bruce, Sorry, but I don't get your point here.
You want to condemn people for NOT reporting a crime but you do not want to condemn or punish the people who actually committed the crime???? On May 9, 10:00 pm, bruce majors <[email protected]> wrote: > CIA memo cites 40 Congressional briefings on torture By Bill Van Auken > > A memo released Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair > lists 40 separate briefings beginning in September 2002 in which leading > members of Congress were briefed by the CIA on the agency’s use of “enhanced > interrogation techniques”—in plain words, torture. > > Before the revelations about the employment of such methods as waterboarding > appeared in the media, none of these legislators, including leading > Democrats, objected to or publicly protested against what amounted to war > crimes. > > Blair’s release of the document compiled by the CIA came in response to a > request from Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on > the House intelligence committee. In a letter to Hoekstra, Blair stated that > the memo “provides a straightforward account of the extent of interaction > with the Congress on this issue.” > > Much of the media attention has focused on the role of House Speaker Nancy > Pelosi (Democrat, California), who as the ranking Democrat on the House > intelligence committee was, together with Republican Representative Porter > Goss, who went on to become director of the CIA, one of the first members of > Congress to be briefed on the CIA’s torture tactics. > > The memo’s description of the briefing reads: “Briefing on EITs [enhanced > interrogation techniques] on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a > description of the particular EITs that have been employed.” > > Zubaydah, captured by the CIA in Pakistan in March 2002, was one of the > first “high-value” detainees subjected to waterboarding and other forms of > torture. While the Bush administration grossly inflated Zubaydah’s > importance, the torture methods served to extract from him a false statement > that Iraq was training Al Qaeda terrorists in the use of chemical weapons. > The Bush administration had ordered the torture in large part to obtain such > a phony confession in order to bolster its key pretext for launching its war > of aggression against Iraq. > > The memo’s description of this initial briefing of Pelosi and Goss > contradicts Pelosi’s own account. Just last month, she claimed that the CIA > “did not brief us that these enhanced interrogations were being used,” but > merely informed the two intelligence committee leaders about “an array of > interrogations that they might have at their disposal.” > > This claim is hardly credible. Why would the CIA brief two leading members > of Congress on methods of torture in the abstract? And if they had done so, > why didn’t Pelosi ask them whether these “techniques” were in fact being > used on detainees captured on the “global war on terrorism”? > > Other briefings listed in the memo included one in February 2003 in which > Republican Senator Pat Roberts and Democratic Senator John Rockefeller had > the EITs “described in considerable detail,” including “how the water board > was used.” > > In briefings held in September 2003, Roberts and Rockefeller, as well as > Republican Congressman Goss and Pelosi’s successor on the House intelligence > panel, California Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harmon, were given slide > shows in which “non-enhanced and enhanced interrogation techniques were > named, described and compared on the same slide.” > > Subsequent briefings, which included Senator Harry Reid, now the Democratic > Senate Majority Leader, and the other Democratic members of the Senate > Select Committee on Intelligence—Senators Carl Levin, Dianne Feinstein, Evan > Bayh, Barbara Mikulski and Russ Feingold—heard presentations on > “waterboarding, diet manipulation, nudity, walling and stomach slap.” > > The content of the memo is hardly a revelation. In December 2007, the > *Washington > Post* reported that in 2002 briefings Pelosi and three other members of > Congress were “given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites > and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to make prisoners talk,” > including waterboarding. The *Post *added that while leading Democrats > subsequently denounced waterboarding as torture, “on that day, no objections > were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to > push harder.” > > The patent aim of the congressional Republicans in requesting the public > release of the record of these briefings is to intimidate Democrats into > dropping the issue of torture, by threatening to focus public attention on > Democratic complicity in the implementation of the criminal methods > introduced under the Bush administration. > > The issue has divided Washington since President Barack Obama last month > released Justice Department memos authorizing the use of these illegal > methods, while simultaneously announcing a blanket amnesty for those in the > CIA who carried them out. > > Obama has since informed Democratic leaders in Congress that he is opposed > to any independent investigation of the torture carried out under the Bush > administration, while publicly stating that the matter is in the hands of > his Attorney General Eric Holder. The administration and