Armitage: "They Tortured" "Maybe I should Have Resigned"
Avi Lewis interviews former Deputy Secretary of State for Aljazeera English:
Armitage admits:
1. He and his boss Colin Powell lost a major battle within the Bush administration on whether the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war applied to guerrillas captured during the "war on terror."
2. That the Bush administration engaged in torture in the form of waterboarding, though he denied that he had sure knowledge of this practice at the time he was in office
3. That he probably should have resigned, but hung on for fear of how bad policy could get if he and others were not there to fight the battles
4. He says that the US Senate should have known about the torture, calls them "AWOL," and implies that there will be no investigation of Bush crimes against humanity because such a process would implicate the senators themselves, as at the very least having been derelict in their duty to advise and consent. (I wonder if he is also implying that some Democratic senators knew about the waterboarding and remained silent, so that they will not now launch a prosecution?)
Armitage was one of three officials, including Karl Rove and Irv Lewis Libby, who revealed to US reporters that Valerie Plame was a covert operative in the CIA. Plame is the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was the first to publicly undermine the Bush claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which was used to justify the war.
Armitage was also involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.
A Spanish judge is considering an indictment of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and several other Bush administration officials for having sanctioned torture at Guantanamo Bay. In breaking news Thursday morning, it was announced in Spain that the government prosecutor has advised the judge to drop the case; apparently he still has the discretion to continue.
The others who would likely be indicted if the case went forward, according to Scott Horton, are "Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David Addington, and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith."
Armitage's revelation that he and his boss "lost" a battle to preserve a commitment to the Geneva Conventions in Washington in this period seems likely to me to become part of the Spanish prosecution.
Japanese officers were tried for war crimes after World War II by the United States for having engaged in waterboarding.
It has been suggested that the six implicated Bush administration officials would, in case of formal indictmen, no longer be able safely travel to Europe, because judges claiming universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity might well order their arrest, as happened to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/16/2009 01:59:00 AM
|
Facebook
14 Comments:
> "I wonder if he is also implying that some Democratic senators ... "
Do you mean some Democratic Senators that are now President, Vice President and Secretary of State ?
It's hard to think of anyone that could be more directly intimidated by Armitage's assertion.
Why did he agree to be interviewed and go and say that ?
He must be shitting himself, that's why.
And this from the diplomat who told the head of ISI that if they didn't cooperate,
"Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age".
Of which President Musharraf said, “I think it was a very rude remark.”
- So rude he told the whole world about it in his book, serialised by The Times.
If you speak out against the silence of the Democratic Senators,
you'll probably never get a job in Washington,
but you will earn the respect of all decent people around the world.
Dave Kimble
armitage was high up in the government ranks, privy to damn near everything that was going on... besides that, he had the news media, both traditional and alternative, available to him just like the rest of us... when the torture issue became visible and, let's face it, it became visible early on in the bush administration, armitage would have been well placed to go find out the real skinny... now, he's out there telling us what he WOULD have done if ONLY he had KNOWN... how disingenuous can this guy be and think that anybody is going to swallow it...?
then, on top of that, he implicates the senate and the house in a clear attempt to communicate that, if he goes down, they go down with him...
armitage is one of the craftiest snakes that's ever slithered through the higher echelons of the state department... he sees the writing on the wall... he's paying attention to what's happening in spain and he's going to be damned if he takes a fall... this interview with al jazeera is self-serving in the extreme...
http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/
William Blums 'Killing Hope' documents the CIA engaging in torture as early as 1960 during their many forays into South America, one notable case would be the agent Dan Mitrione who trained the security forces of a number of the dictatorships down there and personally conducted interogations - he was kidnapped by the Tupamaros guerrillas in Uruguay put on trial and executed. And then of course there would be the 'Phoenix Project' in Vietnam: My Lai a hundred fold.
The unique difference here is that the administration got personally involved - Cheney and Rice and Rumsfeld and countless people under them giving the orders and discussing what to do and how to do it.
But look at the legal efforts to get Kissinger, so he cant travel much outside the USA, so what? Nothing of any consequence will happen to these people.
Agree with profmarcus.
Armitage is test driving his Sgt Schultz defense, and announcing his intent to play chicken with anyone who tries to move him off it.
I know Armitage is supposed to be some kind of hero in certain circles (a kind of minor demigod in the Colin Powell teflon pantheon)...
But every time I hear the man speak, I can't help but think "goddamn but this guy is dumb."
I wondered where Avi had gotten to. Naomi (Klein) always seems to have a more public profile than Avi. Good interview to watch as we wait for news from the Obama about the "memos".
I wonder if he is also implying that some Democratic senators knew about the waterboarding and remained silent, so that they will not now launch a prosecution?This is an interesting speculation that has occurred to me too. Partisan politics being what it is, I find it hard to believe that Democrats would not jump on a chance to prosecute Republicans-- if they could do that without screwing themselves. Yet I see the Dem leadership in the last congress adamantly opposed to any investigation that might lead to articles of impeachment, and in this congress adamantly opposed to any investigation that might lead to prosecution. I think your question points to a simple and plausible explanation.
