President Bush recently vetoed legislation that would stop the CIA from using water-boarding and other harsh methods of interrogation because such methods "have a proven track record of keeping America safe."  

Mr. Hannity (Quoting Jeane J. Kirkpatrick): "'[The] Carter administration...actively collaborated in the replacement of moderate autocrats friendly to American interests with less friendly autocrats of extremist persuasion.'" (p. 66)

My response: This statement typifies a biased Republican slant on history, which holds that Carter openly surrendered our national interests to foreign extremists, particularly to Iranian radical Ayatollah Khomeini. In fact, this incorrect yet ingenious claim exhibits a quadruple negative, propounding a lie within a lie within a lie within a lie.

I am sick to death of all the pussyfooting around the subject that has occupied the media for the duration of this premeditated, illegal war of terror that we the people of the United States have allowed to be waged against the people of Iraq, in our name, for the last several years.

No matter how much lipstick and rouge we smear on the face of this war no matter how we attempt to  dress up the evil and bestial acts that have been performed in its unholy name, it still has the hideous countenance of an evil swine from hell.

It is an illegal war, begun and conducted under false pretenses, by a group of criminal liars and thieves in the United States Government, abetted by a cowardly congress who abrogated their constitutional duties in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds and furthered by a complaisant press that ignored their obligation to remain independent from government, from their sponsors and report the facts. 

The members of the completely rogue executive department acted in their own self interest in a quest for personal power and wealth, in concert with the usual domestic and international corporate pirates who, in the depths of their insatiable greed, continually amplify human conflict to their own ends and bring poverty, war, suffering and death down upon the world.

There is no such animal as extraordinary rendition, nor do I know of the existence of any beasts called enhanced interrogation methods.

The first is kidnapping, it is illegal, a felony and the second word is torture, its meaning is clear:

NOUN:

  1. Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion.
  2. An instrument or a method for inflicting such pain.
  2. Excruciating physical or mental pain; agony: the torture of waiting in suspense.
  3. Something causing severe pain or anguish.

Torture is illegal in this country, a felonious act, it is illegal in the world at large, according to several conventions that we are legally bound by. Anyone committing torture, causing it to be committed, directing its commission, or training others in its techniques is guilty, guilty of war crimes, of crimes against humanity and crimes against "Nature's God.

Most of you that have been reading my work over the past year know that I am one of the enlisted men that was used in the program described in this book Forgotten Secrets although the author states the program ran from 1955 thru 1972 Army records show that is was not stopped until 1975.

Yesterday the memories were ripped open again by some book reviews, in the USA Today paper and some other reviews on the web. Below the jump I will give the links and some of the quotes

The author of this book is a retired Army Colonel a pyschiatrist that worked at Edgewood Arsenal during two seperate time periods  early in the 1960's and again in the late 1960's his name is James Ketchum. I first heard of the book a few months ago by seeing this webzine article in 10 Zen Monkeys that led me to have some e mail exchanges with the man.

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Gerald R. Ford, a man fate placed on a stage far bigger than his modest persona suggested he belonged is dead at 93. In August 1974 he was appointed America's 38th president when Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace because of the Watergate scandal. Had he not resigned Nixon surely would've been impeached in the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate.

2 CIA officials tell us Washington –twice– declined to send the reinforcements they asked for when bin Laden was cornered in Afghanistan in 2001.  By the time of the 2nd request by the CIA for troops, the special ops force could hear Osama on radio asking his followers for forgiveness for leading them to their imminent capture.  It was that close.

From Gary Bernsten, who led the CIA's paramilitary unit chasing bin Laden after he fled from Kabul (Christiane Amanpour interviewed him on CNN) –

AMANPOUR:  ... the CIA was sure it knew where he was, thanks in large part to a radio taken off a dead al Qaeda fighter.

BERNTSEN: We listened to bin Laden for several days using that radio, listened to his communications among him and his men. We listened to him apologize to them for having led them  –
          [-- crossposted at dailykos --]

I am a TEST VET.

We took an oath of secrecy.  Honorable men keep their oaths.  But there is no honor in protecting the predators who used us and then abandoned us.  It is time for the TEST VETS to speak out.

On August 25th, I will be 51 years old.  I have had a stroke, 7 heart attacks, a failed triple bypass, heart ejection fraction of 25%, COPD, skin abnormalities, foot fungus and rashes.  This all started in 1992 when I was 36.  I am in contact with 11 other "test vets" and we all have heart problems and multiple health issues. We are all ignored by the VA

Why the hell won't anyone ask Cheney and Rumsfeld about their Chemical Weapons and drug experiments in 1974 and 1975?   While they were in the Ford Administration, Cheney and Rumsfeld, violated the Nuremberg Codes of 1947 by using enlisted men as human test subjects for chemical warfare.   From 1952 thru 1975, they used 7120 enlisted men in these experiments.  

The health study contacted the participants in 2000 and found that 75% of them were either dead or disabled.

What would you say if I told you the NSA's "Puzzle Palace" is getting ready to exceed its electrical capacity?  You know what happens when computers exceed their electrical capacity?  Here's a clue:  This could bring a whole new meaning to "dark ops".

