Retired colonel and former chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2006:
Documents and memos that have already made their way into the public domain make it clear that the Office of the Vice President bears responsibility for creating an environment conducive to the acts of torture and murder committed by U.S. forces in the war on terror.
There is, in my view, insufficient evidence to walk into an American courtroom and win a legal case (though an international courtroom for war crimes might feel differently). But there is enough evidence for a soldier of long service -- someone like me with 31 years in the Army -- to know that what started with John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes at the Pentagon, and several others, all under the watchful and willing eye of the Vice President, went down through the Secretary of Defense to the commanders in the field, and created two separate pressures that resulted in the violation of longstanding practice and law.
These two pressures were, on the one hand, the understandable pressure to produce intelligence as rapidly as possible, and on the other hand, the creation of an environment best described as "the gloves coming off" -- or better, the gloves ARE off.
The Daily Telegraph of London today:
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.
Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.
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Maj Gen Taguba's internal inquiry into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which, he said in the report, he found "credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses."
Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: "I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn't covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid's ***.... and the female soldier was taking pictures."
Do the ends justify the means as at least one person here claimed? The reason Dick Cheney is every where trying to justify torture is he's trying to pre-empt the criminal investigations here and internationally.
As this analysis shows, Cheney's defensive efforts are crumbling.
From day 1, the Bush cabal has relied upon the defense of legal advice of counsel to avoid prosecution. Step 1 was to obtain a legal opinion from OLC to "authorize" torture because its ops carry the force of law within the executive branch. Bush officials then maintained that torture was "authorized". Step 2 was enacting a law that advice of legal counsel was a defense to torture charges. But, what happens if the OLC memos do not constitute legal advice of counsel because Bush Team and the torture lawyers rigged the OLC process to render fraudulent opinions? Then the main defense from torture prosecutions is bye bye.
snip
[ Cheney ] may be a little panicked because Obama plans to release the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) report this summer, maybe even next month. If the cumulative findings of misconduct in this report show that the torture lawyers acted as advocates rather than advisers, then the memos did not constitute appropriate OLC legal advice.
Thus, the Lizzie/Dickie campaign may be their preemptive strike to make their case before the OPR report is publicly released. The stakes are high for Dickie because if the legal advice defense is eliminated, then he will have the impossible burden of proving that the prisoners were not tortured unless he has a Plan B defense.
We have already seen hints of Plan B: Bush was the Unilateral Decider and I just followed orders in my subordinate role! Cheney and Rice have already shifted gears, pointing fingers at Bush and the "administration", respectively, as having authorized the torture rather than relying on the torture memos as "authority" provided by advice of counsel.
The release of the photos, blocked by President Barack Obama, will occur eventually. The best way to protect the troops is to show that those behind the policies that encouraged such illegal actions are accountable to our nation's laws.
It is impossible to defend the indefensible, however.
As President Obama said:
I have opposed the creation of such a Commission because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability. The Congress can review abuses of our values, and there are ongoing inquiries by the Congress into matters like enhanced interrogation techniques. The Department of Justice and our courts can work through and punish any violations of our laws.
The gears of Justice often grind slow, but they do grind on. Once the report is out that I suspect will show the OLC attorneys twisted the law and acted outside of their professional responsibilities, then any pretense of a defense is gone from Cheney - and George W. Bush - for their share of responsibility for these horrendous crimes.
Cheney and Bush were quick to throw the soldiers like West Virginia's own Lynndie England out to serve as the scape goats for their part of the crimes.
But when Cheney said the "gloves are coming off" he forgot that also meant he left his fingerprints at the crime scene. |
