CIA Officers and other professionals were speaking out in 2003, so Congress and media has no excuse

[annm4peace]

I just had to repost this. I am so sick and tired of the debating of who knew and when did they know it. Thousands of people of this country were signing petitions, marching in streets dressed up in orange jumpsuits, calling their legislatures and telling them that our country was torturing, rendition, and kidnapping people and sending them to other country to be tortured. So all politicians stop lying, you knew it and only some of you spoke out (kucinich, feingold, lee, wolsley, etc)

Notice the dates in the text: Feb 2002. this was also sent to our Congress members, and these various officers where traveling the country speaking a events getting the truth out, writting articles, and books.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/vips-memorandum-re-tortur_b_193973.html



****************************************************************************************************

April 29, 2009

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

SUBJECT: Torture

This memorandum is VIPS' first attempt to inform you on a major intelligence issue, as we did your predecessor; thus, some background might be helpful. Five former CIA officers established Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) in January 2003, when we saw our profession being corrupted to justify an attack on Iraq. Since then, our numbers have grown to 70 intelligence professionals, mostly retired, who have served in virtually all U.S. civilian and military intelligence agencies.

In our first Memorandum for the President (George W. Bush), dated February 5, 2002, we provided a same-day commentary on Colin Powell's U.N. speech. We warned the president that "an invasion of Iraq would ensure overflowing recruitment centers for terrorists into the indefinite future far from eliminating the threat, it would enhance it exponentially."

We strongly urged the former president to widen the discussion on Iraq "beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic." VIPS' second pre-war Memorandum for the President was titled, "Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem"--a reference to the bogus intelligence we saw being ginned up to "justify" war.
....

it goes on and address torture. and I encourage you to read the whole article.

********

Torture: An Accumulated Evil

Torture is one of those accumulated evils. Violating domestic laws like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 is another. You were right to unceremoniously jettison former CIA director Michael Hayden, who betrayed the thousands of NSA professionals who, until he directed that domestic law could be ignored, had adhered scrupulously to the 1978 FISA law as NSA's "First Commandment"--Thou Shalt Not Eavesdrop on Americans Without a Court Warrant.

In contrast, we believe you were badly misguided in giving a prominent White House post to former CIA director George Tenet's protégé John Brennan, who has publicly defended "extraordinary rendition" in full knowledge that its purpose was torture. Brennan also had complicit knowledge of the lengths to which Tenet conspired with the Department of Justice to distort history and the law in drafting opinions that attempted to "justify" torture.

With all due respect, Mr. President, it would be another mistake for you to believe what you are hearing from the likes of Brennan and Hayden and the journalists they have fed and domesticated. Please do not be deceived into thinking that most intelligence officials, past and present, condone torture--still less that they are angry that you have put a stop to such techniques. We are referring, of course, to what President Bush called "an alternative set of procedures" involving cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that violates domestic and international law. We focus on torture in the VIPS statement that follows these introductory remarks.

** ** the letter finishes with

Finally, we firmly oppose the notion that anyone can arrogate a right to ignore the Nuremburg Tribunal's rejection of "only-following-orders" as an acceptable defense.

(signatories are listed alphabetically with former intelligence affiliations)

Gene Betit, US Army, DIA, Arlington, VA
Ray Close, National Clandestine Service (CIA), Princeton, NJ
Phil Giraldi, National Clandestine Service (CIA), Purcellville, VA
Larry Johnson, CIA & Department of State, Bethesda, MD
Pat Lang, US Army (Special Forces), DIA, Alexandria, VA
David MacMichael, National Intelligence Council, Linden, VA
Tom Maertens, Department of State, Mankato, MN
Ray McGovern, US Army, CIA, Arlington, VA
Sam Provance, US Army (Abu Ghraib), Greenville, SC
Coleen Rowley, FBI, Apple Valley, MN
Greg Theilmann, Department of State & Senate Intel. Committee staff, Arlington, VA
Ann Wright, US Army, Department of State, Honolulu, HI

********************************************************************************

These are the people who should be heading up the various departments so they can clean house. They are the ones who spoke out and who know who did what.


when this article came out I sent to friends and family.. especially those who still support bush, cheney and torture. I guess I should send again. sadly.

* please give a couple kicks so more will see the article.. thanks.

[mmonk]

1. It's what I've been saying all along.

[C_U_L8R]

2. Exactly.... WTF is with the amnesia

especially on the part of our glorious PRESS.
Come on... stop acting like water carriers and start revealing the truth.
Same goes for Congress.

It's such a freaking circlejerk and they are all playing along. ACK !!!

[bottomtheweaver]

3. Apparently the CIA was also lying to Congress and conducting torture.

Sorry, they're guilty of crimes against humanity, and Pelosi isn't.

[annm4peace]

5. head of CIA was lying..

see all the officers who were retiring and telling her and congress members the truth.

Pelosi doesn't get off the easy. The people where telling her.. they were camped out her freaking house telling her.

[bottomtheweaver]

6. The CIA was conducting torture. They are GUILTY of CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

Who the fuck cares what some retired CYA agents were saying. Yes, we all knew. Yes, it was a crime. Yes, the CIA is a crime operation, and YES, we need to review the 1947 National Security Act and get rid of the damn thing. 62 years of clandestine GOP lawlessness has been quite enough.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[annm4peace]

7. list of letters, memos, articles written by the professionals

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/vips
*** send them to Obama, Pelosi, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Jon Stewart

Dangers of a Cornered George Bush
July 27, 2007
LINK

MEMORANDUM
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: How Not to Counter Terrorism
June 18, 2007
LINK

MEMORANDUM
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters
March 29, 2007
LINK

MEMORANDUM FOR: Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Denouement on Iraq: First Stop the Bleeding
March 14, 2007
LINK

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Recommendation: Try a Circle of "Wise Women"
August 24, 2005
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Your State-of-the-Union Address
January 13, 2004
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: Colleagues in Intelligence
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: One Person Can Make a Difference
October 13, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: Colleagues in Intelligence
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Now It’s Your Turn
August 22, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Intelligence Unglued
July 14, 2003
Link

LETTER TO
The Honorable Kofi Annan, Secretary General
The United Nations
May 19, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Intelligence Fiasco
May 1, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: The Stakes in the Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction
April 24, 2003
Link

Arafat Interviewed by Christisons
March 26, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem
March 18, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: Confused Americans
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Cooking Intelligence for War
March 12, 2003
Link

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Today’s Speech By Secretary Powell At The UN
February 5, 2003
Link

[bread_and_roses]

8. Exactly

This whole debate is a sickening distraction - it was known, and any pretense it wasn't is a cowardly smoke screen. And silence is also a crime.

[Grey]

9. Thanks for reposting,

You had to be living in a cave somewhere to not know.