"USA Torture Day" A MASS waterboarding protest organized nationally for the Mukasey vote? ??

[L. Coyote]

Would you be willing to undergo waterboarding as the Senate Judiciary votes on Mukasey?

How many people around the country and the world would you expect to participate?

We could give the event a jazzy name like "USA Torture Day"

[DS1]

1. I appreciate the sentiment

but if hundreds of people gathered on the Senate steps and waterboarded each other, I'd laugh my fucking ass off

[Sugar Smack]

2. OMG. Your imagination SLAYS me!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :loveya:

[DCKit]

34. Ewwww.... Just got a mental picture of fat, middle aged Repukes in rubber suits all bound up. nt

[L. Coyote]

3. GREAT idea on the steps! And not just on the Senate steps, but everywhere around the world.

Waterboard a friend for lunch!

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

25. There would be some, uh, resistence to volunteerism on that. Perhaps, passerbys would volunteer.

How many people can not recall that one experience of being threatened with the possibility of drowning?

:shrug:

Now, imagine placing your last breath into ANY person's hands, even someone trustworthy. Not in this atmosphere,...not without agreeing in advance, "no more than five seconds"!!!!!

[L. Coyote]

26. The very idea makes the point all by itself. I know I would not be able to do it!

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

29. Those who minimize it are either severely mentally ill or criminally insane.

I am being honest.

ANY human being who even QUESTIONS whether or not "waterboarding" is torture is either severely mentally ill or criminally insane (along the lines of human evil).

THAT is a FACT.

[L. Coyote]

4. 'We Do Not Torture’: The Lies Started in 1967 by Scott Horton = BUSH LIES

November 5, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001600

New York Times, “Branding Rite Laid to Yale University,” Nov. 8, 1967:

NEW HAVEN, Nov. 7–A Yale fraternity accused by the student newspaper of burning its initiates with a brand will have its fate decided Friday by student fraternity leaders.
The fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, could face the temporary closure of its house and a $1,000 fine resulting from alleged violations of rules ...

A former president of Delta said that the branding is done with a hot coathanger. But the former president, George Bush, a Yale senior, said that the resulting wound is “only a cigarette burn.”

[bdamomma]

6. .........

[L. Coyote]

8. .... thanks ...

[L. Coyote]

5. The JAGs Set the Record Straight = "Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal. "

The JAGs Set the Record Straight
BY Scott Horton - Nov4, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001588

Michael Mukasey in his testimony and written responses admits of much uncertainty as to whether waterboarding is illegal. This is scandalous. There is no issue on the subject. In connection with consideration of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the four TJAGs testified that the practice of waterboarding constituted torture and was a criminal act not subject to qualification or privilege. And now four former TJAGs write to support the view taken by their serving colleagues:

November 2, 2007

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Leahy,

In the course of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of President Bush’s nominee for the post of Attorney General, there has been much discussion, but little clarity, about the legality of “waterboarding” under United States and international law. We write because this issue above all demands clarity: Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal.

..................

Sincerely,

Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter, United States Navy (Ret.) Judge Advocate General of the Navy, 2000-02
Rear Admiral John D. Hutson, United States Navy (Ret.) Judge Advocate General of the Navy, 1997-2000
Major General John L. Fugh, United States Army (Ret.) Judge Advocate General of the Army, 1991-93
Brigadier General David M. Brahms, United States Marine Corps (Ret.) Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant, 1985-88

[L. Coyote]

11. Letter from Intelligence, Military, Diplomatic, and Law Enforcement Professionals

Letter from Intelligence, Military, Diplomatic, and Law Enforcement Professionals
By Larry Johnson - http://coffeehouse.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/nov/05/letter_from_intelligence_military_diplomatic_and_law_enforcement_professionals

PREFACE:

A group of distinguished intelligence and military officers, diplomats, and law enforcement professionals delivered an urgent message this morning to the chairman and the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling on them to hold the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey until he takes a clear position on the legality of waterboarding.

