Yoo on Abu Ghraib: Nobody's Perfect

[babylonsister]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/todays_must_read_309.php

Months after Justice Department lawyer John Yoo carefully delineated for the Pentagon how U.S. personnel could torture detainees all they wanted, the abuses at Abu Ghraib occurred. Does this put a dent in the "few bad apples" theory?

The New York Times mulls it and comes back with: "Some legal experts and advocates said Wednesday that the document, written the month that the United States invaded Iraq, adds to evidence that the abuse of prisoners in military custody may have involved signals from higher officials and not just irresponsible actions by low-level personnel." So it's no smoking gun.

The memo was intended to deal with "'unlawful combatants,' a label that would not apply to the largely Iraqi population captured during the Iraq war." Still, the natural suspicion remains that Yoo's expansive parsing might have migrated over to Iraq. After all, Major General Geoffrey Miller, then the commanding officer at Guantanamo Bay, did travel to Iraq in August of 2003 to advise officials there on interrogating Iraqi detainees. Miller had been briefed on the Pentagon's guidelines for interrogation, which owed much to Yoo's green light.

Not so, says Yoo:

“The ‘culture of abuse’ theory has no reliable evidence to support it,” Mr. Yoo wrote. He noted that several military investigations had found that what he called “the appalling abuses” at Abu Ghraib were not authorized by any military policy.

“While each case of abuse is regrettable,” Mr. Yoo wrote, “it is not possible for a large organization charged with protecting the national security, under extraordinary pressure, to perform its mission error-free.”

Shit happens.

[wtmusic]

1. Each case of abuse is regrettable, but sanctioned under Yoo's legal opinion

What a jackass. May he find a special hell where the demons are limited to enhanced interrogation techniques.

[zonmoy]

2. think that his hell needs to be him having to take whatever his victims want him to endure eternally

[sharp_stick]

3. I truly hate that prick

and the fact that Berkeley continues to support and pay him as a "professor" doesn't do much for my opinion of their campus either.

Yoo, along with shrub, is a perfect example that even a really stupid shit can graduate from an ivy league education. I graduated from one of them too so I don't know what that says about me? It makes me sick that I have to count so many of these assholes as members of my alma mater.

Once you're in a place like Harvard, Yale or Princeton it's no more difficult to pass courses than any other place. The fact that legacies make up such a huge percentage of students really lowers the quality of degree IMO.

[wtmusic]

5. And Doug Feith is having his retirement funded by Georgetown nt

[midnight]

9. That is an incredulous fact.... Why would a institution

for the betterment of our minds allow such a brain drain on their campus?

[Solly Mack]

4. "...not authorized by any military policy." Rumsfeld DID sign off

and that made it a military policy

"An independent commission agreed in August 2004 that Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon leaders contributed to an environment in which prisoners suffered sadistic abuse at Abu Ghraib. The members also concluded that the officials could be faulted for failed leadership and oversight."


and Bush/Cheney signed off...and that made it US GOVERNMENT POLICY

and Yoo needs to die of old age in prison. And not just him...

[UTUSN]

6. YOO: One of those minority members willing to BE, & work with, wingnuts n/t

[spanone]

7. an administration with absolutely no accountability whatsoever...for anyone for anything

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Nobody's asking for perfect, just "non-monstrous". nt

[frylock]

10. pobody's nerfect..

fuckin jackoff.

[bdamomma]

11. oh, these guys are just thugs, no humanity whatsoever.

[walldude]

12. So these are "errors"?

Well I'm glad he cleared that up.

[struggle4progress]

13. Maybe our next President could have Yoo's testicles crushed to protect vital American interests