Drilling down on the torture issue
Eric Holder
So now it begins — months, perhaps even years of Justice Department investigations and, perhaps, prosecutions of CIA agents and contractors who may have violated U.S. laws in interrogating terrorism suspects. Who knows where it will end, but probably not with the people ultimately responsible for signing off on torture.
President Barack Obama repeatedly said he preferred to avoid opening this particular can of worms, which could become a major political distraction. CIA Director Leon Panetta vociferously has opposed exposing his agents to investigation.
But Mr. Obama left the decision to Attorney General Eric Holder. On Monday, Mr. Holder, after wrestling with it for months, appointed John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor, to determine whether there is enough evidence to merit a full criminal investigation.
This kind of independence would not be a problem if Alberto Gonzales were still attorney general, but Mr. Holder made the correct decision. Mr. Obama may want to move on, and Mr. Panetta is right to be concerned about the implications for his agency. But in America, the rule of law applies. The appointment of Mr. Durham is the proper first step. America can handle the truth.
Mr. Holder’s decision was driven in large part by the contents of a 2004 report by John Helgerson, then the CIA’s inspector general, about harsh interrogation techniques. That report, which had been secret, was released Monday after a federal judge, in a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, ruled that it should be made public.
It has been heavily redacted, but what does appear — in addition to the now-familiar litany of abuses heaped on detainees: waterboarding, repeated slamming against walls, sleep deprivation, isolation, being exposed to 40-degree temperatures and ear-splitting music — is bad enough.
Yes, there are gruesome new details — a whirring power drill used to frighten one detainee, the slide of an semi-automatic pistol being racked in a detainee’s ear, waterboarding protocols being ignored and callousness on the part of at least one participant. Asked about exposing detainees to cold temperatures, he replied, “How cold is cold? How cold is life-threatening?”
There is a detainee being told, “We’re going to kill your children,” and, “We could get your mother in here.”
But perhaps the most sickening finding in the report is this: “[There was] substantial pressure from HQ to continue use of EITs.”
These guys, 8,000 miles from home, were getting pressure from headquarters to continue using enhanced interrogation techniques. They knew, according to the report, that what they were doing might blow back on them. They worried about being hung out to dry and about criminal prosecution.
Much of the report focuses on the interrogation of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, suspected of being the mastermind of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It’s hard to work up a lot of sympathy for them.
But this is a nation of laws, not of men. That is the notion of American exceptionalism, and we ignore it at our peril. There is no finding in the report that indicates that any data extracted by torture could not have been obtained any other way.
The CIA officers involved may never be prosecuted or convicted: The trail is seven years cold, evidence could be missing and witnesses unreliable. But the people who justified what they were doing are on the lecture circuit and writing books for large advances. There’s no justice in that.
Now the CIA gets tossed under the bus.
Remember that April 20th speech President Obama gave at Langley … turns
out it was just an exercise in rhetoric.
Hey Posties — you want some gruesome details? Read the non-EITs tactics
Hezbollah used on William Buckley in Lebanon ’84.
http://tinyurl.com/WilliamBuckley-Lebanon
“Buckley was tortured repeatedly and severely for the next ten months, under
the supervision of Imad Mugniyeh, one of Hezbollah’s senior officials, and a
Lebanese doctor.”
Your St. Louis Post-Dispatch
— Making the World Safer for Terrorists One Editorial at a Time
“But in America, the rule of law applies.” And that would include 8000 pages of unread / un-understood laws this year + 30000 pages of federal laws on the books already. Nope, me thinks it’s the rule of whatever whim-worshipper happens to have the most curb appeal on election day that rules. Nobody could read nor understand all of this crap that passes for law.
***
Now that O is bringing interogation oversite into the ever-expanding whitehouse (maybe they need to add another floor), will He have to appoint a Torture Czar?
Believing that Holder is acting independently is delusional. The Obama Administration is under assault from all sides over health care, foreign policy, and the Administration’s handling of the economy, and desperately needs to distract the nation’s attention. The Attorney General kept his plans for yet another investigation of Bush Administration efforts against terrorists in his hip pocket, ready to be deployed if Presidnt
Yeah. Let the investigations proceed and the chips fall where they may. In the course of destroying this country, George W. Bush (the First Fool as I loved to call him) undid DECADES of diplomatic protocol.
Were these morons able to get information via torture? Sure they did. Most of that info was false. You see, under those circumstances, the person being tortured will say just about anything. It is quite interesting: no one in this administration (Excuse me, I meant to say, “THAT administration) was smart enough to figure this out.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Believing that Holder is acting independently is delusional. The Obama Administration is under assault from all sides over health care, foreign policy, and the Administration’s handling of the economy, and desperately needs to distract the nation’s attention. The Attorney General kept his plans for yet another investigation of Bush Administration efforts against terrorists in his hip pocket, ready to be deployed if President Obama found himself in political distress.
As Senator Bond has stated, these allegations have already been addressed in earlier reviews, and constitute little more than a political witch hunt.
Most of that info was false
— Tom Degan
7:45 am August 25th, 2009
Take it from Tom, he was there and knew exactly what went on…..
I know this is the opposite of how it usually works, but I really hope they offer plea bargains to lower people in exchange for finding culpability on up the food chain. This really is the fault of the Bush administration, and they need to be held accountable for flushing American values down the toilet.
“But in America, the rule of law applies.”
You left-wing zealots continue to transform our country into a second rate tyranny. You will only prosecute your political enemies while those on the “politically correct side” will get a pass. Your ideology is a mockery of justice.
Stay tuned for an upcoming Post-Dispatch headline:
JUSTICE FOR JIHADISTS
Tax on airline tickets will fund reparations to detainees.
“But in America, the rule of law applies.” Is the PD at all concerned about what laws were broken last week when this administration gathered up email addresses of those who disagreed with health care reform? How about the laws broken when Obama bought GM and Chrysler on our behalf? How about the laws protecting “watchdogs”, one of whom Obama fired because he didn’t like his diligence. What laws permit these czars with unlimited power who are not even confirmed by the Congress, and, it was revealed today are not even investigated by the FBI, but by this administration itself? Any concerns about any of this? I didn’t think so.