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“reject basic human values and hate the
United States and everything for which it stands.”
V. Prevent Our
Enemies from Threatening Us, Our Allies, and Our Friends with Weapons of Mass
Destruction
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 | Providing accurate, evidence-based, comprehensive, and timely foreign intelligence related to national security; and |
| Conducting counterintelligence activities, special activities, and other functions related to foreign intelligence and national security as directed by the President. |
"... the CIA had been running thousands of operations over the years... there have been about 3,000 major covert operations and over 10,000 minor operations... all designed to disrupt, destabilize, or modify the activities of other countries... But they are all illegal and they all disrupt the normal functioning, often the democratic functioning, of other societies. They raise serious questions about the moral responsibility of the United States in the international society of nations."
- John Stockwell, former U.S. CIA Official, source
Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America
WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to
dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to
assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the
Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the Separation.
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these
Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from
the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles,
and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of
Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to
reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.
Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The
History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries
and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
World.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the
public Good.
…
John Hancock.
…other signatories
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
Membership of the National Security Council
The National Security Council is chaired by the President. Its regular attendees (both statutory and non-statutory) are the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the statutory military advisor to the Council, and the Director of Central Intelligence is the intelligence advisor. The Chief of Staff to the President, Counsel to the President, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy are invited to attend any NSC meeting. The Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget are invited to attend meetings pertaining to their responsibilities. The heads of other executive departments and agencies, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate.Constitution of the United States of America
Article. II. Section. 4.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.Vote To Impeach Bush
High Crimes and Misdemeanors
Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who has acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution, its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no removal.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall
be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery,
or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors. --Article II, Section 4 of The
Constitution of the United States of America
Acts which require the impeachment of President George W. Bush, Vice President
Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld; and Attorney General
John David Ashcroft include:
1) Ordering and directing a proclaimed "pre-emptive", or "first strike" war of
aggression against Afghanistan causing thousands of deaths indiscriminately, a
major proportion non combatants, leaving millions homeless and hungry and
installing a government of their choice in Kabul.
2) Authorizing daily intrusions into the airspace of Iraq by U.S. military
aircraft in violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and aerial attacks on
facilities and persons, on the soil of Iraq, killing hundreds of people
indiscriminately, initially falsely claiming self defense though over a period
of eleven years not a single U.S. aircraft has been struck or damaged by gunfire
from Iraq, but later admitting the targeting of defense installations in Iraq,
as war preparations they ordered progressed.
3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilians
facilities and locations where civilian casualties are unavoidable.
4) Threatening Iraq with proclaimed "pre-emptive", or "first strike" attack and
a war of aggression by overwhelming force and military superiority including
specific threats to use nuclear weapons while engaged in a massive military
build-up in nations and waters surrounding Iraq.
5) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently
proclaiming an intention to change its government by force while preparing to
assault Iraq in a war of aggression.
6) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions,
kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and
physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false statements
concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and violating
within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere,
the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth
Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
7) Authorizing, directing and condoning bribery and coercion of governments and
individuals to cause them to act in violation of their duty and the law,
including to maintain and tighten enforcement of economic sanctions against Iraq
which continue to increase the death rate of infants, children and elderly
persons; to attack and kill designated groups, or persons; to permit use of
land, facilities, territorial waters, or air space for U.S. attacks on Iraq; to
vote, abstain in a vote, or publicly proclaim support for a U.S. or U.N. attack
on Iraq; to defect from Iraq, or to falsely accuse it of weapons concealment to
break down opposition to a U.S. war of aggression; and to reject ratification of
the Treaty creating an International Criminal Court, or reject its jurisdiction
over the United States.
8) Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about the
conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts by U.S. government
personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments with false
information; concealing information vital to public discussion and informed
judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts to obtain
weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate of fear and
destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike attacks by the
U.S.
9) Violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of
America in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and humanity
and war crimes in "pre emptive" wars, first strike attacks and threats of
aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and other nations by assuming powers of an
imperial executive who is not accountable to law and usurping powers of the
Congress, the Judiciary and the people of the United States to prevent
interferences with the unlawful executive exercise of military power and
economic coercion against the international community.
10) Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and
international law in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and
humanity and war crimes in wars and threats of aggression against Afghanistan,
Iraq and others and usurping powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its
nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting, violations
and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which
international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the
exercise of U.S. military and economic power against the international
community.
