Last Friday, President Bush defended techniques used by the U.S., saying, "This government does not torture people." His comments came after a leaked report that said America supports "harsh interrogation techniques."
NY Times: TORTURE turns American military personel into sadists and murderers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html
STEPPING UP WHERE COWARDLY CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS FEAR TO TREAD,
former President Jimmy Carter explicitly informed American citizens that, IN COMPLETE CONTRAST to President George W. Bush's LYING denials, AMERICAN troops under the command of the Bush-Cheney White House DO indeed ENGAGE IN TORTURE of captured prisoners and 'terrorist suspects.' Note: We know, from testimony and investigations into torture and conditions of prisoners held at the US prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, that many of the prisoners held there were accused of being "terrorists" simply because American CIA/military counter-terror officers in Afghanistan paid Warlord allies A BOUNTY for every "terror suspect" they turned in or named to those American agents; a practice which of course encouraged the warlords to accuse anyone they disliked in return for a cash payment from those US authorities.
BBC TV production recreates TORTURE by US agents at Guantanamo on captive prisoners; using conditions known to be used by US authorities, including hypothermia, exposure, sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, and extreme positions for hours on end. These are the dehumanizing, painful tactics that we know about. We know that prisoners have died in US custody in Abu Ghraib and other American prisons, and that far more violent and brutal methods are used in many cases at the secret discretion of the US command.
<< In an interview Wednesday, former President Jimmy Carter denounced Vice President Cheney as a "disaster" for the country and a "militant" who has excessive influence in determining foreign policy.
In the same interview he said of the secretary of state: "I'm filled with admiration for Condoleezza Rice in standing up to [Cheney]." Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that the U.S. tortures prisoners captured in the war on terror. "I don't think it. I know it." In a separate Carter criticized the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. "Our country for the first time in my lifetime has abandoned the basic principle of human rights." Carter also condemned Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential hopefuls who recently said they wouldn't pull all troops from Iraq by the end of their first terms if they were to be elected in 2008. >>
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Jimmy Carter Calls Cheney a 'Disaster'
AP
October 10, 2007
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/jimmy-carter-calls-cheney-a-disaster/n20071010165509990001
Washington: (Oct. 10) - Former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday denounced Vice President Dick Cheney as a "DISASTER" for the country and a "MILITANT" who has had an excessive influence in setting foreign policy.
Cheney has been on the wrong side of the debate on many issues, including an internal White House discussion over Syria in which the vice president is thought to be pushing a tough approach, Carter said.
"He's a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military and he has been most forceful in the last 10 years or more in fulfilling some of his more ancient commitments that the United States has a right to inject its power through military means in other parts of the world," Carter told the BBC in an interview to air later on Wednesday.
"You know he's been a disaster for our country," Carter said. "I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush and quite often he's prevailed."
Asked to comment on Carter's remarks, Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Republican vice president, said, "We're not going to engage in this type of rhetoric."
Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1977 to 1981 and won the 2002 Nobel Peace prize for his charitable work, is a strong critic of the Iraq war and has often been outspoken in his criticism of President George W. Bush .
In a newspaper interview in May, Carter called the Bush administration the "worst in history" in international relations.
Carter did have kind words in the BBC interview for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice .
"I'm filled with admiration for Condoleezza Rice in standing up to (Cheney) which she did even when she was in the White House under President George W. Bush ," Carter said, referring to Rice's former role as White House national security adviser.
"Now secretary of state, her influence is obviously greater than it was then and I hope she prevails," Carter added.
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America Tortures Prisoners, Carter Says
Calls Vice President Cheney 'Disaster for Our Country'
AP
Posted: 2007-10-11
http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/america-tortures-prisoners-carter-says/20071010165209990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
WASHINGTON (Oct. 11) -- The U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday, adding that President Bush makes up his own definition of torture.
Photo Gallery: Former President on the Offensive
Philip Cheung, Getty Images Former President Jimmy Carter, seen in September, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that the U.S. tortures prisoners captured in the war on terror. "I don't think it. I know it," Carter said.
"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said on CNN. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime."
Bush, responding to an Oct. 4 report by The New York Times on secret Justice Department memorandums supporting the use of "harsh interrogation techniques," defended the techniques Friday by proclaiming: "This government does not torture people."
Carter said the interrogation methods cited by the Times, including "head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures," constitute torture "if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored _ certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.
Tell Us
"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them," Carter said.
In an interview that aired Wednesday on BBC, Carter ripped Vice President Dick Cheney as "a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military."
Carter went on to say Cheney has been "a disaster for our country. I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush."
Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell declined to speak to Carter 's allegations.
"We're not going to engage in this kind of rhetoric," she said.
In the CNN interview, the Democratic former president disparaged the field of Republican presidential candidates.
"They all seem to be outdoing each other in who wants to go to war first with Iran, who wants to keep Guantanamo open longer and expand its capacity _ things of that kind," Carter said.
He said he also disagreed with positions taken by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have declined to promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq over the following four years if elected president next year.
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2007-10-10 16:53:03