Their message strongly endorses the view of former judge advocates general that waterboarding "is inhumane, is torture, is illegal.” The intelligence veterans added it is also a notoriously unreliable way to acquire accurate information.

They noted that the factors cited by the president and Mukasey as obstacles to his giving an opinion on waterboarding can be easily solved by briefing Mukasey on waterboarding and on C.I.A. interrogation methods.

..........................

======================
Of course, that would not solve Mukasey's dilemna. If he says it is torture, he is indicting his new boss for war crimes!

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

30. I still believe the intent was to brainwash people into SERVING as "intelligence".

I have and still believe the "gulags" were created as "manufacturers" of human intelligence.

Both are barbaric. Neither have any record of proven success. To the contrary, human beings have proven somewhat more sophisticated than experimental mice and dogs and monkeys.

I wonder,...

Which would be more appalling to the human psyche: torture or brainwashing?

Both are repugnant.

[derby378]

7. But who's going to volunteer to waterboard ME?

And I don't want to be on the giving end, either. I'd rather not put myself in the mindset of a neo-fascist on such an intimate level.

[L. Coyote]

10. Where are you located? I've been waterboarded too many times to do the victim.

[derby378]

27. Down in Texas

But then again, my better half probably wouldn't approve...

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

28. Thing is,...you would never volunteer unless you felt safe. "Waterboarding" means threat of death.

Obviously.

Incredibly, any ONE equivocates that, "waterboarding" is torture.

THAT. IS. SICK. AS. HELL!!!!!

[L. Coyote]

9. Senate Judiciary Comm., Nov. 6, 2007, 10:00 AM EST. Under the faucet time!

"Executive Business Meeting "
Senate Judiciary Committee - http://judiciary.senate.gov/meeting_notice.cfm?id=3019

An Executive Business Meeting has been scheduled by the Committee on the Judiciary, for Tuesday, November 6, 2007, at 10:00 a.m., in the Senate Dirksen Building, Room 226. By order of the Chairman

AGENDA: Nomination - Michael B. Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States

[L. Coyote]

12. Waterboarding debate goes down the rabbit hole

Waterboarding debate goes down the rabbit hole
November 5th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13483.html


The recent discussion of the U.S. tolerance for waterboarding has been dominated by a certain Alice-in-Wonderland quality lately, but when a top U.S. State Department official can’t even comment on Americans being waterboarded by foreign governments, the debate has officially gone down the rabbit hole. (via Talk Left)

The top legal adviser within the US state department, who counsels the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, on international law, has declined to rule out the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding even if it were applied by foreign intelligence services on US citizens.

John Bellinger refused to denounce the technique, ....

.............. onsider exactly how far we’ve come.

For a century, the official position of the United States has been that waterboarding is torture. Those who utilized the interrogation “technique” are considered war criminals. Indeed, the U.S. government has prosecuted those who’ve used waterboarding since the Spanish-American War.

And now, in 2007, one of the Secretary of State’s top lawyers won’t even say whether the United States considers it problematic for foreign governments to torture Americans.

TP transcribed the relevant portion of the transcript .........

[L. Coyote]

13. Wiki: Waterboarding

Waterboarding
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Waterboarding is a form of controlled drowning consisting of immobilizing an individual on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face to force the inhalation of water into the lungs ... can make the subject believe death is imminent. Waterboarding's use as a method of interrogation or torture is based on its ability to cause extreme mental distress ....

waterboarding ... carries the real risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries as a result of struggling against restraints (including broken bones), and even death ....

.... Numerous experts have described this technique as torture (^ Benjamin Davis. Endgame on Torture: Time to Call the Bluff. "Waterboarding has been torture for at least 500 years. All of us know that torture is going on." et.al. cited). Some nations have also criminally prosecuted individuals for performing waterboarding, including the United States. (Pincus, Walter, "Waterboarding Historically Controversial; In 1947, the U.S. Called It a War Crime; in 1968, It Reportedly Caused an Investigation" Washington Post, October 5, 2006, pg. A17. viewed October 5, 2006) ...

