Discovering How the US Became a "Torturing Democracy"

Related Post: Fox News Anchor: "We Do Not F****** Torture!"

By coincidence, as the latest furour over torture escalated, I was writing chapers on the early months of the Bush Administration. That, in part, is why I have been unsettled by the spin, diversions, and outright lies of former Bush officials: the evidence offers no gray area in which to hide. The Bush Administration authorised torture, under the label "enhanced interrogation", and persisted in that authorisation even though there was no evidence of its effectiveness, let alone its legality or morality.

One of the sources I have been using is the website for the documentary Torturing Democracy. It is invaluable for its interviews, documents, and commentary (and the full documentary is on-line). A few of many notable examples:

Richard Armitage, former special forces officer, Deputy Secretary of State in the Bush Administration: "There is no question in my mind -- there's no question in any reasonable human being, there shouldn't be, that [waterboarding] is torture."

Moazzam Begg, detainee in Camp Bagram in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay:

The CIA, the military intelligence, and the FBI had decided in May 2002 to begin my interrogation in earnest, which included during that period me being tied, "hogtied" as I call it, also as they call it in America, with my hands tied behind my back to my ankles and being left like that for hours on end at various points....They brought photographs of my family, which they'd taken off my laptop computer, which they'd seized in Pakistan, which include pictures of my children that they waved in front of me and asked me, "Where do you think they are? Do you think they're safe? What do you think happened to them? Do you think you're going to see them again?" And during this period hearing the sounds of a woman screaming. The implication of which was it was my wife being tortured next door; they didn't say as much, but they didn't have to.

Martin Lederman, Department of Justice Legal Adviser:

The purpose of the torture memo [of August 2002] was to give the CIA absolute assurance that no matter what it did, in terms of interrogation, that it would never be subject to any criminal culpability. None of its agents would ever be exposed to criminal culpability under domestic law, putting aside foreign tribunals.

Michael Gelles, Chief Psychologist, Naval Criminal Investigative Service:

We know that people who are tortured provide information. We just don't believe that in most cases that information is accurate and reliable. Because people will provide information to stop the discomfort.

Fox News Anchor: "We Do Not F****** Torture!"

Related Post: Discovering How the US Became a “Torturing Democracy”

Warning: Language in clip below may offend

Only three months after the Bush Administration left office, American society has passed a "tipping point" on the question of torture. In January 2009, even though those following the story knew the details of how George W. Bush and advisors set out the path to torture in December 2001 and formally authorised "enhanced interrogation" in summer 2002, it was not considered a "fact" in public discussion.

Now there is so much discussion of torture that even a 24/7 newssite can't keep up with the political developments. For now, here's a passionate, symbolic marker of the US crossing the Rubicon of the illegal, immoral activities of the Bush years.

On Fox News --- yes, Fox News --- anchor Shepard Stone, upset by attempts to rationalise torture's effectiveness, said clearly and loudly, if colourfully, ""We are America. I don't give a rat's ass if it helps. We are America! We do not fucking torture!"

Senate Armed Service Committee Report: Bush and Co. Authorised Torture

The Senate Armed Service Committee has just released a 263-page report, based on a review of more than 200,000 pages of documents and more than 70 interviews, on the Bush Administration's detention and interrogation policies. The report was completed in May 2007 but held back until now because of political sensitivities.

This is the clear conclusion: "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority."

The full report is available via The New York Times website.

The Daily Show and Karl Rove: "Oh, No, Our Torture Techniques Have Been Ruined"

This one goes out to Karl Rove, as he bravely fights his Twitter campaign to vindicate the Bush Administration:

Jon Stewart:"Apparently everyone's not upset about the fact that we torture. They're upset about the fact that we know about it."

Karl Rove: "All of these techniques are now ruined."

Peggy Noonan (former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan): "Sometimes in life you want to just keep walking....Some of life has to be mysterious."

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Video and Analysis of Obama Torture Statement: Let's Blame the Lawyers?

The politics of torture rumbles on. Facing criticism over the release of the four memoranda documenting the Bush Administration's authorisation of "enhanced interrogation" (from Bush defenders: releasing the memos jeopardises national security and/or torture worked; from Bush critics: OK, so who is going to be prosecuted for this?), President Obama manoeuvred through a short statement yesterday in response to a reporter's question (the exchange begins at 4:26 --- transcript below):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBIcjXrfEKQ[/youtube]

Obama began with the rhetoric that "there are still enemies out there" being fought by "courageous people" who have to make "difficult decisions" but the memoranda showed we were "losing our moral bearings". Then his deliberate answer got interesting:

For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate that they be prosecuted. With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more a decision for the attorney general within the parameter of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that.

