Publish and be damned, Mr Cheney

[babylonsister]

Publish and be damned, Mr Cheney

Dick Cheney wants classified material released to show that torture 'worked'. Let's see it all – waterboarding videos included

* Philippe Sands


Dear Mr Cheney,

Last night, you appeared on Fox News' Hannity show, calling for an "honest debate" on the benefits of the Bush Administration's "bold" interrogation programme. You seem unhappy with last week's publication of four new legal memos authorising torture, so you referred to reports that have not yet been declassified "that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity". You told Hannity:

"I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country."

Of course, you have a terrific track record on the intelligence material that you have seen and read. I recall that, back in August 2002, you told a Nashville convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

Now, you seem keen that we should be able to see the reports you read showing all the benefits of interrogations to be made public. But why stop there? Let's have those reports. Let's also have the interrogation logs. Let's have the videos and audio tapes of the actual interrogations, assuming they haven't all been destroyed (in the meantime, you may want to take a quick peek at this, Christopher Hitchens writing in Vanity Fair, to see what waterboarding actually looks like in practice, and its effects on one of our more robust journalists. Why not call for the declassification of the waterboarding videos, so we can see for ourselves what information was gleaned in the moments and hours and days after the waterboarding was carried out?

I hope you'll excuse me if I am a tad sceptical. I recall, for example, that when I testified before the House Judiciary Committee last summer, Congressman Trent Franks reported that waterboarding was used on only three men and that, in each case, it had lasted no more than one minute. That gave a grand total of three minutes of waterboarding. What's all the fuss about, Congressman Franks seemed to be saying. It seems that the source on whom he relied – Michael Hayden, who happened to be the former head of the CIA – wasn't entirely accurate. This week's news reports that two of those men were waterboarded on no less than 266 occasions.

And, more to the point, as I report in my book Torture Team, I made some inquiries about your administration's claim that the torture of Mohammed al-Qahtani at Guantánamo back in the autumn of 2002 had produced a great deal of useful material. It turns out that it didn't. I met with the head of al-Qahtani's exploitation team. Had the new interrogation techniques produced anything useful, I asked him? He chose his words with care.

"There was a lot of data of interest", he said. "It was contextual in nature, confirming in nature. Did it help us catch Osama bin Laden? No."

I took that as a no, confirmation that there was little to back up the usual, bullish overstatements made by your administration back in June 2004 to justify the move to abuse.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/21/dick-cheney-torture-fox-hannity

[wroberts189]

1. And lets see all those "missing" emails as well. nt knr

[Mira]

2. The whole country should "get" it that it does not matter if it worked or that in Cheney's mind

he thinks it worked.
Torture is a crime. It does not matter whether using it worked.

I've said it before: Murder works, it kills a person, Robbery works: it gets you stuff, Arson works: it burns a building BUT
that does not take away the criminality of the act.

They bent the rules, and broke treaties, and besmirched our National signature on the Geneva accord.

There were other ways to get information and keep this country safe.
An illegal way to achieve an end does not make it OK to have used the wrong route.

Besides, it's all a lie about having worked, and we can prove it.
Cheney is a sonofabitch. With apologies to his mother.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Calling for calling for an "honest debate"--It's not a debatable issue, Darth!

Arguing your illegal choice will not set a new International precedent, asswipe :grr:

And, it's NOT an American debate, only to be discussed within our nation.
It's an international issue, International Law, and you totally fucked up, Darth.

So quit trying to frame the "debate".
Changing the American point of view via your words, Limbaugh's mouthpiece, and anyone else you manipulate to try make yourself into some sort of hero that you never were will never change the facts: You tortured. You approved torture. ANd, you continue to approve it.

Quit shaking your scaredy-cat bullshit ass, and shut up.
Am not going to have to hold my breath much longer because I believe you and your Torture Crew will go down in a court of International Law, and quite possibly in the American court venue as well, for your crimes.

We, the people, are not as stupid as you, Darth.

[struggle4progress]

4. He should just release all his vice-presidential papers

[monmouth]

5. Remember that big truck in front of his house after the "shredding" was

done? It took truckloads to remove whatever he was getting rid of...

[Uncle Joe]

6. And just for the hell of it, the records if any of the secret energy policy meeting Cheney had

with the fossil fuel energy corpse.

I can't help but wonder if this meeting proposed any input as to what should be done about Iraq as motivation for waging war.

If torture was committed in order to fabricate evidence of an Iraq Al Qaeda connection, then it all ties together in one nice stinking package.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.