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Retired Gen. Taguba: Bush Administration Committed "War Crimes"
June 19, 2008 11:12 AM
Writing the forward to a Physicians for Human Rights study of 11 former detainees who were apparently tortured by US military personnel and later released, Army Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) writes that "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Taguba, who led the Army’s official investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal, says that the report from the doctors' human rights group based in Cambridge, Mass., "tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individuals’ lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors."
The report -- titled "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact" -- details medical evaluations of 11 former detainees held by the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. None were ever charged with any crime; all have since been released. The report describes how the 11 detainees suffered alleged beatings, sodomy, electric shock, involuntary medication, threats to their lives and families, shacklings, sleep deprivation, and other forms of abuse.
Taguba says "these men deserve justice as required under the tenets of international law and the United States Constitution. And so do the American people."
The White House says it is not U.S. policy to torture detainees.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/retired-gen-tag.html
Ex-State Dept. official: Hundreds of detainees died in U.S. custody, at least 25 murdered.»
At today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides:
NADLER: Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?
WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108.
A February 2006 Human Rights First report found that although hundreds of people in U.S. custody had died and eight people were tortured to death, only 12 deaths had “resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/18/ex-state-dept-official-hundreds-of-detainees-died-in-us-custody-at-least-25-murdered/
Cheney linked to torture tactics
Leadership failed at top levels
Tom Ramstack (
Thursday, June 19, 2008
A former military officer who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday said Vice President Dick Cheney probably knew the U.S. military was using torture on Iraqi detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at prisons in Iraq.
Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson's testimony before a House panel followed revelations this week that detainees were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques with the authorization of government attorneys.
"At what level did American leadership fail?" Col. Wilkerson said during a hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties. "I believe it failed at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the Vice President's Office and perhaps even in the Oval Office."
Painful interrogation techniques were apparently authorized in a Feb. 7, 2002, order signed by President Bush that also said al Qaeda and Taliban detainees were not to be considered prisoners of war. The order was based on a legal memo from the White House counsel's office.
Prisoner-of-war status is supposed to protect captives from torture under the Geneva Conventions.
After they received the president's order, Pentagon officials compiled a list of interrogation techniques that later were used on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo and elsewhere, according to documents released by the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. The documents state that CIA agents contributed to the plan to use the aggressive interrogation techniques.
During an Oct. 2, 2002, meeting with military and intelligence officials at Guantanamo, the documents state that CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman said torture "is basically subject to perception." He also reportedly said, "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."
Col. Wilkerson said, "The president may have been ignorant of the worst parts of the failure."
Douglas Feith, one of the government attorneys suspected of contributing legal advice for the Defense Department's authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques, had notified the committee he would not appear at the hearing Wednesday.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said Mr. Feith, a former undersecretary of defense for policy, would be compelled to testify later.
"Mr. Feith's unwillingness to attend voluntarily and provide the truth about this government's actions shows a fundamental disrespect for Congress and the American people," Mr. Nadler said.
He also said the military's use of so-called waterboarding, beatings and putting prisoners in painful "stress positions" appears to be "more widespread and the legal justifications more flimsy than have been initially reported. Evidence also appears to be mounting that officials at the highest levels of this administration may have been directly involved to a far greater extent and far earlier in the process than had been previously represented to Congress and to the American people."
Waterboarding refers to putting a cloth over a restrained person's mouth and nose, then pouring water over them to give them the sensation of drowning.
Daniel Levin, former acting assistant attorney general, testified that he contributed legal advice on torture to the Bush administration, but that he told high-level officials that it was unjustified under international law.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/19/cheney-linked-to-torture-tactics/
I watched the hearing in which Col. Wilkerson testified- and altho he said there is no direct evidence to Bush's involvement- he said there is that Cheney was well aware and approving what was happening... He also testified that he believed that when all the evidence came out- Cheney and several in the Administration (Rumsfeld, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William J. Haynes II, John Yoo; and Timothy E. Flanigan,) would be indicted by the World Courts in some countries as War Criminals for authorizing the illegal behavior - and said he would advise they not travel outside the US boundaries....
Also in one of the hearings it became apparent that the Administration knew they were breaking the law- because on one document they granted Advanced Immunity--- immunity ahead of the Fact to anyone caught- something no-one, not even King George, can legally do....
But daily its shown he could care less about little things like laws and the Constitution....
No wonder the Supreme Court is seeking oversight over a runaway Administration....