AMERICAN TORTURE, SMOKING GUN

From the New York Times courtesy of the Houston Chronicle:

FBI documents suggest knowledge of abuses

FBI agents witnessed abuses of prisoners by U.S. military personnel in Iraq that included detainees being beaten, choked and having lit cigarettes placed in their ears, according to newly released government documents.

The documents, released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union in connection with a lawsuit accusing the government of being complicitous in torture, also include accounts by FBI agents who said they saw detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, being chained in uncomfortable positions for up to 24 hours and left to urinate and defecate on themselves.

And

Beyond providing new details about the nature and extent of abuses, the newly disclosed documents are the latest to show that such activities were known to a wide circle of government officials.

Click here for the rest.

Okay, so US forces have tortured prisoners in both Iraq and Guantanamo; that much we already know. It's the fact that "such activities were known to a wide circle of government officials" that concerns me. Until now it seems like the Pentagon was getting away with its "isolated incident" and "bad individual soldiers" narratives, but these new documents strongly suggest that such is not the case.

Of course, one just has to ask which government officials were in the know. In typical fashion, the "liberal" New York Times is quiet on this point, utterly in keeping with its ongoing love affair with the Bush administration. However, thanks to Eschaton, I've gotten to read the ACLU press release, which is not nearly as coy as the Times article would suggest:

FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order
Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques

The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists. The FBI e-mail, which was sent in May 2004 from "On Scene Commander--Baghdad" to a handful of senior FBI officials, notes that the FBI has prohibited its agents from employing the techniques that the President is said to have authorized.

Click here for more.

Yep, that's right: the President. This is no surprise, given that his good buddy, incoming Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, has authored some briefs attempting to find legal justification for the torturing of prisoners, but this email memo is the closest thing to hard evidence that has surfaced that could connect Bush directly to the torturers. That's big, big, big news.

What I want know is why the "liberal" New York Times deliberately omitted this info. Anybody who still believes the myth of the so called liberal media, raise your hand so I can throw a pie at your face. Buncha clowns.

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