From Think Progress we have this statement from a letter written by Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams, a JAG officer with the U.S. Naval Reserve, recently resigned his commission over the alleged use of torture by the United States and the destruction of video tapes said to contain instances of that torture.:
‘The final straw for me was listening to General Hartmann, the highest-ranking military lawyer in charge of the military commissions, testify that he refused to say that waterboarding captured U.S. soldiers by Iranian operatives would be torture.
His testimony had just sold all the soldiers and sailors at risk of capture and subsequent torture down the river. Indeed, he would not rule out waterboarding as torture when done by the United States and indeed felt evidence obtained by such methods could be used in future trials.
Thank you, General Hartmann, for finally admitting the United States is now part of a long tradition of torturers going back to the Inquisition.
In the middle ages, the Inquisition called waterboarding “toca” and used it with great success. In colonial times, it was used by the Dutch East India Company during the Amboyna Massacre of 1623.
Waterboarding was used by the Nazi Gestapo and the feared Japanese Kempeitai. In World War II, our grandfathers had the wisdom to convict Japanese Officer Yukio Asano of waterboarding and other torture practices in 1947, giving him 15 years hard labor.
Waterboarding was practiced by the Khmer Rouge at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. Most recently, the U.S. Army court martialed a soldier for the practice in 1968 during the Vietnam conflict.
General Hartmann, following orders was not an excuse for anyone put on trial in Nuremberg, and it will not be an excuse for you or your superiors, either.
Despite the CIA and the administration attempting to cover up the practice by destroying interrogation tapes, in direct violation of a court order, and congressional requests, the truth about torture, illegal spying on Americans and secret renditions is coming out.’
Contact the folks on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Feingold and Whitehouse are members about their ‘oversight’ of this issue.
George W. Bush the ‘Greatest Conservative President in America’s History’. Can there be any doubt about my simple statement? I think not. From his tender beginnings as ‘President Death’ on to his great performance as ‘The Banality of Evil’ this vicious little psychopath has always had a knack for getting folks to ‘misunderestimate’ him.
His talent for decisive judgment gave us The MeatGrinder. His fantastic skills delegating responsibility showed, in the end, the people of New Orleans just how useless his administration was. His fabulous plan to ‘save Social Security’ was…well, nobody bought into it. His initial decision to let Mr. FourthBranch be his V.P. was perhaps his greatest conservative achievement leading to….
The Valerie Plame Affair.
The NSA listening in to everyone’s phone calls and tracking all their credit card purchases.
The Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
But ‘The Greatest’ was solely responsible for all that was he not?
No
He was most definitely not.
He just the vile sockpuppet for the ‘conservative’ movement. As nasty a hodgepodge of racists, nativists, xtian cult members and RWAs. All led by a coalition of ‘conservative’ think-tanks funded by the uber-rich the folks who own 40% of everything. Yeah, homer….everything.
The folks who have in effect brought back slavery in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Courtesy of Jack Abramov’s ‘House of Thieves’. Note that they are all members in good standing in The ‘Conservative’ Party. Which party is working on it’s latest scheme to make the importation of slaves into the continental United States where they can be used to drive your wages down to….well, how would you like to be making the minimum wage buddy? And then have your paycheck bounce.
Yes, the ‘Conservative’ Party led by their lying punkass MSM mouthpieces, some of them direct descendents of the movements founders, who wouldn’t know real work or how to solve a problem if either of those things bit them in the ass hard enough to send blood spurting. But these same ‘pundits’ can talk for hours about how victory for them and their Lame Duck President is just six months, and 500 more dead Americans, around the corner down the road.
You and I know all this.
The important thing now is to make sure the American people see this ‘conservative’ conspiracy for what it truly has been and will be:
The most dire threat to our nation since the civil war.
This is Richard Lugar R-IN and he is not up for re-election. Hah…I guess September is comin’ early this year malcontent! The heat is on and the scumbag ReThugs and their enablers in the ‘Democrat’ Party are gonna fry.
If you are a true progressive and want to let your Congressfolks know how you feel about ‘The Dictator’ here’s a convenient place to go where you can do…..
Don’t know who John Locke was? Well clik on his picture and you can read about him at Wikipedia. Yeah, I know they’re not exactly ‘cool’ these days but hey, they be handy and Locke’s entry is pretty good. I guess the wingnuts haven’t gotten to everything…yet.
This LINK to the recent Scarborough post on onegoodmove requires Quicktime to view. But even if you cannot see the video, be sure to read the comments… they are the best part (except some of the commenters seem to be incorrectly referring to Pat Buchanan as Pat Robertson.)
Here are some highlights:
“Don’t let conservatives distance themselves what they’ve done. As their precious bible says, you shall know a tree by its fruit.”
“I will never vote for anyone, ever again, that was in support of this war at any point in time. I don’t care what your gender is, your race, your religion (or lack there of)… any of that. If someone running for office voted in support of the war, then unless they signed themselves up for duty shortly after… F THEM. I’ve had it.”
“These people have no right to be getting pissed off because had they done their job correctly from the start, they might have been able to stop this war from ever happening. But of course, they rolled over on their backs and played bitch to the government.”
“What amazes me is that the bu$h administration has been WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING . . . This begs the question; was Iraq invaded merely for the sake of waging war (and grabbing oil)”
“Im more conservative, oh no, im more conservative, no, IM MORE conservative….jesus, these guys are masturbating their conservative credentials like its the greatest thing”
“Conservatives have been wrong about a lot of other things as well: Intelligent design, creationism, global warming, everything having to do with the environment, gay rights…you name it. Even captains of U.S. industry are beginning to admit that we need some kind of national health care system [if] we are to stay competitive globally. It’s time for conservatives to pull over and let someone else drive.”
“They’re not all that bad. I mean they’ve done…well they’ve…you know, um…
Clik on the banner about to help rid the nation of
Democrats who don't know what the word
'Democrat' means.
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Barack is very disappointed with me!
I only scored 31 on the Obama Test
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