More on Legalized Torture

More on Legalized Torture

The Empire is really descending into the worst of the worst and deepest cesspools of degeneracy

Here's some perfect illustration, in the form of short passages taken
from what the Associated Press published yesterday on the re-emergence
of Legalized Torture within the folds of the US New World Odour:

o- A US Senator, member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that
in his renewed efforts to create Legalized Torture, "Bush ignored the
advice of 43 retired generals and admirals and 18 national security
experts, including former secretaries of state and national security
advisers".

o- The US Army Field Manual prohibits Water Torture (renamed for
propaganda purposes by the Corporate Media as "Waterboarding"): "In
addition to waterboarding, the field manual prohibits hooding prisoners
or putting duct tape across their eyes; stripping prisoners naked; and
forcing prisoners to perform or mimic sexual acts. It also prohibits
beating, burning or physically hurting prisoners in other ways;
subjecting them to hypothermia or mock executions. It does not allow
food, water and medical treatment to be withheld. Dogs may not be used
in any aspect of interrogation."

The Army Field Manual also allows these interrogation techniques:
"the 'good cop-bad cop' routine; making prisoners think they are in
another country's custody; and separating a prisoner from others for up
to 30 days."

o- Exploiting again the horror of September 11 ("9/11") generated by the US Government and the Corporate Media, the Bravest of the Most Brave, President Bush said:
"I cannot sign into law a bill that would prevent me, and future
presidents, from authorizing the CIA to conduct a separate, lawful
intelligence program, and from taking all lawful actions necessary to protect Americans from attack."

In specific regard to Water Torture, the President again reminded the
world of his Government's previous efforts to Legalize Torture: "The US Attorney General has deemed that program legal under domestic and international law".

Meanwhile, everyone in the whole world knows that torture is illegal.
It is illegal both within the context of every single country's Law and
also illegal by every definition used in International Law and in all
International agreements, including the Geneva Convention; the United
Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union; and the International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1984.

What are these new developments in the path of Imperium if not signs of moral degeneracy?

How long will it take before videos emerge online of US military and
intelligence personnel being tortured in various creative ways by
global Resistance fighters? The videotaped swift beheadings that had
emerged in recent years were merciful by comparison, if one considers
that now US forces will be carrying out Torture sanctified by the
entire Legislative, Executive and Judicial system of the United
States. Any such torture of captured US operatives -
international criminals - will be now correct and legal, in accordance
to the emerging "new" rules of engagement. Especially if underground
Peoples' Courts issue special orders sanctioning these steps in order
to counter US State-sponsored terrorism.

Where will this end?

Please read the article below and check out the links to International
treaties defining and banning torture. If nothing else, to see that
abuse, torture, atrocity and US war crimes are NOT brought on by
momentary slips of judgement due to the heat of passion or the
confusion of battle, nor by lack of clarity on the rules of engagement.
This is the policy that now rules the Planet.

Petros
http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
~~~~~~~

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment:
"... the term "torture" means 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 or a third person
information or a confession.."
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm

Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm

Democrats criticize Bush's CIA-bill veto
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 8, 2008

Democrats and human rights advocates criticized President Bush's veto
Saturday of a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated
drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information
from suspected terrorists.

Bush said such tactics have helped foil terrorist plots. His critics
likened some methods to torture and said they sullied America's
reputation around the world.

"This president had the chance to end the torture debate for good, yet
he chose instead to leave the door open to use torture in the future,"
said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the
Senate Intelligence Committee.

She said Bush ignored the advice of 43 retired generals and admirals
and 18 national security experts, including former secretaries of state
and national security advisers, who supported the bill.

"Torture is a black mark against the United States," she said.

The bill would have limited the CIA to 19 interrogation techniques that
are used by the military and spelled out in the Army Field Manual. Bush
said he vetoed the measure because it is important for the CIA to have
a separate and classified interrogation program for suspected
terrorists who possess critical information about possible plots
against the United States.

Bush, who used his weekly radio address to announce the veto, said the
program had helped stop plots against a Marine camp in Djibouti and the
U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, and plans to fly passenger planes
into a Los Angeles tower or London's Heathrow Airport and city
buildings.

"Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that
al-Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another
attack against the American homeland," the president said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the nation's ability to lead the world
depends on its morality, not military might. "We will begin to reassert
that moral authority by attempting to override the president's veto
next week," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

Based on the margin of passage in each chamber, it may prove difficult
for the Democratic-controlled Congress to turn back Bush's veto. It
takes a two-thirds majority, and the vote was 222-199 in the House and
51-45 in the Senate.

Bush said he did not veto the bill specifically over waterboarding, a
technique that simulates drowning. The Army banned the use of
waterboarding or sensory deprivation on uncooperative prisoners in
2006. The CIA, which also prohibited the practice in 2006, has
acknowledged using waterboarding on three suspected terrorists in 2003.

"My disagreement ... is not over any particular interrogation
technique; for instance, it is not over waterboarding, which is not
part of the current CIA program," Bush said in his veto message to the
House.

The attorney general has deemed that program legal under domestic and international law, he said.

Still, waterboarding remains in the CIA's tool kit. The technique can
be used, but it requires the consent of the attorney general and
president on a case-by-case basis. Bush wants to keep that option open.

"I cannot sign into law a bill that would prevent me, and future
presidents, from authorizing the CIA to conduct a separate, lawful
intelligence program, and from taking all lawful actions necessary to
protect Americans from attack," Bush said in a statement.

Democrats say the CIA should be restricted to the techniques in the
Army Field Manual. They include the "good cop-bad cop" routine; making
prisoners think they are in another country's custody; and separating a
prisoner from others for up to 30 days.

In addition to waterboarding, the field manual prohibits hooding
prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes; stripping prisoners
naked; and forcing prisoners to perform or mimic sexual acts. It also
prohibits beating, burning or physically hurting prisoners in other
ways; subjecting them to hypothermia or mock executions. It does not
allow food, water and medical treatment to be withheld. Dogs may not be
used in any aspect of interrogation.

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over
his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been
traced back hundreds of years to the Spanish Inquisition and is
condemned by nations around the world and human rights organizations as
torture.

In a memo to CIA employees Saturday, CIA Director Michael Hayden said
the Army Field Manual does not "exhaust the universe" of lawful
interrogation techniques. "There are methods in the CIA's program that
have been briefed to our oversight committees, are fully consistent
with the Geneva Convention and current U.S. law and are most certainly
not torture," Hayden wrote.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
said he had heard nothing to suggest that the CIA, through enhanced
interrogation methods, had obtained information to thwart a terrorist
attack. "On the other hand, I do know that coercive interrogations can
lead detainees to provide false information in order to make the
interrogation stop," said Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

There also are concerns that the use of waterboarding would undermine
U.S. human rights efforts overseas and could place Americans at greater
risk of being tortured if they are captured abroad.

"The president's refusal to sign this crucial legislation into law will
undermine counterterrorism efforts globally and delay efforts to
rebuild U.S. credibility on human rights," said Elisa Massimino,
Washington director for Human Rights First.

Bush objected to two other provisions:

_a new independent inspector general for the government's intelligence
agencies to improve coordination and information-sharing. Bush said the
position was unnecessary.

_Senate confirmation of the directors of the National Security Agency
and National Reconnaissance Office. Bush said that could delay the
directors' ability to take over quickly and risk injecting politics
into the selection process.

From:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_torture_27&print...
____________

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