CIA waterboarded 2 suspects 266 times

by praetorian guards do funderland - on gas and bubbly water Tue Apr 21, 2009 15:10

Obama as reported yesterday by the BBC found time in his busy schedule, (this is only his 92nd day in office), to visit Virginia Langley, trying to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice.

["...Mr. Obama said it was time to admit “mistakes” and “move forward.” But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president’s top aides and many critics say crossed the line into torture. And while Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. officers for acting on legal advice, on Monday aides did not rule out legal sanctions for the Bush lawyers who developed the legal basis for the use of the techniques..."]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/politics/21intel.h...=1&hp

one could muse that the kernal of this peptalk is exactly the same as that given to Latin America : "mistakes made : move along"

Dick Cheney whose idea both Gitmo and legalising Torture was, has started complaining bitterly from the sidelines

["...Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney has urged the CIA to release memos which he says show harsh interrogation techniques such as water-boarding work. Mr Cheney said that the decision to publish the memos was a mistake. And it was misleading, he said, because the documents did not include those demonstrating that harsh interrogation delivered intelligence "success". "One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is that they put out the legal memos... but they didn't put out the memos that show the success of the effort," Mr Cheney told Fox News. "There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified. I formally ask that they be declassified now.".......]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8009571.stm

by Fred Johnston Tue Apr 21, 2009 18:09

Cheney has now publicly stated that he knew of and approved torture; so why isn't he indicted, along with Rumsfeld? The latter cannot leave the US, because of fears he will be served with warrants in Europe. Once again the US harbours war-criminals. The Irish government will make disapproving noises but won't do anything, of course: why can't a campaign be started to bring these people to the Hague? If it could be done for Pinochet . . . . If Rumsfeld or Cheney were, let's say, Iranians or members of Hamas, the international outcry would be deafening. (If they were Israelis they would also get away with it, it must be said.) Obama has softened his position on so many things so often it was only natural he would soften his, eh, approach to the CIA's use of torture by their officers. (Compare this, incidentally, with the Israeli judiciary's dismissal of an investigation into war crimes in Gaza committed by their military.) The two most dangerous countries on the planet, both nuclear states, both with scant regard for human rights - Hillary Clinton's remark to the Chinese on her visit there that trade took precedence over human rights would have made Stalin blush - have bullied and pilloried Europe into doing their bidding. Hypocrisy is standard behaviour: it was interesting to note the stage-managed texture of the 'demonstration' walk-out by European representatives, signalled even before Iran spoke by a chap with a wig shouting him down. One cannot say that Israel, an apartheid state, is an apartheid state, for fear of wounding sensibilities. But back to the point - let's get Cheney and Rummy to the Hague and then we can work on bringing some Israeli military heads before the court too.