Bishop to Boycott Obama Commencement Speech
South Bend is heating up over the controversy surrounding Obama and the local bishop...Read the post2009 College Grads: We're the Lucky Ones
Why there is hope for the graduating Class of 2009, and how they can find work in a recession...Read the postBeer in Vending Machines -- What Drinking Age?
U.S. policies on drinking age seem restrictive when examining the rest of the world...Read the postHow The Press Can Remain Relevant
Is it any surprise that Obama has employed a strategy to cordon journalists that is similar to previous administrations?...Read the postBe Afraid, Cheney Warns. Be Very Afraid.
Just when you thought the Bush-era warnings of Armageddon around the corner were over, Cheney strikes again...Read the postObama: You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry...
Obama threw down his stick, spat on the floor and growled in the face of cameras -- metaphorically... Read the postObama to GOP: 'I Won, I'm The President'
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," Obama told GOP leaders...Read the postPalin Seeks $11M Book Deal, but Can She Read?
One can only imagine what Republican rising star Sarah Palin could possibly write about in her memoirs...Read the post
Interrogation Memos Reveal Rough Treatment of Detainees
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday released four Office of Legal Counsel opinions that describe interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Bush administration.
Politico reported that White House senior adviser David Axelrod said President Barack Obama spent a month trying to decide whether to release the memos about the techniques.
In a letter to the officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), posted on the agency's Web site, Obama thanked them for their service to the country. He said he made the decision the night before to allow the Justice Department to release the memos.
"I did not make this decision lightly," he wrote in the letter. "As you may know, the release is part of an ongoing court case. I have fought for the principle that the United States must carry out covert activities and hold information that is classified for the purpose of national security and will do so again in the future. But the release of these memos is required by our commitment to the rule of law."
Obama said that while he has prohibited use of the interrogation techniques described in the memo since he took office, he and Attorney General Eric Holder would "protect all who acted reasonably and relied upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that their actions were lawful." Holder affirmed this in a Thursday news release from the Department of Justice.
The individuals in the CIA who carried out the harsh interrogation actions will not be prosecuted, or so Obama says. Will anyone?
Although most of the information described in the memos was already known in general terms by the public, reading the details about interrogation methods is chilling.
One of the memos is signed by Jay S. Bybee, a Justice Department official at the time, and addressed to CIA attorney John A. Rizzo, dated Aug. 1, 2002. The memo states that the proposed interrogation techniques described in the memo would not violate U.S. law prohibiting torture.
The prisoner being discussed is Abu Zubaydah, believed to be a high ranking member of al Qaeda. "The interrogation team is certain that he has additional information that he refuses to divulge," the memo says. In order to obtain this information, the CIA desired to move the interrogations to the "increased pressure phase."
The interrogators wished to use 10 techniques, the memo says, including cramped confinement, placing insects in a confinement box, facial slapping and and escalation to waterboarding. I think everyone knows what waterboarding is by now. "Walling" is a new one I haven't heard of, but it involves a flexible false wall and the interrogator pulling the prisoner forward, then quickly pushing him back toward the wall, which will make a loud noise to shock the individual, thereby creating a sensation which seems like it would be akin to being in a car crash.
The memo concluded that walling was okay, and that this technique, like the nine others listed in the memo, did not qualify as torture: "You have informed us that the sound of hitting the wall will actually be far worse than any possible injury to the individual. ... While it may hurt to be pushed against the wall, any pain experienced is not of the intensity associated with serious physical injury."
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta sent a letter to CIA employees Thursday reaffirming that he would oppose any efforts to punish those members of the CIA who followed the guidance of the Justice Department.
"Although this Administration has now put into place new policies that CIA is implementing, the fact remains that CIA's detention and interrogation effort was authorized and approved by our government," Panetta wrote.
This is true, but at some point, shouldn't someone have stood up to say, this is the United States? This isn't right?
Categories
Most Popular Stories »
- Nintendo DSi:
- Quran Jones charged with murder
- New football uniform now on display in bookstore
- Lambert cover controversy
- Cyclist assaulted, injured by driver
Recent Comments »
Page 1/3
Post Your Comments Below
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments
dennis higgins
7:38AM 7:38AM Apr 17th 2009
If we're not going after the people at the TOP,I want the soldiers that were convicted of abuse in Abu Grav released then. I realized they aren't the sharpest pickets on the fence, but if the whole fence doesn't come down...
