Closing In on the Torturers-By Ray McGovern

[kpete]

Closing In on the Torturers
By Ray McGovern Page 1 of 5 page(s)

Do you think the wardens will let George Tenet wear his Presidential Medal of Freedom over the orange coverall?

Perhaps he and Donald Rumsfeld will end up doing time together in one of the prisons also slated to host what Rumsfeld called “the worst of the worst” from Guantanamo.

That would be poetic justice of a most ironic kind. And if the two former leaders do end up in prison they can count themselves fortunate for having dodged execution for their roles in a slew of capital offenses.

You see, punishments for violations of the War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 2441), applicable in their case, include the death penalty—often the sentence of choice if detainees die in their custody. And countless have.

Before you question my sanity, please know that I just completed the arduous task of reading the aging but devastating CIA Inspector General's report on torture.

way more:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Closing-In-on-the-Torturer-by-Ray-McGovern-090826-694.html

[ThomWV]

1. I spent several hours reading the Report myself, and I keep asking - where is Tenet?

Why isn't he in front of a Judge right this minute?

[malaise]

2. This is a MUST READ

Read all five pages.

Bravo Ray McGovern

[Voice for Peace]

3. ditto

k&r!

[bananas]

4. k&r nt

[gratuitous]

5. The question is, do we have the belly for it?

Will we be satisfied with two or three small fry, hands-on torturers who were just following orders? Or will we get the higher-ups who, knowing they were violating the War Crimes Act, got cover from ersatz legal opinions from the Department of Justice? Will that be enough? Or do we go after the legal beagles at DOJ who contorted themselves into all sorts of pretzels to come up with a "logic" that made the patently illegal look legal? And what pressures, if any, were they operating under? Or did they write their opinions to curry favor - real or perceived - from their sadist masters, who delighted in the concept of torture but would never, ever soil their own immaculate hands?

Once we start, we clearly can't stop until we track this rotten thread all the way to its source. Lawrence Walsh was closing in on the upper reaches of the Iran-contra illegalities when lame duck George H.W. Bush issued his middle-of-the-night Christmas Eve pardons to Cap Weinberger and the rest of the co-conspirators before he himself could be implicated.

If history is any indicator, and you don't hear a goddam peep about the first President Bush's self-serving pardons, then we can be fairly confident that this won't lead to anything, either. I live in hope that my expectations will be disappointed.

[bobthedrummer]

6. ^