Retired Generals and Admirals Urge President to Close Guantanamo, Release Senate Report on torture

[damnedifIknow]

January 21, 2014

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

Five years ago tomorrow, members of our coalition of retired generals and admirals stood behind
you in the Oval Office when you signed three executive orders that helped put our nation’s
counterterrorism efforts on a stronger footing, consistent with our laws and values. You banned
torture, closed the CIA “black sites” where torture occurred, and put Guantanamo on the path to
closure.

We appreciate your leadership this past year in recommitting to closing Guantanamo. Congress
responded, passing an annual defense bill that provides you with substantial additional flexibility
to repatriate or resettle the 77 detainees who have been cleared for transfer by our security
agencies. We encourage your administration to transfer all cleared detainees as soon as possible
and complete administrative reviews of the remaining eligible detainees by year’s end to determine
who else might be eligible for transfer. Guantanamo does not serve America’s interests. As long
as it remains open, Guantanamo will undermine America’s security and status as a nation where
human rights and the rule of law matter.

While you have made progress on Guantanamo this past year, we are concerned about the
enduring and false debate over torture by the CIA. Former CIA officials who authorized torture
continue to defend it in books and film, and public opinion is with them, based on mythology, not
fact. The American people deserve access to the voluminous, 6000-plus page study that details the
post-9/11 CIA rendition, detention, and interrogation program, adopted by the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence. We call on you to direct your administration, including the CIA, to
fully cooperate with the committee to declassify with minimal redaction and publicly release the
study. We believe that upon reviewing the facts the American people will agree that torture was
not worth it, and that we as a nation should never return to the dark side.

We thank you for your steadfast commitment to these issues at the heart of our national security
and values, and stand ready to assist in any way that we can.

Sincerely,

General Joseph P. Hoar, USMC (Ret.)
General Charles C. Krulak, USMC (Ret.)
General David M. Maddox, USA (Ret.)
General Merrill A. McPeak, USAF (Ret.)
General William G. T. Tuttle, Jr., USA (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard, Jr., USA (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn, USN (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Arlen D. Jameson, USAF (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Charles Otstott, USA (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Keith J. Stalder, USMC (Ret.)
Major General Paul D. Eaton, USA (Ret.)
Major General Eugene Fox, USA (Ret.)
Rear Admiral Donald Guter, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
Rear Admiral John D. Hutson, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
Major General Michael R. Lehnert, USMC (Ret.)
Major General Melvyn S. Montano, USAF (Ret.)
Major General William L. Nash, USA (Ret.)
Major General Thomas J. Romig, USA (Ret.)
Major General Walter L. Stewart, Jr., USA (Ret.)
Major General Antonio M. Taguba, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General John Adams, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General David M. Brahms, USMC (Ret.)
Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.)
Brigadier General Evelyn P. Foote, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General Dennis P. Geoghan, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General David R. Irvine, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General John H. Johns, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General Keith H. Kerr, CSMR (Ret.)
Brigadier General Richard O’Meara, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General Murray G. Sagsveen, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General Anthony Verrengia, USAF (Ret.)

Brigadier General Stephen N. Xenakis, USA (Ret.)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/retired-generals-and-admirals-urge-president-to-close-guantanamo-end-debate-on-torture/5367114

[sabrina 1]

1. It will always be a stain on this country's history. As will Abu Ghraib. A shameful period where

Americans did what no terrorist could ever do, gave up their rights, abandoned the law and did what they accuse others of doing with horror, supported the horrific human rights violations committed against innocent people, human beings, who had famiies, loved ones, kidnapped from their own countries on their own soil and brought to that place of horror.

The Generals are right but there is money in torture we found out. And so long as their is money at stake for the 'evil doers' who appear to be running this country, all the voices of all the good people in this country will continue to be ignored.

But good for them for trying. There have been many good people who refused to participate in those crimes, including military prosecutors. And they deserve recognition for trying to do what is right under the worst of circumstances.

[JEB]

2. Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and the attending torture

have reduced USA's Lady Liberty to Lady Macbeth.

[roguevalley]

3. that's a lot of brass. go, brass

[countryjake]

4. K&R!

[Berlum]

5. "Don't you mean 'enhanced interrogation'? Smirk." - AWOL Bush & Five-Deferments Cheney (R)

"We Republicons are special (smirk). We have our own special ways of dealing with the 'truth.' And systematic word-wanking mindf*ckery is definitely one of our chiefest strategeries. Smirk. Sneer." - RepubliCons, Inc. (R)

[damnedifIknow]

6. "and that we as a nation should never return to the dark side"