Navy Counsel Ignored On Torture Warnings

[NATO AIR]

the "experts" at Justice who were there because idealogy, not competence, ignored the warnings of experienced military lawyers.

This is an unnecessary problem for the US. Should not have happened. Now we have to deal with this repeating problem for years to come.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/19/AR2006021901002.html

Navy Counsel Issued Warning On Torture
Associated Press
Monday, February 20, 2006; Page A03

The Navy's general counsel warned Pentagon officials two years before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that circumventing international agreements on torture and detainees' treatment would invite abuse, according to a published report.

Legal theories granting the president the right to authorize abuse despite the Geneva Conventions were unlawful, dangerous and erroneous, then-General Counsel Alberto J. Mora advised officials in a secret memo. The 22-page document was obtained by the New Yorker for an article in its Feb. 27 issue.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said yesterday that she had not read the magazine article.

The July 7, 2004, memo recounted Mora's 2 1/2 -year effort to halt a policy that he feared would authorize cruelty toward terrorism suspects.

It also indicates that some lawyers in the Justice and Defense departments objected to the legal course the administration undertook, according to the report.

Mora said Navy intelligence officers reported in 2002 that military-intelligence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were engaging in escalating levels of physical and psychological abuse rumored to have been authorized at a high level in Washington.

"I was appalled by the whole thing," Mora told the magazine. "It was clearly abusive and it was clearly contrary to everything we were ever taught about American values."

Mora said he thought his concerns were being addressed by a special group set up by the Pentagon. But he discovered in January 2003 that a Justice Department opinion had negated his arguments with what he described as "an extreme and virtually unlimited theory of the extent of the president's commander in chief authority."

When the first pictures from the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib appeared in the press in spring 2004, Mora said, he felt stunned and dismayed that what he had warned against had taken place, and in a different setting than Guantanamo Bay.

Mora retired this year and now is a general counsel for Wal-Mart.

A U.N. report issued last week called for the United States to close its prison at Guantanamo Bay. In response, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld rejected accusations of torture or abuse and said the detention facility is well-run.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

" Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to. "

 

[trobinett]

the "experts" at Justice who were there because idealogy, not competence, ignored the warnings of experienced military lawyers.

This is an unnecessary problem for the US. Should not have happened. Now we have to deal with this repeating problem for years to come.

Mr. Mora, ANOTHER, in a long line of "retiring" military, or government workers, that are "coming clean", P-L-E-A-S-E.

The bleedin heart liberals are rattling the bushes for these people.

Why do they wait till retirement, do they think it makes them MORE believable?

The UNITED STATES MILITARY, does NOT torture POW`S, terrorist on the other hand, might fine their stay a little "trying" shall we say.

 

[NATO AIR]

I don't think he's a lib. He's the legal general counsel for the red-state, conservative Wal-mart. I'm sure he's a die hard lib, gimee a break, your slanders are getting tired and pathetic now.

I think he was right to warn officials based on what Naval intelligence officers were saying.

I'd believe my Naval intelligence officers anyday over some idiot apointee like John Yoo or Gonzales.

 

[shepherdboy]

I wish are war veteran in the V.A. were treated as well as some of these terrorist we have in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. But no, we do it different to our veterans. We just raise the price of their insurance premiums and tell them to suck it up. If it were up to me. All veterans with 20 years or more service to this country would receive life time medical and dental at state of the art facilities to their choosing at no charge.

 

[Gunny]

Circumventing international agreements on _____________ will invite abuse.

 

[trobinett]

I don't think he's a lib. He's the legal general counsel for the red-state, conservative Wal-mart. I'm sure he's a die hard lib, gimee a break, your slanders are getting tired and pathetic now.

I think he was right to warn officials based on what Naval intelligence officers were saying.

I'd believe my Naval intelligence officers anyday over some idiot apointee like John Yoo or Gonzales.

Excuse me, I didn`t call HIM a lib, I said he was recruited by the liberal`s, pay attention.

Oh course he was right to "warn", it was his job after all, jeeezzzzz. It`s all this AFTER THE FACT stuff I`ve taken issue with, and ALWAYS will.

Believe who you will, just as I shall.