get real (pissed) over this torture shit

[Ladywriter 7,783]

This isn't the first torture scandal that has slapped us upside the head. Massachusetts 1692; When the infamous Salem Witch Trials were over, 19 men and women were hanged to death on Gallows Hill, 4 died in prison, and one defiant man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death beneath a board and stones in a torturous attempt to obtain a confession.

A History of Violence: Torture and Death for Accused Witches

eventually ppl grew up and knocked that stupid shit off. Laws ended up being passed so stupid shit like that didn't happen anymore.

but stupid is like a disease that doesn't go away. Damage can be mitigated but we still get shit like

The boredom of a small-town life made six young Confederate veterans from the south gather around a fireplace one night, where they thought of a secret group. They made the group to occupy themselves and to get revenge on the many Blacks that had won their freedom in the Civil War. The group wanted to torture former slaves, because the slaves had won their freedom. The Klan members felt threatened because they thought the Blacks would start to get more powerful. In addition, many Klan members were angry because they lost their slaves.

The head of the group was called the Grand Cyclops and everyone else was called a Ghoul. The name of the group was hard to decide. One man, Richard R. Reed, suggested the word kuklos, meaning circle and cycle. Then Captain John B. Kennedy, who had an ear for alliteration (words starting with the same sound), added the word Clan. After some tinkering the group came up with the name Ku Klux Klan.

stupid is alive and well, its just controlled by more sophisticated people.

The memos, released in redacted form to protect the identity of CIA interrogators, describe acts of torture in clinical detail, always associating these with a threadbare legal defense. Among the forms of torture endorsed by the memos are:

*Walling. “The interrogator pulls the individual forward and then quickly and firmly pushes the individual into the wall... During this motion, the head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel... to help prevent whiplash.”

*Water dousing. “Cold water is poured on the detainee either from a container or from a hose without a nozzle... The maximum period of time that a detainee may be permitted to remain wet has been set at two-thirds the time at which, based on the extensive medical literature and experience, hypothermia could be expected to develop... For water temperature at 41 [degrees Fahrenheit] total duration of exposure may not exceed 20 minutes...”

*Facial Slap. “The purpose of the facial slap is to induce shock, surprise, and/or humiliation.”

*Cramped Confinement. “The confined space is usually dark... For the larger confined space, the individual can stand up or sit down; the smaller space is large enough for the subject to sit down. Confinement in the larger space can last up to eighteen hours; for the smaller space... no more than two hours.”

*Stress positions. “A variety of stress positions may be used... they are designed to produce physical discomfort associated with muscle fatigue... In wall standing, it will be holding a position in which all of the individual’s body weight is placed on his finger tips.”

*Nudity. “This technique is used to cause psychological discomfort, particularly if a detainee for cultural or other reasons, is especially modest.”

*Sleep deprivation. “The primary method of sleep deprivation involves the use of shackling to keep the detainees awake. In this method, the detainee is standing and is handcuffed, and the handcuffs are attached by a length of chain to the ceiling... a detainee undergoing sleep deprivation is generally fed by hand by CIA personnel so that he need not be unshackled. If the detainee is clothed, he wears an adult diaper under his pants. Detainees subject to sleep deprivation who are also subject to nudity... will at times be nude and wearing a diaper. The maximum allowable duration is 180 hours...”

*Use of insects. A memo authorizes agents to place an insect in the “cramped confinement box” of a prisoner who interrogators noticed had “a fear of insects.”

*Waterboarding. “In this procedure, the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench...Water is then applied to a cloth [that] is lowered until it covers both the nose and mouth... This causes an increase in carbon dioxide level in the individuals’ blood [which] stimulates increased effort to breathe. This effort plus the cloth produces the perception of ‘suffocation and incipient panic,’ i.e., the perception of drowning... The procedure may then be repeated... [A] medical expert... will be present throughout...”

^We did that ^America did that and as Americans

No, no I'm not down with that kind of law breaking. As much as I hate people I don't agree with treating them like that. The people that approved and ordered this shit need to be the fuck in jail. They are not above the law.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Impeach Torture Architect Judge Jay Bybee

Posted by Staff, Center for Constitutional Rights at 11:18 AM on April 21, 2009.

[Editor's note: The following is a message from our friends at The Center for Constitutional Rights.]

Last week, President Obama released four torture authorization memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) under the Bush administration that devised a legal framework for the justification of the Torture Program. The memos were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the Center for Constitutional Rights helped file with the ACLU and other organizations.