.........

[L. Coyote]

14. Columnist Benjamin Davis: Endgame on Torture: Time to Call the Bluff

Endgame on Torture: Time to Call the Bluff
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/10/endgame-on-torture-time-to-call-bluff.php

-------------
JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says that instead of fighting over whether or not to release newly-reported US Department of Justice memos supposedly endorsing torture, the Bush administration should simply release the Red Cross's report on actual US interrogations of prisoners held at secret so-called CIA "black sites"...
-------------

Once again, secret memos that sanction torture are revealed - and once again the President denies that the United States tortures. The heads of several committees in Congress seek memos giving the impression that they did not know. Ranking Minority Members and the President say they did. What seems missing from this discussion is the facts. So it is time that Americans call the bluff.

In an August 16, 2007 op-ed on JURIST, I demanded as a citizen that the government release the recent International Committee of the Red Cross report to the United States on the CIA "black sites." From Jane Mayer’s article in the New Yorker a few weeks ago, it is clear that the President’s staff and members of Congress have seen that report. From their comments in that article it is clear that the ICRC report recites the fact that torture was (and may still be) done at the CIA black sites.

An earlier report of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Iraq is available from Human Rights Watch and that report discussed some cases that were “tantamount to torture.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross is the relevant neutral entity in the world whose job is to visit persons detained and report back to the detaining country about the conditions. They are key to the system of the Geneva Conventions to help ensure compliance. Unlike our leaders and their lawyers, they know precisely what is torture and call it like they see it.

........

[L. Coyote]

15. Waterboarding Historically Controversial = In 1947, the U.S. Called It a War Crime

Waterboarding Historically Controversial
In 1947, the U.S. Called It a War Crime; in 1968, It Reportedly Caused an Investigation
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer - Oct 5, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402005.html


Key senators say Congress has outlawed one of the most notorious detainee interrogation techniques -- "waterboarding," in which a prisoner feels near drowning. But the White House will not go that far, saying it would be wrong to tell terrorists which practices they might face.

Inside the CIA, waterboarding is cited as the technique that got Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the prime plotter of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to begin to talk and provide information -- though "not all of it reliable," a former senior intelligence official said.

..........

in 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.

"Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) told his colleagues last Thursday during the debate on military commissions legislation. "We punished people with 15 years of hard labor when waterboarding was used against Americans in World War II," he said.

..........

[tomg]

16. I have a good idea

Let's waterboard the Supreme Court first, and then let them vote on whether it is constitutional. Then we can waterboard the directors of the CIA, FBI and NSA and ask them absolutely crazy shit, and then see if they want to go to war based on the answers they give to that crazy shit. Finally, we waterboard George and Dick just cause it might be fun ( but only in their case). Oh, and if it isn't, we'll apologize.

I guess that about covers it.

edit: I forgot slected member of the Judiciary Committee -

[L. Coyote]

17. Excellent ideas. They can all join in. Too bad you can't edit your post after the voting!

Perhaps they would like to volunteer for the Capital steps.

[L. Coyote]

18. Carter says U.S. tortures prisoners ="I don't think it. I know it,"

October 10, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/10/carter.torture/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Carter said Wednesday.

Former President Carter says the U.S. "has abandoned the basic principle of human rights."

"I don't think it. I know it," Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."

Carter also said President Bush creates his own definition of human rights. ......

[L. Coyote]

19. US State Dept: Country Reports on Human Rights - 2005 = torture "submersion of the head in water"

Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs > Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor > Releases
Human Rights > 2005 County Reports on Human Rights Practices > Near East and North Africa
Tunisia
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 8, 2006

Tunisia is a constitutional republic with a population of approximately 10 million, dominated by a single political party ....

