wots a lil torture amngst pals?

[Guest guest]

Congress Scrapped Anti-Torture Provisions at White House Urging

Democratic and Republican Party legislators caved in to White House pressure

last month and deleted a provision in the intelligence reform bill that would

have prohibited the use of “torture or inhumane treatment†by the CIA. By a

96-to-2 vote, the Senate had approved the new restrictions that would have also

“required the C.I.A. as well as the Pentagon to report to Congress about the

[interrogation] methods they were using.†In closed door meetings, White House

officials convinced Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn), Congresswoman Jane Harman

(D-California), Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Congressman Peter Hoekstra

(R-Michigan) to delete the anti-torture provisions before the bill went to the

House. A Congressional Democrat told the New York Times “that the

administration wanted an escape hatch to preserve the option of using tortureâ€

against prisoners held by the C.I.A. In a letter to Congress, Daniel J.

Dell’Orto, the Pentagon’s principal deputy counsel, “criticized as

‘onerous’ and inappropriate other provisions in the measure that would

require the Pentagon to submit annual facility-by-facility reports to Congress

on the status of detainees.â€

 

President Bush’s use of other countries as bases for torture is further

confirmed by a Los Angeles Times story today about a newly released Australian

Guantanamo detainee who was shipped by the U.S. to Egypt where he says, “his

Egyptian captors shocked him with high-voltage wires, hung him from metal hooks

on the wall, nearly drowned him and mercilessly beat and kicked him.†This

week, the Bush administration agreed not to charge him with any crime and to

repatriate him to Australia. Once back in Australia he will be free.

 

There was more embarrassing testimony yesterday damning alleged Abu Ghraib abuse

ringleader, Army Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr. A former detainee testified by

videotape that the torture inflicted on him by Graner was directed by U.S.

intelligence officers. The Washington Post notes that the testimony “depicts a

terrifying prison environment of violence and beatings by U.S. soldiers.

President Bush and defense officials say that the abuse was the isolated work of

rogue soldiers.†No senior officers have been charged in this case

[Guest guest]

It was to be expected with all the other things that have been happening.

 

Jo

wots a lil torture amngst pals?