US Torture appratus systemic, widespread from the highest levels.

[Zebo]

Bar Association: Torture Sanctioned by Pentagon Appointees
Salon.com is reporting that a report compiled by the Committee on International Law of the New York City Bar Association has found that the American military's treatment of detainees and prisoners of war in Afghanistan, Cuba and Iraq violates international law ? and the compilers of the report say that the techniques employed by interrogators at prisons such as Abu Ghraib were "sanctioned by Pentagon political appointees."

Joe Conason of Salon reports that Scott Horton, a partner at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler and chair of the Committee on International Law was told by "senior" members of the Judge Advocate General Corps that high ranking political appointees were behind the abuse. Says Conason:



Indeed, Horton says that the JAG officers specifically warned him that Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith,one of the most powerful political appointees in the Pentagon, had significantly weakened the military's rules and regulations governing prisoners of war. The officers told Horton that Feith and the Defense Department's general counsel, William J. Haynes II, were creating "an atmosphere of legal ambiguity" that would allow mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Douglas Feith, President Bush's Undersecretary of Defense for Policy ? and number three man at the Pentagon ? reporetdly summed up Protocol One of the Geneva Conventions of 1977 as "law in the service of terrorism".

In the past, Conason writes, all interrogations conducted by military personnel were monitored by a member of the Judge Advocate General corps from behind a two-way mirror. All interrogations were monitored, and the JAG officer was "emplowered to stop any misconduct". But senior Pentagon officials removed that requirement. Not only did JAG officers no longer monitor interrogations, but private military contractors were allowed to conduct interrogations.

Horton says "The Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs the conduct of officers and soldiers, does not apply to civilian contractors. They were free to do whatever they wanted to do, with impunity, including homicide."

In fact, the BBC reports that in today's hearings on the Hill Donald Rumsfeld reluctantly admitted that two private companies were involved in interrogations at Abu Ghraib.

The International Committee for the Red Cross ? an organization that monitors conditions in prisons and POW camps but rarely makes public statements about the conditions ? says that the abuse at Abu Ghraib was "widespread". The Financial Times is one of many that carries a Reuters story stating that the ICRC observed "widespread abuse".

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the ICRC, says that "Our findings do not allow us to conclude that what we were dealing with at Abu Ghraib were isolated acts of individual members of coalition forces. What we have described is a pattern and a broad system."

Now Donald Rumsfeld says that the worst is yet to come, Reuters reports. "I've said today that there are a lot more photographs and videos that exist. If these are released to the public obviously it's going to make matters worse. That's just a fact."

Rumsfeld goes on, saying "Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman..."

This is institutional. This sadism, this cruelty, this inhumanity. It is institutional. It is a result of a message from the top. It is a result of rhetoric about good and evil. It is a result of painting people as "evil". It is a result of politicians and political appointees bragging about how the "gloves have come off". It is a result of talk about how "everything's changed". It is a crisis of leadership, alright: a crisis of the White House, a crisis of the Pentagon E Ring.

This torture, this inhuman treatment, this sadism... It is not an unusual thing. It happens. It happened in Bosnia. We bombed and invaded to stop it. It happened in Stalinist Russia. We demonized the nation for it. It happened in Nazi Germany. I don't have to begin to tell you about that. It happened in Hussein's Iraq: we used it as an excuse to invade and occupy Iraq ? to close the torture chambers!

In all of the afore-mentioned cases the torture and mistreatment was institutional. Saddam Hussein, former head of state, is awaiting trial for crimes against humanity for what once happened at Abu Ghraib. Slobodan Milosevic is in the dock in the Hague for the same crimes against humanity. Stalin is long gone, but his place in history is secure.

In all of these cases the heads of state were brought to account. They were held responsible for the actions of their soldiers, their hired torturers, their sadists. Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein: they are on the dock for what was done by their militaries and paramilitaries.

Tell me now what is different about the situation in Abu Ghraib, in Gitmo, in the dozens more facilities where there is a "pattern of abuse"?

There are war criminals in our midst, in our leadership. There are war criminals in the Pentagon's E-Ring. There are war criminals in Langley, Virginia at CIA Headquarters. Military Intelligence today, right now, this moment, is home to war criminals. There are quite possibly war criminals in the White House, men like Cofer Black who say "[Interrogations is a highly classified area, but I have to say that all you need to know: There was a before 9/11, and there was an after 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves came off."

As an American I am ashamed, I am angry, I am furious. American soldiers have taken America itself and dragged it through the mud. My nation has been dragged through the mud and deposited at the gates of Hell. Sadists have been allowed to run amok, videotaping and photographing their terrible deeds without fear. They, at the direction of Military Intelligence, at the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency, tortured people and photographed and videotaped their crimes.

Were they not afraid of what would happen if their photographic evidence was ever uncovered? Were they not afraid of what would happen if someone higher in the chain of command caught wind of the happens in Cell Block 1A of Abu Ghraib? Clearly they were not afraid. Clearly they were not worried. They freely videotaped and photographed their dirty deeds. They used them as screensavers on their laptop computers. They passed them around to their friends, laughing.

These men and women, these "American heroes" have done more to harm America's position in the world than any single group of people in the history of this nation.

The reaction must be swift, it must be strong, it must be unsparing. We cannot afford to simply scapegoat seven junior soldiers and leave the rest of the command structure virtually untouched. The investigation, the courts martial, the criminal trials, they must reach to the highest echelons. Doug Feith must be tried in a court of law for creating an atmosphere in which abuse could occur. Cofer Black must be called to testify as to what he means by "gloves coming off".

If he means what he appears to mean then Cofer Black, too, must stand trial for his crimes. The investigation, the prosecution, the reaction must spare no one. Anyone with knowledge of what occured who did nothing, anyone who allowed abuse to occur, anyone who created an atmosphere in which abuse could occur, anyone who turned a blind eye or encouraged torture or interrogation-related abuse must be made to answer for their crimes.

Let juries and court-martial panels sort them out. But do it, and do it fast. Careers must be destroyed. Officials must be forced to resign. Soldiers, officers and civilian officials must be charged with crimes.

And, perhaps most of all, we must determine what Bush knew and when he knew it. If President Bush in any way conributed to an atmosphere in which torture at this scale, of this magnitude, of this inhumanity could take place... he must be impeached.

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