(another) Memo: Pentagon Concerned About Legality of Interr. Techniques

[truthpusher]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=852458&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Memo: Pentagon Concerned About Legality of Interrogation Techniques
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Document Shows Top Pentagon Officials Warned About Guantanamo Bay Interrogation Tactics
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Jun. 15, 2005 - The interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in 2002 triggered concerns among senior Pentagon officials that they could face criminal prosecution under U.S. anti-torture laws, ABC News has learned.

Notes from a series of meetings at the Pentagon in early 2003 -- obtained by ABC News -- show that Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, warned his superiors that they might be breaking the law.

During a January 2003 meeting involving top Pentagon lawyer William Haynes and other officials, the memo shows that Mora warned that "use of coercive techniques ... has military, legal, and political implication ... has international implication ... and exposes us to liability and criminal prosecution."

Mora's deep concerns about interrogations at Guantanamo have been known, but not his warning that top officials could go to prison.

In another meeting held March 8, 2003, the group of top Pentagon lawyers concluded -- according to the memo -- "we need a presidential letter approving the use of the controversial interrogation to cover those who may be called upon to use them."

No such letter was issued.

complete story: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=852458&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[rzemanfl]

1. First you get a guy to bark like a dog, then he tells you stuff and

you believe him? How fucking stupid is that?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. First a GOP rep calling for hearings on DSM, and now this. Wow!....

Anyone else think that the CIA may be helping "surface" these documents?

[shraby]

3. Methinks the word has come down that

Bushco has got to go.

[spooked911]

17. It is starting to look that way. I am beginning to think they'll get rid

of this crew, which is important. But I bet a lot of nasty stuff will stay hidden, such as 9/11.

[Eloriel]

13. No, I rather think we have our Daniel Ellsberg -- at long, long last

Just a feeling.

[WhiteTara]

25. thankfully we have our Daniel before 50,000

young people have been killed!

[Enraged_Ape]

4. George W. Bush is bad bad bad for business

I think the "string pullers" are finally getting it. It looks like they're finally surrendering their little idiot stooge to the wolves.

[thecrow]

5. Well, surprize surprize suprize

someone at the Pentagon gets it... !
Now get this stinking Fascist out of our White House!!!!

[Karenina]

6. And take his *colleagues out with!

[Dragonfli]

10. Love that Graphic!

[spooked911]

14. Awesome cartoon! Really powerful.

[Dragonfli]

24. Thanks - My Wife "The Artist" ..

..Created it for after listening to one of my PNAC Rants

[Iowa]

7. "...top officials could go to prison..."

I love the sound of that.

[katinmn]

9. Time to polish the hand cuffs. Heh heh heh

[Roland99]

8. This memo has been known for about a year...check this out:

Lawyer for State Dept. Disputed Detainee Memo
Military Legal Advisers Also Questioned Tactics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A759-2004Jun23.html

William H. Taft IV said that Justice's legal advice to President Bush about how to handle detainees in the war on terrorism was "seriously flawed" and its reasoning was "incorrect as well as incomplete." Justice's arguments were "contrary to the official position of the United States, the United Nations and all other states that have considered the issue," Taft said.

Taft's Jan. 11 letter, obtained by The Washington Post, was omitted from the hundreds of pages of documents released Tuesday by the Bush administration. The release was part of an effort to present the administration's policies on detainees since Sept. 11, 2001, as fully compliant with domestic and international law.

A fuller picture -- of senior administration officials who sought to reinterpret the law and sanction tougher treatment of detainees in the face of strongly expressed internal dissents at the State Department and the military services -- emerges from the State Department letter and other previously undisclosed memos.

The dissents include three classified memos written in the spring of 2003 by senior military lawyers in the Air Force, Marine Corps and Army, and a classified memo written by the Navy's top civilian lawyer, Alberto J. Mora, say government officials who have read them. Those officials, and others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition that they not be named.

Two officials said the memos were written by Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, Marine Brig. Gen. Kevin M. Sandkuhler and Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Romig.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Idiot son to troops: "Support *this*"

How DARE idiot son even IMPLY that he supports the troops? How DARE he?

A military coup would not surprize me.

[rateyes]

12. "No such letter was issued"...

as far as we know!

[spooked911]

16. Probably wasn't. The people at the Pentagon must be hopping mad!!!!!

Considering they came out with this story. This seems big to me.

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Actually, an executive order WAS issued with Bush's signature

and it's referred to in the FOIA documents released to the ACLU. It did authorize specific forms of what we would consider torture, apparently, but a copy of it has not yet been released. Wonder why, eh?
:grr:

[oxbow]

18. another day, another memo

how long until people finally get it? These people are not the stuff that America is made of.

[BigBearJohn]

19. ABC NEWS: Pentagon "Concerned" About Legality of Interrogation Techniques

Document Shows Top Pentagon Officials Warned About Guantanamo Bay Interrogation Tactics

June 15, 2005 — The interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in 2002 triggered concerns among senior Pentagon officials that they could face criminal prosecution under U.S. anti-torture laws, ABC News has learned.

Notes from a series of meetings at the Pentagon in early 2003 — obtained by ABC News — show that Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, warned his superiors that they might be breaking the law.

No such letter was issued.

{emphasis added}

Source:

[jobycom]

20. Nice euphamism writing!! You mean

Pentagon afraid they'll get punished for torture and war crimes?

[pdurod1]

21. Yeah, and if I remember right...

the reporter urged soldiers to consult with their attorneys before they act. Does this mean the JAG? I never had an attorney when I served. An order was meant to be followed. The commander set policy.

Uhhh, whiskey, tango, foxtrot...

[rodeodance]

22. link please (thanks in advance)

[Supersedeas]

23. we need a Presidential letter to authorize us to break the law - NONE?

[Supersedeas]

26. but Rummi says that only the "ignant" would complain