Bush’s Justice Department secretly endorsed torture
In December 2004, Bush’s Justice Department issued a statement insisting that “torture is abhorrent.” It was an encouraging step from administration officials who were willing to concede that there were limits to presidential authority when it came to brutal interrogations.
But it was a lie — shortly thereafter, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed off on a secret legal opinion, which, as the New York Times reported today, endorsed “the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.
And here we are. Given their conduct and contempt for the rule of law, administration officials are apparently well beyond the capacity for shame, but if they’re capable of embarrassment, now would be a good time for it. Indeed, now might be an equally good time to wonder whether criminal charges should be brought against several high-ranking officials in the Bush administration.
Worse, this wasn’t the only secret memo Gonzales signed on torture policies.
Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.
In other words, as lawmakers in the co-equal branch of government were shaping a policy on the treatment of detainees, Gonzales & Co. agreed that Congress’ standards would be irrelevant — CIA interrogation tactics would not change.
In case there was any doubt, Gonzales wasn’t nearly clever enough to take all of these steps on his own. Dick Cheney was calling the shots, and Gonzales simply did what he was told to do.
Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales seldom resisted pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s counsel, to endorse policies that they saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of the Bush White House, undermining the department’s independence.
Josh Marshall noted that “there’s still much we are yet to learn about how far the Gonzales Justice Department took us into the darkness of state-sponsored torture and lawlessness.” That’s true. But the more we do learn, the more we realize that we’re dealing with officials who know no limits and feel no shame. They are, quite literally, a disgrace. Scrubbing the stain of ignominy will be a weighty challenge for Bush’s successor; I only hope it’s not too late to salvage the nation’s dignity.
As for other reactions, Kevin Drum wants to know who in Congress knew about all of this; Digby makes the case that stories like this one are “the very definition of the banality of evil — a bunch of ideologues and bureaucrats blithely committing morally reprehensible acts apparently without conscience or regret”; and Hilzoy argues that the administration’s tactics are “not just morally abhorrent; they are flatly illegal.”
I know it’s difficult to muster a new degree of outrage every time the Bush gang sinks to a new low, but today’s revelations highlight American lawlessness at the highest levels of our government. History will not be kind.
Sociopaths!
All my friends and I fantasize about subjecting the Bush administration to the tortures they authorized for and committed on others. Small-minded but satisfying. I think this administration has shamed most of America so greatly that most of us would like to see them incapacitated as they’ve incapacitated others and no longer able to parade on the world stage as anybody’s “leaders”.
PS
CB, yes, it is difficult to “muster outrage” again, but rage simmers in a lot of us.
Nancy Pelosi, what addlebrained idea led you to take and keep impeachment off the table in facing this administration? Impeachment is the very least consequence they should be facing. Justice would put them in prison or maybe worse…
Pelosi should be dumped as quickly as possible. If we can’t control the Republicans with our Congressional majority, at least we can police our own. I hope. Actually, I’m losing hope.
Cheney and Bush et al should be subjected to an international war crimes tribunal. Rice and her paramilitary groups should be included.
“Indeed, now might be an equally good time to wonder whether criminal charges should be brought against several high-ranking officials in the Bush administration.”
oh, please, please, please, please, please!
I just finished reading the NYT article and it has predictably left me feeling nauseated, angry, sad and frustrated.
The decisions these reprehensible people made in the name of “national security” have effectively silenced America’s moral voice. No longer do our words about bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed people and nations ring true, when behind them is the reality that we not only engage in torture, but had an entire office and branch of government staffed with people whose job it was to issue opinions “legalizing” it.
Dana Perino stood in the WH press room the other day and opined that what was happening in Burma was “distressing.” The irony of expressing distress at actions and activities and treatment undertaken by another government, when our own government has said is legal when we do it, well, it just leaves me shaking my head.
When Osama bin Laden decided to attack this country while George Bush was president, he set into motion something that has succeeded probably beyond his wildest dreams. He has had the opportunity to watch this country slowly but steadily erode from within, he has seen us pitted against each other, he has seen us making all the decisions that guaranteed our decline in world opinion, and taken us off the moral pedestal. He has seen us lose the world’s assumption that we were acting for good, and made it easier for other nations to wield power that represses and oppresses because they can hold us up as the example.
No longer can America stand before the nations of this world and call for respect for liberty, for the rights of the people, for the end of repression and fear – because those in charge of our government have no respect for liberty, and pursue their own acts of repression through the use of fear.