Ramsey Clark
Former Attorney General of the United States of America
January 15, 2003
1) Ordering and directing a proclaimed "pre-emptive", or "first strike" war of aggression against Afghanistan causing thousands of deaths indiscriminately, a major proportion non combatants, leaving millions homeless and hungry and installing a government of their choice in Kabul.
- Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush ice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John David Ashcroft
“What is called 'capitalism' is basically a system of corporate mercantilism, with huge and largely unaccountable private tyrannies exercising vast control over the economy, political systems, and social and cultural life, operating in close cooperation with powerful states that intervene massively in the domestic economy and international society.”
- Noam Chomsky
Explosive New Book Published in France Alleges that U.S. Was in
Negotiations to Do a Deal with Taliban
Aired January 8, 2002 - 07:34 ET, CNN
“BUTLER: The most explosive charge, Paula, is that the Bush administration --
the present one, just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI
investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal
with the Taliban on oil -- an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.”
“BUTLER: That's the allegation that instead of prosecuting properly an
investigation of terrorism, which has its home in Afghanistan as we now know, or
one of its main homes, that was shut down or slowed down in order to pursue oil
interests with the Taliban. The people who we have now bombed out of existence,
and this not many months ago. The book says that the negotiators said to the
Taliban, you have a choice. You have a carpet of gold, meaning an oil deal, or a
carpet of bombs. That's what the book alleges.”
"The DOD definition of terrorism is "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological."
- TERRORISM DEFINED, U.S. Army, Field Manual 100-20, Stability and Support Opperations, (Final Draft), "Chapter 8: Combatting Terrorism."
Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin
Laden
Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie, Lucy Rounds (Translator), Peter
Fifield (Translator), Nic Greenslade (Translator)
From Our Editors
Did the Bush administration engage the Taliban in secret negotiations just
prior to 9/11, negotiations that directly led to the terrorist attacks? Did the
Taliban then decide to preemptively attack the U.S. before they could be
attacked themselves? The authors of this potentially explosive book claim that
Bush's efforts to secure an oil pipeline that would run from Kazakhstan through
Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean led to a proposed agreement that would have
guaranteed the safe passage of Osama Bin Laden -- already the subject of an
arrest warrant at the time -- to Saudi Arabia. The book contains a startling
revelation by former FBI counterterrorism chief John O'Neill -- who was,
ironically, killed at the Twin Towers -- that the failure of this alliance
between the U.S. and the Taliban directly led to the 9/11 attacks and to the
subsequent military invasion of Afghanistan.
USA: Unocal Advisor Named Representative to Afghanistan
January 3, 2002, Corpwatch
“President Bush has appointed a former aide to the American oil company
Unocal, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, as special envoy to Afghanistan. The
nomination was announced December 31, nine days after the US-backed interim
government of Hamid Karzai took office in Kabul.”
Musharraf, Karzai agree major oil pipeline in co-operation pact
Sat, Feb 09, 02, Ireland.com
“PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN: The Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and
the Afghan interim leader, Mr Hamid Karzai, agreed yesterday that their two
countries should develop "mutual brotherly relations" and co-operate "in all
spheres of activity" - including a proposed gas pipeline from Central Asia to
Pakistan via Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan plans gas pipeline
Monday, 13 May, 2002, 10:20 GMT 11:20 UK, BBC
Afghanistan hopes to strike a deal later this month to build a $2bn pipeline
through the country to take gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and
India.
Mr Razim said US energy company Unocal was the "lead company" among those that
would build the pipeline, which would bring 30bn cubic meters of Turkmen gas to
market annually.
Unocal - which led a consortium of companies from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,
Turkmenistan, Japan and South Korea - has maintained the project is both
economically and technically feasible once Afghan stability was secured.
Afghan Delegates Walk Out in Protest Over Vote
Wed Jun 12, 4:52 AM ET, Reuters
“KABUL (Reuters) - Dozens of Afghan delegates walked out of the Loya Jirga
assembly on Wednesday, saying they were angry about the lack of a free vote to
decide the future of their war-shattered country, including the next president.”
“The Loya Jirga was preparing to vote for a president with Hamid Karzai, interim
leader and U.S. favorite, the sole candidate, prompting protests the
undemocratic.”
