Bush Boasts about Waterboarding
by Ray McGovern

Former President George W. Bush continues to be beyond shame. Those favored with an advance copy of his memoir, Decision Points, say it paints a picture of a totally unapologetic Bush bragging, for example, about authorizing the CIA to waterboard 9/11 “mastermind,” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

According to newspaper accounts of the memoir, Bush says he was asked by the CIA for permission to subject KSM to the technique that creates the sensation of imminent drowning. His response was: "Damn right."

For such a frank admission of high-level criminality, we can say, with ample justification, Shame on Bush. But that shame also sticks like Saran wrap to the rest of us – and especially to the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM), which has soft-pedaled the significance of Bush’s confession, and to his make-nice successor, Barack Obama, who has refused to demand any accountability.

However, if we are still a democracy, we are all complicit.

I don’t much care if this sounds judgmental. You see, I was alive during World War II when there was torture galore; then it was considered a grave offense. The Nuremberg Tribunals tried and convicted Germany’s leaders for torture and other war crimes. In the war’s aftermath, there were a very few serious people arguing that the world should simply look forward, not backwards. The vast majority knew there had to be a reckoning, even amid the many serious crises that were facing a war-ravaged world.

The chief U.S. prosecutor at Nuremberg, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, insisted that the civilized world had no choice but to demand justice. He looked the Nazi leaders straight in the eye and told the court:

“No charity can disguise the fact that the forces which these defendants represent … are the darkest and most sinister force in society,” Jackson said. “By their fruits we best know them. Their acts have bathed the world in blood and set civilization back a century. They have subjected their European neighbors to every outrage and torture. …

“The real complaining party at your bar is civilization. … Civilization asks whether law is so laggard as to be utterly helpless to deal with crimes of this magnitude by criminals of this order of importance.”

The prescient Jackson foresaw a time when not just the vanquished Nazis, but also America’s own leaders might deserve to be put in the dock:

“But the ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars … is to make statesmen responsible to law. And let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve any useful purpose it must condemn, aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment.”


http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/08-3

Waterboarding wasn't torture, it's enhanced interrogation.

Last but hardly least, shame on Bush’s timid successor. Every time I hear that Obama is a former professor of Constitutional law I find myself muttering, “And that would be the constitution of which country?” The President’s soaring rhetoric falls flat fast the moment you stop to ponder how he has betrayed his oath to see to it that the laws are faithfully executed.



That would include Immigration Law as well.


Obama & Biden To Protect Bush Administration Criminals

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Nuremberg trials also judged “a waste of time”

Obama & Biden To Protect Bush Administration Criminals 221208top

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, December 22, 2008

It’s par for the course for Obama and Biden, the men who promised “change” but in every step of their preparations for assuming office have pursued nothing but continuity, to acknowledge that they will protect criminals in the Bush administration from prosecution for authorizing torture, a complete violation of both the U.S. constitution and the Geneva Conventions.

When asked by ABC host George Stephanopoulos if top level Bush administration officials would be prosecuted for mandating prisoner abuse, Biden said that he and Obama would be “focusing on the future,” adding “I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”

Such rhetoric goes to the very heart of the gigantic con job the “Obama change” hoax has wrought upon millions of befuddled Americans who naively presumed that voting for the lesser of two evils would result in anything other than more evil.

Thank you for reminding us how negligent oBoreme is in his duties of upholding Constitutional Laws.

Part 1, Article 1 and the US Reservations of the UN Convention Against Torture:

The term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.


The US Reservations for the UN Convention Against Torture: In order to constitute torture, an act must be specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering and that mental pain or suffering refers to prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from (1) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (2) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (3) the threat of imminent death; or (4) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality.


Article 32 of the Fourth Geneva Convention any measure of such a character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands. This prohibition applies not only to murder, torture, corporal punishments, mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any other measures of brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.


Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health

http://www.waterboarding.org/torture_definition

18 United States Code Title 18, §2340(2)
“torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control

(2)“severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—

(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;

(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;

(C) the threat of imminent death; or

(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;



92 tapes were destroyed by the CIA in November 2005 after a report by Inspector General John L. Helgerson’s office determined that they depicted "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as defined by the international Convention Against Torture".
http://www.waterboarding.org/torture_definition

Tell it to oBlowme. He's the one who said,"Let it go. It's in th' past."

Here ya go, go here and you can read first hand from the ICRC all about where terrorists fall in regards to Geneva convention.

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/%28PSearch%29?SearchView&Query=terrorists&searchWv=1&searchFuzzy=1&SearchOrder=1&SearchMax=0&style=Custo_results_search2

I like this thread.
Hate to see it die so soon.

Is someone fighting a foreign invader realy a terrorist?

AQ and the Taliban arn't fighting enemy invaders. It was determined well in advanced that they wern't covered by thr Geniva Convention. They were classified as terrorists by the UN, Hague, NATo and most countries in the world.

