Cheney and Cheney: On the Road to Security

Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, have been appearing, rather increasingly, in the media and emphatically stating that the "security measures" (torture redressed as not torture during the former administration) of the past administration were and still are an effective legal tool to gather intelligence and keep Americans safe.

They argue that dismantling the programs that allow implementation of enhanced interrogation techniques -- such as water-boarding -- put our country at risk for future terrorist attacks. Their argument, however, does not hold water (no pun intended) when compared with the facts.

The actions taken at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib (and other secret prisons) made a mockery of our legal system by doing exactly what was done in South Africa (and other countries from time to time) to justify apartheid by writing into law that which is illegal. Those actions cut out the heart of our humanity, causing our young men and women to act in deplorable and unspeakable ways, and only served to put them in risk of retaliation were they caught by an enemy. Those actions ignored the Geneva Conventions, which we ratified, thereby eroding trust in our government by the American people and the rest of the world.

Despite many reports by reputable scientists, psychologists, senior military personnel and seasoned interrogators that torture is an unreliable form of intelligence gathering (and in direct conflict with the Geneva Conventions), the Cheneys keep talking about these measures as if they were the best thing since sliced bread. The tactic here seems to be one of if you keep repeating the same thing over and over on television, on radio, in print and on the Internet, it will eventually become true and people will believe you.

Let's revisit some key excerpts from a report prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba in response to allegations of human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib.

(B)etween October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility (BCCF), numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees. This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force (372nd Military Police Company, 320th Military Police Battalion, 800th MP Brigade), in Tier (section) 1-A of the Abu Ghraib Prison (BCCF).

In addition, several detainees also described the following acts of abuse, which under the circumstances, I find credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses:

a. Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;

b. Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;

c. Pouring cold water on naked detainees;

d. Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;

e. Threatening male detainees with rape;

f. Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;

g. Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.

h. Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

(T)he intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:

a. Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;

b. Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;

c. Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;

d. Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;

e. Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;

f. Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;

g. Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;

h. Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;

i. Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;

j. Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture;

k. A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;

l. Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;

m. Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

These findings are amply supported by written confessions provided by several of the suspects, written statements provided by detainees, and witness statements.

The various detention facilities operated by the 800th MP Brigade have routinely held persons brought to them by Other Government Agencies (OGAs) without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their detention. The Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center (JIDC) at Abu Ghraib called these detainees “ghost detainees.” On at least one occasion, the 320th MP Battalion at Abu Ghraib held a handful of “ghost detainees” (6-8) for OGAs that they moved around within the facility to hide them from a visiting International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) survey team. This maneuver was deceptive, contrary to Army Doctrine, and in violation of international law.

In 2006, several interrogators, psychologists and scientists came together at Georgetown University to research and study the effectiveness of torture as a reliable method of gathering intelligence. Fathali Moghaddam, prof. of psychology, Georgetown University, stated at a press conference about the study, “Torture is based on outmoded behaviorist ideas. Threats may change overt behavior, but it is naïve to assume that threats make a person tell the truth.” A statement released by the study group noted that:

The interrogators participating in the research have conducted interrogation and other human intelligence operations in various military operations, including Vietnam, Grenada, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the ongoing war in Iraq. They maintained that, even in the most urgent situations, torture can not be considered a viable option. The involuntary circumstances of the disclosure would compromise the integrity of the information obtained. According to the psychologists participating in the group, decades of research into directly relevant topics such as social influence, stress, cultural and religious identification, false confessions, and interpersonal relationships point to the same conclusion. full statement.

Further, and with regard to the Geneva Conventions, as noted by Ian Buruma (prof. of democracy, human rights and journalism, Bard College, NY) in The TaiPei Times yesterday, "Tying a person to a board and bringing him to the point of drowning, over and over, or forcing a prisoner — stripped naked and covered in his own excrement — to stand with his hands shackled to the ceiling for days, until his legs swell to twice their normal size, may not have constituted torture in memos prepared by government lawyers, but such practices are surely cruel, inhuman and degrading."

So who do we believe? More importantly, who are we as a people? Our country was born out of a desire for people to be free from tyranny; to enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion.

Now that these horrible acts and programs/laws that put them into place are being rightfully dismantled, the Cheneys claim we are being made vulnerable and unsafe.

There is an old saying that the lion, king of beasts, is destroyed by the parasite in his bowels. The near-crash of our economy did not come from an outside source, it came from within -- in 1929, in the 1980's with the S&L crisis and now. History has repeatedly shown us that. The tactics of the past eight years have put us at greater risk, eroded our trust and eroded our humanity.

It is time for America to gain back the jewel in it's crown by returning to and building upon those values and standards that birthed us as a nation. Our greatest fortune is to have in the White House the kind of leadership that will do just that and more. The real problem for those who took advantage of the past eight years is that the parasite is being exposed and routed out.

Once again, it's the economy Mr. Cheney, Ms. Cheney. You want a safe and secure America - stop sending our jobs overseas. Stop allowing thousands of American citizens to go without access to affordable, quality health care and coverage. Stop allowing our public school system (the hallmark of freedom) to fall behind the rest of the world, industrial or otherwise. And when we do find ourselves at that awful juncture of mobilizing our military -- stop sending them into harms way, tour after tour, after tour without regard to the physical and mental well-being.

Mr. Cheney, Ms. Cheney, go home and allow our new administration to rebuild this great nation of ours without further distraction.