A Message from the ACLU

[ZenDog]

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Oliver Stone, Rosie Perez, Philip Glass and a host of talented performers have come together to expose something our government tried to keep secret from the American people.

The Bush torture memos brought to light by the ACLU reveal a systematic program of torture so appalling that it would be a moral outrage to let those who authorized it escape a criminal investigation.

Watch the Tortured Logic video now and send it to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Reports in Newsweek and the LA Times indicate that Attorney General Holder is on the verge of appointing an independent prosecutor to investigate CIA abuses committed during the interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody.

Unfortunately, the reports indicate that the investigation may be limited to low-level CIA operatives who went beyond techniques authorized in the “torture memos,” letting high level government officials who commissioned and authorized “enhanced interrogation techniques” off the hook.

It is absolutely critical for Attorney General Holder to know that the American people support a full investigation -- wherever the facts may lead -- and that those who authorized these horrific violations of human rights must be held accountable.

Please watch the Tortured Logic video now. Then send it to Attorney General Eric Holder and ask that he appoint an independent prosecutor.

The dedicated and talented group of individuals in our video came together to draw dramatic attention to the tortured logic that allowed unconscionable and illegal acts to be carried out in our name. Please join them in calling for justice by watching the video and making sure Attorney General Holder hears the call for a thorough criminal investigation by sending him the video.

As the Tortured Logic video arrives in his in-box from every corner of our nation, the Attorney General will understand just how determined we are to make sure that those who authorized torture are held accountable.

Ask the Attorney General to see for himself -- forward the Tortured Logic video to Eric Holder.

We have an opportunity right now to show the world that the United States can and will live up to the standards written in our Constitution.

Through our decisive action in support of justice and the rule of law, we can prove again that we are a great nation.

So please, take a moment and share this with Eric Holder as he makes this important decision.

Thanks for all you do. We are proud to have you standing with us.

Sincerely,



Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director, ACLU




© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004

[funesthememorious]

More info can be found at Indict Bush Now

The Washington Post lead editorial on July 27 called for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a prosecutor to "look at the facts and apply the law" for the "violent deaths of detainees" in U.S. custody.

This is a remarkable development. The pressure to appoint a prosecutor will not go away until justice is served.

Once the prosecution opens, it will lead inevitably to the doorsteps of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. It was they who ordered the torture, secret assassination teams, the breathtaking massive spying operation against the American people and, most importantly, launched a war of aggression in Iraq that led to the deaths of nearly 1 million people at the cost of nearly $2 trillion.

[Kittycat]

Done.

[TeeBubbaDee]

Done

[TeeBubbaDee]

This post has been here since early this morning, and only 5 responses. What a sad statement.

[darroll]

I’m not popular on this site so I will let it rip. (will try and keep it less than a paragraph, no-one reads past that anyway).
When this torture crap came out, I went to all of the web sites that had been supposedly leaked (pictures).
I found one guy hanging upside down and one that had a pair of women’s panties over his head. That’s torture? (these were the leaked SECRET pictures)
When I went to anti-torture school none of these alleged types of torture was discussed. Water-boarding was given to our special services as training.
Whoever started this torture crap knew nothing about torture, they found a way to go after Cheney.
The types of torture that they taught us in school were never mentioned. I don’t want a bed in Leavenworth so I will keep my mouth shut. Yes torture works, but it’s like me torturing my lover.
She will give me about 35 names and I still have to figure out who the varmint was.
Get off Bush and Cheney’s asses. No wonder congress did not do anything. They knew what happened by the many briefings that they got. Now they deny these briefings..
Good Day

[ZenDog]

I think you misunderstand the depth and breadth of the problem or its severity there darroll. The clowns the CIA hired as subcontractors were nothing but cover. They had psych degrees, and apparently no experience in torture.

they were cover I said. A method of denial.

I could show you how to conduct torture right in public; how to undermine a victim's system of belief, deprive them of sleep, instill terror, and push them to kill either themselves, others, or both. With practice I might even develop the finesse to arrange such outcomes on cue.

You should pay attention Darroll, because this shit simply cannot continue.

[ZenDog]

And thanks everyone, for your participation.

d. winter

[TeeBubbaDee]

I said it before, and I'll say it agine. Sad statement.

[darroll]

I don’t deny torture as I was not there. Why don’t they punish the perpetrators instead of trying to nail Cheney.. pure hatred.
They claimed that they had pictures, where are they?
How could Bush and Cheney be prosecuted?
That soldier accused of shooting civilians was tried.
Why didn’t they go after the President and Vice-President instead of the soldier.
Modern torture is:
They don’t touch the suspect. And it works. Study torture instead of trying to blame the wrong people. (Water boarding is like you taking your model A to a NASCAR race) What I mean is, they don’t use it much anymore. I wish they would quit guessing about torture.
Torture sure sold a bunch of newspapers and that was the point I was making..

[ZenDog]

Why don’t they punish the perpetrators instead of trying to nail Cheney.. pure hatred. . . . Water boarding is like you taking your model A to a NASCAR race

There is an arguement for prosecuting the perpetrators - the question really hinges on whether or not they acted in the good faith belief that because the admin claimed it was legal it must be so. What Bush/Cheney attempted to do was to make torture a part of national policy.

Bush/Cheney also behaved in a criminal manner in several other areas during their tenure. There were, I think, 9 states atttorney's general they fired for simply political reasons. Attempting to hijack the legal system to serve not the cause of Justice but rather to serve political ends is wrong. It is a form of sabotage of our entire system of governance.

As far as waterboarding goes, I'm sure it is a form of torture, and I'm sure that if anyone waterboards you 187 times you'll say anything, do anything, just to make it stop. Just because we have much more refined methods to induce pain and suffering doesn't mean the old methods are any less . . . . torturous.

Prosecuting those within the Bush/Cheney admin isn't a matter of politics or hatred. It's a question of can we be honest with ourselves, closely examine the actual, documented path toward fascism employed by other regimes of the last century, and acknowledge that yes, it is a possibility within the American system of governance, that possibility remains open to the unscrupulous of any political persuasion, that path has certain legal barriers that anyone in such a pursuit must hurdle, and that the only way to ensure we as a nation do not follow that path is to ensure that when those legal barriers are hurdled, those who hurdle them will be held accountable - and they will be held accountable regardless of political affiliation or business connections.

[Tracygirl1]

Thank you for posting this!!! I have forwarded to Eric Holder.

[Slayer Dug]

Where's the outcry over the kidnapping and murder of innocent civilians by the jihadist arm(s) of the Islamofascists?!!!!? Nobody cares.

Where's the outcry over Israel's 60+ year occupation of Palestine?
Nobody cares.

Where's the outcry over the mass atrocities committed by Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and the Israeli Army?
Nobody cares.

Where's the outcry over the monkey trials of the opposition forces by the Iranian government?
Nobody cares.

It seems that all everybody cares about is vilifying the last administration. I know they abused "Executive Privilege" more than any previous administration but let us not forget that during W's two terms as President, The House and The Senate both passed The Patriot Act, raised taxes, relaxed regulations that would safeguard workers and consumers and decided to stray from the concentrated goal of battling Al-Qaeda and The Taliban in Afghanistan by toppling the secular regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq thereby setting the stage for sectarian and militant violence.

Don't forget that the jihadists could care less whether you're a gun toting bible thumping conservative for Christ or a sniveling
left wing commie liberal for Jesus. They despise everything that the west and the U.S. in general stand for. Their religion of dirt worshipping condones their violence and murder. Screw the 'torture memos'. Being held captive, tortured and murdered by the jihadists is a far worse fate than waterboarding.