Interrogation Tactics Were Challenged at White House

[cal04]

Source: Washington Post

Five years ago, as troubling reports emerged about the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a career lawyer at the Justice Department began a long and relatively lonely campaign to alert top Bush administration officials to a strategy he considered "wrongheaded."

Bruce C. Swartz, a criminal division deputy in charge of international issues, repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of harsh interrogation tactics at White House meetings of a special group formed to decide detainee matters, with representatives present from the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA.

Swartz warned that the abuse of Guantanamo inmates would do "grave damage" to the country's reputation and to its law enforcement record, according to an investigative audit released earlier this week by the Justice Department's inspector general. Swartz was joined by a handful of other top Justice and FBI officials who said the abuse would almost certainly taint any legal proceedings against the detainees.

Now, their predictions appear to be coming true. A top Pentagon official chose this month to drop charges against a detainee who was roughly interrogated at Guantanamo, and U.S. officials believe it may be difficult to charge him at all. Defense lawyers for a group of alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in U.S. custody have said they plan to raise concerns about harsh techniques used by the CIA and will seek to keep evidence derived from such tactics out of court.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102668.html?hpid=topnews

[MadMaddie]

1. War Crimes plain and simple...

[rfranklin]

5. The use of the phrase "harsh interrogation" is a disgraceful...

reptition of a propaganda euphemism for torture. It's like calling murder "involuntary cessation" because the killer wants to try to soft pedal homicide to the public.

[Frank Cannon]

6. This.

The international joke we call "The American Media" is chock full of these cute little euphemisms for almost every atrocity this administration has committed.

[Jefferson23]

2. May the lawsuits begin!

[LeighAnn]

4. May the Prosecutions Begin!!! n/t

[truthisfreedom]

3. bushco has endangered the US by forcing us into the position of releasing potential terrorists back

into the wild. IMPEACH!

[Solly Mack]

7. So..someone objected during the Torture Team meetings

think about that

during meetings held at the White House to discuss the different forms of torture available to be used on different people, someone objected - because torture taints legal proceedings

Now, I realize I'm supposed to cheer that someone objected...still

while conducting meetings at the White House to decide which torture method to use on which person....

I'm not quite ready to move on from that aspect of the statement to do any cheering

and another thing

this part here

"...to alert top Bush administration officials"

We already know the WH held Torture Team meetings,said team made up of "top Bush administration officials"...which means the WH didn't need to be alerted to the program of abuse and torture since it was the WH program to begin with....
so no one objecting was going to be heard anyway...

[happygoluckytoyou]

8. GEE... WE'RE REALLY SORRY.... WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN... (wwII us internment?)

SEE WE REALLY ARENT LIKE THAT.... WE ONLY CHANGE THE RULES... WHENEVER WE WANT...

then we apologize..... SORRY!!!!!

and then we critique the rest of the world.... "oh...look at what they do!!!"

slavery?
blacklisting?
death penalty?

DONT KID YOURSELF.... THE WEALTHY BREAK THE RULES... THEN REWRITE HISTORY

[LynnTheDem]

9. America embraces war crimes and torture, disappearing people,...

...every single thing George W. bUsh accused Saddam Hussein of, in fact.

[EFerrari]

10. Found a factlet this morning. Eight detainees are known to have died

in US detention so far -- this is per the congressional hearing on Wednesday on detainee treatment and trials.

Compare that with 83 undocumented workers who have died in ICE custody since 2004.

This stuff is so much closer to us than we think.