AP report titled 'Spanish AG says no torture probe of US officials':
"Candido Conde-Pumpido said the case against the high-ranking U.S. officials — including former U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales — was without merit because the men were not present when the alleged torture took place.
"If one is dealing with a crime of mistreatment of prisoners of war, the complaint should go against those who physically carried it out," Conde-Pumpido said in a breakfast meeting with journalists. He said a trial of the men would have turned Spain's National Court "into a plaything" to be used for political ends."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090416/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_us_torture;_ylt=ArsJrEHuPHQjZ9NBF6DbV2BvaA8F
Well I guess we were wrong to hang those Germans and Japanese. I guess the decision to object to superior's orders now clearly falls fully on the shoulders of hormone and endorphin poisoned 18 and 19 year olds who may well be in Iraq or Afghanistan because they had to find themselves, or were escaping a criminal charge (yes Virginia, the Army accepts criminals), or they couldn't find a job. I guess Nuremburg was an error, a special case, a glitch to repair given the advanced thinking of 2009.
No...I think the people responsible found the weak link, pushed his button and watched his lips move.
Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfie, Feith et al may have felt they were due some assistance to cart their munificent brains around behind them, but there was an astonishing amount of imagination missing in that grey matter. And this killing off of imagination they somehow managed to spread around. International law on torture and the conduct of war was not agreed to coddle the enemy, but to protect one's own. But the probable reason the Bush torture cabal approved is ultimately not lack of imagination, but lack of caring. They really didn't, and don't, care about their own.
This is a pivotal moment on the reputation of Spain.
Now, if European countries decide that they, too, can engage in extraordinary rendition, then none of these guys are safe. The minute they turn their backs, some Spanish or Croatian or Finnish bounty hunter is going to spring out the Bushes and pop a bag over their heads and fly them off to the Hague aboard a private jet.
And if they need a place to stay while they're here, I've got an extra room.
But Armitage is right, though I don't think Biden, Obama or Clinton are implicated. More like Kennedy, Feinstein, and Reid.
I see it differently than profmarcus. Armitage's background is as a man of action, willing to risk his life and career. That differs considerably from other chickenhawks in his admin, and buys him the benefit of some doubt in my mind. I want to know more before lumping him with beltway wetwork artists like Rove and Libby.
Armitage did come into office as a neocon true believer. But he was at State, whose security branch was a voice of sanity, along with a few whispers from WINPAC, DOE and the USAF. His 9/11 reaction was to threaten consequences in Pakistan and Arabia, not Iraq. DoD, the WH and the palace guard around Cheney were conducting beaurocratic warfare against State under Powell/Armitage, and continued the habit when it became Rice's department.
I think his point re congressional culpability on this war scores a direct hit. In 2002-3, Democrats scrambled to the right. Kerry voted for war in the Senate, 'reported for duty' to continue the war in 2004.
Shifting right continued to be Rahm's candidate selection strategy up thru the 2006 and 2008 cycles, when an antiwar candidate (like Obama was in '04) would have been refused national committee funds. Congress is arguably more conservative today than in 2005-6, when leaders of both parties began to pressure Bush to come to terms with failure in Iraq, close Gitmo.
The 'no congressional investigation is likely' statement may be self-serving, but it's also accurate. It's quite shameful that we look to Spanish courts to do the work of our congress and courts.
Not clear why you are questioning that leading Democrats knew about the waterboarding, since it's no secret that Pelosi, Graham or Rockefeller were briefed early on and none objected:
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR2007120801664.html
- http://digg.com/d1IVNU
Off subject, did anyone see this?
Did you see this Scott?
DOHA DEBATES
Wednesday, March 25 2009
This House believes it’s time for the US to get tough on Israel
This event was held at Gaston Hall at Georgetown University in Washington DC.
The statements and views expressed in the debate are solely those of the Doha Debates and the film participants. They are neither endorsed by nor represent the views of Georgetown University.
Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit FOR
Dore Gold, President, Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs AGAINST
Avraham Burg, former Speaker of the Israeli Knesset FOR
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law Professor AGAINST
MOTION PASSED by 63% to 37%
http://www.thedohadebates.com/debates/past.asp#
.
Interviewer Avi Lewis suggested at about 1:01 that there was a possibility of a "Truth Commission."
Ha. What a joker.
.
Armitage? Resign?
Is he kidding?
He was only doing the job he was appointed to do. If he HAD resigned, it would only be due to his tasks (whatever they were) having been completed, or adverse publicity affecting the overarching operation.
The overarching operation? A global war on 'terror' based on hypocrisy and lies.
Of course, that makes him a WAR CRIMINAL along with the rest of them...
Speaking of HYPOCRISY and LIES, and the pursuit of 'straw terrorists' (later perhaps to become very real terrorists) to spend more of our GDP on the military and their industrial cronies...
Somali 'Pirates'?
Perhaps not.
Post a Comment
<< Home