Bush’s Torture Program Began Ten Years Ago
by Andy Worthington, February 13, 2012Last month was the 10th anniversary of the opening of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo, and as this year progresses it is appropriate to remember that there will be other grim 10-year anniversaries to note.
This week, one of those 10-year anniversaries passed almost unnoticed. On February 7, 2002, as Andrew Cohen noted in the Atlantic, in the only article marking the anniversary, (The Torture Memos)
President George W. Bush signed a brief memorandum titled “Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees” (PDF). The caption was a cruel irony, an Orwellian bit of business, because what the memo authorized and directed was the formal abandonment of America’s commitment to key provisions of the Geneva Convention. This was the day, a milestone on the road to Abu Ghraib: that marked our descent into torture — the day, many would still say, that we lost part of our soul.
That is no exaggeration. Depriving prisoners seized in wartime of the protections of the Geneva Conventions was a huge and unprecedented step, and thoroughly alarming. And yet, despite criticism from Secretary of State Colin Powell (PDF), the administration pushed forward remorselessly towards the creation of an America that practiced arbitrary detention and torture.
Powell had been included in the paper trail that led to Bush’s memorandum of February 7, 2002, and he was particularly upset by a memo on January 25, 2002 (PDF), signed by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, but written by Vice President Dick Cheney’s legal counsel, David Addington, which claimed that the “new paradigm” that the “war on terror” presented “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
In his memorandum, just two weeks later, Bush declared that “none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere through the world, because, among other reasons, al-Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva.” He added, “I determine that the Taliban detainees are unlawful combatants and, therefore, do not qualify as prisoners of war under Article 4 of Geneva. I note that, because Geneva does not apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda detainees also do not qualify as prisoners of war.”
Chairman Obama has been President for the past 3 years. Suck it up.
Why was it sad? At the time, the 9/11 attacks had Muslims hyper-motivated to bomb us and the rest of the West like bombings in Indonesia, 32 Germans killed in Libya and on and on.
It was time to get serious. We did. They lost.
With Obamas cowardly signing of the NDAA on New Years Eve, when no one was paying attention…you now know that this could be you hanging up there as an enemy combatant.
Or me.
But it was a good thing.
And by “Get Serious” you mean compromise our moral fiber for dubious intelligence gain?
They lost, we won.
What did we win Miss Meyers2? Be specific.
* Madrid bombings
* Killing of that one Jewish reporter kidnapped in Pakistan
* That hook hand guy in Britian and many others like him
The DC/Virginia sniper …
* Muslim snipers gun down a program analyst in a store parking lot. Muslim snipers kill three men and two women in separate attacks over a 15-hour period. A man is killed by Muslim snipers while pumping gas two days after a 13-year-old is wounded by the same team. Another man is killed by Muslim snipers while pumping gas. A woman is killed by Muslim snipers in a Home Depot parking lot. A bus driver is killed by Muslim snipers.
After 9/11 Muslims worldwide were excited and ready to kill Americans.
And we hadn’t done a damn thing to them.
The nation rolled up its sleeves, got serious about it and now the world is a far safer place.
Yes, mistakes were made, innocents were killed. We weren’t looking for these problems. And we weren’t looking to be world police either.
In return you got the DHS with the TSA. Now living in a real policestate. You also got torture and killing without any apporoval.
To keep things short: You lost. The ‘terrorists’ won.
My advise to you: Stop watching tv. Soon you will start thinking for yourself again.
Delusional, that’s all I’ve got.
HMeyers2 – are you hiding under your bed right now?
You are more likely to die from choking on a doughnut.
terrorist schmerrorist.
If Obama tied to close the door that Bush/Cheney opened you guys would be the first to scream that Obama is soft on terrorists!
But the real damage done by the Bush/Cheney Abu Ghraib torture doctrine, was to make acceptable the tasing, gassing, spraying, i.e. torture of American citizens by the Police. The latest are sound cannons.
The bar has been raised and now we are all at risk.
Don’t be silly. People seeking confrontations with the authorities have always been subject to being educated.
On the other hand using drones and missiles to kill citizens, blocking citizens from returning to the US by using the “no fly” catch 22, and being able to declare citizens in the US to be hostile combatants and lock them up without due process are all new and they all have Obama’s finger prints on the them as well as some crazy neo fascist Republicans.
People who don’t care about the bill of rights or the Constitution are going to finish turning this nation into a dictatorship in which nobody but the political insiders have any rights and even they won’t be safe if they end up on the losing side of a power struggle just like Russia and China.
