Kabir,



Thanks for the forward. I think this one is another case of too little too late and the analysis is that this information from Mr Bush is really quite vague. I am afraid that after all the horrible tortures that this administration has sanctioned and which is still ongoing, this is just another attempt to fool people and it is so tragic.

Jabou


-----Original Message-----
From: Kabir Njaay <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 6:10 am
Subject: Fwd: Bush sanctions CIA torture program



Bush sanctions CIA torture program 
 
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/tort-j23.shtml 
 
By Jerry White 
 
23 July 2007 
 
President Bush signed an executive order Friday clearing the way for the 
Central Intelligence Agency to resume the use of "enhanced interrogation 
measures" against alleged terror suspects held in US facilities around the 
world. 
 
The order, which was issued in conjunction with a classified list of 
approved interrogation techniques, is designed to provide a legal sanction 
for physical and psychological torture, and protect CIA operatives from 
being charged with war crimes for violating US and international laws 
against inhumane treatment. 
 
The CIA reportedly suspended its program last year as the Bush 
administration's legal justifications for abusing detainees was dealt a blow 
by the US Supreme Court ruling in the case of *Hamdan v. Rumsfeld*, which 
stated that all prisoners in US custody—of any nationality, being held in 
any country—were granted minimal protections by the Geneva Conventions. 
 
Last fall, in order to deflect growing international and domestic criticism, 
Congress passed, with substantial bipartisan support, the Military 
Commissions Act of 2006. The Act instructed the administration to issue an 
executive order stating that any further interrogations would comply with US 
and international law. The Act also established, in law, a procedure of 
drumhead military commissions, after *Hamdan* invalidated the Bush 
administration's previous procedure. 
 
The order publicly prohibits "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" as 
well as acts of sexual humiliation and those intended to denigrate religious 
beliefs—two widely used methods whose exposure provoked an international 
outcry. However, the order places no restrictions on such notorious 
techniques as the use of stress positions, sleep deprivation, extreme 
temperatures and so-called water boarding, which simulates the sensation of 
drowning. These techniques are expressly prohibited by the US military. 
Moreover, administration officials admit there are no provisions for 
allowing the Red Cross to visit CIA facilities or for prisoners to be in 
contact with their families. 
 
While the list of approved methods remains secret, the Bush administration 
has not ruled out any technique. Administration officials have said that the 
new order will allow the CIA to continue with the same program that was in 
place before. 
 
Noting that the written policies governing the CIA interrogation program 
remained classified and independent organizations such as the Red Cross were 
barred from monitoring the CIA's compliance with its guidelines, Tom 
Malinowski of Human Rights Watch told the *Washington Post*, "All the order 
really does is to have the president say, 'Everything in that other document 
that I'm not going showing you is legal—trust me.'" 
 
Moreover, as Human Rights Watch notes, the order seeks to sanction what is 
an explicitly illegal operation: the CIA's detention and interrogation 
program, which included the kidnapping and "disappearing" of dozens of 
terror suspects and their imprisonment for years inside secret facilities. 
Some prisoners, including those "renditioned" to third countries where they 
are tortured under CIA supervision, remain "disappeared." In June, Human 
Rights Watch and five other human rights groups listed 39 people who remain 
missing, including one detainee, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who recently 
reappeared in Pakistan. 
 
The new order, the Human Rights Watch says, claims that the program "fully 
complies" with US obligations under the Geneva Conventions as long as the 
CIA follows a series of requirements in carrying out the program. "But 
enforced disappearance—the hallmark of the CIA program, involving secret, 
incommunicado detention—is itself inconsistent with the requirement under 
[Geneva Conventions] Common Article 3 that detainees be treated humanely," 
the organization said in a statement on the new order. 
 
"By international human rights and humanitarian law standards, the CIA 
program is illegal to its core," said, Joanne Mariner, terrorism and 
counter-terrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "Although the new 
executive order bars torture and other abuse, the order still can't purport 
to legalize a program that violates basic rights." 
 
With the new order in hand, Bush administration officials have told 
the *Washington 
Post* that suspects in US custody could be moved immediately into the 
"enhanced interrogation" program and subjected to techniques that go beyond 
those allowed by the US military. CIA detainees have alleged that they were 
left naked in cells for prolonged periods, subjected to sensory and sleep 
deprivation, extreme temperatures and sexually taunted. In a briefing with 
reporters senior administration officials said that any future use of 
"extremes of hot and cold" would be subject to a 'reasonable interpretation 
... we're not talking about forcibly induced hypothermia.' 
 
According to the *Post *the secret list of CIA techniques has been the 
subject of intense debate within the highest levels of the US government 
over the last several months, with the State Department seeking to deflect 
criticism of US torture and the Defense Department concerned that CIA 
methods could subject captured US soldiers to similar abuses. At the same 
time, Bush and Vice President Cheney, along with CIA Director Michael Hayden 
have defended the brutal methods, saying the CIA program was one of the most 
effective tools in the so-called war on terror. 
 
Referring to the secret list of approved torture techniques one intelligence 
official told the *Post *that, while Hayden did not get "everything [he] 
might have wanted" in the guidelines, they contained everything the CIA 
needed and "more than was asked for." 
 
The Bush administration is doing an end-run around the Supreme Court 
decision upholding the application of the Geneva Conventions to CIA 
prisoners, as well as widespread public and international opposition to 
torture. In doing so, the administration is counting on the acquiescence and 
complicity of the Democratic Party, which played a key role in the passage 
of the Military Commissions Act that sanctioned military tribunals and the 
indefinite detentions of prisoners, while giving the president explicit 
authority to "interpret" the Geneva Conventions. 
 
The Democrats response to Bush's executive order was predictable cowardice, 
with their central concern being that the continued torture program be given 
an adequate legal and political fig leaf. 
 
Democratic Senator John D. Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence 
Committee, said it was difficult to "determine what the Executive Order 
really means and how it will translate into actual conduct by the CIA." The 
CIA, he said, had to come before the Intelligence Committee "to explain in 
detail how it intends to apply the Executive Order" and the Department of 
Justice had to provide a "full legal analysis" of the interrogation 
guidelines. 
 
"The stakes are too high and the issue too important to provide any comment 
until the Committee has been given the opportunity to fully evaluate the 
President's action," Rockefeller claimed about an administration that has 
consistently defended the use of torture methods. "This careful review," the 
senator concluded, "will be part of the Committee's continuing effort to 
determine whether the CIA detention and interrogation program is necessary, 
lawful and in the best interests of the United States." 
 
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