Torture victims centre wants Bush prosecuted

[Solly Mack]

Former U.S. president George W. Bush should be prosecuted for allowing torture, a Danish centre for torture victims said Friday, reacting to the ex-commander-in-chief's recently released memoirs.

"Especially with waterboarding, Bush tried to hollow out the definition of torture, and he further approved of the United States violating the (international) ban on torture," Tue Magnussen, the advocacy co-ordinator at the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT), wrote in an http://politiken.dk/debat/ECE1107709/danmark-boer-faa-bush-retsforfulgt/&ei=w_XeTIGEOZHIswbyxJD7Cw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBsQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTue%2BMagnussen,%2BPolitiken%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Div">opinion piece published in the online edition of the Politiken daily.

From Politiken

Tue Magnussen says:

"The litmus test on whether Obama will take a break with torture, is not only the exposed closing Guantanamo camp, but also whether there will be prosecution of Bush, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then-Vice President Dick Cheney for their commitment to the harsh interrogation techniques, since 11. September and the war on terror has failed one of the most fundamental human rights, prohibition of torture"

The opinion piece has already been translated for you.(using Google) Not great - but you get the gist.

This is the original language article from Politiken

[SpiralHawk]

1. "But, but, but torture is a Republicon Family Value." - xCommander AWOL (R)

"Our Republicon Family Values thingy totally trumps national and international law, and Christian morality and all that other shit. So you torture victims can just STFU and sit down."

- xCommander AWOL (R) & Dickie 'Five-Military-Deferments' Cheney (R)

[Solly Mack]

11. I often wonder what torture supporters/enablers/apologists do to their children.

[sabrina 1]

2. The voices for accountability are growing.

The Civil Liberties Union.

Rep. Jerry Nadler

Rep. John Conyers

Amnesty International.

Sooner or later maybe enough voices will be raised that this country will finally restore the rule of law for ALL Americans.

[Solly Mack]

6. Maybe

Thanks!

[sabrina 1]

10. I know it's a very optimistic view, but I keep thinking of

South America, Argentina, Chile eg. It took decades but they are bringing to justice their war criminals, and no one thought that would ever happen :-)

[Solly Mack]

15. I keep hope - even if it is teeny tiny...even if prosecutions never happen

I can't just stop demanding that they should or stop reminding people about America's war crimes. To do otherwise is giving the guilty exactly what they want...a free pass.

[sabrina 1]

18. The chances of accountability are raised the more who speak out

So, like you, I keep talking about it also :-)

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

[Solly Mack]

7. Thank you, leftstreet

[leftstreet]

19. I was pleased to see this in the opinion piece >

Through the use of waterboarding in particular tried to undermine the Bush definition of torture, and he also cleared that the U.S. violated the prohibition against torture.

This was largely absent in US opinion media

I remember how ludicrious is was when FOX news reportedly ran segments on examples of waterboarding, 'see it's not so bad!!'

As if that was the sole issue!

FFS

[Solly Mack]

24. I really enjoyed what Magnussen had to say...

Did you see this? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9543889

Juan Mendez is the new United Nations special rapporteur on torture.

[malaise]

4. Bet he never leaves the US ever again in life

Europeans will arrest that pathetic narcissist.

[Solly Mack]

8. I want pressure to build.

That would be help.

[EFerrari]

14. I got an email this morning from friends whose ImpeachBush project

simply repurposed to IndictBushNow.



They are taking huge banners to all his book signings and invite people to schedule demonstrations with them if he shows up anywhere. I love them to death.

[greytdemocrat]

20. Damn!

I bet Bu$h is shaking in his cowboy boots now!!! :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

21. Pinochet laughed, too.

:)

[greytdemocrat]

29. Good point...

but it still won't happen.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_t9D_ovmGhQE/SumWbufJXDI/AAAAAAAAbnM/bh21MrukK28/s400/Charlie+Brown+Lucy+football.jpg

[EFerrari]

32. Well, I'm with Solly Mack.

Maybe this criminal will never be brought to justice. But I'm not blowing it off and he'll have to live the rest of his life knowing there are people working to bring him to justice. If that's all that can be done, that's fine with me.

[greytdemocrat]

36. You really think he cares???

I seriously doubt Bu$h loses a second of sleep over this. And with the current group in power he is quite secure in thinking this in this country. As for anyone "arresting" Bu$h overseas, all I can politely say is get real. The SS would have them filled with lead. It isn't going to happen and any efforts are in my mind a waste of time and money.

[EFerrari]

37. I don't do this because he cares.

I do it because I do. :)

[greytdemocrat]

43. Fair enough! n/t

[chill_wind]

5. K & R.

[Solly Mack]

9. As always

Thank you chill_wind!!!!!