The government's human rights record remained poor, and the government persisted in committing serious abuses ...The following human rights problems were reported:

• torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees
• arbitrary arrest and detention
• police impunity
• lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention
• infringement of citizens' privacy rights
• restrictions on freedom of speech and press
• restrictions of freedom of assembly and association

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:

a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
The government or its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings ....
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The law prohibits such practices; however, security forces reportedly tortured detainees to elicit confessions and discourage resistance. The forms of torture and other abuse included: electric shock; submersion of the head in water; beatings with hands, sticks, and police batons; suspension, sometimes manacled, from cell doors and rods resulting in loss of consciousness; and cigarette burns. According to AI, police and prison officials used sexual assault and threats of sexual assault against the wives of Islamist prisoners to extract information, to intimidate, and to punish.

Charges of torture in specific cases were difficult to prove because authorities often denied the victims of torture access to medical care

[spanone]

20. i don't care to be tortured....but i support those that do! i think

[L. Coyote]

21. Open Letter to AG Gonzales = 100 U.S. law professors "waterboarding is torture"

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/06/usdom13130.htm
Open Letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

April 5, 2006

Attorney General Gonzales:

The 2006 Defense Authorization Act, passed by Congress in January 2006, contains new provisions clarifying that all individuals acting under the color of U.S. law categorically are prohibited from engaging in or authorizing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. These provisions were passed by Congress to rectify lack of clarity in regard to detention and interrogation techniques, and to prevent conduct that is prohibited by international law and illegal under domestic criminal law.

We are now writing to urge you to issue a clear public statement about specific legal standards applicable to detention and interrogation of detainees overseas, under this legislation and other existing laws. Such a statement is necessary because, notwithstanding the 2006 Defense Authorization Act, you and other administration officials have not yet made clear statements about the specific legal standards applicable to the detention and interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody overseas. We are concerned that this lack of clarity continues to lead to confusion about the legality of specific interrogation techniques.

We are particularly concerned about your continuing failure to issue clear statements about illegal interrogation techniques, and especially your failure to state that “waterboarding”—a technique that induces the effects of being killed by drowning—constitutes torture, and thus is illegal. We urge you to make such a statement now.

The Convention Against Torture prohibits practices that constitute the intentional infliction of “severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental.” The federal torture statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2340A, similarly prohibits acts outside the United States that are specifically intended to cause “severe physical or mental pain or suffering.”

Waterboarding is torture. .......

[L. Coyote]

22. Human Rights Watch: CIA Whitewashing Torture "Contradict U.S. Law and Practice"

Human Rights Watch: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Nov 21, 2005
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1121-17.htm

CIA Whitewashing Torture
Statements by Goss Contradict U.S. Law and Practice

NEW YORK - November 21 - Porter Goss, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has made misleading statements about the CIA's use of torture and mistreatment of detainees, Human Rights Watch said today. Goss was quoted today in USA Today stating that the CIA does not use torture and that the CIA's interrogation techniques are legal.

"A growing body of evidence shows that the CIA has tortured detainees," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Many interrogation techniques authorized for use by the CIA amount to torture. Their authorization by higher-ranking officials is illegal and potentially criminal."

Goss is quoted as saying: "This agency does not do torture. Torture does not work. We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture."

But contrary to Goss's assertions, the CIA is alleged to have authorized interrogation techniques which do constitute torture, and which the United States has historically considered as such.

A November 18 ABC News report quoted several CIA officials stating .................

[L. Coyote]

23. Democracy NOW: French Journalist Henri Alleg Describes His Torture Being Waterboarded ...

Monday, November 5th, 2007
French Journalist Henri Alleg Describes His Torture Being Waterboarded by French Forces During Algerian War
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1538212

Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript

Three crucial members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said this weekend they would back the nomination of Attorney General hopeful Michael Mukasey despite his refusal to condemn waterboarding as a form of torture. Henri Alleg, an 86-year-old journalist subjected to waterboarding by French troops during the war for Algerian independence, says no civilized country should allow it. Just days ahead of Tuesday’s committee vote, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter joined Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California in supporting Mukasey’s nomination. Mukasey’s confirmation had been in doubt as five of the panel’s ten Democrats had lined up against him after he refused to state categorically that waterboarding is illegal. But Schumer and Feinstein’s support now virtually guarantees that a majority of the committee will recommend his confirmation.

