Stripping Rumsfeld and Bush of Impunity

[sintax]

Stripping Rumsfeld and Bush of Impunity

Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

May 28, 2005

When Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee last year, he was asked whether he "ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation, intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise, and inducing fear as an interrogation method for a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison." Sanchez, who was head of the Pentagon’s Combined Joint Task Force-7 in Iraq, swore the answer was no. Under oath, he told the Senators he "never approved any of those measures to be used."

But a document the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained from the Pentagon flat out contradicts Sanchez’s testimony. It’s a memorandum entitled "CJTF-7 Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy," dated September 14, 2003. In it, Sanchez approved several methods designed for "significantly increasing the fear level in a detainee." These included "sleep management"; "yelling, loud music, and light control: used to create fear, disorient detainee, and prolong capture shock"; and "presence of military working dogs: exploits Arab fear of dogs."

On March 30, the ACLU wrote a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, urging him "to open an investigation into whether General Ricardo A. Sanchez committed perjury in his sworn testimony."

The problem is, Gonzales may himself have committed perjury in his Congressional testimony this January. According to a March 6 article in The New York Times, Gonzales submitted written testimony that said: "The policy of the United States is not to transfer individuals to countries where we believe they likely will be tortured, whether those individuals are being transferred from inside or outside the United States." He added that he was "not aware of anyone in the executive branch authorizing any transfer of a detainee in violation of that policy."


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0527-34.htm

[TahitiNut]

1. Sanchez and Gonzales are war criminals.

Perjury wouldn't even amount to a speed bump for their crowd. I live for the day these criminals are frog-marched into an internationally supervised prison.

[ellenfl]

3. let's send them to abu ghraib (sp?)

I live for the day these criminals are frog-marched into an internationally supervised prison.

or maybe practice a little rendition and send them to syria and egypt.

ellen fl

[leveymg]

2. Ok - so who's going to order a US Attorney to convene a grand jury?

I had this argument with Matt Rothschild three years ago about the prima facie case for indicting Bush officials for 3,000 cases of negligent homicide on 9/11. On that occasion he said he wasn't "convinced". Published elsewhere. http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/03/01_crimes.html

Then there was Tenet's perjury last summer. http://progressivetrail.org/articles/040615Levey.shtml He didn't run that story either.

So, what's changed, Matt? Why are we in a position now, after the election, to strip immunity and impose legal culpability? Just how is that supposed to happen while the Repugs have a strangle hold on all four branches of government (including the press)?

Our best chance for justice in the next several years is to seek prosecution through the international courts. Ultimately, the criminal case will likely have to wait until the Democratic Party has regained one or more branches of government - that is where our efforts should go. Of course, calls for criminal prosecution are a good and necessary rallying cry for the Democratic Party.:bounce:

[rodeodance]

4. "Gonzales may himself have committed perjury ?---martha goes

to jail and our AT may have lied and few seem to care (or can do anythng about it).

[sintax]

5. What about a citizens amicus?

[newyawker99]

8. Hi sintax!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[teryang]

6. Thanks for the Tenet's perjury link

It really deserves its own thread.


http://progressivetrail.org/articles/040615Levey.shtml

[leveymg]

7. Thanks. It got some play at the time.

I understand from Paul Thompson that some major media types looked into it after the story ran. They wrote it off as a typical W "slip of the tongue."

W continues to get a lot of mileage out of his verbal dislexia.

:donut:

[teryang]

10. A lot of people think Tenet is a good guy

They're delusional.

[reprehensor]

9. le bump

[funflower]

11. The discovery process is a wonderful tool to open up those closed

file cabinets! The repugs used the Whitewater case to find some irrelevant dirt on Clinton. Let's hope the ACLU can use its current litigation to blow the lid off the current cesspool in Washington.

:woohoo:

[TahitiNut]

12. .

:kick: