Sunday, September 17, 2006

George W. Bush Planned to Commit War Crimes Abroad Even Before 911

Lesson No. One: Bush is thrown into Abu Ghraib, violated and made to wear a dress! A pop quiz for Bush:
Did you feel violated? Did you feel like your "human dignity" had been violated? Did you feel as small as you really are? Did you lose your self-esteem —or only your big mouthed braggadocio? Would you like to repeat the experience?
Remember, George, this is not a "no child left behind" program; there are no right or wrong answers and you will not be coached to "test". You can be honest —for a change.

Seriously —had this nation chosen to lead the world instead of bullying it, GWB would not be standing up —belligerently, arrogantly, desperately —in front of the American people admitting to the world that he does not understand the meaning of the phrase: outrage against human dignity.

This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court’s ruling that said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Genetion, and that Common Article 3 says that, you know, there will be no outrages upon human dignity.

That’s like — it’s very vague. What does that mean, “outrages upon human dignity”? That’s a statement that is wide open to interpretation. And what I am proposing is that there be clarity in the law so that our professionals will have no doubt that that which they are doing is legal. You know, it’s — and so the piece of legislation I sent up there provides our professionals that which is needed to go forward.

—George W. Bush, quoted in the New York Times

I submit that those who perpetrate outrages to human dignity are those who don't know what it is, i.e. "evil doers" who lack human empathy. There is a short of list of such people: Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, Torquemada, Richard Topcliffe, Mao, Mussolini et al.

The matter is open to interpretation only among those —primarily the GOP —who have schemed from the git go to exempt the US from war crimes prosecutions long before the so-called war began. A bill entitled To protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States Government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party was introduced by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) as an amendment to H.R. 1646, The Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2001, on May 8, 2001. It passed the House 282-137 on May 10 and introduced as S. 857 in the Senate on May 9 by Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC), Zell Miller (D-GA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), John Warner (R-VA), Trent Lott (R-MS), Richard Shelby (R-AL), and Frank Murkowski (R-AK).

The bill authorized the President "...to use all means (including the provision of legal assistance) necessary to bring about the release of covered U.S. persons and covered allied persons held captive by or on behalf of the Court [International Criminal Court, ICC, in the Hague]. That means that Bush could attack the Hague to effect a rescue of US war criminals on trial there.

Consider the implications of the timing. This measure was introduced months before 911 —yet, it is clear, that even then Bushco was planning a war. How could Bush have been so sure that he would have the pretext for war if 911 had not been an inside job? Just asking! Waiting for a plausible answer!

So —Bush's attempt to undermine the ICC while subverting the meat and potatoes of the Geneva Convention was and remains pre-meditated. Bush had been planning to commit war crimes and atrocities in Iraq and elsewhere even before 911. Else —why would Tom DeLay and the above named Republicans have "conspired" to introduce this enabling act before the US congress?

Elsewhere it is learned that the authorization for torture came from Bush himself.
Among a new batch of documents rights groups have forced the gov't to release, a Bureau communication refers to a presidential Executive Order endorsing some forms of torture witnessed at Iraq prison. ...The email, which was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, represents the first hard evidence directly connecting the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and the White House. The author of the email, whose name is blanked out but whose title is described as "On Scene Commander -- Baghdad," contains ten explicit mentions of an "Executive Order" that the author said mandated US military personnel to engage in extraordinary interrogation tactics.