We need your help to impeach one of the legal architects of the Bush administration Torture Program who is now, incredibly, a federal judge.

The memos were intended to provide legal cover for officials to carry out abhorrent, illegal and ineffective techniques that were approved at the highest levels of the Bush administration in violation U.S. and international law and the U.S. Constitution.

One of the principal authors was Jay Bybee, the former head of the OLC and today a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. His flagrant contempt for the rule of law is utterly inconsistent with his judicial position and speaks directly to his competency to function in that office. It is unacceptable for an individual who abused his status as a government lawyer and violated the law in conspiring with other members of the Bush Torture Team to sit as a federal judge, someone who hears and decides issues of constitutional import. At the time of his confirmation hearing, his role in the Torture Program was secret, as was the program itself. Jay Bybee’s actions constitute High Crimes and Misdemeanors by any standard.

In a strong editorial yesterday, The New York Times called for Bybee’s impeachment. We agree. Write to Rep. John Conyers and the House Judiciary Committee today to demand they hold a hearing to determine whether grounds exist for Bybee’s impeachment. When you send your letter, your name will automatically be added to a petition that we will use to build a national movement to demand the prosecution of those high level officials who committed crimes when they planned, authorized, justified and carried out the Torture Program.

Bybee’s impeachment will be a first step in holding the Torture Team accountable for their actions. His August 1, 2002 memo is available here.

High level government officials are not above the law. We must send a clear message to all future officials – and to the victims of the torture policies – that the crime of torture is unacceptable and will not be swept under the carpet. If we allow these crimes to be committed with impunity, we are doomed to repeat one of the darkest chapters in our history. Join us to see Jay Bybee impeached and advance the movement for prosecutions and accountability.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

From the editors:

What a week. Last Thursday the Obama administration released four now-notorious memos, written between 2002 and 2005, granting legal cover to CIA torturers for their "enhanced interrogation" methods, which we now know included such ideas as locking prisoners in boxes with insects. Suddenly, accountability is all the rage: For days the networks have been covering every public statement uttered by President Obama and his officials, looking for signs that, contrary to their past rhetoric, there might be plans to prosecute Bush officials who authorized torture. For those who have been covering this issue for many months, that the accountability debate is now front and center in the corporate press is a welcome development. But it is just as critical right now to support the efforts of all the people and organizations who have been pushing for accountability for years. David Swanson, the tireless co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org has unveiled a great new resource compiling links and information pushing for the impeachment of Jay Bybee, who is currently employed as a federal judge despite the bogus and sadistic "legal" analysis on display in his declassified memo.

Of course, the movement for accountability for Bush era crimes is much bigger than Bybee. Go here to sign a statement calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate all top-level Bush officials for their abuse of power in the so-called "war on terror." And for more breaking coverage of the torture memos, including who is calling for prosecutions, and even more damning revelations contained in a just-declassified Senate Armed Services Committee report, be sure to check out AlterNet's Rights & Liberties Special Coverage. (There just isn't room to include all of it in this newsletter.)

Thanks for reading,

Liliana Segura,

Editor, Rights & Liberties Special Coverage

___________________________________________________________

WE CAN WIN THE FIGHT TO PROSECUTE BUSH'S TORTURE LAWYERS

By David Swanson, After Downing Street

A push for accountability is a deterrent to future crimes,

even if it fails. But remember: they won't tell us we're

succeeding until we already have.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137743/we_can_win_the_fight_to_prosecute_bush%27s_torture_lawyers/

DECLASSIFIED REPORT: BUSH ADMIN SOLICITED TORTURE 'WISH LIST,' ORDERED 'COMMUNIST' TACTICS

By Stephen Webster, Diane Sweet, Raw Story

Sen. Carl Levin recommends AG Eric Holder appoint a

'distinguished individual or individuals' to 'establish

accountability of high-level officials.'

