Defending Bush is defending the indefensible

[ProSense]

War crimes!

Yesterday a Canadian commission of inquiry released a 1,204-page report relating to the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian wireless technology consultant, who was snatched by U.S. agents at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City and transported to Syria, where, for ten months, he was kept in a six-foot by three-foot cell, before being transferred to a collective cell. Under torture, he confessed to being an Islamist extremist who attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. In reality, not only was Arar not an Islamist terrorist, but he had never even been to Afghanistan. He was ultimately released without charge and the Canadian commission affirmed that he was completely innocent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wallechinsky/torture-fails-again_b_29757.html

Lies!

September 21, 2006

Justice Dept. Amends Remark on Torture Case

By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — In an embarrassing turnabout, the Department of Justice backed away Wednesday from a denial by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales of responsibility for the treatment of a Canadian who was seized by American authorities in 2002. The man was deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and beaten.

Asked at a news conference on Tuesday about a Canadian commission’s finding that the man, Maher Arar, was wrongly sent to Syria and tortured there, Mr. Gonzales replied, “Well, we were not responsible for his removal to Syria.” He added, “I’m not aware that he was tortured.”

The attorney general’s comments caused puzzlement because they followed front-page news articles of the findings of the Canadian commission. It reported that based on inaccurate information from Canada about Mr. Arar’s supposed terrorist ties, American officials ordered him taken to Syria, an action documented in public records.

On Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Gonzales had intended to make only a narrow point: that deportations are now handled by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice.

The spokesman, Charles Miller, said the attorney general forgot that at the time of Mr. Arar’s deportation, such matters were still handled by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was part of the Department of Justice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/world/americas/21canada.html?ex=1316491200&en=c41819e94cf561a8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Bush in jeopardy? Yes. The issue is torture, which George W. Bush authorized in a Feb. 7, 2002, memorandum in contravention both of the Geneva Accords and 18 U.S. Code 2441—the War Crimes Act that incorporates the Geneva provisions into the federal criminal code which was approved by a Republican-led Congress in 1996. Heeding the advice of Vice President Dick Cheney’s counsel, David Addington, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, the president officially opened the door to torture in that memorandum. His remarks yesterday reflect the determination of Cheney and Bush to keep that door open and accuse those who would close it of being "soft on terrorists."

The administration released that damning memorandum in the spring of 2004 after the photos of torture at Abu Graib were published. It provided the basis for talking points that the president wanted “humane” treatment for captured al-Qaida and Taliban individuals. And—surprise, surprise— mainstream journalists like those of The New York Times swallowed the bait, clinging safely to the talking points and missing altogether Bush’s remarkable claim that “military necessity” trumps humane treatment. That assertion, over the president’s signature, provided the gaping loophole through which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then-CIA Director George Tenet drove the Mack truck of officially-sanctioned torture.

more...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/07/the_torturers_apprentice.php

US decision on secret prisoners forced by CIA: report

13 minutes ago

LONDON (AFP) - The US administration's admission of the existence of secret CIA prisons for terror suspects was partly prompted by the refusal of CIA interrogators to carry our further interrogations, a paper reported.

The Bush administration emptied its secret prisons, run by the Central Intelligence Agency and declared against international law by the European Union, and transferred at least 14 terror suspects to the military-run detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Citing former CIA officials and people involved in the programme, the The Financial Times said the interrogators refused to continue their work until the legal situation regarding the secret prisons was clarified because they feared being prosecuted for using illegal interrogation techniques.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060920/pl_afp/usattacksciaprisoners_060920234637

Now Mr. Bush is trying - after the fact - to establish a legal foundation for a secret CIA program that has operated since 2002. The problem is that some of the wording in Common Article 3 leaves Americans who participated in the interrogations vulnerable to war-crimes charges.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p03s03-uspo.html

World condemnation!

U.N. rights envoys condemn Bush plan on interrogation

By Stephanie Nebehay
16 minutes ago

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators said on Thursday that legislation proposed by President Bush for tough interrogations of foreign terrorism suspects would breach the Geneva Conventions.

In a statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the five independent envoys also said Washington's admission of secret detention centers abroad pointed to "very serious human rights violations in relation to the hunt for alleged terrorists."

They again called for the closure of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects are being held, alleging continued violations of international law on torture and arbitrary detention.

Despite U.S. declarations of intent to shut Guantanamo, Washington had done nothing yet and was even planning to open a new cell bloc at the end of this month, they said.

"We call on the government to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and, until that time, to refrain from any practice amounting to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," they said.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060921/ts_nm/rights_un_usa_dc_1

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Unbelievable, isn't it?

How anyone can continue to make excuses for these criminals is beyond me.

[yellowcanine]

2. No accountability. Whatsoever.

On Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Gonzales had intended to make only a narrow point: that deportations are now handled by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice.

The spokesman, Charles Miller, said the attorney general forgot that at the time of Mr. Arar’s deportation, such matters were still handled by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was part of the Department of Justice.

So when Gonzales said, “Well, we were not responsible for his removal to Syria.” He added, “I’m not aware that he was tortured.”

He was only speaking for the Justice Dept - not the U.S.??? And of course he was wrong about that anyway as it was the Justice Dept that deported him.

And what exactly does "I'm not aware......" mean? I didn't actually see him being tortured, therefore I'm not aware - or I have heard the reports but I don't know them to be true? Either way it has to be a lie in that he meant to decieve. Surely Gonzales was briefed on this case and the briefing would have included the details about what happened in Syria. There is absolutely no way he didn't know.

[underpants]

3. This is it.

This is the case. It can't be anymore cut and dry, unless and Executive Order can do this that being overwrite a ratified treaty. If it can well that is why they have legal "teams" if not that's it-broke the law. Start the questioning.

[progressisvirtue]

4. I mean... what do you say to that?

Besides... our country is fuuuucked up. Were TORTURING people now? When did that happen? This isnt the America I read about in my history book, =/