“If Obama tied to close the door that Bush/Cheney opened you guys would be the first to scream that Obama is soft on terrorists! ”
No, I would vote for him in the next election. Unless of course he was running against RP. Besides, wasn’t closing Gitmo one of the campaign lies that got him elected in the first place?
Anytime someone uses “all Muslims” or “all Christians” in a sentence, it translates into “written by a complete idiot”
No, the Muslim moderates were coming out in droves and apologizing for what happened to us. Oh wait. It never happened.
I remember George W. Bush constantly referring to Islam as a “religion of peace” and rolling my eyes. Sure I understand why he did it, but the whole world knew it wasn’t true.
Obviously a large percent of Muslims are very fine people, nevertheless they were celebrating in the streets in about every Muslim country on Earth back on 9/11.
I disagree…Muslims are peace loving, passive, gentle, meek people who follow a doctrine of non-violence, love and compassion for all on earth. Their way of life is to work in peace and harmony, being compassionate to their fellow man. Violence is so against their way of life. The don’t threaten violence to others, say like Salman Rushdie, or kill Dutch Cartoonists, make death threats against you because you don’t believe in their religion, or show a picture of their founder. They mourned and weep openly for the tragic events of 9/11. They are not all a bunch of crazy or uneducated gang member mentality with hair trigger tempers, and easily insulted. Did I say Muslim…opps. I meant Buddhists hippies. My bad.
Before I get any death threats from a group of people, I just want to say I was making fun of the Bush Administration and Bush and how they looked at things. It has nothing to do with the religion of Muslim or disrespecting it. Even though I am not a Muslim, by default if I don’t convert…we know what will happen. So I want those Muslim who are reading this to understand that. Buddhist was code for Bush and I was making fun of how Bush talked.
Muslims did 9/11? Not the Mossad and the CIA? Oh yeah, ‘they’ found one passport on top of the rubble, so it must be true…
There is a big difference between real Muslims and terrorists. The last can never be the first.
Look up WTC building 7. See if that got hit by a plane also.
I remember seeing Republicans on TV cheering for executions and booing a veteran.
I guess by your standards all Republicans are bloodthirsty and hate our troops.
Shitheads like you make me ashamed of my American heritage.
I’m happy for every last American life that was saved by information gleaned by torture. Even you or any of your friends and loved ones, McCullough.
You better get of those drugs there. It’s really messing with your brain.
When are all those NeoCons finally going to be tortured for their crimes? Then I will bring the beer and partyhats.
The saddest part is the shockingly high percentage of American citizens who enthusiastically support this kind of crap, the comments here being the perfect example.
Humans sure are a murderous bunch; one of our greatest talents is dealing suffering and death far and wide.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Exactly. It is indeed shocking. If some dictator tortures and kills they want to bomb the crap out of them and when they torture and kill themselves it’s suddenly ok. Hyppocrites. They probably totally lost track of right and wrong because of all the media BS (government propaganda) they hear for decades already.
Ditching the Geneva Convention, ditching American jobs, ditching Social Security are all Bush Republican policies that are denied by the Republican radicals of today. Try to convince them otherwise and you invite harsh rhetoric and insult.
i love the tone of this, just reminds me how pathetic and naive many americans still are. these weren’t soldiers running out to meet the marines… they were not brave men committed to a just cause defending a country a peopke, they were cowards that strapped bombs to children and not just nail bombs with screws and bolts embedded in plastic explosives but materials soaked in rat poison so the victims of the bomb blast would be sure to bleed to death. ask the victim’s families if waterboarding these lawless criminal bastards was torture… these were criminals dedicated to killing innocent people. the geneva convention does not protect them
Don’t confuse a tactic with a cause. Those damned impertinent British subjects in the colonies dared to shoot at honorable British soldiers from behind trees, and not fight them face to face on the field of battle like honorable gentlemen.
The Iraqis were faced with overwhelmingly bad odds. After the first days of the war they had no tanks, no cannons, no airplanes. The only way to fight a war like that is guerrilla warfare. You can believe that they should have been grateful that we invaded them, but this country wouldn’t exist without guerrilla warfare so don’t bash them for using that tactic.
Phallus said: “Don’t confuse a tactic with a cause. Those damned impertinent British subjects in the colonies dared to shoot at honorable British soldiers from behind trees, and not fight them face to face on the field of battle like honorable gentlemen.”