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137840/declassified_report%3A_bush_admin_solicited_torture_%27wish_list%2C%27_ordered_%27communist%27_tactics/

NEW BUSH TORTURE BOMBSHELL MEMOS: 10 HORRIFYING DISCOVERIES

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet

Slamming prisoners into walls, locking them in boxes with

insects; these memos are the smoking gun for the sadistic

crimes of the Bush administration.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137093/new_bush_torture_bombshell_memos%3A_10_horrifying_discoveries/

TOUGH GUYS HAYDEN AND MUKASEY DEFEND TORTURE, DECRY RELEASE OF THE OLC MEMOS: WHY THEY'RE WRONG

By Rep. Jan Schakowsky, AlterNet

Former Bush officials are trying to avoid accountability for

their inhumane crimes. There is much you can do to make sure

they don't get away with it.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137726/tough_guys_hayden_and_mukasey_defend_torture%2C_decry_release_of_the_olc_memos%3A_why_they%27re_wrong/

MR. PRESIDENT, WAR CRIMES MUST BE INVESTIGATED

By Ruth Rosen, AlterNet

The country I care so much about has breached some of the

most important international conventions. Yet no one has

been held accountable.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137402/mr._president%2C_war_crimes_must_be_investigated/

COURT: ABU GHRAIB VICTIMS CAN SUE TORTURERS

By Willam Fisher, IPS News

A federal court has ruled that four men who were tortured

and released without charge can sue CACI, the U.S.

contractor hired to do interrogations.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137510/court%3A_abu_ghraib_victims_can_sue_torturers/

THE TORTURE MEMOS ARE NOT JUST SICK, THEY'RE FULL OF LIES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BYBEE MEMO

By Jeffrey S. Kaye, AlterNet

The memo's gross distortion of psychological research makes

it hard to imagine they were used in "good faith" as the

Obama administration says.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137156/the_torture_memos_are_not_just_sick%2C_they%27re_full_of_lies%3A_a_closer_look_at_the_bybee_memo/

'A TON MORE PEOPLE WERE WIRETAPPED THAN WE'VE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE' FBI WHISTLEBLOWER THOMAS TAMM

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet

The man who blew the lid off Bush's spying program believes

more details on government spying must, and will, come to

light.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137260/%27a_ton_more_people_were_wiretapped_than_we%27ve_been_led_to_believe%27%3A_fbi_whistleblower_thomas_tamm/

CONFIRMED: REP. JANE HARMAN TRIED TO KILL NSA WIRETAPPING STORY -- MAY HAVE SWAYED 2004 ELECTION

By John Byrne, Raw Story

The New York Times has confirmed Harman tried to keep the

paper from publishing an article exposing warrantless

wiretapping.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/137698/confirmed%3A_rep._jane_harman_tried_to_kill_nsa_wiretapping_story_--_may_have_swayed_2004_election/

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Breaking News: Dick Cheney Implicated in Torture Crimes

Thanks to the hundreds of thousands of people who have helped spread the word, there is now a firestorm of grassroots support for investigation and prosecution.

Today, a coalition of organizations is presenting more than 250,000 petition signatures to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that he appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute Bush-era officials responsible for torture carried out under the Bush Admnistration.

More than 134,000 people have signed the referendum at IndictBushNow. Let's make it a million signatures -- you can help by spreading the word to your friends and family.

Click this link right now to sign the IndictBushNow petition to Eric Holder.

http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=ISq8ow5iQYVAkEJhJV8pwQ..

[Ladywriter 7,783]

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30395357]Countdown with Keith OlbermannCountdown with Keith Olbermann[/ame]

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Thousands of Pages of Evidence and a Quarter Million Signatures: What Will It Take For Attorney General to Prosecute Torture Crimes?

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted April 24, 2009.

By the time Attorney General Eric Holder took his seat before a Congressional subcommittee on Thursday, the Bush torture program had broken wide open. In the past week alone, hundreds of pages in declassified legal memos and Congressional reports had blown the lid off the previous administration's harsh interrogation policies to reveal -- in addition to grisly new details about what the U.S. government did to prisoners in its custody -- a chronology of the program's history that implicated the most senior government officials, including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and of course the former president. What's more, it appeared that the torture of high-value detainees in 2002 and 2003 was, at least in part, the direct consequence of Bush officials' need to extract a link -- fictitious or otherwise -- between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Damning stuff, to be sure. Yet watching Holder's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, where his office was met with a coalition of activists delivering petitions carrying 250,000 signatures from Americans who support appointing an independent prosecutor to investigate Bush's crimes, it would be hard to guess that it came in a week that saw such a flood of evidence of human rights violations and war crimes come to light. Reiterating his contention (following the initial release of legal memos last week outlining the rationale for Bush era torture) that "those in the intelligence community who acted reasonably and in good faith are not going to be prosecuted," Holder also reassured the committee members that he "will not permit the criminalization of policy differences" -- an almost superfluous response to one of the bogus conservative talking points that has sprung up -- the notion that holding accountable lawyers who authorized flagrantly illegal techniques against U.S. held prisoners will have a "chilling effect" on advisers' opinions. But, he said, "it is my responsibility as attorney general to enforce the law. ... If I see evidence of wrongdoing I will pursue it to the full extent of the law." Very well, but with virtually no references to the avalanche of evidence that emerged this week, Holder's words, like President Obama's pep-rally style speech before the CIA last week and the hearing itself (which, in fairness, was held to discuss the 2010 budget of the DOJ), largely belied the severity of what has been revealed in the past week.

