President Obama wants to keep yet another campaign promise. Shutting down Gitmo.

Courtesy of Politicususa:  

I am going to be doing everything I can to close it. It is something that inspires jihadists and extremists around the world. It is contrary to our values, and it is wildly expensive. We’re spending millions for each individual there, and we have drawn down the population there significantly. There are a little less than 150 individuals left in this facility. We are continue to place those who have been cleared for release or transfer to host countries who are willing to take them. There’s going to be a certain irreducible number that are going to be really hard cases. We know they’ve done something wrong and they are still dangerous but it’s difficult to mount the evidence in a traditional Article three court so we’re going to have to wrestle with that, but we need to close that facility and I’m going to do everything I can to do that.

Politicususa goes on to affirm that the President is quite correct about the expense, and points out that while it only costs taxpayers about $78,000 a year per inmate in the most expensive supermax prison in the country it costs a whopping 2.8 million per prisoner in Gitmo.

You know if the President is able to find some way to close Guantnamo Bay it will make some of his other accomplishments pale in comparison, and DEFINITELY put a shine on his legacy.

Hmm, I wonder if renewing diplomatic ties with Cuba is part of his plan for putting pressure on the Republicans concerning Gitmo?

Is he really that many moves ahead of the GOP?

Jon Stewart mocks Dick Cheney for using 9-11 as his definition of torture.

Click image to play video

"Dick Cheney, setting this nation's moral bar at anything incrementally better than the most despicable thing that has ever been done to us."

The fact that Cheney uses 9-11 as his definition of torture is at once incredibly disingenuous but also totally ridiculous.

The people who died on 9-11 were not tortured, they were massacred.

Torture is something inflicted upon you by somebody who expects you to survive long enough to either tell them what they want to know, or to suffer in order to satisfy their sadomasochistic fantasies.

Dying is not part of the torture. Dying is the end to the pain.

What we did was to rectally feed these detainees so that we could continue to enjoy watching them suffer long after we realized that they had no information of any value to surrender to their captors.

THAT is torture in its truest form.

No Regrets.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Dick Cheney gave an unflinching defense of he CIA's post-9/11 torture program on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, dismissing criticisms of the program's forced rectal feedings, waterboarding and a death. 

"It worked. It absolutely did work," said Cheney, a driving force behind the George W. Bush administration's use of harsh tactics in response to the 9/11 attacks. 

The Senate report on the interrogation program details forced rectal feedings that were medically unnecessary. But on Sunday, Cheney said the feedings were done for "medical reasons." The former vice president showed little remorse for the dozens of prisoners who were found to have been wrongfully detained, for the man who died in the program, or for people like Khaled El-Masri -- a German citizen who was shipped off to Afghanistan and sodomized in a case of mistaken identity. 

"I'd do it again in a minute," said Cheney. He also spoke repeatedly of how the program was justified to get the "bastards" who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.

Video can be found here.

Perhaps one of the most evil men in American history.

If we truly were a just nation this piece of shit would be behind bars awaiting execution.

The Senate report on CIA torture techniques may only be the beginning. Soon there may be pictures.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:

The Obama administration is withholding hundreds, perhaps even thousands of photographs showing the U.S. government’s brutal treatment of detainees, meaning that revelations about detainee abuse could well continue, possibly compounding the outrage generated by the Senate “torture report” now in the public eye. 

Some photos show American troops posing with corpses; others depict U.S. forces holding guns to people’s heads or simulating forced sodomization. All of them could be released to the public, depending on how a federal judge in New York rules—and how hard the government fights to appeal. The government has a Friday deadline to submit to that judge its evidence for why it thinks each individual photograph should continue to be kept hidden away. 

The photographs are part of a collection of thousands of images from 203 investigations into detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan and represent one of the last known secret troves of evidence of detainee abuse. While the photos show disturbing images from the Bush administration’s watch, it is the Obama administration that has allowed them to remain buried—all with the help of a willing Congress. 

The president may have entered office promising a new era of transparency—and was even prepared to release at least 21 of the photos in 2009. But Obama pulled back at the last minute at the urging of his top commander in Iraq, who worried the graphic images could generate a backlash against U.S. troops.

The possibility that terrorists might get angry enough to launch an attack on American troops of embassies overseas in response to anything released to the public concerning our torture of detainees is bullshit.

As others have said we are actively bombing the crap out of ISIL. If THAT has not convinced them to attack us it is hard to believe that a couple of reports or photos will push them over the edge.

However it just might cause the conservatives defending CIA torture to suddenly go quiet.

One of the reasons that the incident in Abu Ghraib grabbed the public's attention was that the American people were able to see what we were doing and they were disgusted.

I think the same thing will happen this time.

Which in my opinion would be a good thing, and would do much to ensure that we never revisited this type of inhuman treatment again.

In other words, bring-em on.

