No matter what they call it, it is still torture.

May 2, 2009

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count 4,283

Operation Enduring Freedom + 682

U. S. troop deaths, to date: 4,965

Daily BuzzFlash Minute

Frank Rich hit the nail on the head again! Indeed detainees were tortured, indeed grunts following orders were prosecuted while those who ordered up torture got off scot free! But the most revealing info to come out is motive and how top officials ordered up torture in an effort to save their own rear ends! "Maj. Paul Burney, a United States Army psychiatrist assigned to interrogations in Guantánamo Bay that summer of 2002, told Army investigators of another White House imperative: 'A large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq and we were not being successful.' As higher-ups got more 'frustrated' at the inability to prove this connection, the major said, 'there was more and more pressure to resort to measures' that might produce that intelligence. In other words, the ticking time bomb was not another potential Qaeda attack on America but the Bush administration's ticking timetable for selling a war in Iraq; it wanted to pressure Congress to pass a war resolution before the 2002 midterm elections. Bybee's memo was written the week after the then-secret (and subsequently leaked) 'Downing Street memo,' in which the head of British intelligence informed Tony Blair that the Bush White House was so determined to go to war in Iraq that 'the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.' A month after Bybee's memo, on Sept. 8, 2002, Cheney would make his infamous appearance on 'Meet the Press,' hyping both Saddam's W.M.D.s and the 'number of contacts over the years' between Al Qaeda and Iraq. If only 9/11 could somehow be pinned on Iraq, the case for war would be a slamdunk " We now know "what evil lurks in the hearts" of Repuglican men!!!!

Bush and His Minions Were Sharpshooting US Government Policies

The policies gone awry by the Bush regime were known years ago and noted by many people in leading newspapers . . . yet, nothing was done by the Bush GOP to stop them, instead they supported Bush -- ALL Republicans -- 100% of the time.

"Who built the moral cesspool into which this nation has sunk with its secret prisons and secret prisoners, legalized torture, indefinite imprisonment without trial or counsel?"

-- Floyd J. McKay, "Calling for Truth and Dignity in the Nation's Conduct," Seattle Times (November 16, 2005). [...]

All during the eight years of the Bush regime, they would shoot at their target and then draw the bull's eye (fix the evidence) to justify taking the first shot. This was done over and over again using the word terrorism and fear when initiating everything from the PATRIOT Act (the very name insults me even today), to listening in on private phone calls, (and, I said at the time that, understanding Bush's brain and personality, he would only be interested in politicians, Republican and Democrats and it seems I was right) to outing a CIA agent, for revenge, who tracked terrorists, to deregulation and privatization until we find ourselves, the US, behind the target, with all of the holes that nearly killed us.

The Bush GOP throughout many years of appointments due to loyalty has hurt this country in so many ways that it will take years to find out what this country has done and who did it in our name. I have to ask myself over and over again . . . how could someone like Bush, who was known to find fun in blowing up frogs with firecrackers as a youth, (a giant clue to violence against human beings) to failing what was expected of him in school, to going AWOL while serving in military, to claiming to be a cured alcoholic when he never went through any counseling or rehab, to the dirty tricks and revenge that he was known for . . . and yet, our illustrious Supreme Court saw him fit to put into the White House, while they confessed of breaking US law -- just this once -- (cough) these are the people we depend on to interpret US law . . . that five should be made responsible for their actions. And, what about all of the judges that Bush appointed? Not to forget the 3,000 appointments he made in US government and are they still there, and are they doing their job for the US citizens or for the Bush GOP? [...]

We have put our military through hell, and many lost their lives unnecessarily as well as those serving in our National Guard, who should never have been sent to Iraq. However, Bush number one also used our National Guard in Iraq. Many died in their sleep due to the harsh environment and their age, and women were dying for fear of being raped for going to the latrine at night, refused the needed water in that environment and also died in their sleep while serving under the Bush regime.

Let us never forget . . . all of those needless deaths due to a treasonous Bush GOP regime. [...]

There are still those who do not believe in accountability in US government, mostly government and the Bush GOP, I would suspect. We have to wonder why, because if Nixon had been made accountable, then Reagan and Bush made accountable for the Iran Contra affair, we would be celebrating a golden age today instead of finding ourselves flat on our backs in debt, death, and destruction brought on by Bush GOP sharpshooters and their greed for more money and power through the use of fake targets with their war against the world and their legislative war against US citizens.

Priest: The Post Doesn’t Call Waterboarding ‘Torture’ Because ‘The Bush Administration Would Dispute That’

Yesterday [April 30, 2009], during a chat with the Post’s Dana Priest, a questioner revisited the issue, specifically asking why the paper doesn’t call waterboarding “torture.” This time however, the questioner received a different (and somewhat shocking) answer. According to Priest, the Post doesn’t call waterboarding “torture” because the Bush administration doesn’t:

Q: If they are going to follow the analogy on reporting other criminal issues, why wouldn’t reporters use the term “alleged torture” or “accused of torture”? Waterboarding is torture, no one disputes it. To substitute “harsh interrogation techniques’ with regard to waterboarding is like saying “manslaughter” when the charge is “murder.”

PRIEST: Not true. The Bush administration would dispute that waterboarding is torture. That’s what the memos are all about. Torture is a crime. There is not a lot of case history to define torture.

Let’s be clear, as the questioner noted, waterboarding is torture and torture is a crime under U.S. law (as Priest acknowledged). Prominent Republicans and Democrats — from Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder — all agree. In fact, the United States “convicted several Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war” after World War II.

The Bush administration (even President Bush himself) admitted that it had authorized waterboarding on three terror suspect detainees, and the Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel memos released earlier this month confirm it.

U.S. actually did execute Japanese soldiers for waterboarding

We'll be waiting a long time, I expect, for all those right-wingers out there who claim waterboarding isn't torture to apologize to the world.

Bybee refuses to respond to Leahy’s testimony invitation.


Impeach Bybee

Bybee’s law clerks initially gave contradictory messages about how the judge would respond, but law clerk Keith Woffinden tried to clean up the confusion, telling the paper, “my impression is that there won’t be any further statements” beyond Bybee’s comments to the New York Times.

Blunt: “Just because we’re in a situation now where we vote no doesn’t mean we are the ‘party of no.’”

Blunt is claiming that they are being forced to vote no, but other Republican leaders have previously argued that consistently voting no is part of an obstructionist strategy. “What transpired . . . and will give us a shot in the arm going forward is that we are standing up on principle and just saying no,” said current House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA). NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) told House Republicans during a retreat that they needed “to get over the idea that they’re participating in legislation and ought to start thinking of themselves as ‘an insurgency’ instead.”