e537dfb0   
   XPost: soc.culture.thai, soc.culture.cambodia, soc.culture.turkish   
   XPost: soc.culture.vietnamese   
   From: erickassonfire@hotmail.com   
      
   “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of   
   torture and that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate   
   responsibility for it.No to Truth Commission   
      
   The kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after   
   9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the   
   wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some   
   detainees in our custody,” was the determination of a bi-partisan   
   commission that consisted of a former Republican Bush official, a   
   Democratic Party former Congressman and other professionals in a   
   comprehensive and extensive 600-page report released last week.   
      
   The report significantly noted that the Obama administration declined,   
   as a matter of policy, to undertake or commission an official study of   
   what happened, saying it was unproductive to “look backwards” rather   
   than forward.   
      
   The report advocating the wisdom of appointing a commission to   
   establish accountability of action of war crimes among which is   
   torture that the highest officials oof the Bush administration bore   
   ultimate responsibility states:   
      
   "In Congress, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont introduced legislation   
   to establish a “Truth Commission” to look into the U.S. behavior in   
   the years following the September 11 attacks. The concept, successful   
   in South Africa, Guatemala and several other countries, is predicated   
   on recognizing the paramount value to a nation of an accurate   
   accounting of its history, especially in the aftermath of an   
   extraordinary episode or period of crisis".   
      
   Since the conclusion of the 26-year war with terrorism defeating a   
   ruthless terrorist group in a South Asian nation Sri Lanka in 2009,   
   the United States advocated and later almost forced the Government of   
   Sri Lanka to appoint a 'Truth Commission' which that government   
   appointed in the form of a 'lessons learnt and reconciliation' and   
   produced its report and recommendations. The State Department, in   
   promoting a commission of that nature in Sri Lanka brought South   
   Africa as an example.   
      
   The report bi-partisan further states: "The Task Force examined court   
   cases in which torture was deemed to have occurred both inside and   
   outside the country and, tellingly, in instances in which the United   
   States has leveled the charge of torture against other governments.   
   The United States may not declare a nation guilty of engaging in   
   torture and then exempt itself from being so labeled for similar if   
   not identical conduct.   
      
   "The United States has routinely and firmly condemned as torture and/   
   or abuse many of the same techniques used by U.S. personnel against   
   detainees over the course of the past decade. The Department of State   
   (DOS), in its annual U.S. country reports on human rights practices,   
   has characterized many of the coercive techniques used against   
   detainees in U.S. custody in the post–September 11 era as torture,   
   abuse or cruel treatment. These reports, assessing the human rights   
   situation in 194 countries around the world, are submitted annually as   
   required by both the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act   
   of 1974.   
      
   "The CIA, in an internal review, acknowledged that the “[enhanced   
   interrogation techniques] used by the [CIA] … are inconsistent with   
   the public policy positions that the United States has taken regarding   
   human rights.” Unrepentant executer on Global War on Terror   
      
   The Washington Think Tank Constitutional Project's blue ribbon Task   
   Force extensively examined the Detainee Treatment since the 9/11   
   attacks.   
      
   It is made up of former high-ranking officials with distinguished   
   careers in the judiciary, Congress, the diplomatic service, law   
   enforcement, the military, and other parts of the executive branch, as   
   well as recognized experts in law, medicine and ethics. The group   
   includes conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats.   
      
   This report is the product of more than two years of research,   
   analysis and deliberation by the Task Force members and staff. It is   
   based on a thorough examination of available publicintelligence   
   officers, interrogators and policymakers. It is the most comprehensive   
   record of detainee treatment across multiple administrations and   
   multiple geographic theaters — Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and the   
   so-called “black sites”.   
      
   One of those who was on the Constitution Project's Task Force was Mr.   
   Asa Hatchinson.   
      
   Mr. Hutchinson, who served in the Bush administration as chief of the   
   Drug Enforcement Administration and undersecretary of the Department   
   of Homeland Security, said he “took convincing” on the torture issue.   
   But after the panel’s nearly two years of research, he said he had no   
   doubts about what the United States did. “This has not been an easy   
   inquiry for me, because I know many of the players,” Mr. Hutchinson   
   said in an interview. He said he thought everyone involved in   
   decisions, from Mr. Bush down, had acted in good faith, in a desperate   
   effort to try to prevent more attacks.   
      
   “But I just think we learn from history,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “It’s   
   incredibly important to have an accurate account not just of what   
   happened but of how decisions were made.”   
      
   He added, “The United States has a historic and unique character, and   
   part of that character is that we do not torture.” Torture Photographs   
   in Iraq that went viral in internet   
      
   The panel found that the United States violated its international   
   legal obligations by engineering “enforced disappearances” and secret   
   detentions. It questions recidivism figures published by the Defense   
   Intelligence Agency for Guantánamo detainees who have been released,   
   saying they conflict with independent reviews.   
      
   The report’s main thrust was its attempt to assess what the United   
   States government did in the years after 2001 and how it should be   
   judged. The C.I.A. not only waterboarded prisoners, but slammed them   
   into walls, chained them in uncomfortable positions for hours,   
   stripped them of clothing and kept them awake for days on end.   
      
   "By the end of 2002, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, interrogators   
   began routinely depriving detainees of sleep by means of shackling   
   them to the ceiling. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld later   
   approved interrogation techniques in Guantanamo that included sleep   
   deprivation, stress positions, nudity, sensory deprivation, and   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)