Is the FBI Providing Material Support for Terrorists?

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http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/75832

By: youmayberight Saturday October 9, 2010 8:01 pm





Dear Minneapolis Federal Bureau of Investigation:

As you know from my previous communications to your office, I am interested in accountability for those who have violated the Federal Torture Statute, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2340-2340A. I know you agree with this goal because the FBI admirably refused to participate in the torture policy that was put in place after September 11, 2001.

However, your refusal to investigate those who may well be implicated in this policy causes me some concern. First, we notified your office when former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has basically confessed to conspiracy to torture, was in the area. Nothing happened. We then informed you that Robert Delahunty, whose memo advising that the Geneva Conventions did not apply may have been part of a conspiracy to torture, lives and works in Minneapolis. Nothing happened. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq at the time of the Abu Ghraib scandal, has said that that decision with respect to the Geneva Conventions "unleashed the hounds of hell." Finally, as you no doubt know, John Yoo, whose DOJ-renounced "torture memos" and other admissions clearly implicate him in such a conspiracy, was in town last week. Again, nothing happened.

Here is my concern. There is widespread agreement that U.S.-committed torture may well add to the ranks of terrorists. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whether we were creating more terrorists than we were killing. There is no doubt he included in the causes of that scenario the publicity about the torture we had committed. President Obama has refused to release additional photographs of Abu Ghraib atrocities because he fears it would aid the terrorists. Many experts across the political spectrum — inside and outside the government, former and current agents in the CIA and the FBI — agree that torture aids the terrorists.

Equally likely is that our refusal to investigate and prosecute those we know have committed or conspired to commit torture lends material support to foreign terrorist organizations, which is a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2339B. I encourage you to remedy this situation by instituting investigations of those who were engaged in our "systematic regime of torture," as Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba called it. Otherwise, I fear you may find yourselves subpoenaed to appear before the Grand Jury.

Sincerely,

Chuck Turchick