To recap: Holder's appearance came one week to the day after the release of the infamous OLC memos, which describe in chilling detail the methodology of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program. The documents sparked fresh revulsion in the media and blogosphere over the Bush administration's torture program, while also prompting renewed calls for the Obama administration to investigate and hold accountable those who authorized it. Despite President Obama's immediate announcement that CIA rank and file would not face charges -- "it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution" -- online and in the pages of the New York Times, the call for accountability was deafening. From the push to impeach former OLC lawyer turned judge Jay Bybee, who currently enjoys a seat on the federal bench, to the heckling of former OLC attorney John Yoo (the veritable godfather of the OLC's pro-torture rationale) at a California college where audience members shouted "war criminal" as he took the stage, people were outraged.

Then, on Tuesday night, the Senate Armed Services Committee released its 263-page "Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees In U.S. Custody," an exhaustive look at the Bush administration's torture program following September 11th. Based on over 200,000 pages of classified and unclassified documents and interviews with more than 70 people (mostly Pentagon officials), the document is more than a catalog and condemnation of the torture program. It officially upends the dishonest narrative that has been used to excuse the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody ever since the first photographs of hooded prisoners left Abu Ghraib. "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own," read the report, using the very language Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld employed to dismiss the abuse in 2005. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority."

The Senate Armed Services report revealed a number of other significant details, including a more complete chronology of the development and authorization of the torture program. Writing on the New Yorker website, investigative journalist Jane Mayer wrote that the Senate report makes clear that "the C.I.A. and the military were preparing a blueprint for brutality months before they even had captured a single high-level Al Qaeda operative." While the OLC memos have long been understood to have been designed to grant legal cover to practices already in place, this fact would seem to carry significant legal implications even if they are taken at face value.

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[Ladywriter 7,783]

REAGAN'S DOJ PROSECUTED TEXAS SHERIFF FOR WATERBOARDING PRISONERS

By Jason Leopold, TruthOut.org

Ignoring the 1983 case is just one of the flagrant

violations committed by Bush lawyers who crafted the newly

released "torture memos."

George W. Bush's Justice Department said subjecting a person to the near drowning of waterboarding was not a crime and didn't even cause pain, but Ronald Reagan's Justice Department thought otherwise, prosecuting a Texas sheriff and three deputies for using the practice to get confessions.

Federal prosecutors secured a 10-year sentence against the sheriff and four years in prison for the deputies. But that 1983 case -- which would seem to be directly on point for a legal analysis on waterboarding two decades later -- was never mentioned in the four Bush administration opinions released last week.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Rice Channels Nixon: Since the President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal

Q: Is waterboarding torture?

RICE: The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture. So that's -- And by the way, I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency, that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department's clearance. That's what I did.

Q: Okay. Is waterboarding torture in your opinion?

RICE: I just said, the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prxin-Lj5Ks]YouTube - Condi Rice Pulls a Nixon: If the President Orders Torture, It Must be Legal[/ame]

[Ladywriter 7,783]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMBKQE_mSFI]YouTube - Sec Of State Has To Use 785 Words To Answer A 4th Grader![/ame]

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Unbelievably, there's a growing chorus to let the Bush torture team

get off scot-free.

A draft report from the Justice Department's Office of

Professional Responsibility reportedly concludes that the lawyers who

drafted the "torture memos" were legally sanctioning

illegal interrogation methods. It asserts that they committed lapses

of judgment but claims that they should not be prosecuted.

And now, according to the Washington Post, former Bush administration

officials have launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get the

Justice Department to soften the ethics report even further.

We can't hide the truth about torture, and enforcing the law is

not a political decision. There must a thorough investigation, and if

crimes have been committed, our legal system demands accountability.