Afghanistian: Oil Execs Revive Pipeline From Hell
Oil companies have dreamed of a trans-Afghan pipeline. Are they crazy enough
to pull it off now?
By Daniel Fisher, Forbes.com, February 4, 2002
It has been called the pipeline from hell, to hell, through hell. It's a
1,270-kilometer conduit, 1.2 meters in diameter, that would snake across
Afghanistan to carry natural gas from eastern Turkmenistan--with 700 billion
cubic meters of proven reserves--to energy-hungry Pakistan and beyond. Unocal of
the U.S. and Bridas Petroleum of Argentina vied for the $1.9 billion project in
the 1990s. Now, with the collapse of the Taliban, oil executives are suddenly
talking again about building it.
"It is absolutely essential that the U.S. make the pipeline the
centerpiece of rebuilding Afghanistan," says S. Rob Sobhani, a professor
of foreign relations at Georgetown University and the head of Caspian Energy
Consulting. The State Department thinks it's a great idea, too. Routing the gas
through Iran would be avoided, and Central Asian republics wouldn't have to ship
through Russian pipelines.
Pentagon Changing Color of Airdropped Meals
Yellow Food Packs, Cluster Bomblets on Ground May Confuse Afghans
By Steven Mufson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2001; Page A21
"It is unfortunate that the cluster bombs -- the unexploded ones -- are
the same color as the food packets," said Gen. Richard B. Myers,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said both the packets and the bomblets
were yellow so they would be easily visible.
"Unfortunately, they get used to running to yellow," he said, noting the
possibility that Afghan civilians might mistake a bomblet for a food packet. He
said he did not know how long it would take to change the food packet color.
"That, obviously, will take some time," he said. "because there are many in the
pipeline."
But Human Rights Watch said the Pentagon should stop dropping the cluster bombs,
which it said posed a particular hazard to civilians regardless of the color of
the food packets. Because these weapons spread bomblets over such wide areas and
because the bomblets frequently fail to explode on impact, Human Rights Watch
said, they "cause unacceptable civilian casualties both during and after
conflict."
Afghans are still dying as air strikes go on. But no one is counting
Ian Traynor in Kabul - Tuesday February 12, 2002, Guardian
“There are no official US figures, and nor have the dozens of non-governmental
charities now operating in the country done any independent research.
"Undoubtedly there have been civilian casualties," says a well-informed Afghan
professional working for an NGO mainly funded by the US government.”
“Despite the manipulation of casualty figures for propaganda purposes by both
pro-war apologists and anti-war activists, it is already clear that the number
of civilian dead from the bombing vastly exceeds the estimated 500 killed by US
air strikes during the 78-day Kosovo war, and may also be higher than the 3,200
Iraqi civilians believed killed during the Gulf war.”
"A lot of civilians are clearly being killed or injured. It's definitely in the
four figures," says a UN source.
“A senior MSF worker, who has been in Afghanistan for five years, estimates the
number of civilian dead at between 2,000 and 3,000, based on reports from
hospitals and field workers around the country.”
“Some analysts say more than 60 Afghan civilians are being killed daily on
average since the bombing began on October 7. A European demining expert in
Kabul who works closely with the Pentagon reckons that up to 8,000 civilians
have been killed.”
“In recent days CIA agents have been visiting a southern village doling out
millions of dollars in compensation to relatives of men killed by US special
forces who stormed Uruzgan village, guns blazing, in the hours of darkness on
January 24. The Americans got the wrong men.”
“The raids suggest that the special forces shoot first and ask questions later.
In both villages there were no US deaths although one American sustained a foot
injury.”
“General Basir Salangi, a former Northern Alliance commander who is now Kabul's
security chief, says the Americans should carry on bombing the Pashtun south:
"If they're not al-Qaida, they're the people who supported al-Qaida. They should
be bombed just to frighten them."
6) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush ice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John David Ashcroft
“WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, …”
- Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America"Nothing is more destructive of democracy or peace and freedom through the rule of law than secret criminal acts by government. The fact, or appearance, of covert action by government agents or their surrogates rots the core of love and respect that is the foundation of any free democratic society. Every true citizen of any nation wants to be able to love her country and still love justice. Corrupt covert actions make this impossible."
