Oh, and why the hell not, here's some more fuel to the fire

[solarbird]

Torture states love internal passports:

The Professions Strike Back
Harper's Magazine
August 15, 2007

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000899

The Bush Administration has finally achieved something unprecedented. The organized bar–with a vote just one short of unanimity–has declared one of Bush’s executive orders illegal and vowed to seek Congressional action to override it. And psychologists appear poised to join their legal colleagues in an equally harsh denunciation. It’s about torture. Remember Bush’s claim, “We do not torture”? Except, of course, we do, and on Bush’s personal orders.

Back on July 21, President Bush issued an Executive Order which gave cover to a series of brutal interrogation and detention practices to be used by the Central Intelligence Agency at black sites. Now the nation’s organized bar and its psychologists’ association are both saying: “no” and directing their members not to comply with the order. Jane Mayer’s recent article in the New Yorker furnishes an excellent description of the tactics at the bottom of this controversy. Here’s a sampling:

A former member of a C.I.A. transport team has described the ‘takeout’ of prisoners as a carefully choreographed twenty-minute routine, during which a suspect was hog-tied, stripped naked, photographed, hooded, sedated with anal suppositories, placed in diapers, and transported by plane to a secret location. A person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry, referring to cavity searches and the frequent use of suppositories during the takeout of detainees, likened the treatment to ’sodomy.’ He said, ‘It was used to absolutely strip the detainee of any dignity. It breaks down someone’s sense of impenetrability. The interrogation became a process not just of getting information but of utterly subordinating the detainee through humiliation.’ The former C.I.A. officer confirmed that the agency frequently photographed the prisoners naked, ‘because it’s demoralizing.’

In addition to these practices, some of which may constitute the felony of rape by instrumentality under various state statutes, other practices condoned by Bush’s order include waterboarding, long-time standing, hypothermia and sleep deprivation in excess of two days. These are all techniques considered to be “torture” under American criminal law, as well as under international human rights standards.

Torture states also love state secrets laws and internal spying without warrant:

Analysis: NSA Lawsuit Like Alice's Wonderland
Robert Mullins, IDG News Service
Thu Aug 16, 12:00 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/136043;_ylt=Ake99vjno_JzbrYBNJAgRoMDW7oF

If you're the U.S. federal government, how can you prove to someone that something should be kept secret if you can't tell them what the secret is because it's a secret? If you're a federal judge, how can you decide whether someone gets to keep a secret if the secret-keeper won't say what the secret is?

[...]

More than one participant likened the testimony to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," the classic children's book by Lewis Carroll. Compare and contrast this excerpt from the book with what went on in court. This snippet occurs when Alice, attending the Mad Hatter's tea party, suddenly notices the March Hare's curious timepiece.

[...]

The DOJ sought the dismissal because, at trial, it could be revealed that the NSA worked with AT&T to wiretap Americans without a warrant, which is a state secret, if indeed such a program existed at all. The government can't say, because that's a state secret.

[...]

The Bush comment came up again when AT&T attorney Michael Kellogg, also argued for dismissal on the Wonderland-like grounds that allowing the case to go forward, yet not violate state secrets, would prohibit AT&T from presenting a defense.

"Any sort of program is a state secret," Kellogg said

"Even if the program doesn't exist?" McKeown replied, referencing the president's claim.

"Whether or not it exists is a state secret," Kellogg answered.

"But if President Bush said it's not happening, how could that be a secret?" the judge asked.

These are some of the reasons the hearing lasted two and a half hours.

[...]

At a news conference on the courthouse steps after the hearing, attorney Jon Eisenberg, representing the foundation, admitted it felt "surreal" trying to discuss in court a partial exchange of affidavits between himself, the U.S. government and a judge arguing a point in the case that can't be made public.

"I'm at a disadvantage because I don't know the government's side of that argument. I only know my side. They have seen my secret brief. I have not seen their secret briefs," Eisenberg said. "Yeah, I guess it is a bit like going down the rabbit hole."

[More at URL]

Torture states love lying about wars:

Bad Astronomy notes with disgust an LA Times report quoting officials in the Bush administration stating that the supposedly independent report on the "surge" progress in Iraq will not be written by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, but will instead be written by the Bush administration to fit their interpretation.

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data.

Here's the Bad Astronomy post. It contains links to the LA Times story.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

You know, the point of honoring the Geneva Convention is so the other side will give up. If the other side knows that as prisoners they will be humanely treated and all that, and they're suffering whilst fighting on their side, they have a reasonably strong incentive to raise the white flag and come out quietly.

Your first story, though, is actually encouraging rather than enraging.... it means that more and more, Americans are seeing that the Emperor really has no clothes... and are standing up and saying so.

The Current Occupant will have less and less influence on things as time goes on. Lookit what the price of gas is doing, crude prices aside. I don't think we'll ever impeach the Scooter Skater, but any sane American knows that that boy is in deep kimchee. Heck, even the Elephants in Congress are starting to vote agin' him.

OTOH, don't let up. It's folks like us that keep the pressure on. I hear some definite cracking noises, but it's only with continued sawing that this tree is gonna fall the way we want it to.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

Also, in case you don't see my reply in your other post, responding to loopback:

As of October, President Bush will have the legal authority to declare a national disaster and deploy federal troops anywhere without further Congressional authorization. The text of the bill passed in 2006, according to Wikipedia, includes "“...employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to...restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States..., where the President determines that,...domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy...”

They're building a police state step-by-step.

The first thing we have to do is take out this presidency. We need to follow several parallel tracks including impeachment, criminal prosecution of underlings, and election in 2008 of a president who will vote the right way--all of these tracks reinforce each other. The next thing we have to do (though it can be done in tandem with the first goal) is elect people to Congress who will repeal this nonsense, and throw out every elected official who won't. Finally, we should plan (individually, and collectively wherever we can) for the possibility that we will fail in one or both of these goals.

[solarbird]

I posted about the October bill at the time, but it's good to get reminders. Also, annoyingly, LJ isn't sending post notifications. Also, check my next post above. Certain apparatchiks are calling for a coup.

In case anybody reading this later is wondering

[solarbird]

Here's where the outgoing Republican Congress gave the Chief Executive power to deploy the National Guard at will.

[banner.livejournal.com]

I'm 100 percent opposed to the military and NSA assets being used to spy inside the USA for anything short of 'we have proof there is a nuclear weapon in the USA and we're looking for it', and then I want to SEE THE PROOF.

As for the LA Times quote, well you have to remember the LA Times isn't a reliable source for news, they have a tendency to make shit up. So I'd like to see some proof on that. The people who've been doing all the lying so far on this war is the head of the opposition party.