George Bush, Dick Cheney war crimes: Torture

Rachel Maddow, guest host on countdown with Keith olbermann, comments on the newly emerging evidence of the Bush White House's role in promoting torture.
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- The ICRC report on CIA interrogation techniques concluded categorically that they were "torture"--not "tantamount to torture" as previously reported--and issued an explicit warning to the U.S. Administration that the use of these techniques was a war crime which might subject U.S. leaders to criminal prosecution. This is the real potential headline maker from the book.

- She provides a number of grueling examples of the application of the techniques including the brutal murder of Manadel al-Jamadi, the placement of prisoners in closed coffins for prolonged periods, and one instance in which a below-the-knee amputee with a prosthesis who had his prosthesis taken away and was forced to stand for hours on one foot, hanging from a rail.

- She traces the development of the torture techniques to the work of two contractors, Mitchell and Jessen, and disclosed the specific techniques they developed. She notes that the techniques rely heavily on a theory called "Learned Helplessness" developed by a Penn psychologist Martin Seligman, who assisted them in the process. All of this was done under the thin pretext of being a part of the SERE program. Seligman is a former president of the American Psychological Association. This helps explain why the APA alone among professional healthcare provider organizations failed to unequivocally condemn torture and mandate that its members not associate themselves with the Bush Administration techniques.

- She describes an internal CIA investigation by IG Helgerson which concluded that the program violated the Geneva Conventions and U.S. criminal law. Vice President Cheney intervened directly, calling Helgerson directly into his office and speaking with him, after which the CIA report was stopped in its tracks.




- Steven Bradbury at DOJ was asked to resolve this by crafting opinions that gave CIA full latitude to torture, with no restraints--setting aside the opinions crafted by Dan Levin which authorized techniques only within narrow constraints. After Bradbury rendered opinions exactly as solicited on his "probation," Bush personally expressed his pleasure with Bradbury's performance and nominated him to head OLC.

- According to James Comey, AG Gonzales repeatedly told him that he fully appreciated that the CIA program was torture and was criminal but he couldn't oppose or block it because "Cheney wants it."

- The role of the torture lawyers in crafting the system is far more intimate than they have acknowledged. John Yoo, Michael Chertoff and Alice Fisher reviewed specific techniques which clearly amounted to torture and blessed them as fine to use, and then lied publicly and to Congress about their involvement. Yoo is said to have given his legal blessing to torture techniques and their application by DOD operatives on the squash court as he played rounds with Jim Haynes.

- A staff attorney at DOJ names Jessica Radack was fired and then hounded by Chertoff and Fisher after she dispensed correct advice to the effect that John Walker Lindh could not be interviewed by the FBI without being Mirandized and having his attorney present. This advice was overridden by Alberto Gonzales and Jim Haynes, who then had DOJ files purged to remove any evidence that the correct advice had ever been rendered. The purging of the files was carried out by Alice Fisher, who went on to head the Criminal Division. When a district court judge demanded to see the DOJ's internal communication on the matter, he was told that there were no records--Mayer believes that there was criminal obstruction, carried out by the head of the Department's Criminal Division.

- Mayer portrays Cheney as the man who introduced and pushed torture from the beginning and David Addington as his "fixer." According to her, they never lost a battle. When meetings were held and the decision came out against them, they simply persevered and implemented their viewpoint anyway.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/07/vice-president.h...

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[jsheridan06]

Why have we all forgotten this so soon!! We are still fighting the war in iraq and the war was based on fabricated WMD evidence and our economy is suffereing from cost of expensive war and cost of American life. I want people to be held accountable for this!!! Is this all talk? Less talk more action!

[Murf077]

lets show the world that we will investigate this, punish those responsible to ensure it never happens again

[jonny000005]

@ricolie: watch any of the videos of testimony by Iraq veterans about how they were ordered to kill unarmed civilians including women and children. That's a clear war crime. It's a known fact the WMD intel was a lie they admitted it. Do some research and educate yourself about a topic before you go around calling people wack jobs. Or at least cite examples were there mistaken. Your obviously to much of a dumb ass to make a valid argument so you resort to calling people wack jobs. You should be

[courage9070]

Revolt against a government that sleeps with world bankers(federal reserve) that print FIAT money and equates it into the asset equivalent of gold and charges us for it.Government creates austerity policies to make us pay for paper. Stop economic crimes against humanity ie. millions essentially embezzled by global political and financial zionist "insiders club." A 2nd or 3rd world existence...our forefathers didn't fight, shed blood and sacrifice their lives for that. WAKE UP and SMELL THE LIES.

[MyTotalRemedy]

Comey used to be Ashcroft's assistant, so I guess he's covering.

Torture advocates 1st tier are Cheney, Gonzo, Addington, and Yoo.

2nd tier are Bush and Rumsfeld.

Powell had problems with torture, and Rice may have.

[MyTotalRemedy]

I thought he crafted the memos?

[MyTotalRemedy]

Um, I'm sure Gonzales had a bigger role in it than that. He was one of the worst members of the Bush administration. He's a real big torture enthusiast, so I hear.

[2011neesh]

these two bitch's are guilty of being chicken hawks, acting like they shed blood on the front line for their country.

[merzbau1]

BUSH= getting senile , CHENEY = already a foot in his grave ,PETRAEUS= prostate cancer +heart attack AMERICA what are you doing , cure them We want them able to respond to their audition in THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE , reopen 9/11 and DECLASSIFICATION OF ALL DOCUMENTS ABOUT 9/11

[adrewk]

@jsheridan06 agreed!...i think thats why they voted in the black man, hes the new threat/bad guy for ignorant americans to focus on. what gets me is that its so obvious that 9/11 was a false flag attack. how are so many people ignoring this, and all the terror that came from it.

I WILL NEVER FORGET, OR STOP TALKING ABOUT IT UNTIL I SEE JUSTICE

as far as my actions, i spread the word and i no longer pay for war (taxes & big corporations)

FUCK THE U.S. GOVERNMENT they're the true terrorists

[Klarkao]

look at the main title, then cover george with your finger and cover everything after dick = "Bush, Dick"