I wish I was creative enough to have invented that plot device.  It sounds like something Kurt Vonnegut might write ... but you wouldn't expect him to actually publish it because no one would accept the premise.  Now you know why they say truth is stranger than fiction; it really is.  

You're not going to believe this but The National Security Agency is running out of juice!

Wait! There's more....

I am having a hard time digesting the Bush Administrations claims of the article's about the "financial data tracking" is a setback to our "National Security" and the talk of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times were asked not to run the story due to the risk to National Security, I watched Wayne Simmons (a Fox news contributor) calling them traitors, and the publishers should be jailed, he called them the "Jihad Times" funny they kept forgetting to mention that Cavuto's favorite newspaper ran the same story on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, is that a "jihad Times" outlet to? Or is it okay for Republican papers to do "responsible" journalism and the only ones that have their patriotism questioned is the perceived left leaning papers?

Flashback...

For those nations and individuals who were somehow able to suppress their gag reflex when Bush announced his horrific "Pre-emptive Doctrine", there was only one logical alternative -- monkey see, monkey do.

As expected, Bush's demonic doctrine inspired others to follow:

RUSSIA: Russia assured the world that it's prepared to make 'pre-emptive' strikes on "terrorist bases" across the globe. Russia's Chief of Staff, General Yuri Baluyevsky said:

"With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world."

NORTH KOREA: In February of 2003, North Korean officials argued that they have the right to a pre-emptive attack on the U.S. as the Bush Administration was preparing for the invasion of Iraq.

"The United States says that after Iraq, we are next", said the deputy director Ri Pyong-gap, "but we have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the US."

INDIA: Back in April of 2003, India, a nuclear power, called on the US to preemptively invade and conquer Pakistan, a neighboring nuclear power. They cited the opinion that given the Administration's own lax criteria for invasion, Pakistan is a far more dangerous and legitimate target than Iraq.

According to the External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha:

"I genuinely believe that if possession of weapons of mass destruction, absence of democracy and export of terrorism are the criteria, then no country deserves more than Pakistan to be tackled."

JAPAN: In May of 2003, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi claimed that:

"Japan has the right to make a preemptive strike on any country preparing to attack it."

Koizumi, using fashionable "Bush-speak", cited justification for pre-emptive action because "We could not just let the Japanese people be harmed by doing nothing."

Now that Gen. Hayden has been confirmed as the next CIA director, let's take a look into our future.

We can assume the NSA's version of TIA will find a new home at the CIA.  For the sake of argument, let's assume everyone involved in this program is committed to the rule of law and seriously interested in protecting America from threats.

Even if that is all true, we still have a problem.  How do you demonstrate the program's value to the people who pay for it without sharing classified information?  It turns out, Ronald Reagan had a solution to that sort of problem; he called it "trust but verify."   We can apply that approach to solve this impasse while meeting the legitimate needs of all the stakeholders.  Here's the proposed test:

CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT

There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about congressional oversight.  Unfortunately, it is hard to tell whether "oversight" means "supervision," or whether it means "lack of attention."  The Senate confirmation hearings for the new CIA Director are just the most recent example of this disturbing trend.  

It certainly requires considerable oversight to overlook some of the questions Gen. Hayden refused to answer in open session.  I'm sure some questions are answered best in private.  However, it's hard to believe he needs a closed session to say torture is not an acceptable method for interrogation.  

President Bush defended his NSA data mining program by saying, "We are not mining through the personal lives of millions of innnocent Americans."

I believe he is telling the truth.

For starters, at least 16 million American children are too young to use telephones. We also know that Qwest refused to give their records to the NSA.  That accounts for another 14 million Americans.  So at least ten percent of Americans were not included in this round of data mining. Of course, that raises an important question...

What about the rest of us?

Unfortunately, at least 200 million Americans probably did have their personal information examined by the NSA.   When you consider this program has been around for a few years, it is likely they looked at a trillion individual calling records.

Many reports about the program suggest the only information provided was phone numbers.  However, a class action lawsuit already filed indicates there was more going on.  In addition to the number of origin and the number called, the records also included date, time, and duration of calls.  Obviously, the records are being subjected to some sort of social network analysis.

(Cross Posted at My Left Wing)

For anyone interested, there's an excellent summary article by Sydney Blumenthal for Salon which has been crossposted and available to the general public at Spiegel Online in its entirety.

It's a very concise compendium from 9/11 to the present which outlines the Bush Administration's war on, and likely victory over the CIA. If you're like me, and it's hard to keep track of the daily scandals and transgressions without a dance card, this is a nice summary which will get you up to speed in no time...

"He's the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history."

-- George W. Bush on newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss, August 10, 2004

and...

"He's the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history."

-- George W. Bush on his nominee for CIA Director Michael Hayden, May 9, 2006

Bush is a man of few words - apparently very few words.

Nevertheless, conservationists should be relieved that Bush is finally starting to appreciate the benefits of recycling.

And Hayden should be disturbed that, by Bush's 'verbal-praise-o-meter', he has less than two years to serve as CIA Chief (If confirmed).

Thanks to Comedy Central for uncovering this thoughtless gaffe.