Waterboarding is the practice of pouring water over the cloth-covered face of a prisoner while they are strapped down to induce the sensation of drowning. It’s been used by some of the world’s most repressive regimes, from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to the military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina. The French used waterboarding during their occupation of Algeria in the 1950s and 60s ......

We now turn to a real-life survivor of the Algerian war of independence. Henri Alleg is a French journalist who was arrested by French paratroopers in Algeria in 1957. Alleg was sympathetic to Algerian independence. He was interrogated for a month, questioned under torture, and repeatedly subjected to waterboarding.

Alleg described his ordeal in an essay titled “The Question,” which was published in 1958 with a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. The book was subsequently banned in France and legalized only after the war ended in 1962. Henri Alleg, 86-year-old survivor of torture by French paratroopers, joins me now on the phone from Paris, France.

.............

[L. Coyote]

24. Nov. 18, 2005: CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described. Did they tell all?

CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described
Sources Say Agency's Tactics Lead to Questionable Confessions, Sometimes to Death
By BRIAN ROSS and RICHARD ESPOSITO
Nov. 18, 2005 — http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1322866


Harsh interrogation techniques authorized by top officials of the CIA have led to questionable confessions and the death of a detainee since the techniques were first authorized in mid-March 2002, ABC News has been told by former and current intelligence officers and supervisors.

They say they are revealing specific details of the techniques, and their impact on confessions, because the public needs to know the direction their agency has chosen. ..... portions of their accounts echo the accounts of escaped prisoners from one CIA prison in Afghanistan.

"They would not let you rest, day or night. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. Don't sleep. Don't lie on the floor," one prisoner said through a translator. The detainees were also forced to listen to rap artist Eminem's "Slim Shady" album. The music was so foreign to them it made them frantic, sources said.
....

The CIA sources described a list of six "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" instituted in mid-March 2002 and used, they said, on a dozen top al Qaeda targets incarcerated in isolation at secret locations on military bases in regions from Asia to Eastern Europe. According to the sources, only a handful of CIA interrogators are trained and authorized to use the techniques:

............

[L. Coyote]

31. C-SPAN 3 will broadcast the hearing.

10:00 AM EST LIVE
Senate Judiciary Committee
Attorney General Confirmation Vote

The beginning and end of this live program may be earlier or later than the scheduled times.

http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

[L. Coyote]

32. Highest recommendation: KO's Special Comment: George Bush’s Criminal Conspiracy of Torture

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/05/special-comment-george-bushs-criminal-conspiracy-of-torture

In his latest fire-breathing Special Comment Keith tears into President Bush for firing a true patriot that spoke out against torture, while cowardly and simultaneously ordering others to commit the very same heinous crime.

.........

Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush.

Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush.

..........

Another patriot somewhere, listened as Judge Mukasey mumbled like he’d never heard of water-boarding, and refuse to answer in words that which Daniel Levin answered on a water-board somewhere in Maryland or Virginia three years ago.

And this someone also heard George Bush say “The United States of America does not torture” and realized either he was lying or this wasn’t the United States of America any more, and either way, he needed to do something about it.

Not in the way Levin needed to do something about it, but in a brave way nonetheless.

We have United States Senators who need to do something about it, too.

Chairman Leahy of the Judiciary Committee has seen this for what it is and said “enough.”

.............

[L. Coyote]

33. Great Thread: The Only Way to Stop the Bush/Cheney Torture Program....

The Only Way to Stop the Bush/Cheney Torture Program Is to Cut it out at its Rotten Core
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2211837

[deacon]

35. Jerkbags Schumer and Feinstein planned this. The Cowards

A friday announcement thing so the "activists" didn't have a chance to diss the shit out of them. Keep it at a minimum. Thats what they are made out of.

