Sen. Carl M. Levin: In my judgment, the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration’s interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse – such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan – to low ranking soldiers. Claims, such as that made by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a “few bad apples,” were simply false.
The truth is that, early on, it was senior civilian leaders who set the tone. On September 16, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that the United States turn to the “dark side” in our response to 9/11. Not long after that, after White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales called parts of the Geneva Conventions “quaint,” President Bush determined that provisions of the Geneva Conventions did not apply to certain detainees. Other senior officials followed the President and Vice President’s lead, authorizing policies that included harsh and abusive interrogation techniques.
The new batch of pictures are expected to be much the same as the released pictures from Abu Ghraib.
Which is precisely the point.
.
They are evidence. Evidence that these techniques cam from the top and were “distributed” as part of the organized program of torture.
.
Whereas the Abu Ghraib photos were taken at that one location, the 29 photographs were taken in at least seven different locations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and involved a greater number of detainees and U.S. military personnel.
They will, presumably, put to rest forever the idea of “bad apples,” and prove that these were people following instructions.
As a result of following these instructions, Charles Graner is still imprisoned. While the people who ordered the instructions to be followed walk free.
This is what former General Karpinski is upset about.
There are two separate (though obviously connected….at the top) cases at work here, which allows the republicans and torture apologists to muddy the waters. There is the illegal waterboarding and other tortures of the CIA.
Then there is the general program of torture that was imposed on the military. Where soldiers were essentially ordered to torture.
As for Obama’s role? I wrote a while ago that he should NOT get involved in the issue at all. That he should let the DOJ and the Congress handle the investigations. He wisely took that position. But now he has just stepped back in.
The move did not mean Obama condoned the abuse of detainees during the previous administration, officials said.Obama “would be the last to excuse the actions depicted in these photos. That is why the Department of Defense investigated these cases, and why individuals have been punished through prison sentences, discharges, and a range of other punitive measures,” a senior administration official said earlier.
No. These cases were NOT thoroughly investigated. In light of new evidence that this program was order from the top. The TOP has not been investigated.
Even worse, from his own mouth…
He told reporters “that the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefits to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals.”
No.
Obviously someone got in your ear and convinced you that the old bsd apples story was true.
It is NOT.
Mr. President, this was NOT a small group of individuals in question here. This is about the Bush Organized Torture Program.
Mr. President, it is just plain wrong of you to suppress this evidence…if you do not also take steps to make sure that the evidence you are suppressing is thoroughly investigated.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero on the Chris Matthews show suggested a worthy compromise. Give the photos to a Special Prosecutor with instructions to investigate…and a copy of the Levin Senate Armed Services Committee report.
And a copy of this article on Huffpo by Senator Levin entitled:
Bush Officials Tried to Shift Blame for Detainee Abuse to Low-Ranking Soldiers
If you are going to tamper with this case, Mr. President…and you just did, you need to make sure that your tampering results in accountability for the people who ordered the Organized Torture Program….that these photos were evidence of.
Give the pictures to a Special Prosecutor with instructions to thoroughly investigate the program behind them. All the way to the top.
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of justice, Mr. “President”, is obstruction of justice.
Good article.
I’ve been wavering all over the place with my opinion about how these pictures will affect the torture movement. I think it’s true that new pictures do not advance human understanding — they don’t make anyone understand the horror that the tortured experienced any better than before. And people who have their minds (or guts) made up might really recoil.
That said, these photos are important for documentation. Well established patterns are important, and we will uncover more of them.
I’ll go away and think some more…
and scatterbrained.
Can we have a little review?
~SCOTUS appointment in the wings
~Afghan, Pakistan re-arranging the Generals (or what, I havent been watching, but stuff brewing)
~Senate Hearing, Sheldon, significant testimony from Soufan
~Obama announces he will move to block release of Pentagon Photos (LL’s head explodes)
~Sheldon appearance on Keith O (nighttime)…((was that why he had to leave the Hearing to catch the plane to go to?));
Zelikow was on Rachel; ACLU Director Romero was on Chris Time Bomb Matthews.
…Today… (before noon!!)
~Pelosi Denial on tv and blogosphere piling on
~Wilkerson article
~Daily Beast article (Im forgetting already)
…
whats going on? Are we about to get hit with a new strain of Swine Flu? Why is everybody talking about Torture, esp the Cheneycrats and …
where the fuck are the Dems????????
If you ask me, and my instincts have been fairly good so far, it’s showtime.
program was not systemic but he has been convinced that it was the work of a few bad apples? That’s far too insulting to both our and his intelligence and I’m wondering if that was meant to be sarcastic? If he isn’t the hand-picked tool of the MIC then he’s clearly scared of them…his decisions shriek cowardice! There have been far to many reversals already to continue endlessly giving him the benefit of the doubt. Cheney bitches and Obama at his press conference says waterboarding is quick but not the right approach. General Hayden has the gall to criticize Obama and what does Obama do, he backtracks on the photos. As long as the masthead at DKOS says 69/26, this is the way the left will be treated…the Commander-In-Chief now needs his military supporters, not us!
