[Peace-discuss] Fw: Prosecute the Entire "Torture Team"

Wed Aug 12 19:16:14 CDT 2009

I agree, but that team includes the current administration.

"Obama's Executive Order bans some -- not all -- US officials from torturing but 
it does not ban any of them, himself included, from sponsoring torture overseas.

"Indeed, his policy change affects only a slight percentage of US-culpable 
tortures and could be completely consistent with an increase in US-backed 
torture worldwide.

"The catch lies in the fact that since Vietnam, when US forces often tortured 
directly, the US has mainly seen its torture done for it by proxy -- paying, 
arming, training and guiding foreigners doing it, but usually being careful to 
keep Americans at least one discreet step removed.

"That is, the US tended to do it that way until Bush and Cheney changed 
protocol, and had many Americans laying on hands, and sometimes taking digital 
photos.

"The result was a public relations fiasco that enraged the US establishment 
since by exposing US techniques to the world it diminished US power.

"But despite the outrage, the fact of the matter was that the Bush/Cheney 
tortures being done by Americans were a negligible percentage of all of the 
tortures being done by US clients.

"For every torment inflicted directly by Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, 
Guantanamo and the secret prisons, there were many times more being meted out by 
US-sponsored foreign forces.

"Those forces were and are operating with US military, intelligence, financial 
or other backing in Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Jordan, 
Indonesia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Nigeria, and the Philippines, to name 
some places, not to mention the tortures sans-American-hands by the US-backed 
Iraqis and Afghans.

"What the Obama dictum ostensibly knocks off is that small percentage of torture 
now done by Americans while retaining the overwhelming bulk of the system's 
torture, which is done by foreigners under US patronage.

"Obama could stop backing foreign forces that torture, but he has chosen not to 
do so.

"His Executive Order instead merely pertains to treatment of "...an individual 
in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other 
agent of the United States Government, or detained within a facility owned, 
operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States, in any 
armed conflict..." which means that it doesn't even prohibit direct torture by 
Americans outside environments of "armed conflict," which is where much torture 
happens anyway since many repressive regimes aren't in armed conflict.

"And even if, as Obama says, "the United States will not torture," it can still 
pay, train, equip and guide foreign torturers, and see to it that they, and 
their US patrons, don't face local or international justice.

"This is a return to the status quo ante, the torture regime of Ford through 
Clinton, which, year by year, often produced more US-backed strapped-down agony 
than was produced during the Bush/Cheney years.

"Under the old -- now new again -- proxy regime Americans would, say, teach 
interrogation/torture, then stand in the next room as the victims screamed, 
feeding questions to their foreign pupils. That's the way the US did it in El 
Salvador under JFK through Bush Sr. (For details see my "Behind the Death 
Squads: An exclusive report on the U.S. role in El Salvador’s official terror," 
The Progressive, May, 1984 ; the US Senate Intelligence Committee report that 
piece sparked is still classified, but the feeding of questions was confirmed to 
me by Intelligence Committee Senators. See also my "Confessions of a Death Squad 
Officer," The Progressive, March, 1986, and my "Comment," The New Yorker, Oct. 
15, 1990,[regarding law, the US, and El Salvador])."

"In Guatemala under Bush Sr. and Clinton (Obama's foreign policy mentors) the US 
backed the army's G-2 death squad which kept comprehensive files on dissidents 
and then electroshocked them or cut off their hands. (The file/ surveillance 
system was launched for them in the '60s and '70s by CIA/ State/ AID/ special 
forces; for the history see "Behind the Death Squads," cited above, and the 
books of Prof. Michael McClintock).

"The Americans on the ground in the Guatemala operation, some of whom I 
encountered and named, effectively helped to run the G-2 but, themselves, 
tiptoed around its torture chambers. (See my "C.I.A. Death Squad," The Nation 
[US], April 17, 1995, "The Country Team," The Nation [US], June 5, 1995, letter 
exchange with US Ambassador Stroock, The Nation [US], May 29, 1995, and Allan 
Nairn and Jean-Marie Simon, "Bureaucracy of Death," The New Republic, June 30, 
1986).

