Accountability Absent in Prisoner Torture (Where is McCain?)

[ProSense]

Published on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)

Accountability Absent in Prisoner Torture

by John D. Hutson

A recent Knight Ridder story about a new Human Rights First report studying detainee deaths in U.S. custody since 2002 highlights a part of America's torture problem that has gone overlooked for too long: an abject failure to hold those responsible for torture and abuse — even deaths of detainees — accountable for their actions.

These misdeeds are not just the work of a "few bad apples" as the pictures from Abu Ghraib were so famously and cavalierly dismissed. Indeed, there are nearly a dozen brutal deaths as the result of the most horrific treatment that could only be described as torture even under the administration's strained definition. One such incident is an isolated transgression; two is a serious problem; a dozen of them is policy.

Leadership is a critical attribute to a well functioning military. But leaders can lead in the wrong direction. The heart of military effectiveness is the chain of command, up to and including the president of the United States. Indeed, one of the four criteria for qualifying as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions is that the individual is part of an armed force organized with a chain of command; it is that discipline ensured by that structure that causes forces to comply with the laws of armed conflict. Without a strong chain of command, fighting a war — a perilous endeavor under the best of circumstances — becomes utterly chaotic.

Snip...

Our failure to get to the bottom of what happened in U.S. detention and interrogation operations during the past four years, and to pursue, where appropriate, accountability up and down the chain of command will eventually undermine our strength. For this reason, if no other, it is long past time for Congress to convene a bipartisan commission to take a hard look at what went wrong and how the United States got into this sorry mess. If there are systemic problems, we need to identify them so we can correct them.

more...

John Hutson, a retired rear admiral, is dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center. He was the Navy's Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0228-31.htm

[ProSense]

1. Where Are the Good Americans?

Where Are the Good Americans?

Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith
Tue Feb 28, 4:17 PM ET

The Nation -- Anyone who sees the photographs of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps must wonder how human beings could ever have allowed such things to happen. They must wonder how people of good will could have stood by while their government committed atrocities in their name. In the wake of that nightmarish era, people often asked, "Where were the good Germans?"

Snip...

If President Bush won't halt the abuse of US captives, Congress stands next in line for responsibility. Last December, it passed the so-called McCain amendment, which supposedly abolished all torture by US forces anywhere in the world. But the UN report makes clear that torture is continuing at Guantánamo.

The law's sponsor, Senator John McCain, promised that Congress would establish oversight over Guantánamo and other US prisons abroad to assure enforcement. But where's Senator McCain now? If he really wants to stop torture, why doesn't he fly to Guantánamo immediately and make sure no one is being abused? Isn't that what McCain would have wanted US senators to do when he was being tortured in a prison cell in Vietnam?

If Congress won't act, then it is up to the people. We must make every family dining table, every house of worship and every town meeting a place to stand up and speak out.


more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060228/cm_thenation/20060313brecher

[Disturbed]

2. McLame takes the kickin' and keep on lickin'.

He did his posturing for his "I'm a good guy" PR. Now he is back to lickin'BushCo ass. McLame is a total phony.

McCain hypocrisy:

The Bushification of John McCain

By Ari Melber, AlterNet. Posted November 15, 2005.

The bad blood between the two men has been infamous since 2000, when Bush's campaign lied about McCain's family and war service, and McCain told Bush to "get out of the gutter."

But during Bush's reelection in 2004, McCain strained to embrace his former rival -- literally. In their first joint appearance, they hugged dramatically before 6,000 soldiers at a Fort Lewis rally. Those events made for great campaign visuals. Yet while most Americans saw McCain's big heart, Republican leaders saw hungry ambition.

Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative magazine National Review, recently described that campaign bear hug as nothing but proof of "the senator's presidential ambitions." Lowry argues it's just part of McCain's scheme to get "the Right to stop loathing him." In targeted moves since the election, McCain has continued his Bushification by changing positions on conservative priorities like creationism, gay marriage and tax cuts.


As the costs of Hurricane Katrina mounted, McCain went on national television and told Chris Mathews the Bush tax cuts must be maintained. But McCain voted against those tax cuts.

In fact, he was one of only two Republicans to oppose Bush's signature 2001 tax cut. Given the surging costs of Katrina, Iraq and Medicare, there is no policy rationale for reversing his position now. The only rationale is political pandering. And that's exactly how some influential conservatives see it. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, recently said that although McCain has "flip-flopped on a number of issues," he is still "anti-taxpayer" because "he's voted against every tax cut."

Yet the mainstream media is so attached to McCain's maverick image, most journalists didn't cover the tax reversal.



http://www.alternet.org/story/28266 /


John McCain, Hypocrite
by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.


The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.


Here's what the AP's investigation found:


McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.


The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm

[gratuitous]

3. Blame: All the way to the top; Accountability: All the way to the NCOs

It's the Republican way!

Although I do like that statement about McCain flying down to Guantanamo to see the situation for himself: Isn't that what POW McCain would have wanted from a Senator, any Senator, when he was being held prisoner?

[MadMaddie]

4. Unfortunately, I think McCain has forgotten his history...