President Authorized Abu Ghraib Torture, FBI Email Says, NewStandard

Clearly —Bush either understands what "outrages to human dignity" are and chooses deliberately to perpetrate them; or, indeed, he is utterly lacking human empathy and truly does not know what every other human being on earth knows. If Bush "unnerstans" human dignity but orders torture deliberately —knowing it to be unlawful even under US Codes —then his recent hysteria is understandable. Bush is culpable and vulnerable to war crimes prosecutions. [See US Codes; Title 18 § 2441. War crimes]

Here are some "human dignity" lessons for the occupant of our increasingly corporate White House:
  • Human dignity means not being electrocuted.
  • Human dignity means not being photographed in a dress while being electrocuted
  • Human dignity means not having a night stick —or worse —shoved up your rectum by a perverted Halliburton contractor who thinks he's above the law
  • Human dignity means not being photographed naked in a pile of naked bodies while rolling in excrement.
  • Human dignity means not being posed in homosexual positions and photographed by perverted Pentagon personnel and/or defense "contractors" from Halliburton or elsewhere.
  • Human dignity means not being water boarded until willing to confess to anything whether true or not
  • Human dignity means not having your privates played with by US soldiers who think its funny or get a perverted thrill out of it
  • Human dignity means not having US troops and/or Halliburton paid killers knock down your door and murder you and your family [Marines hid evidence of Haditha massacre]
  • Human dignity means not having your head blown off in Shock and Awe whether you liked Saddam or not
  • Human dignity means forcing war criminals out of your country.
  • Human dignity means not having done to you what the Washington Post reports were done to hundreds, thousands of Bush's victims.
What is it about "human dignity" that Bush doesn't understand...and why doesn't he understand it? Is it because the man who dares to call himself "President" is a mass murdering torturer by proxy?

Bush has repeatedly stated that US torture policies are within the law. I say they are not! Acts perpetrated by the George W. Bush administration upon his policy and direction violated US Codes; Title 18 § 2441. War crimes, our Constitution, our treaty obligations, and, of course, the common values of our Western Civilization i.e., the very values that Bush claims he is defending. In fact, he subverts them; in this, he has been much more successful than "terrorists" which he claims "...just hate freedom".

Torture, moreover, is ineffective, repugnant, an abominable evidence of savergy and barbarism. Civilized nations do not torture. Legitimate administrations do not torture. Intelligence gathered by torture is notoriously inaccurate and misleading. Bush's cruelest lie: that the US is involved in a great war on terrorism. It's a fraud and Bush's own words betray him. Colin Powell, who helped lie this nation into aggressive war, may be trying to atone for his sins.

The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism!

—Colin Powell

I would submit to Powell that the lies he helped tell about Iraq completely undermined the "moral basis" for this war from the start. There is no moral basis for this immoral war.

At last, our war is lost when our behavior is no longer distinguishable from that of terrorists. We have become the terrorists. Pogo said it first: "We have seen the enemy and he is us!"

17 comments:

Ted McLaughlin said...

Bush is not confused, he just wants Congressional approval to continue the torture, so he won't be left swinging in the wind as a war criminal.

I think he needs to be added to your short list of evil-doers.

Unknown said...

He's confused...but not so much so that he is not culpable for the crimes that he had been planning to commit even before 911. In law, that makes all his crimes PRE-MEDITATED! He is "morally confused" but that stems from his utter "lack of empathy" which Dr. Gustav Gilbert identified as the source of pure evil in the world.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe for a minute that Bush is really confused - he has an extensive retinue of toadies and lickspittles to ensure he's not. He has an egregious pet Attorney General charged with his legal protection to ensure he's not. He understands perfectly the meaning of outrages on human dignity. It just happens that's the article selected so modifications can be introduced which will keep him and his cronies out of jail. He's just trying to get his fingernails under the edge of something that will allow him - not to clarify; oh my, no - to introduce yet more ambiguity that will permit reinterpretation in his favour.

You can bet the rewritten article will still have plenty of teeth, but it will have been skewed to avoid the specific behaviours that Bush himself can be directly linked to, and which he knows a Congressional probe in the event of a Republican upset will uncover. Meanwhile, he will crow that they made the Geneva Conventions even MORE specific, what were you weak sisters going on about? The rest of it will trail off into a bunch of talking-point rhetoric about "providing tools", to make you imagine authorizing the coercion of information by force is as harmless as handing somebody a wrench.

As usual, he's looking out for his own scabby ass, and those of his cronies. Anybody who still imagines George W. Bush gives a tin shit about America's world standing is probably still waiting for Enron stock to peak.