"It was a similar story in Bush Sr. and Clinton's Haiti -- an operation run by 
today's Obama people -- where the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) helped 
launch the terrorist group FRAPH, the CIA paid its leader, and FRAPH itsef laid 
the machetes on Haitian civilians, torturing and killing as US proxies. (See my 
"Behind Haiti's paramilitaries: our man in FRAPH," The Nation [US], Oct 24, 
1994, and "He's our S.O.B.," The Nation [US], Oct. 31, 1994; the story was later 
confirmed on ABC TV's "This Week" by US Secretary of State Warren Christopher).

"In today's Thailand -- a country that hardly comes to mind when most people 
think of torture -- special police and militaries get US gear and training for 
things like "target selection" and then go out and torture Thai Malay Muslms in 
the rebel deep south, and also sometimes (mainly Buddhist) Burmese refugees and 
exploited northern and west coast workers...

"Many Americans, to their credit, hate torture. The Bush/Cheney escapade exposed 
that.

"But to stop it they must get the facts and see that Obama's ban does not stop 
it, and indeed could even accord with an increase in US-sponsored torture crime.

"In lieu of action, the system will grind on tonight. More shocks, suffocations, 
deep burns. And the convergence of thousands of complex minds on one simple 
thought: 'Please, let me die.'"

Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> 
> 
> --- On *Wed, 8/12/09, Vincent Warren, CCR /<alerts at ccrjustice.org>/* wrote:
> 
> 
> From: Vincent Warren, CCR <alerts at ccrjustice.org> Subject: Prosecute the
> Entire "Torture Team" To: jencart13 at yahoo.com Date: Wednesday, August 12,
> 2009, 10:01 AM
> 
> center for constitutional rights logo
> 
>  News reports are now saying the Attorney General is close to appointing a
> Special Prosecutor, but it doesn't look like good news. Insiders say Eric
> Holder wants to limit the scope of the prosecutor's investigation to
> low-level CIA operatives and let those who ordered, designed, and justified
> the torture program off the hook. Before it's too late, please write Holder
> today 
> <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=0jzy5uYYDccEM2H4oUQf7T%2FF1nzOHwu4>,
>  and tell him not to tie the Prosecutor's hands but to let the investigation
> go as far up the chain of command as the facts lead. This is a key
> opportunity for us to put the Obama administration on the right track,
> because it is currently in violation of U.S. law: Dick Cheney admitted his
> role in waterboarding and said he would do it again; the new Attorney
> General, Eric Holder, said that waterboarding is torture; and the Convention
> Against Torture, which is U.S. law, requires the administration to initiate a
> meaningful criminal investigation when torture occurs. Should Eric Holder
> limit the scope of the Special Prosecutor's investigation to focus on "just a
> few bad apples" he would be allowing high level government officials to
> shield themselves with the very torture memos they created to break the law
> in the first place. And what about the lawyers like John Yoo, Jay Bybee and
> David Addington who tried to rig the law to justify their bosses' actions? 
> They must be investigated, too. President Obama has told us and the world
> that no one is above the law.. Prosecuting the high-level former officials
> responsible for torture can give a measure of justice to the victims and
> provide the strongest deterrent against future administrations going down
> this dark path again. Prosecution will also be a clear signal to countries
> around the world that the U.S. has drawn the line at torture. No executive
> order, policy change or new legislation will have that same power. Stand with
> CCR in the fight for justice. Tell the Attorney General to appoint an
> independent Special Prosecutor to hold the entire Torture Team accountable 
> <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=qDnAGXO1UDiRFg3Af4XTcj%2FF1nzOHwu4>.
>  Sincerely, Vincent Warren Executive Director 
> 
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