[L. Coyote]

36. What, activists are now sleeping all weekend? They are not cowards in the least.

They are voting as they see fit just like every other Senator. I respect their views as much as those of the other Dems. This is, after all, a democracy where diversity of opinions ought to be respected. But, aside from that matter of civilized decorum in deliberative assemblage, they have very valid reasons for their positions.

There is a great effort to sew divisiveness among Dems. This is just the latest front in that effort. Thank you very much, but I shall stay on the side of reason and not go along with such hysteria. They are getting plenty of venom, contrary to your assertion.

[L. Coyote]

37. Guardian Unlimited: Mukasey set to be next US attorney general

Mukasey set to be next US attorney general
Mark Tran and agencies
Guardian Unlimited - Nov 6, 2007 - 4.30pm GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2206219,00.html


Michael Mukasey is set to become the next US attorney general after the Senate judiciary committee today voted to move his nomination to the full Senate.

The committee voted 11-8 in Mr Mukasey's favour after two key Democrats accepted his vow to enforce any law Congress might enact against waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

During his confirmation hearings, Mr Mukasey said he found the method repugnant, but refused to declare it illegal. Legal experts said any declaration from Mr Mukasey that waterboarding is illegal would expose US interrogators, as well as their chain of command - possibly including the president George Bush - to possible criminal prosecution.

...........

Mr Schumer said Mr Mukasey was the best choice under the circumstances. "The fact of the matter is, if Mukasey is rejected, we'll have an acting US attorney <-general> who'll do nothing," Mr Schumer said. "So even on the grounds of torture alone, you're probably better off with Mukasey, who said he's going to look at it and study it."

...............

[L. Coyote]

38. Rosa Brooks: Mukasey's black magic on torture

Rosa Brooks: Mukasey's black magic on torture
Nov 6, 2007 - http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/balance/stories/DN-brooks_06edi.State.Edition1.26ee601.html


Maybe it was in honor of the Halloween season.

The Bush administration's Justice Department has been a horror show for years now, complete with gruesome exhibits like the infamous 2002 "torture memo." And in his recent Senate confirmation hearings, the attorney general nominee, Michael Mukasey, seemed determined to honor the department's most ghoulish traditions.

Asked if he thinks "water-boarding" constitutes torture, Mukasey refused to say one way or the other, instead offering up such weird incantations as "if water-boarding is torture, torture is not constitutional." If you dabble in black magic, that statement probably makes sense – but otherwise, it's so much malignant hocus-pocus.

Mukasey can't decide if nearly drowning someone in order to extract information is torture? Life (and law) is full of hard questions, but this is one of the easy ones. Water-boarding is one of the oldest and most classic forms of torture. The Spanish Inquisition used it. Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge used it. During World War II, Japanese soldiers used water-boarding against civilian detainees and U.S. military POWs – and were later prosecuted for this by U.S. military tribunals. Until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took office, the U.S. government and U.S. courts consistently took the position – along with the rest of the civilized world – that water-boarding was torture.

On Tuesday, Mukasey "clarified" his views in a letter that still offers no opinion on whether water-boarding (or any other interrogation technique) might or might not constitute torture. ......

[L. Coyote]

39. Op-Ed by Senator Charles Schumer - Nov. 6 - "A Vote for Justice "

Op-Ed Contributor
A Vote for Justice
by CHARLES SCHUMER - Nov 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/opinion/06schumer.html


I AM voting today to support Michael B. Mukasey for attorney general for one critical reason: the Department of Justice — once the crown jewel among our government institutions — is a shambles and is in desperate need of a strong leader, committed to depoliticizing the agency’s operations.

The department has been devastated under the Bush administration. Outstanding United States attorneys have been dismissed without cause; career civil-rights lawyers have been driven out in droves; people appear to have been prosecuted for political reasons; young lawyers have been rejected because they were not conservative ideologues; and politics has been allowed to infect decision-making.