Well it finally happened. Sarah Palin comes out in support of the CIA torture techniques. Kind of surprised it took so long.

Sarah Palin in her "puffed up leather coat."

Courtesy of Sarah "Whip it, whip it good" Palin's Facebook page:

America Asks: "Whose Side Are You On"; Necessarily Directing This At Our President 

In debauched minds it is fine for our young, once potentially unifying President to boast, "I'm pretty good at killing" while speaking of his own secret kill list, but all hell breaks loose if America's expert and experienced CIA (Even CIA Director Brennan recognizes that the CIA was not adequately trained to conduct these "enhanced terrogations.") keeps known terrorists up at night for questioning, plays annoying music to get the evil ones' attention, and considers whatever else necessary to keep us safe. (Yuck it up much, Nobel Peacenik President?) From the cozy confines of the White House he blusters a willingness to assassinate whomever he chooses, no need for judicial balance or seasoned military brass strategy – in fact the Community Organizer canned nearly 200 of our top military officials. And leftist response to their leader's suspiciously opaque drone game plan? Crickets. 

(Wrong Brenda Bitchface, liberals have talked about our frustration with the drone programs quite frequently. Drone programs that, by the way, were started by George W. Bush and only exist due to the illegal wars that he started in the first place.)

Mr. President: newsflash ignored by your yapping lapdogs – many of our finest whom you unprecedentedly refer to as "YOUR" own troops confide that the only thing legitimizing your being Commander in Chief is that puffed up leather coat you sport with an embroidered title on your left breast. They want to respect you; they know to obey you; they deserve better. 

(Like who? John McCain who never saw an adversary that he did not want to bomb back to the stone age. Or Mitt Romney who may actually have known less about foreign relations than even the woman whose credentials were all based on her state's proximity to Putin's backyard?)

Want to talk "torture"? Evidence #1: Innocent Americans tortured and murdered by guilty terrorists on 9/11. Note the accurate terms "innocent" and "guilty". (The 9-11 attacks can be called all kinds of terrible things, but they certainly cannot be defined as "torture.") Innocent 9/11 families are still tortured. Torture is slicing off the heads of investigative journalists and American charity workers serving in the Middle East who are used as political pawns. (No, actually that's just murder.) Torture is what radical Islamists routinely do to women and minorities. 

True Americans say "never again." These perpetrators are evil monsters sharing dark demonic (Demonic?) intentions with radical Muslims who are beheading Christian children today overseas. True Americans serving as watchmen on the wall say, "Not on our soil. Not on my watch." And any American-loving leader should promise, "Whatever it takes to stop evil, to protect this nation, we shall do." 

(No! That is where you are wrong crazy lady. An "American-loving leader" recognizes that America should do NOTHING that damages the country's integrity in the eyes of the world, or undermines the moral high ground it needs to compel other nations to treat their prisoners, women, and everyday citizens with respect for their human rights. George Bush stole that from us, NOT  President Obama.)

You're on one side or the other. What is it, liberals: sympathy for inconvenienced terrorists who would murder our children or saving America? 

- Sarah Palin

And that in a nutshell is what is wrong with Sarah Palin and her ilk. They see the world through the eyes of children, where everything is good or evil, right or wrong, black or white. Without recognizing that most things are rendered in varying shades of gray.

However America using torture, well that really is a case of good and evil. And evil would be those who use the fear that most Americans felt after the 9-11 attacks to justify engaging in tactics that would forever damage us long after we had overcome the panic that gripped us in its aftermath.

Speaking of torture can you imagine what is going through John McCain's mind right now as he listens to this garbage?

It's your damn fault old man. It's your damn fault.

Anonymous Wikipedia user with IP address that leads to US Senate really does not like the use of the word "torture" to describe what the CIA did to detainees. Keeps trying to change it.

Courtesy of Mashable:  

An anonymous Wikipedia user from an IP address that is registered to United States Senate has tried, and failed, to remove a phrase with the word "torture" from the website's article on the Senate Intelligence Committee's blockbuster CIA torture report. 

The unknown individual has attempted on at least two occasions — first on Dec. 9 and then on Dec. 10 — to remove a line describing the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques as "a euphemism for torture." 

Gee it looks like somebody REALLY doesn't like it when we call torture done by the United States "torture."

Perhaps somebody should have thought of that before they, you know, tortured people.

Unhappy with continued defense of CIA torture techniques Senator Mark Udall discloses findings of classified "smoking gun" report on Senate floor.

Courtesy of The Nation:  

The debate in Washington over Bush-era torture at the Central Intelligence Agency took a large leap forward Wednesday morning when Senator Mark Udall took the Senate floor and disclosed portions of an internal CIA review, while renewing his demand for a change in the intelligence agency’s leadership and criticizing the Obama administration for not doing enough to ensure torture doesn’t happen again. 

