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Jay McDonough
Progressive Politics ExaminerJay began writing politically themed commentary and founded his blog, Swimming Freestyle, in October 2007. Here he'll write about politics from a progressive perspective.
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"If The Detainee Dies, You're Doing It Wrong"
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
McClatchy has published several articles in the last week exposing details of the U.S. use of torture as an interrogation tool.McClatchy on the Bagram facility in Afghanistan:
Former guards and detainees whom McClatchy interviewed said Bagram was a center of systematic brutality for at least 20 months, starting in late 2001. Yet the soldiers responsible have escaped serious punishment.The report indicates two U.S. soldiers were charged with assault. Charges were dropped for one and the other was reduced in rank to private. Why so lenient? Executive orders from the Bush Administration had rescinded Geneva Convention protections and made prosecution for war crimes difficult, if not impossible.
The eight-month McClatchy investigation found a pattern of abuse that continued for years. The abuse of detainees at Bagram has been reported by U.S. media organizations, in particular The New York Times, which broke several developments in the story. But the extent of the mistreatment, and that it eclipsed the alleged abuse at Guantanamo, hasn't previously been revealed.
The brutality at Bagram peaked in December 2002, when U.S. soldiers beat two Afghan detainees, Habibullah and Dilawar, to death as they hung by their wrists.
Dilawar died on Dec. 10, seven days after Habibullah died. He'd been hit in his leg so many times that the tissue was "falling apart" and had "basically been pulpified," said then-Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, the Air Force medical examiner who performed the autopsy on him.
Today McClatchy published an article outlining the CIA's involvement in detainee interrogation training:
The CIA, which had authority to use harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorist detainees, advised U.S. military officials at Guantanamo in 2002 on how far they could go in extracting information from captives there, documents released at a Senate hearing Tuesday show.When abuse at Abu Ghraib prison became known, the Bush Administration assured Americans the abuse of Iraqis was an aberration, the crimes of a "few bad apples". It's become very clear that Abu Ghraib was, by no means, an aberration, but just an example of a widespread and concerted effort by the Bush Administration to toss out long standing rules of interrogation and then lie and cover up to hide their involvement.
"If the detainee dies you're doing it wrong," Jonathan Fredman, chief counsel to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, told a meeting of officials on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes from the meeting.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is investigating the origin of techniques that resulted in abuse at Guantanamo, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, and elsewhere, said the documents show that the abuse was not the result of "a few bad apples" within the military _ as the White House has claimed.
"The truth is that senior officials in the United States government sought information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees," said Levin, a Michigan Democrat.
Topics: Torture
More from Progressive Politics Examiner
David Frum on Sarah Palin
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
Neo-conservative and ex-spreech writer for George W. Bush, David Frum, on the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be John McCain's running mate:Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I'd guess that John... Read More
Topics: Sarah Palin
A Picture for the Day
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
Schoolchildren in the northern Indian city of Shimla attended a prayer meeting to pay tribute to the victims of the recent clashes between Hindus and Christians in Orissa State. Hindu mobs ransacked a church and clashed with Christian villagers in eastern... Read More
Topics: Picture for the Day
The Speech
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
I count myself fortunate. I was there. There's lots of terrific analysis out there of Barack Obama's speech last night. Any critical commentary I could offer now, nearly 24 hours later, has already been written. But I can tell you how... Read More
Topics: Barack Obama
Sarah Palin?
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
Really? I know she was on the list and there were really no good choices, but what does it say about the McCain campaign that they chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate?
On the plus side, Palin is attractive, young,... Read More
Topics: Obama , McCain , Sarah Palin
Convention notes
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
A few words about the Convention the last several days. As noted the other day, I reckoned it would be hard to top Michellle Obama's apprearance Monday night. All along, two themes needed to emerge from this Convention. There needed... Read More
Topics: DNC
Michelle Obama
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
Wow. How does one express intimacy in an arena full of 25,000 people? Watch Michelle Obama: How can anyone not be moved? There will, undoubtedly, be folks who will cynically claim Ms. Obama's words were insincere... Read More
Topics: Michelle Obama
Edward Kennedy at the Convention
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
His appearance was a surprise, rumored, but far from certain. A video tribute was introduced by Edward Kennedy's niece, Caroline, and was eagerly anticipated by an arena bursting full of Democratic Party loyalists (as an aside, is there a public... Read More
Topics: Kennedy , DNC
A Picture for the Day
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
Asuncion, Paraguay: A shaman performs a purification ritual (Photograph: Jorge Saenz/AP) ... Read More
Topics: Picture for the Day
Off to the Convention
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
I'm off to the Democratic National Convention. Postings will be sporadic and, more than likely, light through Friday. Have a good week everybody. ... Read More
Topics: DNC
