http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/6260/1/245/

So when do we start the impeachment hearings?

Dave


Due to overwhelming demand People's Weekly World Newspaper Online
  PWW.ORG is temporarily only serving the following article

Memo reveals Bush OKd torture

by Tim Wheeler
   

  WASHINGTON During confirmation hearings on Alberto Gonzales nomination 
as Attorney General, senators should question him about a recently 
uncovered memo that George W. Bush ordered the torture of detainees at 
Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other military prisons around the world, 
several human rights groups suggested last month.

  The groups, who joined in an ACLU Freedom of Information (FOIA) 
lawsuit, which won release of the memo and other incriminating 
documents, are describing it as the smoking gun implicating Bush in the 
torture scandal.

  ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero released the memo Dec. 20 in 
New York. That document, a December 2003 FBI internal e-mail, suggests 
that Bush issued a secret Executive Order authorizing the use of 
extreme coercive measures in interrogation, including sleep 
deprivation, stress positions, attack dogs, and use of hoods to 
intimidate prisoners. The Geneva Convention Against Torture bans all of 
these practices.

  These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for 
widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests, Romero said. Top government 
officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the 
finger at a few low-ranking soldiers.

  The human rights groups statement called on the Senate to scrutinize 
Gonzales, the White House Legal Counsel, on a Jan. 25, 2002, memo he 
wrote to Bush arguing that the Geneva Conventions outlawing torture did 
not apply to the war in Afghanistan. Gonzales described the conventions 
as quaint and obsolete.

  In August 2002, Gonzales, without consulting military and State 
Department experts in the laws of torture and war, according to the 
Washington Post, approved a memo from the Justice Department claiming 
that unlawful enemy combatants could be detained indefinitely without 
criminal charges or the right of due process. The memo, the Post said, 
gave CIA interrogators the legal blessings they sought.

  Physicians for Human Rights, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, is 
one of the groups in the ACLU lawsuit. PHR sent a letter to the Senate 
Judiciary Committee signed by 150 doctors with expertise in the 
treatment of torture. There should be no place in the U.S. government 
for any official who condones the crime of torture, the letter stated.

  Gretchen Borchelt, a PHR spokesperson, joined in the call for probing 
Bushs role in the torture scandal. It would be great to question 
Gonzales about that memo, she said. There are a number of documents the 
senators have asked for and have not received yet. We think this is a 
hugely important issue not just because of the nomination of Gonzales 
but also because the questions about torture have not been resolved. 
There has been no accountability.

  Gonzales asserted Bushs right to order the torture of detainees, a 
position that violates U.S. treaty obligations under the Convention 
Against Torture and other international agreements, PHR said.

  Wilson Woody Powell, executive director of St. Louis-based Veterans 
For Peace, another group in the lawsuit, told the World in a telephone 
interview that they are now examining the documents, which they 
recently received.

  Since Gonzales was Bushs legal adviser at the time, it would make 
sense to ask him about that memo, Powell said. It would be a good 
question: what was Bushs role in the torture?

  If our nations highest law enforcement officer is known for abrogating 
international law in the treatment of detainees, we are just confirming 
to the world that we dont care about human rights. We would be 
confirming a criminal, a scofflaw, to be the nations chief prosecutor.

  Powell pointed out that the U.S. is a signatory to the Convention 
Against Torture as a matter of self-protection. I fully anticipate 
someone is going to capture some American soldiers and do unto them 
what we have done unto others. We have a deep concern for how our 
soldiers are going to be treated if they are captured given the record 
of torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other detention centers, 
Powell said. Thousands of detainees have been held without trial 
because the administration lacks evidence to try them or even bring 
criminal charges.

  MoveOn.org, the Internet activist group, has posted a petition on its 
website demanding that Gonzales sign a Declaration Against Torture and 
renounce his extreme and dangerous position that torture is a 
legitimate method of interrogation. The petition calls on Gonzales to 
reaffirm American respect for human dignity and the rule of law.

  The administration is feeling so much heat on the subject that they 
posted, unannounced, on a U.S. government website, a new policy 
repudiating the earlier memos and calling torture abhorrent both to 
American law and values and to international norms.

  On the eve of his confirmation hearings, Gonzales appeared to be 
covering his previous actions by releasing a prepared statement saying 
he would abide by international treaties prohibiting torture of 
prisoners. His Senate testimony was obtained by The Associated Press.

greenerpastures21212 Æ yahoo.com











Dave Morris
University of Michigan EM PhD candidate, aka thecat Æ umich.edu, aka 
KB8PWY
home: 734-995-5525  office (2104 SPRL): 734-763-5357  fax: 734-763-5567
Electrodynamic Applications Incorporated
phone: (734) 786-1434 fax: (734) 786-3235
morris Æ edapplications.com