I'm more interested is preventing this from happening again and this did come down from the top. The Howdy doody lawyers at the time in the White House should be the one's held responsible for even thinking this crap would be considered legal. Not that they weren"t pushed by Cheney and the gang.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
Keith
6:56PM 6:56PM Apr 17th 2009
WHETHER TORTURE OR NOT, IM TIRED OS B..S.T.ARDS LIKE YOU THAT THINK ITS OK TO HAVE OUR TROOPS GET THEIR HEADS CHOPPED OFF AND SAY NOT A DAM THING ABOUT IT BUT LET IT BE THE ENEMY AND YOU ACT LIKE ITS THE ONLY BAD THING IN THE WORLD..>SHOVE IT YOU FOCKING MORON
Rating :
Report!
Racist redneck
7:43AM 7:43AM Apr 18th 2009
I often wonder... If your immediate family was killed by a terorist and subsequently caught and interogated. During the interogation he indicated you parents were next... would putting an insect in a box with that suspect still be torture? These torturees are the same people beheading innocent people, planning the 9-11 attacks, and killing not only innocent Americans but also Africans, Iraqis etc. etc. This is politicized but once in a while THINK.
Rating :
Report!
Master Shake
8:59AM 8:59AM Apr 17th 2009
What kind of pussy operation is this? For crying out loud. Either get real, or give it up.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
Angiebaby
9:30AM 9:30AM Apr 17th 2009
Send someone to do their job, and then prosecute them for doing their job. I'm over it.
What these "leaked" documents never provide is what information is or has been learned from an individual under pressuring circumstances. Would President Obama feel differently if he found out the interrogations provided information which prevented an planned, deadly attack on the First Family? Sasha and Malia included?
I do find one trend blazing in current Presidential reign to be quite frightening, and that is President Obama refusing to name names, but allowing the names to be leaked so that people may be persecuted. The people publicly named in these memos may not be charged with any criminal wrongdoing, but their careers and personal lives will be utterly ruined... and President Obama's hands are clean of injustice. Or so he thinks. Don't think that just because Caesar didn't walk down the line pointing out specific victims he didn't control who was fed to the lions.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
Sarah
12:04PM 12:04PM Apr 17th 2009
Forget what you've seen on "24," in real life, torture does not produce helpful, truthful information. It has been proven that prisoners will say anything to get the torture to stop, they just tell them what they want to hear. The FBI learned more from Saddam Hussein when they let him have a garden to tend to - he would sit and tend to his garden and talk. I'm not saying that we should coddle prisoners (Saddam considered himself "special," so they had to treat him that way), but you have to gain their trust to get them to tell the truth.
Rating :
Report!
Angiebaby
3:51PM 3:51PM Apr 17th 2009
I must confess I do not watch "24." But torture has been used for centuries, by every country imaginable, and it is a very effective tool. No doubt it has saved more lives than either of us could count. Of course, it could be my faulty memory, since I don't remember Saddam Hussein tending his garden and remorsefully recounting the ways the Sunni minority under his command tortured, murdered, raped and maimed thousands of Shiites while destroying the infrastructure of the country and keeping the majority of Iraqi citizens in line under martial law. Um, did he describe how naked men were chained to chairs in icy cold concrete pits, and the only warmth generated in the room was when the prisoner was plugged in to electric sources? Did mention how the blood spattering in the dank rooms and the hollow echoing of the prisoners's creams affected them?
And of course Saddam Hussein had it rather good. To his vicious henchmen he was still considered the legal President of Iraq. If we had mistreated him, we would most likely have started a war with nearly the entire Middle East.
Perhaps you should forget what you see on "24," where the scenarios are pretend, and realize the world faces very real situations like that everyday with desperate people. Desperate people do desperate things and require desperate actions.
Rating :
Report!
roberts
3:35PM 3:35PM Apr 17th 2009
The bullet in the brain methoid used on the pirates sounds like a much better way to protect Americans than dribbling water on some nuts face.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
ed
4:51PM 4:51PM Apr 17th 2009
Waterboarding--too good for these criminals. However, it'd be good for Olberman & his ilk.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
ed
4:52PM 4:52PM Apr 17th 2009
Oh, poor fellows, they had 3 square muslim meals a day, a nice Koran, little muslim rug on which to bow to Mecca, guard dogs with which to socialize, guards to spit & throw feces on, what a life.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
mahalapril
9:00PM 9:00PM Apr 17th 2009
These left loonies are only concerned about these barbaric islamic fanatics. What about the torture- MASSACRE OF THE 3,000 American 100% innocent civilians on 9/11. How much suffering did they endure before these planes crashed into the WTC towers.Democrats don't even think and care about them. Why are we protecting these islamic fanatics from waterboarding when we should be beheading them instead. How about the innocent American civilians,military contractors and US troops in Iraq tortured before beheading. How come these anti-America,tax cheating,corrupt,domestic and islamic terrorist sympathizers,pathological lying Obama and his cabinet,associates and the democratic congress traitors Pelosi,Murtha,smelly Reid,homo Frank ,lying weasel Dodd,Geithner,Sebelius,Daschle who are power drunk,anti-military,anti-America ,anti-military veterans not arrested yet and tried for treason in a military court and then symbolically executed by a firing squad of the US military. They should be stopped now. They are destroying our country economically and militarily.They spend massive amount of money,incur massive debts and deficits and increase taxes on everybody which even our unborn children and grandchildren can't even pay.These arrogant,democratic,decadent ,liar,corrupt liberals cheat on their taxes all the time and hide their money abroad in Switzerland,Caribbean,Bahamas and North America.Let the revolution begin.