– U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, source
Backyard terrorism
The US has been training terrorists at a camp in Georgia for years - and it's
still at it
George Monbiot, Tuesday October 30, 2001, The Guardian
“The FBI defines terrorism as "violent acts... intended to intimidate or coerce
a civilian population, influence the policy of a government, or affect the
conduct of a government", which is a precise description of the activities of
SOA's graduates. But how can we be sure that their alma mater has had any part
in this? Well, in 1996, the US government was forced to release seven of the
school's training manuals. Among other top tips for terrorists, they recommended
blackmail, torture, execution and the arrest of witnesses' relatives.”
Suicide attempts up among Guantanamo terror detainees
PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Suicide attempts among terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are on the
rise, the Pentagon said Thursday. A human rights group has called for an
investigation.
At least five detainees at the naval base have tried to hang themselves in the
past three weeks, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind said Thursday
in Washington.
I was tortured by US troops, says Taliban American
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday March 24, 2002, The Observer
Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, the American who fought with the Taliban, claim
he was systematically brutalised and threatened with 'torture and death' after
US troops seized him.
'Mr Lindh's clothes were cut off, his hands and feet were again shackled and he
was bound tightly with duct tape to a stretcher. Still blindfolded and naked, he
was placed in a metal shipping container.'
He remained until about 10 December when, still blindfolded and 'in a state of
complete exhaustion', he was taken to a building or tent, where he was met by an
FBI agent.
'When Mr Lindh asked for a lawyer, he was told there were no lawyers there,' the
defence said.
They added that he talked, because 'Mr Lindh believed the only way to escape the
torture was to do whatever the agent wanted'.
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times
Published: August 27, 2004
WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 - Classified parts of the report by three Army generals on
the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison say Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former top
commander in Iraq, approved the use in Iraq of some severe interrogation
practices intended to be limited to captives held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and
Afghanistan.
Moreover, the report contends, by issuing and revising the rules for
interrogations in Iraq three times in 30 days, General Sanchez and his legal
staff sowed such confusion that interrogators acted in ways that violated the
Geneva Conventions, which they understood poorly anyway.
Military officials and others in the Bush administration have repeatedly said
the Geneva Conventions applied to all prisoners in Iraq, even though members of
Al Qaeda and the Taliban held in Afghanistan and Guantánamo did not, in their
estimation, fall under the conventions.
But classified passages of the Army report say the procedures approved by
General Sanchez on Sept. 14, 2003, and the revisions made when the Central
Command found fault with the initial policy, exceeded the Geneva guidelines
as well as standard Army doctrines.
Afghan prisoners beaten to death at US military interrogation base
'Blunt force injuries' cited in murder ruling
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Friday March 7, 2003
Two prisoners who died while being held for interrogation at the US military
base in Afghanistan had apparently been beaten, according to a military
pathologist's report. A criminal investigation is now under way into the deaths
which have both been classified as homicides.
The deaths have led to calls for an inquiry into what interrogation techniques
are being used at the base where it is believed the al-Qaida leader, Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, is now also being held. Former prisoners at the base claim that
detainees are chained to the ceiling, shackled so tightly that the blood flow
stops, kept naked and hooded and kicked to keep them awake for days on end.
The two men, both Afghans, died last December at the US forces base in Bagram,
north of Kabul, where prisoners have been held for questioning. The autopsies
found they had suffered "blunt force injuries" and classified both deaths as
homicides.
U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations
'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret
Overseas Facilities
By Dana Priest and Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 26, 2002; Page A01
Deep inside the forbidden zone at the U.S.-occupied Bagram air base in
Afghanistan, around the corner from the detention center and beyond the
segregated clandestine military units, sits a cluster of metal shipping
containers protected by a triple layer of concertina wire. The containers hold
the most valuable prizes in the war on terrorism -- captured al Qaeda operatives
and Taliban commanders.
Those who refuse to cooperate inside this secret CIA interrogation center are
sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted
goggles, according to intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogation
methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of
sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights -- subject to what are known as
"stress and duress" techniques.
The picture that emerges is of a brass-knuckled quest for information, often in
concert with allies of dubious human rights reputation, in which the traditional
lines between right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and blurred.
While the U.S. government publicly denounces the use of torture, each of the
current national security officials interviewed for this article defended the
use of violence against captives as just and necessary. They expressed
confidence that the American public would back their view. The CIA, which has
primary responsibility for interrogations, declined to comment.