Honorable men should line up in their red coats and face off? OK. Bang, you’re dead. Next.
I think you should go back to playing with your plastic toy soldiers.
Perhaps you didn’t understand. I was referring to the Revolutionary war, and the guerrilla tactics so successfully used by the Americans to fight the British. Read a little history, pal.
Perhaps I didn’t understand your humor, but I know American Revolutionary history. You are correct that guerilla tactics totally frustrated the British.
And furthermore, we went over there attacking them on false pretenses. They didn’t have all the guns and bombs and planes that we had. What else were they going to fight with? As I said, you can say they were in the wrong, but their fighting tactics were the only ones they could use.
But that’s the old right-wing definition:
guerrilla whose cause we agree with: freedom fighter
guerrilla whose cause we don’t agree with: soulless evil terrorist
faustus
Faust (foust) also Faus·tus (fou st s, fô -). n. A magician and alchemist in German legend who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for power and knowledge.
Look up project for a new American century documentary.
Ah Yea==you set up a premise for a very close call:
Promote/Vote for Republicans and get unmitigated asstards who PROMISE to lower taxes, cut social services, war on the rest of the world, take away civil rights, and put the government inbetween you and your doctor, significant other, and wife.
-or-
Obama who promises NOT TO DO THAT, but then pretty much goes ahead and keeps doing the same thing.
Ha, ha. Who is more likely to STOP THIS KILLING OF AMERICA when not seeking election/re-election?
Hope and Change? Who knew the only hope for it was in the second term of a Dumbo?
Aspirin: not just for birth control.
Silly Hoomans.
lol bobbo, you saw that Santorum guy too? Good one. 🙂
It is sick and disgusting then and now.
Both sides of the political fence are to blame. No one is free from the taint.
We should be so ashamed that we continued the evils of our forefathers.
Cursor_
If I have to read one more self-righteous comment, I will start giving up state secrets! NOOOOOOO! Not AGAAAAAAIIIIN!
Well, sometimes you just have to make them talk. Even if they have nothing to say…
Torture is ventriloquism
Good one Publius!
Let’s try to be precise about shrub, er bush. On the topic of torture he authorized water boarding if I recall correctly 5 people. None of these people died nor suffered any lasting physical injury as the result of what happened. They were all high ranking members of an organization that has killed many Americans and they personally had claimed credit for those deaths.
Like it or loath it they spilled their guts. The facts are they dumped an ocean of invaluable information we would have not gotten any other way. People can say that people under duress won’t spill vital information until the end of time but the record shows the men questioned did. Claiming they didn’t simply demonstrates you are delusional.
However this is all water over the dam. History that can’t be changed. Bush is living at home on a ranch in Texas and the last I heard he was walking his own dog, and spending his spare time making some trails and outdoor picnic spots on his ranch. Except to his family George Bush is redundant.
The problem is what to do about the idiots in office and the bad choices they are making.
Saying it’s so don’t make it so. You can claim till you’re blue in the face that torture works. But you have no proof. And the people who know about it — the military people — don’t like torture. Torture is despicable, puts us down on the level with the petty tyrants and Hitlers and Stalins of the world, and people like you who support it are pathetic little scumbags. I don’t say this very often, but go fuck yourself.
Another man good and true finds the soul of do-ill, and finds it lacking.
What we don’t know Phydeau is the percent split between reality and forum anonymity/isolation excess.
Do-ill is about as rigid and single dimension as anyone on this forum. NO sense of humor. No give and take==none that I have witnessed or recalled.
On his own, to be pitied==but he only shines with laser precision what too many are fuzzy about.
Puke-a-tude I tell’s ya==it rots from the core to the outside. Most republican hypocrisy is revealed when the issues they advocate come anywhere near home. Sadly, enough of them are isolated enough to form a viable political party==based on no imagination, no joy, no empathy.
Kinda like your average liebertard only more active.
Do-ill==try to move a little bit left? Not all the way, not on all the issues, but you know==pick one or two that can reveal just little bit of your own creative thinking? Imagine YOURSELF in any state of need or assistance. Without having to ever pay any favors back, in a vacuum, what would you actually like to have happen?
Ha, ha. Yea, verily.
“dubious intelligence gain”
Don’t try to take the easy way out and claim torture never works. If you are going to be against torture then be a man and say you’re willing to not get the info. Even Senator McCain who sponsored the no torture bill said torture never works and at another point in the debate said that he would provide an exception for a ticking time bomb scenario. You just said torture never works Senator!
