Rachel Maddow: Mark Danner: Red Cross Report Confirms Torture at CIA Black Sites
Rachel Maddow talks to Mark Danner who recently published an article in The New York Review of Books US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites.
Maddow: One of the remarkable things about the similarities between the different prisoner's descriptions is not just that it implies that they couldn't have all come up with the same story. It also implies that this was a very organized situation. This is not rogue CIA officers taking the gloves off and deciding what to do in the moment. What do you know? What do you believe we know about the level of coordination between officials at these black sites and officials in Washington who might have pursued this as a matter of policy?
Danner: Well we know first of all that the interrogators were in constant touch with their superiors at CIA headquarters in Langley, VA. In fact there is one of the interrogators of Abu Zubaydah Mr. John Kiriakou gave an interview to ABC News that is, you can find on the Internet in which he detailed this rather extensively. I quote from this report in which Mr. Kiriakou essentially says every time we had to use a new procedure, if we had to him him, slap him, whatever you would have to cable headquarters and get approval from the Deputy Director of Operations which is a very high position in the CIA.
Meanwhile the Director of Central Intelligence at the time, this was the spring and summer of 2002 in the case of Abu Zubaydah, was George Tenet who was traveling across the river every day to principles meetings at the White House. The principles committee includes the National Security Adviser, then Condoleeza Rice, the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of State Colin Powell, the then Attorney General John Ashcroft, the highest law enforcement official in the United States of course. All of whom were briefed on this day by day. Not least because George Tenet apparently was worried that he would get stuck with this.
would have been entertainment...George W. Bush being arrested be Canadian Mounties for war crimes. Maybe I'll get to see Dick and George in orange jumpsuits and shackles yet? Canadians hate Chimpy just as much if not more than his own countrymen.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
but they arrested some protesters instead. Pathetic.
Rummy's office was in Langley, wasn't it? I'm sure those high level phone calls went straight to him. The vivid descriptions of torture every day must have really excited him.
May the investigations and prosecutions begin! It's way past time to get them started.
Rachel Maddow is excellent as always. Thanks, Heather.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91PCxlTKfII
Har, freakin' har.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Hotel Alberta? Good one!
I love Dudley. That was right freaking hilarious!
Investigate, prosecute, and punish all war crimes.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
second that!!!
Let's call it to a vote!!!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Ditto. Here Here!
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
Lets do this!
Why doesn't Gen. Powell come clean?
Interesting thing about the Red Cross is that it was the sign of the Crusades, and was a Red Cross on a white mantle over the chain mail.
And of course when you think of it the Rosicrucian, means the rosy cross, which could be interpreted to mean red, and perhaps as a decendent of the Knights Templar, who aided the Crusaders.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
you guys need to read wilkerson's brutal repudiation afer hearing cheney's interview, some tastey snippets;
powel and wilkerson were FURIOUS with cheney after that interview and he needed to slam cheney back
these highlights are INCREDIBLE;
These are evil people and we are not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” I have to agree but the other way around. Cheney and his like are the evil people and we certainly are not going to prevail in the struggle with radical religion if we listen to people as he
BRUTAL!
there’s more;
. Osama bin Laden and his brain trust, Aman al-Zawahiri, are counting on us to produce the bad. With people such as Cheney assisting them, they are far more likely to succeed.
me LUBS me some wilkerson
, there's more discussion over at
theoxdown diary
The bell is tolling for thee, George W Bush, and it’s getting louder.
bush is trying to buy us off him by complimenting obama.
he actually said something to the affect;
"I wanted my guy to win but I really think obama is good for the country"
something along that order...I was sort of pissed cause he is now making it harder for obama to prosecute him
I would not mind one bit if obama went straight to cheney and gave obama immunity for his testimony againts the moron vice president
by the way, cheney is probably a bigger moron then bush, he failed out of school and failed at everything but making war
read rolling stones article on cheney to see all the failure
he is not the puppet master, the puppet masters are the koch brothers, (a must read)
no bodys going to prison, nobodys going to face prosicution, no bodys investigating them, no bodys willing to hold them accountable!
Nobody because nobody is pressing...
... That's where "WE THE PEOPLE" come in, NO?
Or, is it hands off so as to ensure no body does a damn thing?
... Just asking.