We are now on the brink of a reversal. There is virtually universal agreement, even from those who oppose Judge Mukasey, that he would do a good job in turning the department around. My colleagues who oppose his confirmation have gone out of their way to praise his character and qualifications. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, for one, commended Judge Mukasey as “a brilliant lawyer, a distinguished jurist and by all accounts a good man.”

Most important, Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign.

................

[L. Coyote]

40. Op-Ed by Linda Chavez: Tortured justice

Linda Chavez: Tortured justice
Nov 6, 2007 - http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/balance/stories/DN-chavez_06edi.State.Edition1.26ec07a.html

Judge Michael Mukasey seemed a shoo-in for confirmation to attorney general when he was nominated in September, but now his nomination seems in genuine peril. Democrats who were quick to praise his stellar credentials are suddenly mum on whether they'll vote for the retired federal judge .....

The Democrats' newfound reservations center on Mukasey's testimony at hearings in mid-October and subsequent written answers he provided committee members this week in which he refused to declare waterboarding torture and therefore illegal.

..........

It is widely believed that the CIA subjected Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man who directed the suicide-hijackings that killed some 3,000 persons on September 11, 2001, to waterboarding when he was captured. We don't know for sure because such matters are classified. The Bush administration has said that Mohammed's interrogation, by whatever methods, has yielded invaluable intelligence that interrupted plots in progress and saved countless lives.

Let's assume for the moment both assumptions are true: Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding and he gave up information that allowed the U.S. to prevent more attacks. Would the Democrats really prefer that a U.S. attorney general declare this a violation of U.S. law, even without knowing the exact circumstances of what was done? Wouldn't he then be obligated to launch an investigation into who conducted the interrogation and prosecute them? And what if the president personally authorized waterboarding?

.........

[robinlynne]

41. They did it this past weekend for Feinstein.

[L. Coyote]

42. On "USA Torture Day" this news: Torture Case against Private Military Contractor to Go Forward

It is official, with the vote on Mukasey, this really is USA Torture Day (I do so decree :rofl:).
And now, late in the day, this news emerges. There will be a torture trial for abuses in Iraq, in the military investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

====================
Major Case against Private Military Contractor to Go Forward
Corporation Responsible for Interrogations at Abu Ghraib Will Be Tried by Jury for Torture
http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/corporation-responsible-interrogations-abu-ghraib-will-be-tried-jury-torture


November 6, 2007, New York, NY – In a key victory in the war against torture, today a federal court ruled that the lawsuit against a private military contractor in Iraq should be heard by a jury of Americans. The action was filed in 2004 against CACI and Titan, both of which were named in the military investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Center for Constitutional Rights, Burke O’Neil LLC, and Akeel Valentine PLC brought the suit as a class action on behalf of the hundreds of Iraqi torture victims. The same firms filed an action on October 11 against Blackwater USA for the killing of innocent bystanders at Noori Square in September.

The court today ruled that the case could go forward against CACI, whose employees worked as interrogators in the prison. The court found that that there was a dual chain of command where corporate employees were obliged to report abuse up the chain of command at CACI. The court dismissed the claims against Titan, whose employees worked as translators, reasoning that the military exercised exclusive control over the translators.

Susan L. Burke, of Burke O’Neil LLC, stated, “We are delighted that a jury of Americans will soon be deciding whether an American corporation is free to torture prisoners.”

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated ....

......

[L. Coyote]

43. NY TIMES: Mukasey Wins Vote in Senate, Despite Doubts

By CARL HULSE - Nov 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/washington/09mukasey.html


The Senate confirmed Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general Thursday night, approving him despite Democratic criticism that he had failed to take an unequivocal stance against the torture of terrorism detainees.

The 53-to-40 vote made Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge, the third person to head the Justice Department during the tenure of President Bush, placing him in charge of an agency that members of both parties say suffered under the leadership of Alberto R. Gonzales.

Six Democrats joined 46 Republicans and one independent in approving the judge, with his backers praising him as a strong choice to restore morale at the Justice Department and independently oversee federal prosecutions in the final months of the Bush administration.

Thirty-nine Democrats and one independent opposed him. ......