The President immediately returned to the theme of let's move on: "As a general deal, I think we should be looking forward and not backward. "I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively, and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations." Still he had opened up the question:

Are the Bush Administration's lawyers going to take the criminal fall for the torture authorised by their President and his senior advisors?

Reviewing the video, I think Obama, with his dedication to reassuring intelligence and security personnel that he "has their back" and his decision not to challenge the Bushmen who ordered torture, inadvertently held open the door of prosecution for a few lawyers. He may well close that door quickly.

Let's state the bluntly obvious, however. These lawyers --- John Yoo, Jay Bybee, William Haynes, Stephen Bradbury --- were merely carrying out a job handed to them by policymakers, notably the officials in Vice President Dick Cheney's office. The task was not "Are these proposed interrogations legal?" but "Give us a finding which says these interrogations are legal." No doubt some of the lawyers eagerly took on the job --- John Yoo, in particular, saw the sanctioning of torture as part of a legitimate exercise in Executive power --- but, without the direction from above, their memoranda and guidances do not get written.

Presidents and their right-hand men --- unless they are overthrown in coups or toppled by wars --- don't wind up in jail. Their lawyers, however, are expendable.

If you don't think so, ask a man named Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Remember? Out of all the Bush Administration folks who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to tarnish her and thus defend their "legitimate" intelligence on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, he's the only one who wound up in jail.

TRANSCRIPT

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) to ask you about the interrogation memos (OFF-MIKE) you were clear about not wanting to prosecute those who -- who carried out the instructions under this legal guidance.

OBAMA: Right.

QUESTION: Can you be that clear about those who devised the policy? And then, quickly, on the second matter, how do you feel about investigations, whether a special -- special commission or something of that nature (OFF-MIKE) to go back and really look at the issue?

OBAMA: Well, the -- look, as I said before, this -- this has been a difficult chapter in our history and one of the tougher decisions that I’ve had to make as president.

On the one hand, we have very real enemies out there, and we rely on some very courageous people not just in our military, but also in the Central Intelligence Agency to help protect the American people, and they have to make some very difficult decisions, because, as I mentioned yesterday, they are confronted with an enemy that doesn’t have scruples, that isn’t constrained by constitutions, aren’t constrained by legal niceties.

Having said that, the -- the OLC memos that were released reflected, in my view, us losing our moral bearings. That’s why I’ve discontinued those enhanced interrogation programs.

For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted.

With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the perimeters of various laws, and -- and I don’t want to prejudge that. I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there. As a general view, I think that we should be looking forward and not backwards. I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.

And so if and when there needs to be a further accounting of what took place during this period, I think for Congress to examine ways that it can be done in a bipartisan fashion, outside of the typical hearing process that can sometimes break down and break it entirely along party lines, to the extent that there are independent participants who are above reproach and have credibility, that would probably be a more sensible approach to take.

I’m not suggesting that, you know, that should be done, but I’m saying, if you’ve got a choice, I think it’s very important for the American people to feel as if this is not being dealt with to provide one side or another political advantage, but rather is being done in order to learn some lessons so that we move forward in an effective way.

And the last point I just want to emphasize, as I said yesterday at -- at the CIA when I visited, you know, what makes America special, in my view, is not just our wealth, and the dynamism of our economy, and our extraordinary history and diversity. It’s -- it’s that we are willing to uphold our ideals even when they’re hard.

And sometimes we make mistakes, because that’s the nature of human enterprise. But when we do make mistakes, then we are willing to go back and correct those mistakes and -- and keep our eye on those -- those ideals and -- and values that have been passed on generation to generation.

And -- and that is -- is what has to continue to guide us as we move forward. And -- and I’m confident that we will be able to move forward, protect the American people effectively, live up to our values and ideals.

And that’s not a matter of being naive about how dangerous this world is. As I said yesterday to some of the CIA officials that I met with, I wake up every day thinking about how to keep the American people safe, and I go to bed every night worrying about keeping the American people safe.

I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate. I’ve got a big banking crisis, and I’ve got unemployment numbers that are very high, and we’ve got an auto industry that needs work.

There are a whole things -- range of things that during the day occupy me, but the thing that I consider my most profound obligation is keeping the American people safe.

So I -- I do not take these things lightly, and I’m not in any way under -- under illusion about how difficult the task is for those people who are on the front lines every day protecting the American people. So I wanted to communicate a message yesterday to all those who overwhelmingly do so in a lawful, dedicated fashion that I have their back.

All right? Thank you, everybody.