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
tanya
5:05PM 5:05PM Apr 17th 2009
WAS OBAMA GOING TO RELEASE THE BAD TREATMENT THAT OUR AMERICANS GOT FROM IRAQIS? WOULDNT WANT TO RELEASE ANY INFO ON THEM THERE THE GOOD GUYS WE ARE THE BAD GUYS !! , OBAMA CAN KISS MY AMERICAN AZZ HES A MUSLIMS AND YOUR TO IDIOTIC TO SEE THAT
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
Gregory Dittmer
5:06PM 5:06PM Apr 17th 2009
Sure Saddam Hussein was vicious, perhaps he was even the Devil incarnate... but just how does HIS evil make it right for US to do the same thing!?!
Why did we prosecute and hang members of the Nazi for some of the very same things that Bush/Cheney have done!?!
Why is it wrong for OTHERS to do something, yet it is fine and dandy when WE do the same thing!?!
I'm sorry, but if we charge others with a crime, WE should also be charged if we do the same thing... what so many people propose is akin to a police officer killing someone in cold blood or stealing or selling drugs getting a nod and a wink!
Bush43 was a man that saw EVERYTHING in black and white, good or evil, right or wrong with no gray areas or considerations... so why is it bad for Saddam Hussein to torture a person, yet its fine and dandy if Bush43 orders the same thing? Wrong is wrong no matter WHO does it!
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
Oil Lover
7:59AM 7:59AM Apr 18th 2009
What Nazi's were hung for doing the same things we have done? I don't remember a single case of a Nazi being hung for slapping a detainee.
Rating :
Report!
Gregory Dittmer
7:05PM 7:05PM Apr 18th 2009
Where did I say a Nazi was hung for slapping a prisoner? Your attempt to minimize and downplay the actions our people have done is demeaning in itself! If ALL we did was slap one or two of them, it really wouldn't amount to torture.
Article 1 of United Nations Convention Against Torture, to which this nation has signed and ratified describes torture as... Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him... information or a confession, punishing him for an act he... has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him.
As far as I am concerned I believe the use of isolation, tightly confined spaces for prolonged periods and forcing someone to hold a painful position for long periods are mild forms of torture. Whenever these tactics were used against Americans, it was considered torture. However, water boarding is definitely getting into real torture just as beating someone to death, as was done to some in Abu Gharaib. Urinating on a prisoner, beating with metal batons, pouring acid on prisoners, sodomizing with a baton, punching so hard the prisoner required CPR to revive... all of these things have been done by OUR people and ALL of this IS torture!
Rating :
Report!
Gregory Dittmer
5:12PM 5:12PM Apr 17th 2009
Angiebaby
3:51PM 3:51PM Apr 17th 2009
I must confess I do not watch "24." But torture has been used for centuries, by every country imaginable, and it is a very effective tool. No doubt it has saved more lives than either of us could count.
##################################################
So Angie, why is Saddam Hussein evil to use torture?? After all, it HAS been done for centuries and YOU claim "it is a very effective tool" which has saved lives. What is wrong if Saddam tortured a few people, he did it for a good reason?!
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
Gregory Dittmer
5:16PM 5:16PM Apr 17th 2009
Angiebaby
3:51PM 3:51PM Apr 17th 2009
I must confess I do not watch "24." But torture has been used for centuries, by every country imaginable, and it is a very effective tool. No doubt it has saved more lives than either of us could count.
####################################################
Angie, why is it fine and dandy to torture someone to get usefull information when WE do it, but it is EVIL when OTHERS do it!?!
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
MIke
9:23PM 9:23PM Apr 17th 2009
The difference is that when Saddam tortured someone they were killed and ended up in a mass grave like the hundreds of thousands of other people he tortured and murdered.
Rating :
Report!
Gregory Dittmer
7:14PM 7:14PM Apr 18th 2009
So Mike... if Saddam had merely tortured people without killing them, it would be okay with you?!
Rating :
Report!
Gregory Dittmer
5:18PM 5:18PM Apr 17th 2009
...
Rating :
Reply to this commentReport!
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments