George W. Bush 'knew Guantánamo prisoners were innocent'

By GottaLaff

Tell me if you've heard this one before. Oh wait, you have, because it's exactly what I've been writing about for months regarding Lt. Col. Barry Wingard's client Fayiz al-Kandari.

The difference is, now Colin Powell's former aide Larry Wilkerson is saying it, right out loud:

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.

Of course, the Obama administration would rather not look back, only forward. I have a feeling that may change one day soon, the way evidence has been mounting against BushCo. If they ignore this information, then we have a real problem.

Wilkerson's recounting of what happened is nearly identical to Fayiz's story:

[T]he majority of detainees — children as young as 12 and men as old as 93, he said — never saw a US soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been taken.

Bingo.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, and even Bush himself were in on it, per Wilkerson. Re: Cheney...

“He had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees were innocent ... If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it.”

He alleged that for Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld “innocent people languishing in Guantánamo for years was justified by the broader War on Terror and the small number of terrorists who were responsible for the September 11 attacks”.

Just. Go. Read.

****

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

H/t: Tosfm

Torture Suit Naming Rumsfeld Clears Hurdle

By GottaLaff

Heavens to Betsy! Land-o'-Goshen! My stars!

A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm.

U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen's ruling did not say the two contractors had proven any of their claims. But it did say they had alleged enough specific mistreatment to warrant hearing evidence of exactly what happened.

Boy howdy! Cheese and crackers! Gracious!

While in custody, they were subjected to sleep deprivation, long hours of interrogation, blasting music, threats, hunger and a practice known as "walling" in which subjects are blindfolded and walked into walls, according to the suit.

The suit describes such practices as forms of torture and alleges Rumsfeld personally took part in determining such methods were acceptable for use by the military in Iraq.

Good night! Good gosh 'n' golly! Good call.

VIDEO: The day "Rumsfeld" became a verb, courtesy of Lindsey Graham

By GottaLaff



Rummy's been a dirty word to us for a long time. Now his name is being bandied about by the likes of Li'l Lindsey.

Don't Rumsfeld me, bro'!

Rumsfeld to 'face difficulties' over Gitmo: UN expert

By GottaLaff

How'd I miss this one?

Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld could soon be in trouble for the role he played in human rights abuses committed in the Guantanamo prison, a United Nations expert said Wednesday.

"In a year or two, his responsibilities will be established. Wherever he goes, he will face difficulties," Leandro Despouy, who is Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, told journalists in Geneva.

Nothing earth-shattering here, but always makes for enjoyable reading.

H/t: BuzzFlash

VIDEO-- Jack Cafferty: "The Muslim world could have interpreted [the Rumsfeld bible briefings] as a religious war"

By GottaLaff



But Nancy Pelosi is the one everyone's talking about. Yeah, that's logical. (Sheldon Whitehouse just said that she's "been the victim of a political stunt" on The Ed Show. He, like Ed, believes there will be a Truth Commission, that it will be unavoidable after all the various intel reports come out.)

Rumsfeld's Bible Briefings

By GottaLaff

In my Frank Rich post, there was a link to the article discussed here, but here it is again, in case you missed it. Good lord (no pun):

A must-read GQ piece reveals never-before-seen cover sheets from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's top-secret intelligence briefings, which feature Bible passages thematically selected to correspond with war events. Despite objections within the Pentagon to the cover sheets, these reports were distributed daily to a limited group, including the president.

Frank Rich: "They are seriously creepy."

Other key tidbits from the piece:
Rumsfeld played a significant role in delaying parts of the administration's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster areas.

Rumsfeld was among a group within the administration who successfully fought a recommendation to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA).

President Bush was hesitant and slow to act on the dismissal of Rumsfeld even when counseled to do so by his close advisers.

Who wants to throw Rummy into a not-so-padded cell at Gitmo? Hands? It's unanimous.

Donald Rumsfeld doesn't know how to ride a bus

By GottaLaff

Dummy, scummy Rummy in simpler times

For some godforsaken reason, Rummy has been on my mind today. Needless to say, I have been irreparably damaged as a result. But this has made it so, so worth it:

Here in DC, we have a rechargeable plastic farecard for the Metro system’s bus and subway lines. It’s called a SmarTrip. You wave it over a fare reader; it deducts the appropriate amount for your trip; and you go about your travel. This was a concept lost on the former defense secretary, according to Raw Story’s John Byrne, who’s going off a subscription-only Roll Call report. Last Thursday Rumsfeld apparently didn’t do such a great job of catching the No. 42 bus at Dupont Circle.

“It was almost like the guy at the first day of work,” [Roll Call]’s source remarked. “He was looking at the card, thinking, ‘How does this work?’”

Goodness gracious, land-o'-Goshen, heavens to Betsy, my stars, good gosh 'n' golly, someone teach this guy how to get on a bus!

Then again, as we all know, "there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

So you see? That explains everything.

VIDEO-- U.N. official: Enough evidence to prosecute Rumsfeld for war crimes

By GottaLaff


This video is from CNN's Newsroom, broadcast Jan. 26, 2009.

Monday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak told CNN's Rick Sanchez that the US has an "obligation" to investigate whether Bush administration officials ordered torture, adding that he believes that there is already enough evidence to prosecute former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Original (videoless) post here.

U.N. special rapporteur on torture calls on U.S. to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld

By GottaLaff

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease:

In remarks that aired on German television last night, Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, urged the U.S. to pursue former President George W. Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld on charges that they authorized torture and other harsh interrogation techniques:

“Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation” to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld. […] He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required “all means, particularly penal law” to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.

“We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld,” against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.

Jonathan Turley has called for justice. Keith Olbermann has. Nancy Pelosi has. We have. The nation is practically begging for it. Bush did not issue pre-emptive pardons, so the door is wide open.

Not to mention, setting a terrible precedent by letting the Bush crime family skate at the expense of our democracy would be a real crime in and of itself.

L.A. Times Letter: We the people are culpable

By GottaLaff

A letter in today's L.A. Times:

We the people are culpable

Re “Lawless and soon long gone,” editorial, Dec. 24

Do you have any idea how ridiculous it sounds for you to offer up as a "reckoning" a "scathing report by the Senate Armed Services Committee"? Do you really think that Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld care about that?

I have an idea. The next time a criminal breaks into your house, instead of arresting and prosecuting him, let's just get the Senate to issue a scathing report condemning him and let him get away with that as his punishment. That'll teach 'em!

An impeachment inquiry would be such a nice option (albeit improbable at this point), and it would serve so many purposes: An investigation would bring new information to light (executive privilege doesn't extend to an impeachment inquiry), and also prevent Bush from pardoning anyone else.

Scathing reports may give us some details and soothe a few people, but they don't do much in the way of remedies.

Oh, and then there's that little matter of sending a strong message to future administrations that no president or vice president is above the law.

The Torture Report

By GottaLaff

Rep. Jim Moran (D- Virginia) just said on Hardball that the Obama administration won't move on the substance of this New York Times editorial, because they want to "move on". As the editorial says, it's too "politically fraught". Oy.

Duncan Hunter is on Hardball, too, and calls it "left wing rubbish", because, see, only three people were waterboarded and those three were bad, bad, bad guys who gave us "enormously valuable information that saved American lives" after being tortured. Great logic, Duncan. Moral high ground and real American principles be damned. Double oy.

All but President Bush’s most unquestioning supporters recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services.

Now, a bipartisan report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.

The report shows how actions by these men “led directly” to what happened at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in secret C.I.A. prisons.

It said these top officials, charged with defending the Constitution and America’s standing in the world, methodically introduced interrogation practices based on illegal tortures devised by Chinese agents during the Korean War. [...]

The officials then issued legally and morally bankrupt documents to justify their actions, starting with a presidential order saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners of the “war on terror” — the first time any democratic nation had unilaterally reinterpreted the conventions. [...]

These top officials ignored warnings from lawyers in every branch of the armed forces that they were breaking the law, subjecting uniformed soldiers to possible criminal charges and authorizing abuses that were not only considered by experts to be ineffective, but were actually counterproductive. [...]

These policies have deeply harmed America’s image as a nation of laws and may make it impossible to bring dangerous men to real justice. The report said the interrogation techniques were ineffective, despite the administration’s repeated claims to the contrary. [...]

A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse. [...]

At the least, Mr. Obama should, as the organization Human Rights First suggested, order his attorney general to review more than two dozen prisoner-abuse cases that reportedly were referred to the Justice Department by the Pentagon and the C.I.A. — and declined by Mr. Bush’s lawyers.

Mr. Obama should consider proposals from groups like Human Rights Watch and the Brennan Center for Justice to appoint an independent panel to look into these and other egregious violations of the law. [...]

A good place for them to start would be to reverse Mr. Bush’s disastrous order of Feb. 7, 2002, declaring that the United States was no longer legally committed to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

Moran:

If we don't hold them accountable, we are not the nation the rest of the world wants us to be.

US military conducts a dozen secret strikes in four years: report

By GottaLaff

Believe it or not, Iran was not one of the countries that was targeted:

US special forces have conducted about a dozen secret operations against Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants in Pakistan, Syria and other countries under broad war-waging authority given them by the administration of President George W. Bush, The New York Times reported on its website.

Citing unnamed senior US officials, the newspaper said the authority was contained in a classified order signed by then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in early 2004 with the approval of President Bush.

The order gave the military permission to attack Al-Qaeda and other hostile targets anywhere in the world, even in countries not at war with the United States, without any additional approval, the report said.

Now they tell us. Okay, so they didn't zap Iran. But...

The paper said, however, that US forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives.

About a dozen additional operations have been canceled in the past four years because they were deemed too risky, too diplomatically explosive or relied on insufficient evidence, the paper said.

Before the 2004 order, the Pentagon needed to get approval for missions on a case-by-case basis, which could take days, the paper recalled.

But Rumsfeld was not satisfied with the status-quo and pressed hard for permission to use military power automatically outside the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to The Times.

That Rummy. What a funster, always keeping us on our toes. If only we had known, right? Because, you know, "there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Syrian customs seize 40 Iraqi stolen museum pieces from smugglers

By Paddy


Ah, remember the day?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Declaring that freedom is "untidy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the looting in Iraq was a result of "pent-up feelings" of oppression and that it would subside as Iraqis adjusted to life without Saddam Hussein.

(snip)

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfeld said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here."

Looting, he added, was not uncommon for countries that experience significant social upheaval. "Stuff happens," Rumsfeld said.

Well, it seems the Syrians call those "free people" smugglers, and have decided to take their "untidy" treasures away from them, then send them to jail.

Syrian customs officials on Wednesday seized 40 artifacts stolen from the National Museum in Iraq as they were being smuggled across the border into the country, Syria's official news agency said.

(snip)

Al-Sayyouri said the seized pieces were "rare and would be handed back to Iraq."