Buck Naked Politics

Obama Says the "T Word" in Front of UN International Assembly

... because somebody had to do it. Via TPMtv:

Cheney "Offended" by Torture Investigation?

by Deb Cupples |  According to The Swamp, via Memeorandum, ex-Vice Presidnet Dick Cheney went on Fox (where else) and said that the Obama Administration's expected investigations into detainee torture "offends the hell out of me."

Of course he doesn't like the idea of  torture investigations.  First, torture is illegal.  (see 18 U.S. Code 2340(a) and 2340.)  And Mr. Cheney  apparently advocated that people in the executive branch engage in torture (i.e., break the law).  Some might argue that that, in itself, is a crime.

Second, Mr. Cheney never did seem to respect our nation's laws.  Outing a CIA agent is illegal, yet Mr. Cheney was connected to his underling's of ex-CIA agent Valarie Plame Wilson.  In court, Mr. Cheney's lawyers actually cargued that outing Ms. Plame was a good thing.

Mr. Cheney felt so above our nation's laws that he, back in 2007, tried to singlehandedly create a fourth branch of government that would have only one member: Mr. Cheney.   Note that our nation's Constitution created only three branches: the executive, judicial, and legislative.  Why such an odd proposal from Mr. Cheney?  He did not like having to follow laws requiring him to preserve certain executive-branch records.

Why can't Mr. Cheney simply saunter off into the sunset?   Why can't he be content spending his days fly fishing, sitting in corporate board rooms, and cleaning out the garage?

Greenwald on the IG's Torture Report

Blogger and constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald writes:

"I wrote earlier today about Eric Holder's decision to 'review' whether criminal prosecutions are warranted in connection with the torture of Terrorism suspects -- that can be read here -- but I want to write separately about the release today of the 2004 CIA's Inspector General Report (.pdf), both because it's extraordinary in its own right and because it underscores how unjust it would be to prosecute only low-level interrogators rather than the high-level officials who implemented the torture regime."

See the rest of Glenn's piece here, which includes excerpts of the IG's report.

Unfortunately, some media folks are distorting the issue by claiming that torture is effective -- thus, law-breaking torturers should get a break.  Some fictional TV shows do, in fact, make torture seem effective (e.g., "24").

Many intelligence officials and the Army Field Manual indicate that torture is not effective.  Though you don't need a degree to figure this one out, many psychologists find torture to be ineffective, because someone in pain is likely to give even false answers to get the pain to stop.

Whether or not torture is effective is not actually the issue.  The real issue is that torture is just as illegal as bank robbery [see 18 U.S. Code 2340(a) and 2340].  Until bank robbery is made legal, people who get caught helping themselves to a bank's money end up in rison.  That's justice.

If government officials want to commit torture without going to prison, then they need to pressure Congress to make torture legal.

Until they do that, torture is a violation of law -- which means, at least in a nation that values equal justice under the law, that those who commit torture (or order underlings to do it) should be held accountable.  Andrew Sullivan comments:

"The descent of the United States - and of Americans in general - to lower standards of morality and justice than those demanded by Iranians of their regime is a sign of the polity's moral degeneracy."

The Torture Administration, Part ###: Justice Department Refused to File Charges Against CIA Officials Who Violated Anti-Torture Statute

More confirmation, as if any were needed, of the Bush administration's indifference to the Rule of Law. From a 2-page article in The Washington Post:

"The [CIA], where appropriate, took its own disciplinary action when the Department of Justice declined prosecution," CIA spokesman George Little said Saturday.

A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on details of the episodes, but current and former government officials said the use of the gun is described in a classified CIA inspector general's report, which is slated to be released in declassified form on Monday....

A federal judge in New York ordered the release of the report in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been reviewing the document in an effort to decide whether to launch an investigation into the CIA's coercive interrogation methods....

The U.S. anti-torture statute bans acts intended to inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering resulting from, among other things, "the threat of imminent death" or threats of being "subjected to death."  (Read article)

Yet another CIA Torture Scandal

by Deb Cupples |   Via Memeorandum, Newsweek has an interesting article that begins as follows:

"A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.

"According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with 'imminent death.'"

