CNN talking about leaked Red Cross documents re: charging WH w/ war crimes...

[skooooo]

ANyone watching?

[spanone]

1. damn, missed it...

[skooooo]

2. Related to the upcoming release of this book...

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Inside-Terror-American/dp/0385526393/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215810248&sr=8-3




Product Description
A dramatic and damning narrative account of how America has fought the
"War on Terror"

In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. The radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long held agenda to enhance Presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.

THE DARK SIDE is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In gripping detail, acclaimed New Yorker writer and bestselling author, Jane Mayer, relates the impact of these decisions—U.S.-held prisoners, some of them completely innocent, were subjected to treatment more reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition than the twenty-first century.

THE DARK SIDE will chronicle real, specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained—or not—and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibn al-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress—which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq--was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop.

In all cases, whatever the short term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, and our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. THE DARK SIDE chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. So, the only reason the GOP-controlled media is covering it is...

...to promote a book?

[skooooo]

7. Don't know if I'd say that..

...just the quickest way I could illustrate the focus of their story.

On edit: The book hasn't been released yet - maybe it will cause another stir like the McClellen book.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply YOU were saying that...

...I was asking if that's what's happening.

After all the GOP are very self-serving.

[skooooo]

9. Could be...

:shrug:

Afraid it's all too little too late regardless.

[Ian David]

3. Here's a link to a news item: Red Cross reports U.S. war crimes

Secret report accuses CIA of torture, book says
Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the CIA's interrogation methods for high-level al-Qaida prisoners constituted...
By SCOTT SHANE
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the CIA's interrogation methods for high-level al-Qaida prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.

The book says the International Committee for the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the CIA last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major al-Qaida figure the United States captured, were "categorically" torture, which is illegal under both U.S. and international law.

The book says Abu Zubaydah was confined in a box "so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position" and was one of several prisoners to be "slammed against the walls," according to the Red Cross report. The CIA has admitted that Abu Zubaydah and two other prisoners were waterboarded, a practice in which water is poured on the nose and mouth to create the sensation of suffocation and drowning.

<snip>

Citing unnamed "sources familiar with the report," Mayer wrote that the Red Cross document "warned that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted." Red Cross representatives were not permitted access to the secret prisons where the CIA conducted interrogations but were permitted to interview Abu Zubaydah and other high-level detainees in late 2006, after they were moved to the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

More:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008045956_detain11.html

[EFerrari]

4. It's taken six years for this to get to CNN.

Red Cross was putting out information in 2002.

Better late than never, I guess.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

6. The neocons figured suffering no consequences for their criminal actions.

Will they ever pay for the injustices committed against our nation and the international community?

We'll see.