My frustration comes from knowing – or having reason to believe – that nothing will come of this.
My sadness comes from knowing that unless and until we fix this, and return to a place where we repudiate the kind of inhumane treatment that the Bush administration has approved, we will not have the moral authority to help anyone. And even if we pass new laws – who will trust that those laws are the ones that control, and not some secret memo that says, “pay no attention to these laws – we will do what we want?”
The nausea is self-explanatory.
I’m hoping that Bush and Cheney get to spend their retirement years in The Hague.
(Since the Republican presidential primaries are of no consequence, and the Democratic primaries are reportedly already decided, perhaps we could put the next ten months to good use by pursing impeachment over illegal torture policies. We will certainly need something to fill the newspapers, and I’d rather it wasn’t an invasion of Iran.)
This regime has made me cry for my country many times. BEYONCE WELCH – America Please Turn Away From Hate
You can impeach Gonzales after the fact, you know. That can accomplish two things:
1. He’ll never serve in a federal capacity again,
2. Nobody gets to claim executive privilege during an impeachment.
The worst part about this is they were never really very secret about it. Bush was pretty up front about what only an extremist would believe they heard him say. Every time I’ve ever heard these guys talk about torture, it comes off like they way they talk about Limbaugh. When they deny it, the subtext is so obvious, only lefty bloggers and their own followers know it’s a load of BS meant to muddy the issue. When a wacko denies that Bush or Rush could ever do such a thing, ask, “So we’re agreed, it would be a wrong thing to do.” And they’ll always say, well, no, there’s nothing wrong with torturing these guys or calling these guys phonies, I hope they do. But we realists should also hide the gritty realities of the world from the naive hippies who can’t handle the truth.
It’s the same reason conservatives are never outraged when Bush claims to want to do something about climate change or reform SS. They aren’t mad because they know he’s lying, that whatever he says or does on TV, we won’t burn one-drop less of oil while he’s President.
With torture, these guys have hardly even been thinly vieled about their glee over the prospect, and all the folks who claim Abu Ghraib was a result of some rogue soldiers secretly hope we’re doing far worse all the time and lying about it to the goody-two-shoes.
We can’t say they support torture, but they sure as hell do, as evidenced by the rush to out-torture the other guy in the Republican debate to GOP applause. They love torture. They want torture. They despise anyone naive enough to get in their way. But they’re too cowardly to have an honest debate about it.
Can we sue for malpractice?
This administration in influenced greatly by television. In Gulf War I, Cheney thought he was a military planner after watching Ken Burn’s Civil War mini-series. Bush changed is tune about a national aquatic preserve after seeing a PBS special about it. And here we are with these guys watching “24.”
I guess it’s better than them watching movies. They would be charging their torture subject’s families an “infomation retrevial charge” had they seen “Brazil.”
But the BIG question is what will Congress do now?
Will they focus on Gonzales only?
Will they include Cheney?
Bush?
Will they be instruments of justice or just let it all continue to slide under the door with everything else?
But the BIG question is what will Congress do now?
Will they focus on Gonzales only?
Will they include Cheney?
Bush?
Will they be instruments of justice or just let it all continue to slide under the door with everything else?
Focus like a laser beam on whatever sticks. When it’s run it’s course, throw everything against the wall and repeat.
The bottom line is nothing will come of this. Nothing will come of any of Bush’s most egregioius deeds as long as the spectre of terrorism looms over us. The American people have been cowed, and will stay cowed.
Even public sentiment against the war in Iraq is very soft. Most of it is because we aren’t winning, aren’t beating the crap out of somebody. As things turn around in Iraq – and they will, because they’ll run out of bodies to kill, buildings to burn, and people remaining in dangerous areas – American support for the occupation will begin to rise again. Very few oppose the war on moral grounds.
As for torture and spying, Americans don’t care. It keeps them safe, and if you haven’t done anything, you won’t be tortured, and you shouldn’t care if they listen in on your phone calls. That’s the attitude.
Sorry to be so cynical, but that’s the way it is.
I can no longer work up any outrage. I feel frustrated that the Democrats in Congress have been powerless in the face of all of this. I hope only that they will eventually muster up the strength to finally take action against this rogue White House.
In the mean time, I would hope that Democrats don’t keep falling for the same tricks. Consider this BushCo. con from the NYTimes article.