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endanger our mission. The mission apparently is to get the terrorists cause they will kill your family. They just moved the ‘mission’ to Afghanistan. This administration is surging Afghanistan, they are bombing and killing ‘insurgents’. I think their fighting the release of the photo’s is because the same doctrine, war on terra, is going to continue and they don’t want the insanity and immorality of their policy’s to be overwhelmed by the people’s disgust at what they have allowed and what they continue to do.
‘If we’re actually worried about inflaming anti-American sentiment and endangering our troops, we might want to re-consider whether we should keep doing the things that actually spawn “anti-American sentiment” and put American soldiers in danger. We might, for instance, want to stop invading, bombing and occupying Muslim countries and imprisoning their citizens with no charges by the thousands. But exploiting concerns over “anti-American sentiment” to vest our own government leaders with the power to cover-up evidence of wrongdoing is as incoherent as it is dangerous. Who actually thinks that the solution to anti-American sentiment is to hide evidence of our wrongdoing rather than ceasing the conduct that causes that sentiment in the first place?’…… Glenn Greenwald (great article)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/g…
It seems to be working as in fandomworld the Democratic faithful are all praising him for ‘doing the right thing’. This new boss is keeping Bush’s secret because he is taking on the same rationale that Bush used to commit these crimes. Why would he want to have the truth see the light of day?
JIM LEHRER: Thank you. On the detainee abuse photos, how does the president’s opposition to releasing them, to making them public, square with his positions on transparency and public disclosure?
DAVID AXELROD: Well, Jim, his positions on transparency and public disclosure are strong and well known, but they don’t — they’re not without limit.
When he believes that the release of materials may jeopardize the national security, then he’s going to make that case. In this case, his concern is that the release of the photos from acts that happened years ago will serve to inflame the situation now and endanger our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. And that’s something he’s not inclined to do.
All the way to the supreme court?
JIM LEHRER: On the photos, is the president prepared to take this all the way — it’s now in a federal appeals court. If he loses in that case, is he going to go to the Supreme Court with it?
DAVID AXELROD: Well, let’s see what happens, Jim. But my fundamental understanding from the president is that he feels strongly that this would have a deleterious effect on our troops, that it would put them in jeopardy, and he wants to pursue all legal avenues to prevent their release at this time, which is a sensitive time in both Iraq and Afghanistan. So, you know, I expect that he will pursue all legal avenues.
It would put a real crimp in his war if the public gets a whiff of the reality of the ‘mission’. I guess the change is now instead of Bush’s secrets their Obama’s. On another related subject the Military Tribunals (kangaroo court) will resume at a new location. It seems to me to be a waste of time to attribute motivations of strategy or any desire/intention to either prosecute or change both the unitary power grab and illegal endless wars that keep us safe.
and Graham that put pressure on Obama NOT to release the photos.
Obama has been playing the photos down as though they’re not really that different from the ones we’ve seen before.
I distinctly recall Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse*, who said he had seen them, and spoke of their horrors. There are also videos depicting young boys being sodomized in front of their parents at Abu Ghraib, and other such monstrous behavior for which there are are probably photos, as well.
If there is such fear that we would, by the release of these photos, incite further hatred, etc., maybe, that should say something about WHY it was done in the first place. Ridiculous! The whole world knows we tortured. It’s just that there just may be some photos that would enrage the entire world, even, perhaps, some in our government.
*Wanted to bring video here of Sen. Whitehouse, but haven’t put my hands on it yet.
of the Obama Administration should have to sit in a room and look at those pictures. I agree that a Special Prosecutor should have the pictures as evidence for his investigation and then submit them as evidence in a subsequent trial.
BTW, speaking of shifting the blame–I just had to turn of the cable news because for the third or fourth night running the lead story has been “what did Pelosi know & when did she know it”…with republicans being interviewed and ranting on and on about how Pelosi is guilty!, guilty!–She knew… But the ranting stops there–no one asks the self-righteous GOP’ers— “so, even if she knew, what would you have had her do about it? Oh, and by the way Senator (or Congressmember) what did you know, when did you know it, and what did you do about it?
Now, former House Intelligence Committee Chairman, republican pete hoekstra, is joining the feeding frenzy and calling for Pelosi’s head on a platter. BTW, as the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee during the Bush Torture Years, Hoekstra has been skating freely–with no one asking him what he knew, when he knew it or what he did about what he knew. Odd isn’t it?