US Attorney General Mukasey has appointed John Durham, described as one of the nation's most relentless prosecutors, to begin a probe of the destruction of the CIA torture tapes. But this means the same Justice Department, formerly headed by the now-resigned Alberto Gonzales, one of the folks who authorized the waterboarding torture in the first place, will end up investigating itself. Isn't this a conflict of interest?
The crux of the matter is that the CIA destroyed documents that the commission investigating the 9-11 terror attacks had requested. "Anyone at the agency who knew about the tapes and failed to disclose them 'obstructed our investigation,' said Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Hamilton, a former Democratic House member from Indiana.'"
The real problem is that the investigation, if allowed to follow its ultimate course, will likely implicate the highest echelons of the executive government, including the former Attorney General, the president and vice-president. If Mukasey turns out to be cut from the same cloth as Gonzales, we could have another "Saturday night massacre" in the future.
For those of you who don't remember that phrase, Richard Nixon's ordered his acting Attorney General to fire the Watergate Special Prosecutor when he requested the tapes of Oval Office conversations. The firing incident is known as the "Saturday Night Massacre." That led to Nixon's resignation from office.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_VIDEOTAPES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HO...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork#Term_as_acting_Attorney_General...
This writer says that this investigation will " likely implicate the highest echelons of the executive government, including the former Attorney General, the president and vice-president. " There is no evidence of this, it is hope upon hope that Bush can brought down .
This waterboarding is part of survival training for our own soldiers, many of them undergo it. Former CIA agent John Kiriakou also told CNN that it saves lives.
Terror suspect Abu Zubayda was interrogated. The CIA decided to waterboard the al Qaeda operative only after he was "wholly uncooperative" for weeks and refused to answer questions. All that changed -- and Zubayda reportedly had a divine revelation -- after 30 to 35 seconds of waterboarding, Kiriakou said he learned from the CIA agents who performed the technique.
The terror suspect, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reportedly gave up information that indirectly led to the the 2003 raid in Pakistan yielding the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged planner of the September 11, 2001, attacks, Kiriakou said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/11/agent.tapes/#cnnSTCText
Do we need another terror attack upon our country ? Or should we continue to use this technique when needed? I have read that it has been used 5 times upon suspects , though this is unsubstantiated.
The same man you refer to (ex-CIA Kiriakou) was asked if the White House was involved in the decision to waterboard, and he said "absolutley". He also said waterboarding was torture.
I agree with John McCain, who pointed out that Japanese soldiers were hanged for using this torture technique. McCain also said this:
"I would also hope that he would not want to be associated with a technique which was invented in the Spanish Inquisition, was used by Pol Pot in one of the great eras of genocide in history and is being used on Burmese monks as we speak," the Arizona senator said. "America is a better nation than that."
No.
Does the policy of supporting repressive and non-democratic regimes lessen the chances of another terror attack?