The Osterley Times: Congress Seeks Secret Memos On Interrogation

It's almost standard fare for this administration to publicly state that black is white and then refuse to provide any evidence to back up their denial. And so it is with the recent New York Times article alleging that Alberto Gonzales authorised “the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Democratic lawmakers assailed the Justice Department yesterday for issuing secret memos that authorized harsh CIA interrogation techniques, demanding that the Bush administration turn over the documents. But officials refused and said the tactics did not violate anti-torture laws.

One opinion issued by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in May 2005 authorized a combination of painful physical and psychological interrogation tactics, including head slapping, frigid temperatures and simulated drowning, according to current and former officials familiar with the issue.

You'll notice that the officials are not saying that head slapping, frigid temperatures and simulated drowning did not take place, they are saying that "the tactics did not violate anti-torture laws".

So, in effect, they are arguing that physical assault, freezing people and simulated drowning does not in their warped minds constitute torture.

President Bush and his aides regularly denounce torture and deny that it has been condoned as part of the aggressive antiterrorism campaign after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But administration officials have repeatedly refused to specify which tactics are allowed, and both the military and the CIA have operated under varying standards and guidelines over the past six years.

As I have pointed out before there has already been a candid admission by both Tom Delay and Dick Cheney that neither of them regard waterboarding as torture:

For instance, Tom Delay is already on record stating that he does not believe that water boarding is torture:
“I don’t think water boarding is torture. My definition of torture is you physically harm someone by cutting them, by cutting their fingers, sticking things in their eyes, sticking their fingers in electric sockets. Water boarding is a frightening experience. But the person does not have physical damage.”
A view which we know is already shared by Dick Cheney.
Speaking with a talk show host at Tuesday's "open day" on the White House lawn, Mr Cheney - long an advocate of unfettered interrogation techniques by the CIA - agreed that "a dunk in water" for terrorist suspects was a "no-brainer" if it could save lives.

The proposition was put to him by Scott Hennen, who hosts a show in Fargo, North Dakota. "Well, it's a no-brainer for me," Mr Cheney replied. "But for a while, there I was being criticized as being the Vice-President for torture. We don't torture, that's not what we're involved in."
So here we have Cheney admitting that water boarding is a "no brainer", yet simultaneously stressing that the US "don't torture". We also note that Delay's definition of torture excludes mental torture. He only considers it torture if the person is physically harmed.

Indeed, members of the CIA went even further and stated that the US not only engaged in torture but that it worked:

However, there are some former and current CIA officers who think water boarding was useful:
Its most effective use, say current and former CIA officials, was in breaking Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as KSM, who subsequently confessed to a number of ongoing plots against the United States.

A senior CIA official said KSM later admitted it was only because of the water-boarding that he talked.

So, here we have current and former CIA officials confirming that the United States did, indeed, engage in torture. Certain people have commented here over the years that there is no proof that the US have ever engaged in torture techniques. And yet, here we have the CIA not only admitting that they have tortured people, but boasting of its effectiveness in breaking Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

But even whilst the White House denies that it engages in torture, whilst refusing to specify which acts it would consider to constitute torture, they then send Frances Fragos Townsend to the studios of CNN to say this:

White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend also dismissed objections to the CIA program yesterday, saying during an appearance on CNN that al-Qaeda members are trained to resist harsh interrogations. She said that "we start with the least harsh measures first" and stop the progression "if someone becomes cooperative."

She's saying, "If they give us the info we want, we stop". In other words it's their own fault they are being tortured because they are being "uncooperative". It really is that type of gangland logic and they are shamelessly going into TV studios and spouting this crap.

And, lest we forget, there are bound to be innocents caught up in this. The law of averages tells us that.

And then the macho Jack Bauer reasoning behind this:

"If Americans are killed because we failed to do the hard things, the American people would have the absolute right to ask us why," Townsend said.

Do you follow her logic? You are being a Liberal wimp who is not man enough to do what she euphemistically refers to as "the hard things" if you object to torture.

And this mindset is rife throughout the Bush administration.

Civil liberties and human rights advocates argue that the Bush administration's secretive and shifting definitions of torture have created an uncertain legal climate that encourages prisoner mistreatment, like the abuse that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"Instead of abiding by the law, the administration stocks the Justice Department with lawyers who will say that black is white and wrong is right and waterboarding is not torture," said Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First.

And that is really what this comes down to. Perino and Bush can stand there with straight faces and say that "the US does not do torture", but they can only do so because they have reserved the right to implement their own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions. In other words, they get to say what is torture and what is not.

And the Vice President is on the record saying that he sees nothing wrong with "a dunk in the water". So it's official. Waterboarding is not torture in the eyes of these people. Indeed, the CIA are boasting how useful they found it.

And, as Townsend points it, they stop it when you squeal.

The Democrats should come down hard on this, refusing to confirm Michael B. Mukasey as the next attorney general until the White House hands over the relevant documents. But watch this space, they won't. They'll roll over dead at the first opportunity.

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