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Let us never forget the horrors inflicted upon our nation by President George W. Bush and the Other President Dick Cheney. This originally appeared in November 2007 at Daily Kos. Carnacki
At this point in the rule of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, I thought I had reached shock fatigue. We've seen illegal invasions, torture, unprecedented levels of corruption, a warrantless wiretapping on a nationwide scale, and an erosion of national credibility on everything from the environment to the rule of law.
Yet this morning I read a story that filled me anew with fresh outrage and I think exemplifies the horrors - the absolute horrors - of this administration and the political ideology behind them.
The article is in Vanity Fair's November edition, The People vs. the Profiteers. (If this was diaried earlier this month, my apologies. I did a search on several key words and did not see it. Vanity Fair is a very thick magazine and I read it from front to back so I usually read it spaced out over the entire month).
In it, the writer, David Rose, covers how an attorney, Alan Grayson, has led a campaign against government corruption. He's done so for 16 years. In the past the Department of Justice often allied with him to root out corrupt officials. But when it has come to the Iraq war, the DOJ has thrown up roadblock after roadblock.
In this administration corruption on a massive scale is a statistic. It's an example Rose uses from among the cases that is the outrage.
Consider the case of Grayson's client Bud Conyers, a big, bearded 43-year-old who lives with his ex-wife and her nine children, four of them his, in Enid, Oklahoma. Conyers worked in Iraq as a driver for Kellogg, Brown & Root. Spun off by Halliburton as an independent concern in April, KBR is the world's fifth-largest construction company. Before the war started, the Pentagon awarded it two huge contracts: one, now terminated, to restore the Iraqi oil industry, and another, still in effect, to provide a wide array of logistical-support services to the U.S. military.
In the midday heat of June 16, 2003, Conyers was summoned to fix a broken refrigerated truck-a "reefer," in contractor parlance-at Log Base Seitz, on the edge of Baghdad's airport. He and his colleagues had barely begun to inspect the sealed trailer when they found themselves reeling from a nauseating stench. The freezer was powered by the engine, and only after they got it running again, several hours later, did they dare open the doors.
The trailer, unit number R-89, had been lying idle for two weeks, Conyers says, in temperatures that daily reached 120 degrees. "Inside, there were 15 human bodies," he recalls. "A lot of liquid stuff had just seeped out. There were body parts on the floor: eyes, fingers. The goo started seeping toward us. Boom! We shut the doors again." The corpses were Iraqis, who had been placed in the truck by a U.S. Army mortuary unit that was operating in the area. That evening, Conyers's colleague Wallace R. Wynia filed an official report: "On account of the heat the bodies were decomposing rapidly.... The inside of the trailer was awful."
(As an aside, I have smelled the sickly scent stench of putrified corpses more times than I care to recall. It is one of the worst smells in existence. I cannot imagine what 15 trapped inside a metal trailer for two weeks in the desert heat would have been like.)
Under any consideration, the rule of civilian or military regulations or laws, religious taboos, and basic human decency, there are prohibitions against carrying food and water in the same containers that had been used to carry human corpses - yet alone putrid corpses.
But that is exactly what is being done in Iraq. To our soldiers. With our tax dollars.
But when Bud Conyers next caught sight of trailer R-89, about a month later, it was packed not with human casualties but with bags of ice-ice that was going into drinks served to American troops. He took photographs, showing the ice bags, the trailer number, and the wooden decking, which appeared to be stained red. Another former KBR employee, James Logsdon, who now works as a police officer near Enid, says he first saw R-89 about a week after Conyers's grisly discovery. "You could still see a little bit of matter from the bodies, stuff that looked kind of pearly, and blood from the stomachs. It hadn't even been hosed down. Afterwards, I saw that truck in the P.W.C.-the public warehouse center-several times. There's nothing there except food and ice. It was backed up to a dock, being loaded."
This is where a Republican ideology leads us. The for-profit contractor used a refrigerated tractor trailer permeated with human remains in the wood floor and on the floor itself to carry ice and probably food.
Profit over people - even when it comes to the troops they claim to support. They outsourced a basic government service of the feed and care of the troops for a for-profit enterprise which didn't care about their health or human decency.
It came down to a shortage of refrigerated trucks. Rather than buy more, Kellough Brown and Root kept it running from corpse hauling to food hauling. Conyers was fired by KBR for not being a "team player."
How KBR treated Conyers would itself be an outrage but after hauling ice for human consumption with the remains of putrid corpses, anything KBR does under that pales in comparison. The entire story is well worth a read, including how the DOJ is using a provision of the whistle-blower law probably to keep incidents like this covered up rather than to investigate them as it should.
Grayson has hope that one day the deep-rooted profiteering and corruption of the Iraq war will come to light.
There are a few encouraging signs that a day of reckoning is drawing near. Committees in both the House and the Senate have held hearings on contracting in Iraq, and several plan to hold more. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, has introduced a War Profiteering Prevention Act, which would make it much easier to investigate corrupt contractors and call them to account. And in August, the news that tens of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces had vanished or been stolen prompted the Pentagon to announce that its inspector general, Claude M. Kicklighter, would lead an 18-person team to investigate "contracting practices" in Iraq.
