ACLU: News Report Reveals White House Approved Torture Techniques

[marmar]

News Report Reveals White House Approved Torture Techniques (4/10/2008)

ACLU Calls On Congress to Appoint Special Counsel to Investigate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [phone] or [e-mail]

WASHINGTON DC – ABC News reported that in dozens of top-secret White House meetings, the most senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, discussed and approved specific torture techniques for use on detainees. According to this report, Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft sanctioned these tactics. In light of this revelation, the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to appoint a special counsel to investigate these charges.

Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office Caroline Fredrickson said, "If current and former administration officials broke the law, they should be prosecuted for criminal acts. No one is above the law. With each new revelation, it is beginning to look like the torture operation was managed and directed out of the White House. This is what we suspected all along. Congress must get to the bottom of these reports."

ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Christopher Anders said that it is time for the administration to stop blaming the front line interrogators alone for tactics it had approved: "After years of the administration pointing the finger at what it said were a few interrogators, if this story is correct, it instead looks more like there were direct orders for specific acts of torture straight from the White House. These are the tools of dictators, not leaders of a democracy."

According to the ABC story, then-Attorney General Ashcroft was troubled by the discussions, asking aloud after one meeting: "Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly."

Fredrickson added, "Kudos to ABC News for being the first to report this important story."

Link to the ABC News story:
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4583256&page=1

Link to ACLU letter calling for a special counsel:
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/lettertocongress_2007_1213.pdf

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. k&r - let's hope this thing has some legs...

Between the Vanity Fair article, the Yoo memo being released, and now the ABC story, it's been quite a week for exposing the war crimes of this administration...but will anything happen? I have my doubts that congress will act on this...they might hold hearings at the most; I would be shocked if an independent prosecutor was appointed...

[electropop]

6. But impeachment's off the table.

No matter how strong the evidence, no matter how heinous the crimes, Bush will never face justice. He's obviously gotten some powerful stuff from his wiretaps on Congress.

[Mountainman]

2. So call them all to testify and let's see who shows up. "Be gone you have no power here"

[bdamomma]

3. now how much evidence do they need that we are dealing

with criminals. I want to see justice served to Cheney and the rest of them, they are WAR CRIMINALS.

[Chadwick3673]

5. this may be nitpicking...

but was a declaration of war ever made by Congress? If not, how can we push "war crimes?"

[EFerrari]

4. We know, already. But good for the ACLU for sticking with it.

:kick:

[Lugnut]

7. K&R n/t

[Disturbed]

8. Since War was not legally declared against Iraq or Afghanistan

the crimes of Busholini & his Junta cannot legally be deemed as "War Crimes".

They can be deemed as Crimes Against Humanity,can't they?

[horseshoecrab]

9. Kicked and Recommended

It looks like the idea of torture orders coming right from the top is entering the public square!


:kick: :kick: :kick:


horseshoecrab

[pleah]

10. K&R

If more and more people keep pushing, maybe, just maybe, our leaders will actually do something.:shrug:

[FreepFryer]

11. Oh, and here's Bush's signed Nat. Sec. Action memo dismissing Geneva protection for Taliban/Qaeda

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB127/02.02.07.pdf

Bush can't avoid accountability forever, even if he leaves the country to go to Paraguay.

Remember the Eichmann capture?

Handy link to today's discussion about this memo on Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/10/95033/2181/104/493151

[Solly Mack]

12. Bush Inc are doing what they have been allowed to get away with

and judging from the continued lack of accountability, they'll keep doing it.


Kudos to the ACLU, as usual.

[FreepFryer]

13. 'Constitutional Hardball' - gaining Presidential power by violating every boundary at once. (n/t)

[bluesmail]

14. Don't let up on them, keep pressing.

They're doing the same thing to Congress, keeping them going in circles. Everybody must keep the legal pressure on. All must to save this country.