Larry Johnson: "This is Oversight?" "Are American's Better than Torturers?"

Are Americans Really “Better Than That?”

By Ray McGovern on December 13, 2007 at 11:36 AM in Torture, Bush/Cheney, counterterrorism


This Is Oversight?

The past few weeks have witnessed an unseemly square dance in Congress, highlighting conflicting claims about what those who are supposed to be overseeing the intelligence community knew and when they knew it—about torture, about Iran, about many things. It is nothing short of an insult to the Founders that members of the House and Senate can find nothing more useful to do than wring their hands over their largely self-inflicted powerlessness.

Lawmakers have been so thoroughly intimidated by the White House that I get physically ill watching the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Bob Graham, and Jay Rockefeller moan about how secretive and nasty the Bush administration has been. Harman complained recently that when she was ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee some of the material (on interrogations) was so highly classified that she had to take a “second oath” to protect it.

What about the solemn oath they all take to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic? Should not that oath transcend and govern others that an administration might require for access to secret materials?

Senator Dick Durbin of the Senate Intelligence Committee has complained that he was aware that classified information did not justify the conclusion in 2002 that Iraq had unconventional weapons, but he could not say anything because it was classified! Durbin explained:

…We’re duty-bound once we enter that room to respect classified information. Everything you hear is supposed to stay in the room…I certainly had enough to know that the statements that were made about mushroom clouds were not the conclusions of someone in the administration who was really being honest about the full debate. But you really know, walking in the room, what the rules of the game will be.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has admitted knowing for several years about the Bush administration’s eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant. She was briefed on it when she was ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee when Bush and Cheney took office. One key unanswered question is this: Was she told that within days of their taking office—that is, seven months before 9/11, the National Security Agency’s electronic vacuum cleaner had already begun to suck up information on Americans—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, not to mention the Constitution, be damned?

(Much more of an incredible read...including how Silvestre Reyes is a Fan of "24" and the comparisons of US Church authorities to those in Nazi Germany)...at
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/12/13/are-americans-really-%e2%80%9cbetter-than-that%e2%80%9d/#more-1156

was going to be killed, would you want the informant tortured to so that you could save your kid?"

So, you have Democrats in Congress who are held to keep quiet on "classified information" or face similar threats (jail might not bother you, but your daughter going to jail and being gang-raped might cause you concern), and the Repukes, with the complicit "liberal media" bang the drums ... "WHY ARE THE DEMOCRATS NOT BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR KEEPING QUIET??? KICK THEM OUT!"

How can we demand that other countries NOT torture Americans held prisoner when WE are torturing their people? And... do you want them torturing your kid? Because if we torture their kids, it's only fair that they be allowed to torture ours.

I'm so sick of the RW and their lack of mental acuity.

I'm so sick of Rambo the Cowboy and his band of macho gunmen.

during the 91 battle ... how the US went totally batshit about the "injuries" on the faces of the servicemen ...

which were incurrec when their craft crashed, and the Iraqis who captured them actually were the ones who treated their wounds ...

"It's against the Geneva conventions!" I remember a lot of people saying ...

Geez, and that wasn't even to the level of the Repukes' idea of "fraternity initiation" ...

It leaves no hideous marks!

:sarcasm:

I remember the outrage... and I'm feeling it again, but against US!!

...when all you've really done is paint a picture of a government so grossly corrupt that we have no choice but to live with it and expect worse. Here's why.

If the Dems were in fact threatened into remaining silent about torture as you suggest, then even a Dem win next year won't fix things. Because there will always be powerful people loyal to the conservative cause who will make an arrest -- or worse -- happen to an elected official or family member if it's ordered, regardless of who's in power.

Is that reality as you see it? If not, then explain to me how, in your scenario, the Dems EVER avoid the possibility of being threatened into silence and inaction when criminality occurs.

As the process of truth and reconciliation, and prosecution, moves forward in South America, the long history of the use of torture as a tool of State Terrorism, and the role of the USA in state terrorism, is coming to light.

More: George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2459135

"Are Americans Better Torturers" is the question of the day.
The are the ones who teach the torturers, the ones with the most experience, it seems.
Declassify the history of US covert activities in Latin America.
NOW is time for the TRUTH in the Americas. This scandal is an opportunity for truth to emerge.