Harsh interrogations OK’d from above, ex-Powell aide testifies

[maddezmom]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The decision to authorize harsh interrogations including waterboarding was pushed “from the top down,” a former top State Department official testified Wednesday.

Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell in President Bush’s first term, said six key officials “colluded” to develop a legal rationale for allowing detainees to be subjected to harsh treatment.

Wilkerson named Alberto Gonzales — who was Bush’s legal counsel at the time and later became attorney general — as well as John Yoo and Jay Bybee at the Department of Justice, William J. Haynes and Douglas Feith at the Department of Defense, and David Addington, who was Vice President Dick Cheney’s legal counsel at the time.



Read more: http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/18/harsh-interrogations-okd-from-above-ex-powell-aide-testifies/

---

Rep. Nadler Examines Internal “Rules” for Bush Interrogation Techniques
Key Witness Scheduled to Testify Refuses to Appear

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties today held an oversight hearing on the role that Bush Administration lawyers played in creating, approving and implementing abusive interrogation policies that resulted in the widespread abuse of detainees in U.S. custody and control.

Witnesses at the hearing included two former high-ranking Bush Administration officials. A third witness, Douglas Feith, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, was also scheduled to appear, but this morning his attorney informed the Chair that he was unwilling to attend.

“Through clever word play and a redefinition of the rules, those at the highest levels of government created and enforced these so-called ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques,” said Rep. Nadler. “We need to know if the Justice Department and others provided proper legal guidance to the Administration, and if they did not, we need to consider how we can prevent this aberration from happening again. Mr. Feith’s unwillingness to attend voluntarily and provide the truth about this government’s actions shows a fundamental disrespect for Congress and the American people.”

Today’s hearing follows a similar one held in May, where the Subcommittee passed a resolution to authorize the full Committee Chairman to issue a subpoena to David Addington, Chief of Staff to Vice President Richard Cheney. Mr. Addington and John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, are expected to appear before the Subcommittee later this month.

Other witnesses at today’s hearing included Daniel Levin, former Assistant Attorney General, and Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. These two witnesses may have been involved in the development of the various secret legal opinions and memoranda that argued that harsh, and possibly illegal, methods were legal and acceptable. They also have information about the Administration’s decision not to afford any Geneva Convention protections to suspected al Qaeda, Taliban, and “unlawful enemy combatant” detainees -- a decision that was ultimately rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Torture violates all the principles that America stands for, and yet it was used by this government against those in our custody and control,” Nadler added. “By taking steps to uphold the Constitution, we can act in a manner that will honor the freedoms that define America.”

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny08_nadler/ExaminesInternalRulesBushInterrogation_061808.html

You can watch the hearings on CSPAN

rtsp://video1.c-span.org/project/ter/ter061808_interrogation.rm

[babylonsister]

1. I'm getting the feeling that someone's going to connect all these

dots and have a real case against this admin. Am I too optimistic?

[ixion]

2. I'm guardedly optimistic

There seems to be a few people who've decided torture is un-American, and they're speaking out. It's really how far Congress will go in their investigations.

[maddezmom]

3. something has to give, right?

I've been saying that for far too long.

[babylonsister]

4. I know what you mean; me, too. nt

[bertman]

5. DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP.

Look at what our boy Sen. Byron Dorgin just had to say about impeachment.

These bastards are all in it up to their ears. Democrat. Republican. It doesn't matter. They're a bunch of fascists who want to preserve their power. This is Nazi Germany all over again and the MSM is the mouthpiece. If it weren't for sites like this, all of this stuff would be a one-sentence whitewash on the evening news, then goodbye.

Kucinich, Wexler, Boxer, Feingold and a few others have the country's best interests at heart. The rest are slaves to the corporatocracy.

[saigon68]

6. "It's torture", said the observer

No said the guard, "They are only Islamics therefor, its Harsh Interrogation", as he shoved a plastic flashlight up the screaming man's Rectum

[dipsydoodle]

7. Another nails

in their coffins.

