Taking It Personally
Prof Marcus is somewhat peeved at his government, and what’s more, he has the documents to show why :
let’s re-visit for a moment just a few key documents that are part of the torture trail of accountability… first is then-white house chief counsel alberto gonzales’ memo to bush affirming bush’s decision to waive the geneva conventions with regard to al qaeda/terrorist detainees…
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then there’s the justice department memorandum to gonzales containing the opinion that bush’s interrogation policies would not be violating the u.n. convention against torture as implemented by sections 2340-2340A of title 18 of the United States Code…
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as these and other high-level authorizations and memorandums of guidance trickled down the chain of command, they led directly to the interrogation techniques detailed by general ricardo sanchez in his memorandum of 14 september 2003 (which he denied writing while under oath in front of the senate armed services committee on 19 may 2004)… (read them in full here…)
the above references, all part of the public record thanks to the aclu and other watchdog organizations (many aclu documents available here), are merely a small sample of the chain of accountability that stretches from the lowest-ranking soldier right to the oval office… this business of saying the u.s. observes geneva, has respect for international law and doesn’t use torture techniques is, plain and simple, 100% bullshit…
posted by profmarcus at 12/08/2005
This is the real value of blogging, keeping the truth out there. The more these truths and documents are placed in front of the public, the more they will know just what illegal and immoral actvities their government’s up to. These memos are inescapable if we continue to republish all over the web.
‘Sunshine is the best disinfectant’ is an overused but nevertheless true expression.