The so-called “Panetta Review” has dominated much of the drama leading up to the torture report’s release. The document is an internal CIA examination that reportedly validated many of the worst claims about the torture program, including much of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings. (The CIA was after this document when it breached Senate computers in January.) 

On Wednesday, Udall described the Panetta Review as a “smoking gun”—proof from the CIA itself that there were serious problems with the torture program. It undercuts almost every contemporary statement made by CIA Director John Brennan and other top intelligence officials, he said, who have vocally been defending what occurred.

Here is what Udall disclosed on the Senate floor today:  

"The Panetta Review found that the CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Congress, the president, and the public on the efficacy of its coercive techniques. The Brennan Response, in contrast, continues to insist that the CIA’s interrogations produced unique intelligence that saved lives. Yet the Panetta Review identifies dozens of documents that include inaccurate information used to justify the use of torture—and indicates that the inaccuracies it identifies do not represent an exhaustive list. 

The Panetta Review further describes how detainees provided intelligence prior to the use of torture against them. It describes how the CIA—contrary to its own representations—often tortured detainees before trying any other approach. It describes how the CIA tortured detainees even when less coercive methods were yielding intelligence. The Panetta Review further identifies cases in which the CIA used coercive techniques when it had no basis for determining whether a detainee had critical intelligence at all. In other words, CIA personnel tortured detainees to confirm they didn’t have intelligence—not because they thought they did.

To date, there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or for Director Brennan’s failure of leadership. Despite the facts presented, the president has expressed his “full confidence” in Director Brennan, and demonstrated that trust by making no effort at all to rein him in. The president stated that it wasn’t “appropriate” for him to wade into the issues between the Committee and the CIA. […] 

The White House has not led on this issue in the manner we expected when we heard the president’s campaign speeches in 2008 and read the executive order he issued in January 2009. To CIA employees in April 2009, President Obama said, “What makes the United States special, and what makes you special, is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and ideals even when it’s hard—not just when it’s easy; even when we are afraid and under threat—not just when it’s expedient to do so. That’s what makes us different.” 

This tough, principled talk set an important tone for the beginning of his presidency. However, fast forward to this year, after so much has come to light about the CIA’s barbaric programs, and President Obama’s response was that we “crossed a line” as a nation, and that, quote, “hopefully, we don’t do it again in the future.” 

That’s not good enough. We need to be better than that. There can be no cover-up. There can be no excuses. If there is no moral leadership from the White House helping the public understand that the CIA’s torture program wasn’t necessary and didn’t save lives or disrupt terrorist plots, then what’s to stop the next White House and CIA Director from supporting torture?"

Excellent question!

Senator Udall is damn right. If nobody is punished for this, and some are even allowed to keep their jobs, then there is NOTHING to prevent this same thing from happening again the next time the terrorists successfully attack us here at home.

Which I think we all know id bound to happen at some point.

Kansas Republican Congressman talking about Gitmo hunger strike "It looked to me like a lot of them had put on weight."

I liked how Craig Melvin immediately asked him how he could possibly know if the detainees had put on weight unless he saw them BEFORE they started their hunger strike. After which the candy ass tries to change the subject in order to save face.

Too late!

"I have no idea what that woman is talking about?" Yeah just like a Republican. When faced with facts just refuse to examine them. POS!
 

Military judges throw out case against Gitmo detainee. Bush administration has not released him however.

The Bush administration’s plans to bring detainees at Guantánamo Bay to trial were thrown into chaos yesterday when military judges threw out all charges against a detainee held there since he was 15 and dismissed charges against another detainee who chauffeured Osama bin Laden.

In back-to-back arraignments for the Canadian Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, the US military’s cases against the alleged al-Qaida figures were dismissed because, the judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction.

Yesterday’s decision by Colonel Peter Brownback to dismiss all charges against Mr Khadr on technical grounds has broad implications for the Bush administration’s system of military tribunals because the technicality appears to apply to all 385 prisoners held at Guantánamo.

The dismissal of the case also undermines the administration’s efforts to show that the military tribunals are based on sound legal practice and can provide detainees with a fair hearing, detainee lawyers said.

In his decision yesterday, Col Brownback said the Pentagon had merely designated Mr Khadr, a Canadian citizen facing charges of murder and terrorism, as an “enemy combatant”, not an “unlawful enemy combatant”, the term used by Congress last year in authorising the tribunals.

The Pentagon’s lapse meant the tribunal did not have proper jurisdiction to try Mr Khadr. “A person has a right to be tried only by a court that has jurisdiction over him,” Col Brownback told the court.

This kid has been held since he was 15 years old! He is a young kid who fought back when he was attacked by American forces in Afghanistan. He killed a medic and was shot three times before being captured.

In my opinion we have no right to continue to hold this man. I mean what are we going to do to him? Hang him? We certainly cannot jsut hold these people forever! That is ridiculous!

He was fucking fifteen years old when he was shot and captured! Maybe he has been punished enough for being in the wrong place at the wrong time!