Anonymous said...

Is the MSM even going after this?? Remember what they did to Clinton when he was "confused" over the meaning of the word "is"?

Hmmmm.....getting a BJ from an intern vs. torturing people all over the world.....I'm so glad to see Dubya has brought "decency back to the white house" *extreme sarcasm*.

Len, I think you are spot on with your "lack of empathy" comment. Except when it comes to lamenting over poor Trent Lott losing one of his homes in Katrina.

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

I don't believe for a minute that Bush is really confused - he has an extensive retinue of toadies and lickspittles to ensure he's not.

When I say that Bush is "confused" I am not excusing him. Quite the opposite. Bush is the ONLY person who is seemingly confused. I am using "confused" disdainfully, hence the "lessons". If Bush is confused it is a disingenuous and an immoral confusion for which there is NO excuse.

The point of the "lessons" is that there is no excuse for any adult with an IQ of at least 90 to be confused about "human dignity". What, after all, would the clarification consist of? For example —will Bush contend that it's ok to electrocute a man but only if he's NOT wearing a dress? Will Bush think it OK to pile naked bodies up as long as there is NO excrement on the floor?

Bush has become absurd!

One would have thought that an avid, astute reader of Albert Camus would have learned something about the human condition.

As usual, he's looking out for his own scabby ass, and those of his cronies. Anybody who still imagines George W. Bush gives a tin shit about America's world standing is probably still waiting for Enron stock to peak.

Bush most certainly does not give "...a tin shit" about any living thing except his own sorry ass. And he's hoping an unconstitutional ex post facto measure will spare him the consequences of the capital crimes that he's already committed. Bush is utterly without empathy...and that's still as good a description of "evil" as I have encountered.

Pam wrote: I'm so glad to see Dubya has brought "decency back to the white house"

By the way, the picture at the top of this article is at least one cold blooded murder that took place at Abu Ghraib and there is probable cause that that murder was in compliance with policies G. W. Bush , himself, implemented. But, murder, apparently, will not get you impeached. It Takes a Blog Job! That should be Hilary's new book.

Anonymous said...

Furthermore, it is not for one single country to unilaterally redefine and add to any article of the Geneva Convention - any changes, interpretations and redefenitions should be agreed upon by all signatory countries during a general assembly of said countries.

Anonymous said...

Len wrote:
One would have thought that an avid, astute reader of Albert Camus would have learned something about the human condition.


I just spit coffee all over my keyboard ;-).

Unknown said...

Vierotchka said...... it is not for one single country to unilaterally redefine and add to any article of the Geneva Convention - any changes, interpretations and redefenitions should be agreed upon by all signatory countries during a general assembly of said countries. That is very good point and absolutely correct. If signatories to Geneva begin improvising, it will become useless, complete ineffective and unenforceable. Bush may, indeed, intend that outcome.

Pam: I just spit coffee all over my keyboard ;-).

Are friends declining coffee invitations lately?

Anonymous said...

what do you expect from a sociopath?

Unknown said...

And not just a "sociopath" —a homicidally inclined, delusional psychopath!

Anonymous said...

No way would such abuses been perpetrated under the leadership of a President who weas not an idiopt frat boy with a low IQ like Bush.

He is the puppet the neocons need, the weak leader who plays a strong one, the clueless and waffling dilettante who sounds resolute and full of conviction, it's smoke and mirrors raised to an art form and Rumsfeld and Cheney are sitting in the front row, watching George get his groove on and do precisely as instructed, even if he constantly forgets his lines.

Protecting America, it's hard work.

Anonymous said...

A DEADLY KINDNESS


AT GITMO, PC RULES LET QAEDAS PLOT ON
RICHARD MINITER





September 15, 2006 -- GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA

ON the military plane back from America's most fa mous terrorist holding
pen, the in-flight film was "V for Vendetta," a screed that tries to justify
terrorism. It was a fitting end to a surreal, military-sponsored trip.

The Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how
well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than
disarming. I spent several hours with Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who
heads the joint task force that houses and interrogates the detainees. (The
military isn't allowed to call them "prisoners.")

Harris, a distinguished Navy veteran who was born in Japan and educated at
Annapolis and Harvard, is a serious man trying to do a politically
impossible job. I spoke with him at length, and with a dozen other officers
and guards, and visited three different detention blocks.

The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too
soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable
intelligence we need to save American lives.

The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled
to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They
enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are
entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.

Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of
course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies
for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches.
Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.)

Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee
privacy.

Call it excessive compassion by a nation devoted to therapy, but it's
dangerous. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has
developed in the camp. Military intelligence can't yet identify their
leaders, but notes that they have cells for monitoring the movements and
identities of guards and doctors, cells dedicated to training, others for
making weapons and so on.

And they can make weapons from almost anything. Guards have been attacked
with springs taken from inside faucets, broken fluorescent light bulbs and
fan blades. Some are more elaborate. "These folks are MacGyvers," Harris
said.

Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others.
How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass
messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono
basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.)
Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of
"attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an
Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a
letter to or from a lawyer.

That's right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda
prisoners continue to plot.

There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for.
The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005
to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are
nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything
from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with
homemade knives.

One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors
wear body armor to treat their patients.

The kinder we are to terrorists, the harsher we are to their potential
victims.

Striking the balance between these two goods (humane treatment,
foreknowledge of deadly attacks) is difficult, but the Bush administration
seems to lean too far in the direction of the detainees. No expense spared
for al Qaeda health care: Some 5,000 dental operations (including teeth
cleanings) and 5,000 vaccinations on a total of 550 detainees have been
performed since 2002 - all at taxpayer expense. Eyeglasses? 174 pairs handed
out. Twenty two detainees have taxpayer-paid prosthetic limbs. And so on.

What if a detainee confesses a weakness (like fear of the dark) to a doctor
that might be useful to interrogators, I asked the doctor in charge, would
he share that information with them? "My job is not to make interrogations
more efficient," he said firmly. He cited doctor-patient privacy. (He also
asked that his name not be printed, citing the potential for al Qaeda
retaliation.)

Food is strictly halal and averages 4,200 calories per day. (The guards eat
the same chow as the detainees, unless they venture to one of the on-base
fast-food joints.) Most prisoners have gained weight.

Much has been written about the elaborate and unprecedented appeal process.
Detainees have their cases reviewed once a year and get rights roughly
equivalent to criminals held in domestic prisons. I asked a military legal
adviser: In what previous war were captured enemy combatants eligible for
review before the war ended? None, he said.

America has never faced an enemy who has so ruthlessly broken all of the
rules of war - yet never has an enemy been treated so well.

Of Gitmo's several camps, military records show that the one with the most
lenient rules is the one with the most incidents and vice versa. There is a
lesson in this: We should worry less about detainee safety and more about
our own.

Some 20 current detainees have direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks
and nearly everyone of the current 440 say they would honored to attack
America again. Let's take them at their word.

Richard Miniter (richardminiter.com) is a bestselling author and adjunct
fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Whoami, your Richard Miniter is simply repeating the propaganda he was given by the military, none of which, of course, is true.

Anonymous said...

In fact, Dr. Whoami, Richard Miniter seems to be considerably more naïve and gullible than were the Red Cross visitors who were taken to Terezienstadt and were fooled into believing that the Jews were extremely well-treated in Hitler's death camps.

Unknown said...

Fuzzflash, I most humbly tend to agree with you. I think we drew blood. Lately —Bush is manic and fearful. As unintelligent as he is, he may have figured out that there is probable cause to bring very, very serious charges against him. His approval ratings are still in the toilet —something like 37 percent. Any idiot ought to be able to sustain that. In fact, any idiot has.

Unknown said...

Another thing, Fuzzflash... there is a way that we set up memberships on the board. I'll research that and get back with you.