Ms. Kaltenbrunner Personally Approved Torture

April 10, 2008

ABCnews: Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved ‘Enhanced Interrogation’

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.
…
A new senior official in the Justice Department, Jack Goldsmith, withdrew the legal memo — the Golden Shield — that authorized the program.

But the CIA had captured a new al Qaeda suspect in Asia. Sources said CIA officials that summer returned to the Principals Committee for approval to continue using certain "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Then-National Security Advisor Rice, sources said, was decisive. Despite growing policy concerns — shared by Powell — that the program was harming the image of the United States abroad, sources say she did not back down, telling the CIA: "This is your baby. Go do it."

So Ms. Kaltenbrunner herself ordered to torture even after the pseudo-legality had been retracted.

What is she going to tell the foreign court that might ask her about it?

"So?"

That answer might not be sufficiant.

Posted by b on April 10, 2008 at 07:05 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Maybe this secret Afghan court will take care of her:
Afghans Hold Secret Trials for Men That U.S. Detained

Dozens of Afghan men who were previously held by the United States at Bagram Air Base and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are now being tried here in secretive Afghan criminal proceedings based mainly on allegations forwarded by the American military.
The prisoners are being convicted and sentenced to as much as 20 years’ confinement in trials that typically run between half an hour and an hour, said human rights investigators who have observed them. One early trial was reported to have lasted barely 10 minutes, an investigator said.
The prosecutions are based in part on a security law promulgated in 1987, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Witnesses do not appear in court and cannot be cross-examined. There are no sworn statements of their testimony.
Instead, the trials appear to be based almost entirely on terse summaries of allegations that are forwarded to the Afghan authorities by the United States military.

Posted by: b | Apr 10 2008 7:30 utc | 1

Six Questions for Darius Rejali, Author of ‘Torture and Democracy’

Reed College Professor Darius Rejali is one of the world’s leading thinkers and writers on the subject of torture and the consequences of its use for modern society. Princeton University Press has just published his magisterial study of torture and how it has developed as a social and moral issue with a focus on developments through the last century. Rejali tracks the question in many different settings and societies–from Athens in its golden age to the French colonial wars, totalitarian states in the mid-twentieth century, down to America in the Age of George W. Bush. I put six questions to Rejali about his book and its relevance to the current debate in the United States.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 10 2008 7:52 utc | 2

classic billmon Scenes From A Cover Up
just one of many…
“We don’t torture people in America and people who say we do simply know nothing about our country.”
George W. Bush
Interview with Australian TV
October 18, 2003

Posted by: annie | Apr 10 2008 14:05 utc | 3

ms kaltenbrunner despite her using birthing metaphors for the destruction of the middle east is as we know – litttle less than a war criminal. she has been an instrumental part in the premeptive genocide of political & civic life in the middle east – & she is responsible for the waves of murder not only in iraq but elsewhere where her lackeys martyrise their own people on the orders of certain men in washington
kaltenbrunner was a thug with an ideology
rice is a thug with an ideology
clearly their plans have only just begun in iraq – & it is clear the people of the larger middle east understand that. the resistance to the american lackey mubarek are just one sign of a people awakening to the fact that their sovereign countries are slaves to washington & jerusalem

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 10 2008 17:34 utc | 4

Ashcroft on the Principals meetings: “Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” In other words, they knew damn well what they were doing, and that it would not withstand the light of day. Visions of Nuremberg danced in their heads, and they went ahead anyhow. If the Democrats in Congress had any spine, they would initiate what the Constitution calls for upon the commission of high crimes.

Posted by: Madison Guy | Apr 10 2008 18:30 utc | 5

If the Democrats in Congress had any spine, they would initiate what the Constitution calls for upon the commission of high crimes.
Bullshit. Has nothing to do with spine. Has everything to do with an accomplice. Yes, you read that right, they are complicit. The sooner people see that the better.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 11 2008 3:06 utc | 6

Confirming the ABC news story:
Cheney, Others OK’d Harsh Interrogations

Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned.
…
A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the meetings described them Thursday to the AP to confirm details first reported by ABC News on Wednesday.
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The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
…
The former intelligence official described Cheney and the top national security officials as deeply immersed in developing the CIA’s interrogation program during months of discussions over which methods should be used and when.
At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least detail how they worked, to make sure the small group of “principals” fully understood what the al-Qaida detainees would undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding. This technique involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.
The small group then asked the Justice Department to examine whether using the interrogation methods would break domestic or international laws.
“No one at the agency wanted to operate under a notion of winks and nods and assumptions that everyone understood what was being talked about,” said a second former senior intelligence official. “People wanted to be assured that everything that was conducted was understood and approved by the folks in the chain of command.”
…
The second former senior intelligence official said rescinding the memos caused the CIA to seek even more detailed approvals for the interrogations.
The department issued another still-secret memo in October 2001 that, in part, sought to outline novel ways the military could be used domestically to defend the country in the face of an impending attack. The Justice Department so far has refused to release it, citing attorney-client privilege, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to describe it Thursday at a Senate panel where Democrats characterized it as a “torture memo.”

Posted by: b | Apr 11 2008 10:25 utc | 7

It was of course Mr. Kaltenbrunner who was bhind this and he doesn’t even deny it:

President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.
“Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people.” Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. “And yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”

Posted by: b | Apr 12 2008 8:10 utc | 8

b, you skipped the Ms. Kaltenbrunner roll

As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House ,b>Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the principals or their deputies.
The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of “combined” interrogation techniques — using different techniques during interrogations instead of using one method at a time — on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.

rice in the situation room w/”combined” interrogation. gotcha

Posted by: annie | Apr 12 2008 8:29 utc | 9

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