Thermate911
Angel - now passed away
Joined: 16 Jul 2007
Posts: 1451
Location: UEMS
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 Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:16 am Post subject: |
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And if you haven't watched this film, the 'best' yet to come from Alex Jones, you may not be aware just how critical the balance is right now. The closer the New World Ordure comes to 'winning' the more deperate their meaures to counteract 'us' becomes. Eg:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/04/former-senior-intelligence-offi cer.html
| Quote: | Former Senior Intelligence Officer Dismantles Arguments for Covering Up CIA Torture
Melvin Goodman is a former high-level intelligence officer. He was the Division Chief of the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs, who served as Senior Analyst from 1966 - 1990. He also served as Professor of International Security at the National War College from 1986 - 2004.
Goodman says that the arguments for covering up the extent of torture by the CIA are all bogus:
[Advocates for keeping the information classified] argue that foreign intelligence services will not share sensitive intelligence with the United States and the CIA because of the declassification and release of the torture memoranda. That is nonsense!
European liaison services as well as other intelligence services have tempered their cooperation with the CIA because of the use of torture and abuse as well as the extraordinary rendition of innocent individuals from their countries to intelligence services in the Middle East. The CIA’s extra-legal activities have complicated and undermined the task of maintaining credible relations with our allies in the battle against terrorism...
[The torture apologists also] argue that, because of the release of the memos, CIA clandestine operatives will keep their heads down and avoid assignments that carry political risk, and that the decline in CIA “morale and effectiveness” will harm American national security. More nonsense! CIA operatives and analysts are professionals who pride themselves on service to the country and their oath to the Constitution.
Very few of them took part in the corruption of intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and very few participated in the policies of torture and abuse. They know that the law should not be broken and they want to get these issues behind them so that they can continue to serve the national interests of the United States. They know that painful truths must be acknowledged and that some price must be paid by all for the chicanery of a few.
If Agency personnel were permitted to share their opinions about torture and abuse with the press, a large majority would oppose the practices. Unfortunately, only those officers seeking to cover-up their own activities have the temerity to talk to reporters. The notion that the declassification of these memoranda have given the “enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate” is particularly ludicrous.
The enemy has had this information for more than five years, ever since every major newspaper in the world published the unconscionable images from Abu Ghraib. General officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have testified that these images are the most important recruitment tool in the hands of terrorists and fundamentalists and have contributed to the deaths of many American men and women.
Goodman's article is worth reading in full. |
I second that, along with the shenanigans going on in Congress (see my post about the Conyers Report), also
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hart-bochner/crime-and-crime-again_b_192 432.html
This one slipped through the swinish cracks too:-
Quote:
UK High Court demands U.S. torture documents
By Julie Sell, McClatchy Newspapers Julie Sell, Mcclatchy Newspapers Wed Apr 22, 7:54 pm ET
LONDON — The chief justice of the British High Court on Wednesday gave the British government one week to obtain the U.S. release of classified information about the alleged torture of a British resident who'd been detained at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba .
The court indicated that it would issue its own order if the government doesn't respond or justify why continued secrecy is warranted.
Noting that President Barack Obama had released highly sensitive documents tracing the decisions on torture during the Bush administration's war on terror, the high court judges voiced exasperation that the British government hasn't acted in what they said was the British public interest in being similarly open.
The hearing illustrated how Obama's decision to be more transparent about his predecessor's detainee policies is having ripple effects abroad, but it also threw the ball back to the Obama administration to approve release of the contested information.
The White House said it had no comment yesterday.
Lord Justice Thomas scolded Britain's Foreign Office for not directly seeking clarification of the new U.S. administration's policy on the release of classified documents in the case of Binyam Mohamed , who was returned to Britain in February after seven years of detention in several countries, including four years in the prison at Guantanamo Bay .
Noting the change of tone between the Bush and Obama administrations, Lord Thomas said It was "self-evident as he (Obama) became president that he was going to take a different view" from the Bush administration on issues of torture and detention.
He noted that the U.S. president's recent statements on the need for transparency and the public interest in treatment of detainees were similar to views he himself expressed in writing a few months ago. Although Obama had said it more "elegantly and shortly", Lord Thomas noted, "the message is, I think, the same."
The justice upbraided the Foreign Office lawyer, Pushpinder Saini , for saying that the Obama administration viewed the release of information in Mohamed's case as a threat to the U.S.-British intelligence sharing, as the Bush administration had clearly done. "It is inconceivable that they could have hurt the intelligence-sharing relationship," the chief justice said.
"No one's ever asked the question" of the Obama administration about release of the information regarding Mohamed's detention, Lord Thomas said, and Saini sheepishly agreed.
Mohamed originally was charged with involvement in an alleged al Qaida bomb plot after he was arrested in Pakistan , but the U.S. later dropped all charges. Mohamed's lawyers say he was severely tortured in detention and that British intelligence officers were complicit in his interrogation.
On Wednesday, lawyers for Mohamed suggested that the Obama administration shared the blame for uncertainty over the case, saying it had been intentionally vague about the release of classified documents regarding Mohamed's treatment in captivity
"One has to admire the care with which diplomats speak," attorney Dinah Rose said, referring to Foreign Office officials. "It suited them not to ask, just as it suited the Obama administration not to answer."
Since Mohamed filed suit in Britain seeking the release of information about his detention, the Foreign Office has repeatedly resisted allowing even a summary of certain classified documents to be made public. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has cited explicit warnings from Bush administration officials who said the British-American intelligence-sharing relationship could be jeopardized if classified information were released.
The only public statement from the new U.S. administration thus far regarding Mohamed's case was issued by the National Security Council , which earlier this year thanked Britain for its continued cooperation in intelligence sharing.
The Foreign Office's assumption, its lawyer said, was that the official U.S. position on the documents hadn't changed — at least until Obama released the torture memos last week.
A lawyer who represented Mohamed during his detention at Guantanamo Bay was more stinging in his criticism.
"By making deliberately vague public statements, David Miliband and the Obama administration have tried to spin their way out of serious trouble, said Clive Stafford-Smith , founder of the legal-aid charity Reprieve, which also represents other detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay . "Such evasive tactics have no place at the British High Court ."
(Sell is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
(My bold) - Found variously, eg:-
http://www.truthout.org/042309T
_________________
"We will lead every revolution against us!" - attrib: Theodor Herzl
"Timely Demise to All Oppressors - at their Convenience!" - 'Interesting Times', Terry Pratchett |
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