[EFerrari]

12. Thanks, Solly Mack.

K&R

[Solly Mack]

16. Thanks, EFerrari!

[gratuitous]

13. Our insignificant voices have been joined

By congressmen in the outgoing majority (darn the luck, just when they won't have any power!); a thoroughly discredited group, the ACLU; and now a Danish group.

I'm sure Bush and his henchmen are shaking in their loafers.

[Solly Mack]

17. Bush isn't the least bit concerned. No reason for him to be..

America is too corrupt to prosecute and too cowardly & corrupt to extradite.

But that doesn't mean I'm forgetting.

[noise]

25. Look at the multi-agency collusion

This wasn't limited to the White House. For example the DoJ report that cleared OLC lawyers of criminal conduct.

[Solly Mack]

26. I agree.

[noise]

28. The Bush book tour

demonstrates the media's unwillingness to question the torture narrative. Bush keeps claiming torture was an effective last resort. Why on earth should we believe him?

We have FBI agent Ali Soufan on record stating that legal interrogation methods were getting results.

Here is CIA agent John Kiriakou on torture from his book:

What I told Brian Ross in late 2007 was wrong on a couple of counts. I suggested that Abu Zubaydah had lasted only thirty or thirty-give seconds during his waterboarding before he begged his interrogators to stop; after that, I said he opened up and gave the agency actionable intelligence. I wasn't there when the interrogation took place; instead, I relied on what I'd heard and read inside the agency at the time. Now, we know that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded eighty-three times in a single month, raising questions about how much useful information he actually supplied. In retrospect, it was a valuable lesson in how the CIA uses the arts of deception even among its own.

One of Zubaydah's lawyers challenges the notion that Zubaydah was even associated with al Qaeda:

For many years, Abu Zubaydah's name has been synonymous with the war on terror because of repeated false statements made by the Bush administration, the majority of which were known to be false when uttered. On 17 April 2002, <...> President Bush publicly announced that Zayn had been captured: "We recently apprehended one of al-Qaida's top leaders, a man named Abu Zubaydah. He was spending a lot of time as one of the top operating officials of al-Qaida, plotting and planning murder."

Zayn's capture and imprisonment were touted as a great achievement in the fight against terrorism and al-Qaida. There was just one minor problem: the man described by President Bush and others within his administration as a "top operative", the "number three person" in al-Qaida, and al-Qaida's "chief of operations" was never even a member of al-Qaida, much less an individual who was among its "inner circle". The Bush administration had made another mistake.

The truth about Abu Zubaydah by defense counsel Brent Mickum

The US public has been sold on the notion of a good faith torture program. Has there ever been a good faith torture program?

[Solly Mack]

30. Oh..don't get me started on "good faith" torture. I about explode each time I see that

bullshit excuse for war crimes.

The US has prosecuted people for waterboarding. The US State Department has put out their report on human rights specifically calling out other countries that waterboard...and the US State Department calls it what it is (torture) in their reports.


But suddenly...we're supposed to believe the CIA didn't know the law...that the DOJ didn't know the law...that Bush Inc didn't know the law...and that's what we would have to believe to buy into the "good faith" bullshit.

[EFerrari]

33. DoJ, DoS, DoD, a lean mean torturing machine.

And don't forget our august House and Senate who pretended to be outraged but passed Military Commissions and of course, our free press that catapulted the propaganda.

[gratuitous]

42. Me neither

I hope to live to see some of these crimes against humanity prosecuted.

[Solly Mack]

44. I hope I do as well.

[EFerrari]

22. Fyi, in addition to the demonstrations in Dallas this weekend

(to "celebrate" the Bush "library" dedication), there will be an Amnesty International student conference in London and Andy Worthington will be on panels there. Might be interesting to check the post game show.

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/11/08/andy-worthington-and-gareth-peirce-on-guantanamo-and-uk-anti-terror-laws-at-amnesty-international-uk-student-conference-london-november-13-2010/

[Solly Mack]

23. Thanks!!

[spanone]

27. it needs to happen

[Solly Mack]

31. It does indeed.

[Forkboy]

34. K&R

[Solly Mack]

39. Thank you, FB

:)

[Greyhound]

35. So do millions of Americans. Unfortunately,

we have no representation among those that refuse to enforce the law. Covering up their own complicity takes precedence over their feigned patriotism.
:kick: & R

[Solly Mack]

40. Thank you, GH

[Jeffersons Ghost]

38. K&R

[Solly Mack]

41. Thank you, JG

[EFerrari]

45. Kick

[Skittles]

46. they need to LOOK FORWARD!

according to our current prez

[Solly Mack]

47. Hard to look forward when the war criminals that benefit

from such a narrative keep bragging about their war crimes all over the country. That's got to be a wee bit uncomfortable. Course, one could just ignore the confessions of war crimes....