Oh and we only "Invaded" after we were cowardly attacked over a period of years on non-military targets.

President Bush did whatever it took to keep this country safe after a couple of the worst terrorist attacks in the history of the world.

God Bless America and God Bless President Bush.

Screw those terrorist and screw those who are defending them!

If I was president water boarding wouldn't be outlawed it would be mandatory when extracting information.I'm glad Bush has the balls to stand by what he did and in his recent interviews said he would do it again.

I feel no pity for terrorist.They are lower than dirt and have no value.Dogs and pigs are better then they are.Any justice fair or unfair,and punishment fair or unfair is just fine with me.

No big suprise here at all. To many Rambo and dirty Harry Movies for sure. I am just wondering if you know how many tortured terrorists were actualy found guilty? Are you prepared to be tortured for being mistaken as a terrorist? Anyhow I bet after five minuts of waterboarding I would admit to being a terrorist. Its one sympton of our wretched country that we have cheerleaders for torture and human rights abuses. I am sure the WW2 vets would be ashamed to see what has become of this country and its humanity.

If you really care about Bush and justice, tell it to who can do something about it.

However, he already said he won't.

I know and that is why the left abandonded and is abandining him. WHen the dems took the house and senate last election and Pelosi took impeachment off the table I knew we were screwed. Hey we keep falling for it over and over again, from the right and left. I do support the dems though if I have to choose between the two. I hope I live long enough to see a third party that isnt sold out.

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Email Comments 4,637 WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday joined a growing chorus in the human rights community calling for a special prosecutor to investigate whether former president George W. Bush violated federal statutes prohibiting torture.

In his new memoir and ensuing book tour, Bush has repeatedly admitted that he directly authorized the waterboarding of three terror suspects. Use of the waterboard, which creates the sensation of drowning, has been an iconic and almost universally condemned form of torture since the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

Except for a brief period during which a handful of Bush administration lawyers insisted that the exigencies of interrogating terror suspects justified its use, waterboarding has always been considered illegal by the Justice Department. It is also a clear violation of international torture
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/calls-for-criminal-invest_n_782354.html


Bring em on

Not

Im pretty sure they feel the same way about you and find the same justifications to do the horrible things they have done and will continue to do...

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth...Im hoping that when the war moungerers are all finally blind and toothless the rest of us can get to the business of creating a peaceful world.

Perhaps if they had 'waterboarded' a few people prior to 9/11 we would not be short a few thousand american dreams.

So then which is worse...

Waterboarding...

Or using planes as weapons against people that are just making a living?

It has been established that the Geniva Convention doesn't cover AQ or the Taliban. They attack non military targets, don't wear a uniform, strap bombs on women and children, torture captured alllied forces, hijack airplanes, release captor videos and beheading videos. All those are violations of the Geniva Convention.

We are fighting a war with heartless animals anf desperate times require desperate measures.

The troops operated under the command of an unnamed US major, who had been involved in the rape of an Iraqi female, showed one such document posted on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

The incident took place after the victim, the brother of the raped female, reportedly killed a military official in reprisal for the indecent assault.

To enable the May incident in the city of Haditha of the western Iraq province of Al Anbar, the major said he was undertaking the transfer of two prisoners, including the victim.

WikiLeaks has released around 400,000 documents on the 2003-present US-led invasion of Iraq. The founder of the website, Julian Assange, has hailed the disclosure as one "about the truth" behind the war.

The site has also exposed documents on the similar US-led war in Afghanistan and is expected to disclose additional related details.

The following is the body of the original document .

___ DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EVENT: ON 25MAY09, MAJOR ___ (SWAT CDR) AND COL (___) TOLD -___ LEADERSHIP THAT THEY WERE GOING TO DELIVER TWO DETAINEES TO ___ IN THE NORTH BECAUSE THERE WAS MORE INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE ON THE TWO DETAINEES IN ___ THAN IN HADITHAH. WHILE ___ NORTH, MAJ ___ HIS CONVOY TO PULL OVER AND TRANSFER THE TWO DETAINEES TO HIS UNCLE AND FOUR BROTHERS. ACCORDING TO COL , ___ IP FOUND ONE OF THE DETAINEES DECAPITATED AND THE OTHER WAS RELEASED BY MAJ ' ___ MEMBERS. MAJ ___ CURRENTLY IN IP CUSTODY.
OVER A YEAR AGO MAJ ___ RELIEVED AS HADITHAH SWAT CDR DUE TO HIS ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT IN THE RAPING OF A FEMALE LOCAL NATIONAL. THE BEHEADED DETAINEE IS REPORTED TO BE THE BROTHER OF THE RAPED FEMALE WHO ALLEGEDLY KILLED MAJ ' ___ IN RETALIATION FOR THE RAPING OF HIS ___.

HN/MMA
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'US-led soldier raped Iraqi girl'
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