The ticking time bomb scenario is such a lame argument. Torture doesn’t work well, there are better ways to get information, and if we torture we are as bad as those we say are the bad ones.
>In return you got the DHS with the TSA.
Obama’s new budget cuts the armed pilot program and it is clear they plan to zero it out. No cuts have been made to TSA security, no-fly-lists, Rapeascan, checkpoints on highways, trains, or bus depots.
Bush was just a puppet of the Military Industrial Complex, who wants this Convention destroyed. So Bush was just their scapegoat. History can blame him and his legal staff. But not Cheney, and the Pentagon. Who should have defended the Convention, being intimate with military matters. Not just a temporary politician “in charge”. But obviously nobody high up in the military chain of command objected or prevented this from happening. So they were onboard with it. And more likely, behind it. As Georgey boy just wasn’t that clever. But I’m sure he got paid well enough to take the blame (fall) for it. The military powers that be, have little or no care about what US prisoners of war might face, without this Convention’s adherence. Likely they believe it’s no longer being observed by any of the factions the US is in conflict with. Like the Arab Terrorists. So the US’ observance is thought to be one sided. And the military strategist mind doesn’t consider the “slippery slope” of declining civil behavior. Other nations and radicals are “doing it”, so let’s jump into the mire and do it too. Rather than maintaining the higher moral ground, for the rest of the world to aspire to, again some day.
I was reading how Obama wanted to fulfill the agreed upon cuts in defense spending, by reducing Nuclear arms, deployed abroad (not domestic defense). And pretty much 100% of the GOP was against any reduction what so ever. Claiming it would on encourage nations like Iran, to go whole hog on nukes. So we can never wind down the monster, that Ronald Reagan created, because of some pipsqueak 3rd world nations entering the nuclear club? What the hell was the point of “winning” the cold war with Russia, if not being able to turn the fateful clock back from the “11th hour”, representing the start of Ww3, by NOT needing so many nukes to babysit? I guess the GOP continues to life up to the joke that it stands for Gas, Oil, and Plutonium. Defending the plentiful use of each, at the expense of all else.
Cool story, bro.
I think the most important thing I learned from this experience, and I am sure all of you will agree, is that freedom can only be protected by attaching electrodes to a Muslim man’s testicles.
We may have different languages and cultures, but shocking his balls is one thing he relate to. And it breaks the communications barrier!
In the end, this whole ordeal was a just a failure to communicate.
Which is the way he wants it.
Well, he gets it …
The court found that Garzón acted illegally when he authorized police to record jailhouse conversations between detainees and their defense lawyers in a political corruption investigation known in Spain as the Gürtel case.
In a 70-page ruling, the court said Garzón’s actions “caused a drastic and unjustified reduction of the right to a defense” and that his tactics “these days are only found in totalitarian regimes.”
When I saw the title, I thought you were referring to the third anniversary of the stimulus.
If I can’t get his done in three years, then I’ll be a one term president.
The difference between the Nixon and Obama situations is that there were other more sane, sensible, honest alternatives to Nixon, specifically the more liberal Republicans and all of the Democratic party. Regarding Obama, all the alternatives (i.e. the Republican presidential candidates) are more insane and more radical and more dishonest and much farther out in the weeds than Obama, as bad as he is.
You think any Republican who’d replace Obama would be better on any of the issues you’re criticizing Obama on? Of course not. They’d be worse on civil rights and giving the store away to corporations and lowering taxes on the rich and installing a police state. We saw that with Dubya.
So the only choice we have here is between bad (Obama) and worse (any current Republican).
A pretty sad situation for America.
Yea, verily.
And yet so many here think otherwise. Some even registered as Democrats in their idealistic youth. Way too easily led astray.
Republicans of 20 years ago==Romney, Reagan, Nixon, could not survive a Puke Primary these days.
Its true. The Moderates are gone. But YOU have put your finger right on the issue: its not like olden days when there was an alternative to the Dumbo in Office you didn’t like. THEN you could just criticize the Dumbo and take your chances with the Pukes. That is a proven false assumption these days unless your head is up and firmly locked where the sun don’t shine.
Funny how times can change faster than people do.
Future Shock was supposed to be about technology===but its about politics too?
“Republicans of 20 years ago==Romney, Reagan, Nixon, could not survive a Puke Primary these days.”
That’s funny because it is true.