What sort of disingenuous gestures do they have in store for us as they pave the way for Mukasey’s confirmation as AG?
But the BIG question is what will Congress do now? -anney
Probably some sort of non-binding resolution about a holiday. They can’t be bothered with actual work or governing.
The irony of expressing distress at actions and activities and treatment undertaken by another government, when our own government has said is legal when we do it,[…] — Anne, @7
… is quite typical of all totalitarian/authoritarian regimes. When I was growing up in Poland, if you listened to the radio/read the papers you’d have thought that all the “Eastern bloc” was the shining beacon of democracy. Staunch defenders of human rights. *Elsewhere*. Governments were often criticised, loudly, for their infractions. Just not our governments. Poland is not a Bible-reading country but the saw about a mote and a beam was quite popular…
It is hard to keep up the outrage level because there is a new revelation every day, each worse than the one before. Pelosi has her head up her backside and is very shortsighted in her leadership. She is not looking at the long term good, just looking to keep her majority. It’s pathetic; they all need to lose their jobs.
Since impeachment is off the table, the only way I can see for us to recover from this, post-2008, is to put these guys in jail. Please tell me there is hope for this.
“I know it’s difficult to muster a new degree of outrage every time the Bush gang sinks to a new low”
Every morning I wake up and reach for my WaPo and NYT, I find myself facing the very difficult decision between setting my fury and outrage aside and try to concentrate on my dissertation (and if so, HOW??), or spending yet another day writing president@whitehouse.gov, my rep and senators, my friends, ACLU, waxman… Usually it’s the latter, and frankly, my work is suffering.
There seems to be something new everyday–so frequently in fact that justice is having a difficult time keeping up with it all (let’s not forget Justice is itself part of the problem).
Whatever happened to Ted Stevens, the Hunt oil deal, the Whitehouse secret lobby of the EPA to stop the curbing of emissions, the “lost” whitehouse emails, the American weapon smuggling (that ended up in the wrong hands), the firing of attorneys, the hiring of unqualified partisan ppl. for professional unpartisan jobs (ie, head of EPA, FEMA, etc), and so on and so on…
PS: If you want to increase your outrage for the day even more, check out:
Soldier Once Warned Family: Investigate if I die
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CBS_Family_of_gay_soldier_wants_1004.html
Impeachment hearings today; war crimes tribunals tomorrow. All of them, as far down into the bueracracy as they go, must be stopped and never ever allowed to “serve” again.
If Ford had not pardoned Nixon, then a lot more would have come out at his impeachment trial which may have led to trials for many others. If Bill Clinton had not stopped the Dems from looking further into Iran/Contra especially then much would have come to light about many of the current crop of Bushies and they never would have been allowed near this administration.
My depressing guess is that after Hillary is sworn in and the country wants answers to the last 7+ years, she’ll decide it’s not worth pursuing and that there is too much work to do and too much work to undo to pursue any legal investigation, criminal or congressional. And in another 20 years we will be resaddled with many of the current bumper Bushie crop and they will pursue even more executive privelege. And the cycle viciously repeats itself.
If one of the Dem Presidential candidates came out squarely for a post-Bush investigation, with possible criminal penalties and promised war crimes and crimes against humanity charges if the evidence points there. And then said this country needs desperately to excise and cauterize this wound that the Bush/Cheney regime has been on the soulf of our country, our constitution and our soul as a people. He or she might just win the nomination. And the presidency. I know some good and decent republicans who are as appalled as we DFH’s on the left are. And they never ever want to face another administration like this either.
John, do you hear me? Barack? Chris?
Beuller? Beuller?….
Last November’s electoral victories in Congress weren’t worth day-old poop.
I don’t want to seem to be quoting Nader here — a Republican majority would clearly be much more disastrous — but since it takes huge amounts of money to run for Congress, all members are at the beck and call of the corporations which supply them with the “mother’s milk of politics”.
It’s hardly inspiring that your major aspiration has to be limited to “no new further damage”.
The reason impeachment is off the table is because it was used against the Clenis.
It wasn’t taken off the table this year or last, it was taken off the table ten years ago.
What’s the surprise? And how can anyone trust Bush’s explanation or justification of anything. It is time to act together and force Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney to resign before their illegal methods get grandfathered in for future presidents.
See http://www.EnoughIsEnoughMrBush.com
and Prepare for Monday, Nov 5, 2007.