The latest revelations from ABC News clearly point to a high level, willful conspiracy to commit torture:
Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.
The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.
At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
From Human Rights Watch regarding laws against torture:
International and U.S. law prohibits torture and other ill-treatment of any person in custody in all circumstances. The prohibition applies to the United States during times of peace, armed conflict, or a state of emergency. Any person, whether a U.S. national or a non-citizen, is protected. It is irrelevant whether the detainee is determined to be a prisoner-of-war, a protected person, or a so-called “security detainee” or “unlawful combatant.” And the prohibition is in effect within the territory of the United States or any place anywhere U.S. authorities have control over a person. In short, the prohibition against torture and ill-treatment is absolute.
Click the link for details on which laws have been violated.
It doesn’t get much clearer than that. It is also clear that the officials in the United States Government whose duty it is to prosecute these crimes against humanity, these War Crimes, are failing in their duty. Let us not fail in ours, as American Citizens in whose name these acts were committed. It’s time to ratchet up the pressure on The Speaker of the House again to do her duty to the Constitution and begin Impeachment investigations and proceedings against the conspirators named above.
Please phone and e-mail (feel free to mail this essay) Speaker Pelosi and tell her that as an American Citizen you demand she investigate and prosecute these War Criminals.
The above will also be x-posted to Dkos in a few minutes. This seems like a real opening to me, enough of a smoking gun to warrant some serious yelling….it feels like I will be back on an impeachment crusade for a bit. Suggestions for actions and rallying the troops to put on an impeachment push are very much welcomed!
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Arrest their sorry asses and let’s begin the rendering of JUSTICE!
She’d be impeaching herself.
Come to think of it, she is impeaching herself either way.
with no principles. Irony.
And George says “I wasn’t there.” I do believe you will be hearing that early and often after he’s gone.
Did you see Ashcroft’s statement about this? That he couldn’t believe this was being discussed in the White House?
by some very evil persons.
There is one question on the test: will you stand for this?
If the answer is yes, we can be sure there will some further test questions down the road. And the American People will keep getting increasingly ugly questions until all of us just say no.