Please write a letter to the editor of your local paper, and let them

know that no one is above the law. You can also help get the word out

by writing a blog post or commenting on an article about these

developments online.

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=ntDo7uNauJPOdF4-_elpRg..

The ACLU and hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to demand a

complete criminal investigation into Bush administration officials who

authorized detainee abuse and torture.

Attorney General Holder has said that he intends to follow the facts

and the law wherever they lead. We need to make sure he follows

through and knows that the American public is behind him.

It would be a dangerous precedent to conclude that lawyers who played

a critical role in an illegal program are immune from criminal

investigations. No one is above the law.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, and demand respect

for the rule of law.

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=9cDqUXBa9y2vTzZryNtBpQ..

Please also consider writing a blog post or commenting on an article

about these developments online.

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,

Anthony D. Romero

Executive Director

ACLU

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Don't let Dick Cheney get away with torture.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3548&id=4005-1999172-HnFtEFx&t=9

He asked for it.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3548&id=4005-1999172-HnFtEFx&t=10

Cheney told CBS News he'd welcome an open discussion of the CIA torture

memos. Let's give him what he wants -- in open court.

The news is buzzing that Dick Cheney would welcome a commission to

investigate Bush-era torture -- but we need to make it clear that a mere

investigation is not enough. What we need is a prosecution.

The buzz intensifed on May 10, when Cheney told CBS' Bob Schieffer that he

hopes for a public discussion of the CIA memos on torture -- or, as he

refers to it, "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Why would Cheney hope this? Because he believes the torture was justified.

As Andrew Sullivan put it

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3549&id=4005-1999172-HnFtEFx&t=13

, Cheney "believes that freezing naked prisoners to hypothermia or

strapping them to a board for a 175th near-drowning or stringing them up

in stress positions so long the shackles rust up is in line with America's

constitutional history and custom."

Cheney told Schieffer that he hopes CIA memos on torture will be released

and examined by journalists and the public.

Mr. Cheney, we'd like to do you one better. We'd like those memos to be

examined by a special prosecutor.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3548&id=4005-1999172-HnFtEFx&t=14

Only after a thorough investigation by a U.S. attorney will we know for

sure whether and to what extent Cheney broke the law and besmirched the

Constitution while serving in the Bush administration. And if he did break

the law, he deserves to be prosecuted and sent to prison.

Click here to tell Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special

prosecutor to investigate Bush-era torture and what role Dick Cheney

played in making it happen.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3548&id=4005-1999172-HnFtEFx&t=15

Thank you for working to build a better world.

Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager

CREDO Action

why the fuck is Dick Cheney still alive miserable old prick

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Hours ago, the Obama administration disappointingly reversed its

promise to make public photos depicting detainee abuse by U.S.

personnel overseas. The Department of Defense recently told a federal

judge that it would release a "substantial number" of

photos in response to a court ruling in an ACLU Freedom of Information

Act lawsuit.

There is no doubt that these photos would be disturbing. The day we

are no longer upset by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. But,

the outrage related to these photos shouldn't be about their

release. It should be about the horrific crimes that they depict. And,

we must demand accountability for the widespread abuse they document.

The very fact that these photos exist only underscores the need for

accountability and for a full investigation of crimes committed. As

President Obama said on his first full day in office, "A

democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires

transparency."

Tell President Obama you support transparency and accountability at

the highest levels of government.

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=eW_9KDGVj4TWTGGECQAj6w..

The ACLU pressed for the recent release of the long-secret Bush

torture memos and is now calling for the release of the abuse photos

because -- as painful as it is -- confronting the evidence of what was

done is essential if we are to live by the law.

Those who turned a blind eye to abuse and those who put the despicable

U.S. torture program in place had no right to ignore the rule of law.

And, no matter how hard some might try to turn us away from the facts,

we also have no right to ignore the rule of law. We have to call to

account those who did this and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Please take a few moments to tell President Obama that you support

transparency and accountability.

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=bObV7bxwS88wEoUpFMX-Tg..

Sooner or later, these photos will come to light. And when they do,

you and I will be heartbroken and sick to our stomachs to see so

vividly what the U.S. torture program entailed.

But, the real heartbreak -- the real betrayal of our values and

principles -- would come if we denied our moral and legal

responsibility to bring to account those who involved our country in

torture so horrid that we hesitate to even look it in the eye.

The President is listening to and weighing carefully the advice of

those in his administration on these issues. But he also needs to

hear from concerned citizens like you.