In the more distant future, a Democratic administration might open up the vaults and expose the American public to the scale of what has been looted. "What we have seen up to now is the worst of the worst in terms of a deliberate cover-up," Grayson says. But if and when it comes to an end, he thinks it's entirely possible that Congress will appoint a special prosecutor-one whose targets might one day reach "an extremely high level."
We can only hope. But I think the stench will linger forever.
Retired colonel and former chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2006:
Documents and memos that have already made their way into the public domain make it clear that the Office of the Vice President bears responsibility for creating an environment conducive to the acts of torture and murder committed by U.S. forces in the war on terror.
There is, in my view, insufficient evidence to walk into an American courtroom and win a legal case (though an international courtroom for war crimes might feel differently). But there is enough evidence for a soldier of long service -- someone like me with 31 years in the Army -- to know that what started with John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes at the Pentagon, and several others, all under the watchful and willing eye of the Vice President, went down through the Secretary of Defense to the commanders in the field, and created two separate pressures that resulted in the violation of longstanding practice and law.
These two pressures were, on the one hand, the understandable pressure to produce intelligence as rapidly as possible, and on the other hand, the creation of an environment best described as "the gloves coming off" -- or better, the gloves ARE off.
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.
Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.
snip
Maj Gen Taguba's internal inquiry into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which, he said in the report, he found "credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses."
Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: "I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn't covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid's ***.... and the female soldier was taking pictures."
Do the ends justify the means as at least one person here claimed? The reason Dick Cheney is every where trying to justify torture is he's trying to pre-empt the criminal investigations here and internationally.
As this analysis shows, Cheney's defensive efforts are crumbling.
From day 1, the Bush cabal has relied upon the defense of legal advice of counsel to avoid prosecution. Step 1 was to obtain a legal opinion from OLC to "authorize" torture because its ops carry the force of law within the executive branch. Bush officials then maintained that torture was "authorized". Step 2 was enacting a law that advice of legal counsel was a defense to torture charges. But, what happens if the OLC memos do not constitute legal advice of counsel because Bush Team and the torture lawyers rigged the OLC process to render fraudulent opinions? Then the main defense from torture prosecutions is bye bye.
snip
[ Cheney ] may be a little panicked because Obama plans to release the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) report this summer, maybe even next month. If the cumulative findings of misconduct in this report show that the torture lawyers acted as advocates rather than advisers, then the memos did not constitute appropriate OLC legal advice.
Thus, the Lizzie/Dickie campaign may be their preemptive strike to make their case before the OPR report is publicly released. The stakes are high for Dickie because if the legal advice defense is eliminated, then he will have the impossible burden of proving that the prisoners were not tortured unless he has a Plan B defense.
We have already seen hints of Plan B: Bush was the Unilateral Decider and I just followed orders in my subordinate role! Cheney and Rice have already shifted gears, pointing fingers at Bush and the "administration", respectively, as having authorized the torture rather than relying on the torture memos as "authority" provided by advice of counsel.
The release of the photos, blocked by President Barack Obama, will occur eventually. The best way to protect the troops is to show that those behind the policies that encouraged such illegal actions are accountable to our nation's laws.
It is impossible to defend the indefensible, however.
I have opposed the creation of such a Commission because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability. The Congress can review abuses of our values, and there are ongoing inquiries by the Congress into matters like enhanced interrogation techniques. The Department of Justice and our courts can work through and punish any violations of our laws.
The gears of Justice often grind slow, but they do grind on. Once the report is out that I suspect will show the OLC attorneys twisted the law and acted outside of their professional responsibilities, then any pretense of a defense is gone from Cheney - and George W. Bush - for their share of responsibility for these horrendous crimes.
Cheney and Bush were quick to throw the soldiers like West Virginia's own Lynndie England out to serve as the scape goats for their part of the crimes.
But when Cheney said the "gloves are coming off" he forgot that also meant he left his fingerprints at the crime scene.
By definition, Dick Cheney is about government secrecy before pretty much any particular work of specific evil. But with his on-going round of aggressive public appearances he not only seems to be inviting a public inquiry into Bush administration anti-constitutional practices -- as in tempting fate -- but actually inviting it -- in the sense that he really seems to be pushing for it to happen.
Speaking of public policy objectives, you might want to check out this link (pdf). It is Chapter 7 of the report of Cheney's secret energy task force in May 2001. Note please the policy recommendations. Also note the further inclusion and omission of certain electrical system "solutions" in the chapter.
These public policy recommendations were the source of PATH and TrAIL. Just thought you might want to start your discussion here.
Although Mr. Cheney, as well as the current Obama administration, have never told us who participated in the secret talks, I'm sure AEP and Allegheny Energy were well represented. Remember too that Kenny Boy Lay was a major force on the task force. With a national transmission grid, Enron stood to make billions on energy trading. Enron's space has now been filled by Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Goldman Sachs was one of five electricity "suppliers" that won major power bids in PJM's recent wholesale auction of power to New York City.
