On The Issues: Abu Ghraib

In the Blogs, On the Issues

Abu Ghraib

Why won't anyone link Abu Gharib to the Bush Administration and shoot down these claims of making the world safer once and for all!!!

Posted by Sandie from OC at September 8, 2004 01:11 AM

So glad you asked, Sandie! Great question.

Let's play connect the dots everybody.

Please open your Schlesinger reports and turn to page 109.

Schlesinger Report on DoD Detention Operations

http://www.c-span.org/pdf/prisonerfinalreport.pdf

This is a memorandum sent out by George Bush on February 7, 2002, to many members of his staff (Cheney, Condi, Rummy, Ashcroft, Colin, George Tenet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff) declaring:

"I accept the legal conclusion of the Department of Justice and determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among other reasons, al Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva."

Here is Donald Rummsfeld, on page 112 approving of a "tiered system" of interrogating prisoners.
The chart is called Evolution of Interrogation Techniques- GTMO

"Yelling

Deception

Multiple Interrogators

Interrogator Identity

Stress positions, like standing

False documents/reports

Isolation for up to 30 days

Deprivation of light/auditory stimuli

Hooding (transportation and questioning)

20-interrogations

Removal of ALL comfort items, including religious items

MRE-only diet

Removal of clothing

Forced grooming

Exploiting individual phobias, e.g. dogs

Mild, non-injurious physical contact, e.g. grabbing, poking, or light pushing

Sleep adjustment"

etc

Sometimes what happens in GTMO doesn't stay in GTMO.

Many of these tactics appear in the Abu Ghraib photos, and those are only the photos we've seen. Remember, we have only seen a few dozen photos and there are reportedly a thousand or more, and hundreds of hours of videotape.

They changed the rules of detainees and only Congress is allowed to do that, according to the Constitution. It's in the same clause that gives Congress the sole power to declare war.

http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html

Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

Bush has

1. Violated the U.S. Constitution he swore to uphold by subverting Congress to change the rules on captures.

2. Secretly removed himself from the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan and anywhere else.

3. Covered up evidence of massive abuse, rape, murder, and torture.

This is conspiracy to commit torture.

Let's crack this nut wide open.