See the rest of the story here.  Yes, federal law does prohibit threats of "imminent death" [see 18 U.S. Code 2340(a) and 2340]

Tales of the Torture Adm'n: Federal Judge Says a Convicted Terrorist Can Sue Bush Adm'n Lawyer for Role In Torture Memoranda

by Damozel | Saying that he was trying to  balance "a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms," federal district Judge Jeffrey White, a Bush appointee, refused to dismiss a lawsuit by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla against Bushie John Yoo, now a law professor at UC-Berkeley.  (AP at MSNBC)  While such a lawsuit would be many times less satisfactory than action by the current administration to hold responsible members of the Bush administration accountable, at least it is a step in that direction.  

Judge White wrote:

"Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct....The issues raised by this case embody that ... tension — between the requirements of war and the defense of the very freedoms that war seeks to protect....This lawsuit poses the question addressed by our founding fathers about how to strike the proper balance of fighting a war against terror, at home and abroad, and fighting a war using tactics of terror."  (AP at MSNBC)

Here We Go Again: Obama Administration Objects to Release of Torture-Related Materials

 by Deb Cupples |  Anyone who has ever pulled off a bank heist -- or other serious crime --  likely wants to keep it secret, because secrecy is the biggest obstacle between a perp and prison.

Torture is a federal crime [see 18 U.S. Code 2340 and 2340(a)].  If you want to read some horrifying details, click here.

Evidence revealed over the past several years strongly indicates that some folks working for the U.S. government have engaged in torture -- likely with encouragement from higher-up officials.  Everyone, worldwide, who has faithfully read newspapers or watched TV news over the past five years knows this.

In short, the jig is up.  The cat long ago darted out of the bag and is now nowhere to be found.

Yet, like the Bush Administration before it, the Obama Administration seems hell-bent on keeping further evidence of torture-related crimes secret.  The Washington Post reports:

Tales of the Torture Administration (Continued): Cheney Personally Oversaw At Least 4 Briefings on "Harsh Interrogation" (Torture)

by Damozel |  According to The Washington Post, Cheney met at least 4 times in 2005 with senior members of Congress to "maintain support" for torture, part of a "secretive and forceful" defense of the program.

Cheney's role in helping handle intelligence issues in the Bush administration -- particularly his advocacy for the use of aggressive methods and warrantless wiretapping against alleged terrorists -- has been well documented. But his hands-on role in defending the interrogation program to lawmakers has not been previously publicized.

Until now, anyway:

Gen. Taguba Hasn't Seen the 44 Abu Ghraib Torture Photos Suppressed by Obama?

by Damozel | In other words, The Telegraph got it wrong and Taguba saw only the ones already released (Salon has published 279 photos from Abu Ghraib and those are disgusting and indecent.). See: Maj. Gen. Taguba: Abu Ghraib Photographs Censored by Obama Show Rape "and Every Indecency".

Does that mean that the 44 Obama is fighting the ACLU to keep suppressed are even worse?  I don't like to imagine how that can be, and specifically so because of the apparent lack of accountability.  If they are worse, is no one going to be made to answer?   

Alternatively, does all this just mean that Obama isn't aware of what's already in the public domain?  I don't get it. 

Maj. Gen. Taguba: Abu Ghraib Photographs Censored by Obama Show Rape "and Every Indecency"

by Damozel | The conservative British paper, The Telegraph, reports:

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged....

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts...Three detainees, including the alleged victim, refer to the use of a phosphorescent tube in the sexual abuse and another to the use of wire, while the victim also refers to part of a policeman’s “stick” all of which were apparently photographed..

Olbermann Interviews Wingnut Radio Ranter Who Conceded Waterboarding is Torture After Getting Himself Waterboarded

We covered the self-inflicted waterboarding of Mancow here.  HuffPost has a good write-up of this interview with Olbermann. See what Sean Hannity -- who has yet to experience waterboarding up close and personal -- had to say to him afterward!

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The Torture Administration: Gonzo on the DoJ's Role in Torture -- "I Did My Best to Defend Our Country"

by Teh Nutroots |  Poor little berk, I really believe that's what he thinks he was doing.  Video after the jump:

Right Wing Radio Ranter Gets Himself Waterboarded, Admits It is Torture After 6 Seconds (Video Included)

by Damozel | Or, as Jesse Taylor puts it, Idiot has Self Waterboarded to Prove Torture is Torture.  When will they ever learn, eh?  When?

