Torture is still happening, says Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez

[kpete]

Retired General: "We Have to Accept the Fact That We Did Torture People"

Torture is still happening, says Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez of black sites around the world that the Obama administration has yet to close down. Sanchez was the highest-ranking Latino in the U.S. Army when he retired in 2006, after having been commander of ground forces in Iraq during a critical period of the war--and during the period when abuses at Abu Ghraib occurred. Since his retirement, he has called for a truth commission to investigate torture, and, he says, "Americans need to face up to" what happened there.

Lt. General Sanchez joins Laura in studio to discuss the ongoing debates over torture, the serious questions facing military officers in the field, and the unwillingness of Obama to look back over the conduct of the Iraq war. He was in New York to be a panelist at the Culture Project's "Blueprint for Accountability," and we bring you video from that event featuring Mariska Hargitay.

VIDEO:
http://www.truthout.org/retired-general-we-have-accept-fact-that-we-did-torture-people-video60283

...........

Today, The New York Times Editorial Page said this:

The report from the physicians’ group does not prove its case beyond doubt -- how could it when so much is still hidden? -- but it rightly calls on the White House and Congress to investigate the potentially illegal human experimentation and whether those who authorized or conducted it should be punished. Those are just two of the many unresolved issues from the Bush administration that President Obama and Congressional leaders have swept under the carpet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/opinion/08tue1.html?ref=opinion

[Jumping John]

1. Who Cares? n/t

[MadHound]

2. Actually lots of people,

After all, this country does have something of a reputation to uphold. Not to mention the fact that this gives moral license to our enemies to torture our soldiers that they've captured.

[Jumping John]

4. You mean we once had a reputation dear enough to uphold. n/t

[MadHound]

6. Yeah, actually we did,

Yes, it has deteriorated over the fifty years, but we could still clean it up. Of course continued ongoing torture is not a step in the right direction.

[Lerkfish]

8. I sure the hell do.

[walldude]

11. I do.

That not enough for you? Tough shit.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Without criminal investigation -where it's clearly needed- you have to assume the crime is ongoing.

Vague mumbled assurances to the contrary notwithstanding.

oh that? that's all in the past. Think no more of it Dear Citizens, it's not a problem anymore...

[Ganja Ninja]

5. This government is hopelessly infested with Bush holdovers.

I blame Obama for not taking charge, not getting us out of the wars, not setting up a partisan cabinet with people he could trust and not cleaning house in general.

[dgibby]

7. I've come to the sad conclusion they're right where Obama wants them. n/t

[no limit]

9. I asked Obama cheerleaders a few months back what they would say if Obama still tortured

I was called a loon but never got an answer. So come on guys, let's hear the excuses now that we know it's still happening.

[derby378]

10. You can't ask that, you'll rock the boat!

We already have a script approved and finalized! Finalized, I tell ya!

[EFerrari]

16. The black site at Bagram was confirmed by the Red Cross in April:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8161580

[ieoeja]

12. Torture has always happened.

I know a guy who claims to have done it. But even he was horrified that they actually wanted to make it legal.

[undeterred]

13. They want to make it legal and commonplace.

They'll start out with terrorists and move on to everybody else whose rights no longer matter.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. We got a winnah

These policies will soon move on to citizens. That's what always happens.

Right now we MIGHT still be able to stop that. But I doubt it. So until this happens to Joe six pack, he won't wake up, and then it will be too late.

[bvar22]

15. This can NOT be true.

Obama "ended torture".
Its right there at the top of that "List of Accomplishments" that get cut & pasted at DU all the time.
Its right under the one that that says, Ordered the closing of GITMO within the first year.


So, you see, this can NOT be true.

[Vattel]

18. How we define "torture" is the crucial question

Obama did officially end waterboarding and certain other "harsh interrogsation techniques." Did he end torture? That depends on how you define torture. In my book, extended solitary confinement--something that's done in ordinary prisons in the US--is torture. But I have the silly view that driving someone insane, whcih extended solitary confinement often does, is torture.

[Vattel]

17. The OP is complete bullshit

Sanchez did not say that torture was still happening in blacksites.

[chill_wind]

19. Andy Worthington, Scott Horton, others: What Is Obama Doing At Bagram? Torture and Appendix M.

What Is Obama Doing At Bagram?(Part One): Torture And The “Black Prison” (Andy Worthington 6/4)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x540433#top



The Torture Wing of the Republican Party must be feeling very smug and vindicated as more and more time goes by.

[Kolesar]

20. "sleep deprivation and isolation" -- The moment behooves you to prove Obama approved torture

There is a big difference between sleep deprivation and waterboarding (or other bush tactics).

[chill_wind]

23. Appendix M loophole is considered by many Human Rights authorities to be a violation of Geneva

and would still likely violate the War Crimes Act.

I'm not going to parse the notion of "bad" torture and the RW defense of not such "bad" torture with you or anyone.

http://www.amnesty.org.au/hrs/comments/20575/

[unhappycamper]

21. Sanchez was the commander in Iraq when Geoffrey Miller 'gitmoized' Abu Gharib.

He did nothing to stop it.

Pelosi and the Obama regime took torture investigations 'off the table'. I guess they thought they could disappear it.

[Vattel]

22. Please withdraw your claim that Sanchez said that torture

was still going on, or else substantiate it.