[Senator]

8. Impeach For Torture -- Full Stop

Force McCain to defend the indefensible.

Force ALL Members/Senators to become heroes or co-conspirators -- with the world, history, and their families watching.

HONOR our (greater) generations that died to forge these treaties.

Begin the Redemption of Our National Soul.

Finish this thing.

---

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. "Harsh interrogations" my sweet patootie. It's TORTURE.

I know it's the CNN headline, but I think DU rules allow you putting TORTURE in parentheses after the euphemism. Just a suggestion. (If the edit time hasn't expired)

[Divine Discontent]

10. K&R!

they are in deep shit, finally... it's all coming out! DRIP DRIP - FLOOOOD!


New Obama-Mama & Anti-McSame Items!
www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[pacalo]

11. Wilkerson said during the hearing, "History will judge this administration as the most inept."

I'm watching the replay on C-Span now.

[countryjake]

12. K&R!

[Acadia Blue]

13. This is depravity.

[Supersedeas]

14. and barely peep from the television powdered faces...odd?

[libnnc]

15. Here's a scoop for the vacant twits

T O R T U R E





Gen. Taguba: Bush Administration Committed War Crimes

The Army general who first investigated the abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes. Retired Major General Antonio Taguba made the comment in a new report about US torture practices. Taguba wrote, “The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture.” Taguba went on to say, “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.” <snip>

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/19/headlines#1





Thursday, June 19, 2008
The Great Torture Scandal

McClatchy and other reporters are abruptly pulling the curtain away from the Bush team's illegal practices in arresting people arbitrarily, declining to offer proof that they were guilty of anything, detaining them indefinitely without trial or charges, and deliberately torturing them to the extent of leaving long-term scars and disabilities. The torture practices originated not with lower-level officers but with Donald Rumsfeld and others in Bush's inner circle, who then later blamed lower-level officials for developing the ideas that Rumsfeld ordered them to develop. Nothing they have done has survived a court challenge where one has been permitted.<snip>

http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/great-torture-scandal.html





A Senate investigation has concluded that top Pentagon officials began assembling lists of harsh interrogation techniques in the summer of 2002 for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and that those officials later cited memos from field commanders to suggest that the proposals originated far down the chain of command, according to congressional sources briefed on the findings.<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602779.html

[Hissyspit]

16. Witness: Cheney Probably Knew of Torture

Source: UPI

Witness: Cheney probably knew of torture
Published: June 19, 2008 at 6:14 PM

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- A former U.S. military official says U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney may have known military personnel were using torture techniques on Iraqi detainees.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told a House panel he thought leadership failed "at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the vice president's office and perhaps even in the Oval Office," The Washington Times reported Thursday.

Wilkerson's testimony followed a report by a human rights group that detainees in U.S. military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba., Iraq and Afghanistan were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques.

The techniques apparently were authorized in a Feb. 7, 2002, order signed by President George Bush that said al-Qaida and Taliban detainees were not to be considered prisoners of war, meaning they would not be covered by the Geneva Convention's protection against torture, the Times said. Douglas Feith, a government attorney thought to have offered legal advice on the interrogation techniques, notified the committee he would not be at the Wednesday hearing.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said Feith's failure to appear showed a "fundamental disrespect for Congress and the American people," adding that Feith would be compelled to testify later.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/19/Witness_Cheney_probably_knew_of_torture/UPI-17761213913655/

---

[kestrel91316]

17. KNEW of it??? Hell, he probably demanded it.

[paparush]

19. Demanded it? Hell, he probably stood in the corner stroking his siamese cat, while

shouting "harder..harder this time. Yes! Exxxxxxxxxxcellent!"

[Tippy]

18. Probably knew.....no probably about it....

Cheney probably got his rocks off just thinking about torture.....after all he shot his friend.....