How did the radio host, Mancow, find the aforesaid torture?  "Way worse than I thought it would be," he admitted.  Yes, that's torture for you:  always way worse than you expect.  Hitch, as you'll remember, said it better:  ""[I]f waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.  NBC Chicago reports:

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (May 22, 2009 Video): Fox News Wants You to Choose Between Nat'l Security & Civil Liberties...

photo by Deb Cupples

...but Obama will let you have both! After the jump....

Arlen Specter Defends Nancy Pelosi, Thinks CIA Might Occasionally Palter with the Truth

by Teh Nutroots |  I mean, look, come on:  they're the CIA.  Do people really think that they are on close terms at all times with the truth as it might appear to you and me?  Don't we all pretty much assume that they lie reflexively, whenever they need to obscure a spot of excess zeal or whatever?  Don't we all reckon that they're the ultimate ends-justify-the-means agency in America?  Isn't history clear on this point?

Specter didn't go quite that far, acknowledging that it isn't official CIA policy to misrepresent the facts, but he went far enough. 

"The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say 'candid'; that's too mild — to honesty," Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a lunch address to the American Law Institute. He cited misleading information about the agency's involvement in mining harbors in Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra affair.

Torture: Focus on Polling Numbers Distorts the Issue

by Deb Cupples |  A Washington Post columnist wrote the following:

"Even as the debate over the treatment of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration continues to roil political Washington, a new poll conducted for Resurgent Republic suggests that the American people -- including politically critical independent voters -- by and large support the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

"Asked whether such tactics were justified, 53 percent of the overall sample said they were and 34 percent said they were not...."

For starters, whether or not some hundreds of people answering a telephone survey think torture was justified is not the issue: torture is illegal.  Period.  [See 18 U.S. Code 2340(a)  and 2340.]

Either our taxpayer-funded government officials respect and follow our nation's laws, or they don't.  If they intentionally break laws without being held accountable, why should us ordinary folks face consequences for breaking laws?

Pelosi Walks It Back; Continues Painful & Embarrassing Attempts to Extricate Herself from a Controversy

by Damozel | Back and forth, back and forth. Pelosi is now trying to take back a portion of her criticism of the CIA, according to The Hill, "saying that she really meant only to criticize the Bush administration rather than career officials."  You'd think she'd have got the story straight by now, wouldn't you?  After all, as Deb and I have both pointed out, she's had a couple of years to prepare for all this to hit the fan. [See Did Congressional Democrats Condone the CIA's Secret Interrogation Program? (12-9-2007)].  

It was always going to come up at some point.   But the way she's been foundering and/or floundering you'd think it had all come straight out of right field. 

CIA Says Pelosi Lied, Which May be True -- Then Again, Pots and Kettles

by Deb Cupples |  As Damozel more than adequately covered last week, Republicans accused current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of having been briefed (six or seven years back) on the CIA's use of torture -- torture being a federal crime (see 18 US Code 2340), and crimes being things that the folks working in government agencies are not allowed to commit. 

Speaker Pelosi denied that she'd been briefed in detail about torture (or specifically waterboarding).

This is interesting, given that in 2003 the CIA briefed congressional leaders, including Rep. Jane Harman, and included details about the use of the apparently criminal activity known as waterboarding. We know that, because Rep. Harman wrote a letter to a top CIA lawyer days after the briefing, expressing concern over the agency's apparent torture-related crimes.

I suppose it's possible that -- at the precise moment that CIA officials were telling Jane Harman about the waterboarding -- Speaker Pelosi was on a ladies-room break. 

Oops: I got the timing wrong.  It turns out that Pelosi and Harman were briefed on different days.  

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (May 14, 2009 Video)

The Talking Heads and their Memes O' Subliminal Power versus Nancy Pelosi: Tragic!....Tragic!....Firestorm!...Firestorm!...A hole she can't get out of!....Fairy dust and unicorns!

They really want you to see it their way and they're prepared to repeat the folksy cliches until you do. Talk about torture....  See it all, after the jump..

The Daily Show: "This Time Things Will be Different." Obama Blocks the Release of Detainee Abuse Photos, & Won't Intervene in the Military's Dismissal of Crucial Arabic Translator Who Has Admitted He is Gay

"In the war on terror, it was okay to waterboard a guy over 80 times to get him to talk, but God forbid that we keep the guy around who can understand what he was saying...if he has a boyfriend." After the jump.....