These lines aren't about green energy and national interest, they are about creating a national transmission grid so that energy traders can get even richer. The rest of us, coal miners, land owners, ratepayers, etc. are just in the way.
Mr. Cheney put it best. We are just "constraints." People in southern WV who fought strip mining in the 1970s used to say "to the coal companies, we are just part of the overburden." Same thing, same fight.
At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring."
What does "executive assassination ring" mean? Here's what Hersh said at the event:
"Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...
"Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.
"Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us.
"It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized.
"In many cases, they were the best and the brightest. Really, no exaggerations. Really fine guys that went in to do the kind of necessary jobs that they think you need to do to protect America. And then they find themselves torturing people.
"I've had people say to me -- five years ago, I had one say: 'What do you call it when you interrogate somebody and you leave them bleeding and they don't get any medical committee and two days later he dies. Is that murder?
Yet another rock to turn over in the investigation of potential war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bush administration.
Her awesomeness leaves me speechless.
John Yoo:)Orange County Something about Berkeley being a hippie magnet.
Update: (by Clem G.) Money quote from Harpers article:
But Yoo musters some defense nevertheless:
These memos I wrote were not for public consumption. They lack a certain polish, I think-would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice.
Of course, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, OLC memos fix government legal policy and are binding on all government agencies. The Justice Department has made a practice of publishing them for more than a century. But Yoo does not feel constrained by these facts when he speaks with the popular media; the facts might complicate things.
I think of myself one half of an okay parent duo. We have raised three responsible adults, so far, and the three remaining school kids are a joy to their teachers.
I have delighted, despite my math degree, in challenging them with word. I try to use one they don't know and tell them to look it up in Websters. The oldest likes to be challenged by multiple crosswords puzzles everyday. All have taken a foreign language when offered.
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Well, today I learned a new word.
I have been reading several farewell essays to the man who will be president for less hours than I can count on by fingers and toes. I sure am looking forward to wince-free State of the Union addresses again.
Hit the phones again folks. I know, you still have a neck cramp, between the campaign, and the JoeMentun, but if you like Almost Heaven license plates, smush your ears again.
Friday is the deadline for publishing rules that can only be undone by Congressional action to write the rules, or months and years of new hearings and public comments, or legal challenges that would hit the Roberts Court. [Clinton was sloppy and missed this so Bush could undo some of his, arsenic in water comes to mind]
Dick Cheney indicted for corruption in Texas! At least someone is indicting him for something.
I know I don't have to tell y'all, but Dick Cheney really represents everything, absolutely everything wrong with this country. Let's just hope Obama doesn't let him off the hook for "reconciliation".
Remember all that crazy talk about the Cheney Bush administration stealing the election or not being willing to give up power.
Right now, it looks like Bush is in an even bigger hurry to start a permanent vacation than Pres-elect Obama is to take over.
And, what about Cheney? The only time he came out of hiding in the last few months was to endorse John McCain. That looked like an act of final desperation to make sure Barack Obama absolutely, definitely, for sure won the election.
When news broke that Brittny Spears' 16-yr-old little sister was pregnant out-of-wedlock, rightwing pundits O'Reilley, Limbaugh, and Hannity blamed the teen's parents. O'Reilley called them pinheads, but now defends Sarah Palin, explaining that her unwed teen daughter was supervised when she got knocked up.
Normally, none of this should make a lot of difference in politics. But lord knows we've already seen far too much hypocrisy in our last Vice Prez. From being against same sex marriage to his daughter's "miracle baby", it is the lack of character reflected by Cheney's total hypocrisy that sets him apart from normal folks. And Palin's no better, having cut aid to unwed, homeless mothers and vehemently opposed sex education.
So the deep flaws you see in Cheney are already revealed in Gov Palin. He knew that Iraq was of little or no threat and would be a quagmire, yet he beat the war drums harder than anyone. Palin said that going there was God's work.
Having not been able to change the law through legislation, having see all the court appointees not bring the results wanted on this issue, having over-ruled science every chance created, the White House is taking this in their own hands.
WASHINGTON (AP) - . . . The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years . . .
"I am deeply troubled by this proposed rule, which gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who asked for a staff briefing before the proposal was announced but did not receive one. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely, if ever, lead to good government -- this is not the type of legacy this Interior Department should be leaving for future generations."
Don't we have some sort of funny salamander here in the state with a tour named after it? Out West where I lived their is concern about the desert tortoise. Before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth there was Bill McKibben's The End of Nature. Does man exist outside of nature, or is creation care strong enough to push back? Anybody worried that yet another Sternly Worded Letter won't matter in the least? Anybody want to ask Shelley McCapito her position on science and the environment? After all she holds a B. S. degree in zoology from Duke.
The administration had been dragging its feet on climate change and the Clean Air Act. Now they are worried that this was another vehicle after the controversy over polar bears and ice. Or was this a nod to mining? I think the West is more attuned to conservation at this point. We all know what Dick Cheney thinks. What do you think?
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