US Engaged in torture after 9/11

[GostHacked]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/world/us-practiced-torture-after-9-11-nonpartisan-review-concludes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

WASHINGTON A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture and that the nations highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.

So to get around the torture classification, one terms it 'enhanced interrogation' and you can circumvent calling it torture.

But the reports main significance may be its attempt to assess what the United States government did in the years after 2001 and how it should be judged. The C.I.A. not only waterboarded prisoners, but slammed them into walls, chained them in uncomfortable positions for hours, stripped them of clothing and kept them awake for days on end.

The question of whether those methods amounted to torture is a historically and legally momentous issue that has been debated for more than a decade inside and outside the government. The Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel wrote a series of legal opinions from 2002 to 2005 concluding that the methods were not torture if used under strict rules; all the memos were later withdrawn. News organizations have wrestled with whether to label the brutal methods unequivocally as torture in the face of some government officials claims that they were not.

In addition, the United States is a signatory to the international Convention Against Torture, which requires the prompt investigation of allegations of torture and the compensation of its victims.

So Bush and Co clearly were doing the torture, going against everything they said and everything that is legal even within the US law.

The panel found that the United States violated its international legal obligations by engineering enforced disappearances and secret detentions. It questions recidivism figures published by the Defense Intelligence Agency for Guantánamo detainees who have been released, saying they conflict with independent reviews.

It describes in detail the ethical compromise of government lawyers who offered acrobatic advice to justify brutal interrogations and medical professionals who helped direct and monitor them. And it reveals an internal debate at the International Committee of the Red Cross over whether the organization should speak publicly about American abuses; advocates of going public lost the fight, delaying public exposure for months, the report finds.

Bush should be tried for war crimes. It's clear he lied when he said that 'we don't torture'. So now can we hold him responsible for it? Or should Obama now take the blame?

So when can we send Bush, Cheney, Obama and Biden off to Gitmo?

[Topaz]

You know, I read an article about the New World Order and the reasons behind the wars in the Middle-East and N.korea and some other countries, is they don't want to go along with the "powers at be" to become one. So, some countries leaders are told to find away to get control over those countries that don't want to go with the agenda.

[guyser]

You know, I read

I have identified the problem.

Stop doing that.

[sharkman]

So now taking clothes off is torture? And is there a procedure book on slamming into walls? This sounds like just more of the same old accusations regarding the Bush administration. Did they screw up? Sure, but you're not going to be able to pin anything on them at this late date. Maybe those responsible for the "independent review" should go back to another one of their pet projects, like trying to close Gitmo.

[GostHacked]

sharkman, on 23 Apr 2013 - 10:52, said:

So now taking clothes off is torture? And is there a procedure book on slamming into walls? This sounds like just more of the same old accusations regarding the Bush administration. Did they screw up? Sure, but you're not going to be able to pin anything on them at this late date. Maybe those responsible for the "independent review" should go back to another one of their pet projects, like trying to close Gitmo.

I had to laugh when I heard Obama say that he was going to close GITMO.

Actually we can pin a lot on them this late in the game. Did they screw up? Sure! But are we going to hold them accountable? Hell no, because the population is weak and cannot hold their leaders accountable. No wonder the constitution is a shadow of it's former self.