So, let's turn your proposition on it's head, if you will. Who should WE THE PEOPLE hold accountable should no body find the will to prosecute? Ourselves?
However should WE THE PEOPLE find the will to hold others accountable(why for in God's green earth is Pelosi re-electable is beyond me), maybe the people capable of pressing investigations will find the will withing themselves and then maybe that will can turn into a prosecutable case. And we all know, in order to convict, the case must fit... or something like that. And if the shoe fits, throw it hard!!!
That's how.
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
..is that WE are all guilty. Every American is Guilty of War Crimes! War Crimes, i.e., TORTURE, were committed, authorized by our duly
electedappointed dictator and despots. We have no recourse but to PROSECUTE; that will be the only remedy to our GUILT. Of course, nothing even close to that will ever happen. I hope I'm wrong but I will feel BETRAYED by the Obama Administration and everyone of my Representatives if they don't order/insist/demand a special prosecutor be appointed to go after these criminals. The wheels of progress turn slowly but NOW that the RED CROSS has deemed our actions as Torture, we have no restrictions, no questions, nothing else to stand in the way. So, what are they waiting for? A gilded invitation? A fierce fight for their elected position? Kickbacks? Earmarks? A balance budget? What?Nobody will do anything and WE ARE ALL GUILTY!
Sorry for the caps!
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
I dare Bush, Cheney, and the rest of those criminals to go to Europe. Perhaps some time spent in Spain or France might be the trick. I would of course like to see Americans bring them to face charges of crimes against humanity, torture, illegal wiretapping, using the constitution as toilet paper. But I will watch and support the Eurpopeans charge them with war crimes.
The man is running around the country saying basically that the current President of the United States is a threat to national security. Talk about giving a wink-wink hint-hint to all the nuts out there.
Certainly a Grand Jury can be found somewhere to indict this man for something. With Cheney there's so much alleged criminal activity to choose from that even a mediocre prosecutor would have a field day.
Excellent points. But did not the [alleged] agent of change state that he wants to "look forward"? Perhaps defense attorneys for the common criminal can make that argument for their clients as an affirmative defense. In all likelihood the judge will say that the laws that apply to domestic criminals do not apply to war criminals like Cheney and Bush.
It's absolutely essential to look forward, but the man who doesn't regularly also look over his shoulder to see what or who's coming at him from behind is making a huge mistake.
There certainly would be a huge political hit initially for Obama to go after the Bush-Cheney criminal gang now. But I think it's best for Obama to shut them down sooner rather than later, especially before they can cause him or the country any more harm.
Why did the International Red Cross keep this secret for at least two years? It tells me that we had a chance to impeach Bush two years ago, and this story may have made the difference. I hope the right people ask more questions
Who are the right people; and what questions should they be asking?
Anyone of influence in the campaign to end torture, blacksights, and extraordinary rendition. They should be asking questions like why did you keep this secret?, what other important things are you keeping secret and why? Did anyone in the Bush administration compel, or exert undue influence to keep this out of public scrutiny.
I'm curious now, why didn't you see the same need?
I’m pragmatic by nature.
.
Pragmatists don't shrug off solutions or problems.
Pragmatists recognize THE problem and SEARCH for the solution.
Apathy is what compels people to see the problem before their eyes and do nothing
Apathy is what feeds and justifies one's ability to say, "What ever".
Much of America has these two concepts mixed up. They tend to think that because there is a problem(someone informed them of it{sic}) they can sit back and wait for others to solve the problem.
Apathy is why Americans didn't turn out in droves at their Representatives Offices, didn't pen letters, didn't discuss the media black out...
That, or, "Someone else will take of it" ... "It's their job to handle it"
I don't mean to say you're not the pragmatist, I just hope that by being the pragmatist, you can come up with some more questions to be asking, that's all.
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
Where do you get off making that sort of interpretation of me from a four word sentence? You want to preach find out the congregation before you flap your cyber gums.
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Q U E S T I O N:
When members of a former Administration of the United States of America become international wanted wo/men for WAR CRIMES and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and America refuses to prosecute...
... Where, then, is our MORAL AUTHORITY on anything?
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
..disappeared the day we invaded Iraq.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Oh..oh!!! I volunteer to be the immoral authority!!!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
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