war.criminals.

In the preface to the Physicians for Human Rights report on torture by the United States, Retired Maj. General Antonio M. Taguba writes the following:

This report tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. . .

The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. . . .

In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. And the healing professions, including physicians and psychologists, became complicit in the willful infliction of harm against those the Hippocratic Oath demands they protect.

After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.

The former detainees in this report, each of whom is fighting a lonely and difficult battle to rebuild his life, require reparations for what they endured, comprehensive psycho-social and medical assistance, and even an official apology from our government.

But most of all, these men deserve justice as required under the tenets of international law and the United States Constitution.

And so do the American people.” (Maj. General Antonio M. Taguba (USA-Ret.)

You can download the entire report on the medical evidence of torture by the U.S. here. Read it and weep, then get on the phone to Nancy Pelosi and demand that impeachment be put ON the fucking table and that these sociopaths in the Bush administration be arrested and imprisoned. There is no other way we can redeem ourselves as a nation.

Crossposted at Big Ass Belle’s Place

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Another book from a former Bush employee..

Dougie Feith wrote one. George Tenet wrote his and Rummy did a big ole interview about his time in the Bush Administration with a mens magazine. Now, Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004 has written a book about his part in history. Sanchez’s book, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story, isn’t a fond walk down memory lane, not by a long shot. Some may say his book is sour grapes. From a RawStory writeup:

Sanchez commanded the US military in Iraq from 2003-2004. The three-star general was relieved of his commander in 2004 following the Abu Ghraib scandal, and in 2005, was told his career was over and he wouldn’t be promoted to a fourth star.

Time has printed a three page excerpt. Was Sanchez a scapegoat for Rummy, and the horrors of Abu-Ghraib among other things? Read the excerpt and make up your own mind. From the Time excerpt:

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Rumsfeld talks…

This week, GQ has an interview up with The Donald..aka former DoD head Donald Rumsfeld. It’s relaxed, almost funny at first blush. Rummy talks about the mule he bought his wife for her birthday. The article is written by Lisa DePaulo.

I find poetic justice in the mammal being a mule, but perhaps that’s just me. No one this side of George Bush is more stubborn than Rumsfeld in my point of view. The article then goes on to show the banter between Rumsfeld and his wife Joyce…pages upon pages of small talk. Finally on page 5 of the GQ article..they get to some meat. Rumsfeld has written a chronology of events that happened in the world and his place in it. From the article:

The chronology is a reminder of the profound influence DHR has wielded for more than half a century: naval officer. Four-term congressman. The youngest (and then oldest) secretary of defense. Top aide under Ford and Nixon (who once called him “a ruthless little bastard”). Ambassador to NATO. Middle East envoy. Two lucrative stints as a CEO in private industry-

Was Rumsfeld a ‘ruthless little bastard”? Only history can tell us for sure, but in my little mind he most certainly was when he signed on for his second stint as Secretary of Defense under George Bush. Rumsfeld was a man that wanted to correct his legacy as the youngest Secretary of Defense under Nixon. Rumsfeld was one of the architects of the occupation of Iraq, also known as the Iraq War. I will not be the one to judge Bush’s Secretary of Defense. History and God will do that. Rumsfeld virtually had no plan after the invasion of Iraq, and our troops are paying a heavy price for his lack of foresight today. Rumsfeld was once asked what the worst day of his time in office under Bush43.

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