the majority of the > Democratic leadership in Congress have also deferred to an inquiry being > conducted by the Senate intelligence committee, which will not be completed > until the end of the year. The probe will be conducted behind closed doors, > and it is uncertain how much of its findings will be made public. > > In an appearance on Capitol Hill Thursday, Attorney General Holder dealt > with the issue of the torture memos. His testimony before the Senate > Appropriations Committee came just a day after the *New York Times* reported > that a draft report issued by the Justice Department’s Office of > Professional Responsibility had concluded that the government attorneys who > wrote memos declaring specific methods of torture to be legal were guilty > only of poor judgment and should not be criminally prosecuted. Holder, > however, claimed not to have read the document. > > Republican Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of > Alabama pointedly questioned Holder about the implications for the Democrats > themselves of any serious investigation into the question of torture. > > “What about members of Congress who were informed of them or knew about them > or approved them or encouraged them, wouldn’t they also be appropriate parts > of such an investigation?” asked Alexander. > > Holder responded: “Our desire is not to do anything that would be perceived > as political, as partisan. We do want to look forward to the extent that we > can do that.” He added, however, that where “we see violations of those > laws, we’ll take the appropriate actions.” > > Shelby turned to the CIA’s rendition program, in which suspects are > kidnapped off the street and transported to secret prisons abroad for > interrogation and torture. > > “Didn’t that happen during the Clinton administration?” he asked. Holder > acknowledged that rendition had been employed under the former Democratic > president. > > “How many did you approve?” he continued, referring to Holder’s role at the > Clinton Justice Department. Holder responded that he would have to consult > his records. > > The Obama administration has specifically defended rendition as a practice > that the CIA will continue using, effectively “disappearing” those who it > deems a threat to the US government, transporting them to foreign prisons to > be held indefinitely, denied the right to either be charged with a crime and > placed on trial or be released. > > The Republican campaign is based on the well-founded charge that the > Democrats were complicit in the introduction of torture as a policy of the > US government and therefore are in no position to hold former officials of > the Bush administration accountable. > > The media has largely adopted this standpoint, casting the issue as one > based primarily on partisan politics. As the *New York Times* put it, the > Republicans are “mounting an aggressive pushback on several fronts.” > > The *Washington Post* commented: “The issue of what Pelosi knew and when she > knew it has become a tussle on Capitol Hill. Republicans have accused her of > knowing for years about the interrogation techniques CIA agents were using > and of objecting only when the tactics became public and antiwar activists > protested.” > > The Democrats’ complicity in the systematic use of torture by the US > government does not make the practice any less criminal. It is merely shows > that the entire political establishment—Congress, both major parties, the > mass media and the corporate and financial elite—is implicated in the crimes > of aggressive war and torture and the attacks on democratic rights that > developed under the Bush administration. > > No doubt the Democrats’ complicity in torture and other crimes is a major > factor in the reluctance of the Obama administration and the congressional > leadership to pursue any serious investigation, much less prosecution, of > those responsible. > > However, this is not merely a matter of what Pelosi and others did and > didn’t do in briefings held over the last seven years. The Obama > administration is itself dependent upon a national security apparatus that > has changed little in terms of its personnel since the Bush administration. > The Democrats fear any confrontation with these elements, and their > cowardice in relation to the CIA and the military has strengthened the > Republican right, which has launched a political offensive in the name of > national security. > > Moreover, just as the Obama administration is continuing the aggressive wars > launched by the Bush administration—and escalating the one in Afghanistan—it > has no intention of relinquishing the extraordinary powers that the Bush > administration arrogated to itself under the pretext of fighting terrorism. > Thus, it has gone into court repeatedly to quash legal challenges to > policies ranging from domestic spying to extraordinary rendition and > torture. > > The further exposure of the Democrats’ complicity in torture and other > crimes of the Bush administration make it clear that they and the Obama > administration have no intention of carrying out a serious attempt to hold > those responsible for these crimes accountable, and that any investigation > they do initiate will be a whitewash. > > ____________________________________________________________ > The difference is clear. 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