"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you
probably aren't doing your job," said one official who has supervised
the capture and transfer of accused terrorists. "I don't think we want to
be promoting a view of zero tolerance on this. That was the whole problem for a
long time with the CIA."
Wednesday, July 27, 2005, AP
A National Guardsman testifying at a hearing for U.S. soldiers accused of
killing an Iraq general said he saw classified U.S. personnel beat prisoners
with a sledgehammer handle and mock the general's death, according to a
transcript.
The transcript, obtained by The Denver Post, includes an exchange during the
hearing that suggests the CIA was involved.
Sgt. 1st Class Gerold Pratt of the Utah National Guard said he saw unidentified
U.S. personnel use the 15-inch wooden handle to hit prisoners.
"They'd ask you a question, and if they didn't like it, they'd hit you," he
said, according to the transcript obtained this week by the Post under a court
order. Pratt testified at the hearing in March.
The hearing will determine whether three soldiers from Fort Carson will stand
trial for the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush during an interrogation in
2003.
The soldiers have denied wrongdoing and say commanders sanctioned their actions.
Most identifying information in the transcript was redacted, but one exchange suggests CIA involvement. "To your knowledge, SFC Sommer did not accompany any of these CIA folks?" defense attorney Capt. Michael Melito asked Pratt.
A CIA spokeswoman who declined to give the Post her name would not comment.
THE SECRET WARS OF THE CIA - Part 1
JOHN STOCKWELL, former CIA official, 10 October 1987
We had the `public safety program' going throughout Central and Latin America for 26 years, in which we taught them to break up subversion by interrogating people. Interrogation, including torture, the way the CIA taught it. Dan Metrione, the famous exponent of these things, did 7 years in Brazil and 3 in Uruguay, teaching interrogation, teaching torture. He was supposed to be the master of the business, how to apply the right amount of pain, at just the right times, in order to get the response you want from the individual.
They developed a wire. They gave them crank generators, with `U.S. AID' written on the side, so the people even knew where these things came from. They developed a wire that was strong enough to carry the current and fine enough to fit between the teeth, so you could put one wire between the teeth and the other one in or around the genitals and you could crank and submit the individual to the greatest amount of pain, supposedly, that the human body can register.
Now how do you teach torture? Dan Metrione: `I can teach you about torture, but sooner or later you'll have to get involved. You'll have to lay on your hands and try it yourselves.'
.... All they [the guinea pigs, beggars from off the streets] could do was lie there and scream. And when they would collapse, they would bring in doctors and shoot them up with vitamin B and rest them up for the next class. And when they would die, they would mutilate the bodies and throw them out on the streets, to terrify the population so they would be afraid of the police and the government.
And this is what the CIA was teaching them to do. And one of the women who was in this program for 2 years - tortured in Brazil for 2 years - she testified internationally when she eventually got out. She said, `The most horrible thing about it was in fact, that the people doing the torture were not raving psychopaths.' She couldn't break mental contact with them the way you could if they were psychopath. They were very ordinary people....
United
States: Reports of Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects
HRW: (New York, December 27, 2002) — The Bush administration must promptly
investigate and address allegations of torture of suspected al-Qaeda detainees
or risk criminal prosecution, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to
President George W. Bush, Human Rights Watch said it was “deeply concerned” by
allegations made in the Washington Post that detainees had been subjected to
torture or other forms of mistreatment while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan or
while held by U.S. allies.
“Torture is always prohibited under any circumstances,” said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch. “U.S. officials who take part in
torture, authorize it, or even close their eyes to it, can be prosecuted by
courts anywhere in the world.”
The Post article states that thousands of persons have been arrested and
detained with U.S. assistance in countries known for the brutal treatment of
prisoners. The Convention against Torture, which the United States has ratified,
specifically prohibits torture and mistreatment, as well as sending detainees to
countries where such practices are likely to occur. That would include,
according to the U.S. State Department's own annual human rights report,
Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco, where detainees have reportedly been
sent.
Please see below to read the Human Rights Watch letter to President Bush.
December 26, 2002
II. Possible U.S. Complicity in Torture
It is a violation of international law not only to use torture directly, but
also to be complicit in torture committed by other governments. The Post reports
being told by U.S. officials that “[t]housands have been arrested and held with
U.S. assistance in countries known for brutal treatment of prisoners.” The
Convention against Torture provides in article 4 that all acts of torture,
including “an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in
torture,” is an offense “punishable by appropriate penalties which take into
account their grave nature.”