Tell President Obama you support transparency and accountability.

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=RvJktyi2RtYEtIB19M1FLg..

The debate about the release of these photos will continue in the

courts, and the ACLU will be there to argue for transparency and to

insist that a democracy thrives on the free flow of information.

I urge you to act on your deepest beliefs about what kind of country

we are. Join the ACLU in calling on President Obama to put the full

weight of his leadership behind our call for transparency and

accountability.

Sincerely,

Anthony D. Romero

Executive Director

ACLU

P.S. We're talking about issues of fundamental importance to our

core beliefs. Please share this email with as many people as possible.

© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004

floppin like a fish outta water aint gonna save their mutherfuckin asses

[Ladywriter 7,783]

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30815714]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame]

[Ladywriter 7,783]

WHY THE PENTAGON IS PROBABLY LYING ABOUT ITS SUPRESSED SODOMY AND RAPE PHOTOS

By Naomi Wolf, AlterNet

This is probably exactly what the photos show, because it

happened. The same-sex crimes against detainees have been

documented.

http://www.alternet.org/world/140357/why_the_pentagon_is_probably_lying_about_its_supressed_sodomy_and_rape_photos/

**Please circulate widely to friends and on social-networking sites*

Torture Photos Show Rapes of Detainees, Former Officer Confirms

The real reason Dick Cheney has become so loud: he's afraid

Each week brings shocking new revelations. The U.S. mass media is not reporting on the most explosive story of the week.

The world now knows why President Obama reversed his earlier decision to release the 2,000 photos of prisoners barbarically tortured, abused, and humiliated under the direction of the Bush/Cheney gang.

Some of the photos of the prisoners show U.S. personnel torturing, sexual assaulting and raping male and female detainees, including children. The existence of these photos was confirmed by former Major General Antonio Taguba. Taguba had earlier been in charge of the inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

On May 21, Cheney went on national television to defend torture and sickeningly attacked Obama for sacrificing "innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things." We'd like to hear him explain how rape and sexual assault are just "unpleasant things" that have spared innocent lives. The last few months has proven that the abuses, the sexual assault, and the most barbaric violations of human rights cannot be attributed to a few bad apples. Such tactics were commonplace, officially sanctioned and elevated to the level of government policy.

The torture methods, like the war itself, have never been about saving lives. A recent column in the Nation echoed what IndictBushNow reported last week: "The Bush administration, hellbent on justifying its forthcoming invasion of Iraq, was ransacking the intelligence bureaucracy to find or produce two things that, it turns out, did not exist: weapons of mass destruction programs in Iraq and cooperation between Al Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein."

The Iraqi people have never waged war on the United States and no Iraqis took part in the attacks of 9/11. Bush & co. wanted to go to war, and were just looking for an excuse.

So why, given the recent revelations, has Dick Cheney responded so publicly in defense of the Bush administration's war crimes? He's afraid! He's not just concerned about preserving the administration's "legacy" -- he's concerned about preserving his own neck.

Don't believe us? Take it from Cheney's daughter, Liz, who recently explained her father's outspokenness on CNN: "He certainly did not plan when he left office to be doing this... Then when [Obama] suggested in the Oval Office itself that he would be open to the prosecution of former Bush administration officials including many who weren't political appointees potentially, you know really, I think, made my dad realize this was just fundamentally wrong. We had to speak out."

Our argument for prosecution is becoming irresistible. The fact is that every revelation lays bare a whole new level of criminality. The more details come about the Bush administration's heinous acts and deliberate deception of the American people, the more people are starting to talk about justice. Already, many people who once said, "we need to move forward" are beginning to reconsider: no one can move forward until we have come to terms with the country's past. That means accountability: the indictment of the criminals.

From all of us at IndictBushNow.org

[Ladywriter 7,783]

documentary time ~

http://www.torturingdemocracy.org/

[Ladywriter 7,783]

The issue of torture and "enhanced interrogation tactics" has been all over the news recently. But no one is saying much about the brave members of the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAGs) who refused to carry out orders to torture detainees at Guantanamo and other prisons, and who spoke out in defense of basic human rights.

I just signed a letter of commendation applauding select JAGs for their "Uncommon Courage" and hope you will too. Check out their stories at http://www.commoncause.org/JAGstories and sign the letter at http://www.commoncause.org/JAGthanks. The letter is going to be delivered on the 4th of July, so please sign it today and let other folks know about it too. Thanks!