of simulated drowning
  • Threats of harm to the detainee, his family, or friends
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Sensory bombardment through the use of extreme noise and/or light
  • Violent shaking
  • Religious, cultural, and sexual humiliation including, but not limited to, forced nakedness
  • Prolonged isolation
  • Sensory deprivation, including, but not limited to, hooding and blindfolding
  • Use of psychotropic, mind-altering, or other drugs for the purpose of decreasing resistance or gaining information
  • Mock execution
  • Exploitation of phobias, psychopathology, or physical vulnerability
  • Rape and sexual assault
  • Electric shocks
  • Deprivation of basic necessities and sanitary conditions
• WP, CIA Played Larger Role In Advising Pentagon

Res:

• UPDATED 04/24/2009 Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody; Report of the Committee on Armed Services United States Senate, Dated November 2008, Released April 22, 2009

  "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of "a few bad apples" acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority. This report is a product of the Committee's inquiry into how those unfortunate results came about."--Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody; Report of the Committee on Armed Services United States Senate, dated November 2008--

• UPDATED 06/18/2008 Physicians for Human Rights, Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact

  "After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.--Maj. General Antonio M. Taguba (USA-Ret.), Preface to Report--

  If our nation tries to shield those who authorized abuse and torture from accountability, because "they believed it necessary to protect our nation" we will only compound the damage inflicted on our great nation.

• Senate Armed Services Committee, Hearing on aggressive interrogation techniques: Part I, inquiry into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody

Blog:

• UPDATED 10/15/2009 FAS Secrecy, Congress Moves to Bar Release of Abuse Photos.

  It will be most unfortunate if our Congress moves to delay the eventual disclosure of all documents, including photos, related to our shameful period of torture.

  Must we relearn with each shameful event that opacity is infectious and eventually gangrenous?

  Surely our leaders understand the effect of demanding transparency from other nations while asserting opacity for our own.

-----notes-----

1. Many in the administration seeking to mask the torture occurring in our joint military-CIA secret torture and interrogation chambers have characterized the torture as nothing more than SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) training provided to our soldiers.

There is a night and day difference between SERE training and the KUBARK torture inflicted in the joint military-CIA secret torture and interrogation chambers.

One can certainly understand why those authorizing torture would subsequently seek to re-characterize their authorization as defensive resistance training—however untruthful and irrelevant.