Secret World of U.S. Interrogation
Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light
By Dana Priest and Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 11, 2004; Page A01
In Afghanistan, the CIA's secret U.S. interrogation center in Kabul is known as
"The Pit," named for its despairing conditions. In Iraq, the most important
prisoners are kept in a huge hangar near the runway at Baghdad International
Airport, say U.S. government officials, counterterrorism experts and others. In
Qatar, U.S. forces have been ferrying some Iraqi prisoners to a remote jail on
the gigantic U.S. air base in the desert.
The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where a unit of U.S. soldiers abused prisoners,
is just the largest and suddenly most notorious in a worldwide constellation of
detention centers -- many of them secret and all off-limits to public scrutiny
-- that the U.S. military and CIA have operated in the name of counterterrorism
or counterinsurgency operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
U.S. Department of State
Initial Report of the United States of America to the UN Committee Against
Torture
Submitted by the United States of America to the Committee Against
Torture, October 15, 1999
In October 1994 the United States ratified the Convention Against Torture, and
Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On November 20, 1994
the Convention entered into force for the United States.
The Initial Report of the United States of America to the UN Committee Against
Torture was prepared in compliance with the guidelines set forth by the UN
Committee. This report covers the situation in the United States through
September 1999 and the measures taken to comply with the guidelines set forth by
the Convention. The report has been prepared by the U.S. Department of State
with the assistance of department and agencies of the federal government.
PART I. GENERAL INFORMATION
Torture does not occur in the United States except in aberrational
situations and never as a matter of policy. When it does, it constitutes a
serious criminal offense, subjecting the perpetrators to prosecution and
entitling the victims to various remedies, including rehabilitation and
compensation. Although there is no federal law criminalizing torture per se, any
act falling within the Convention's definition of torture is clearly illegal and
prosecutable everywhere in the country, for example as an assault or battery,
murder or manslaughter, kidnapping or abduction, false arrest or imprisonment,
sexual abuse, or violation of civil rights.
Mistreatment Of Detainees Went Beyond Guards' Abuse
Ex-Prisoners, Red Cross Cite Flawed Arrests, Denial of Rights
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 11, 2004; Page A01
BAGHDAD, May 10 -- Problems in the U.S.-run detention system in Iraq extended
beyond physical mistreatment in prison cellblocks, involving thousands of
arrests without evidence of wrongdoing and abuse of suspects starting from the
moment of detention, according to former prisoners, Iraqi lawyers, human rights
advocates and the International Committee for the Red Cross.
U.S.-led forces routinely rounded up Iraqis and then denied or restricted their
rights under the Geneva Conventions during months of confinement, including
rights to legal representation and family visits, the sources said.
In a report in February, the Red Cross stated that some military intelligence
officers estimated that 70 percent to 90 percent of "the persons deprived of
their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake." Of the 43,000 Iraqis who
have been imprisoned at some point during the occupation, only about 600 have
been referred to Iraqi authorities for prosecution, according to U.S. officials.
The Red Cross study, posted Monday on the Wall Street Journal's Web site,
concludes that the arrest and detention practices employed by U.S.-led forces in
Iraq "are prohibited under International Humanitarian Law."
US fails to block torture treaty
BBC,
Thursday, 25 July, 2002, 00:22 GMT 01:22 UK
“The United States has failed to block a United Nations treaty on preventing
torture, but the country is under no obligation to adopt the new convention at
home.”
The treaty, which would establish a system of unannounced inspections of prisons
and detention centres, was adopted by 35 votes to eight at the UN Economic and
Social Council, and will now go to the General Assembly for approval.
But even if it is passed here, countries which do not choose to adopt the treaty
will not be subjected to such inspections.
The US hostility to a convention which it would not have to subscribe to is
being seen as a sign of its deep, ideological opposition to multilateral
treaties which it believes would impinge on its sovereignty.
Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
by Seymour M. Hersh
In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of
President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led
America into Iraq. He reveals the connections between early missteps in the hunt
for Al Qaeda and disasters on the ground in Iraq. The book includes a new
account of Hersh's pursuit of the Abu Ghraib story and of where, he believes,
responsibility for the scandal ultimately lies.