ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Tortured Semantics</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright May 2, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> <span class="style1">W</span>hen President Barack Obama defined waterboarding as torture in a nationally televised new conference April 29, he reiterated the White House position that the legal opinion of his Justice Department banning so-called  enhanced interrogation techniques. In the days following Sept. 11, the White House and Pentagon were dumbfounded to explain the intelligence lapses that left the country vulnerable to the worst terrorist attack since Pearl Harbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama announced April 16 he has no intention of prosecuting military or CIA personnel engaged in waterboarding or other  enhanced interrogation techniques. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Five days later, he said he wouldn t rule out prosecuting former Bush administration officials that approved waterboarding and other  enhanced interrogation techniques. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Former White and Pentagon officials admitted they had scant intel to prevent future attacks.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When the U.S. drove the Taliban out of Kabul Nov. 13, 2001, the CIA and Pentagon had no other source of intelligence for future terrorist attacks other than prisoners from the Afghan battlefield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>White House and Pentagon officials hastily redefined prisoners as  enemy combatants or  battlefield detainees, skirting the Geneva Convention that strictly prohibited  enhance interrogation techniques. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>From the get-go, White House lawyers, including former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzaless and his former lieutenants Berkeley Law School Professor John Yoo and U.S. 9th Circuit Court Judge Jay S. Bybee, wrote the legal excuse for approving waterboarding and  enhanced interrogation techniques. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>President George W. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and others believed that Yoo and Bybee s gave them a license for waterboarding and  enhanced interrogation techniques. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Today s issue regarding  torture should be refocused to determine whether or not the White House got sound legal advice from Yoo and Bybee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama and many other legal scholars believe the Bush White House went too far making up their own definitions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld insist that the U.S. did not torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They disntort every common sense definition of torture to justify waterboarding and  enhanced interrogation techniques. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rice got into a dustup with Stanford students April 30, arguing over whether or not she or the Bush White House approved torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside our obligations, legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture, said Rice denying that she authorized anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rice and other former Bush administration officials insist they followed legal advice and did nothing wrong.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Tortured logic or Procrustean exercises inventing new legal definitions doesn t excuse illegal action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nor does an eccentric legal definition by attorneys working for the White House constitute legal precedent or standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush officials didn t ask Congress or the courts for advice because they knew the answer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Waterboarding and  enhanced interrogation techniques were torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>CIA and Pentagon officials felt so proudly of their interrogation methods that they reportedly destroyed all taped records.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Only written logs exist as to what really happened to suspected terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, both waterboarded a combined 266 times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Adding a twist to the story, ABC News reported that two  psychologists, Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, designed, implemented and certified that the CIA interrogation program was both safe and effective.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Jessen and Mitchell were reportedly paid $1,000 a day for designing and conducting the CIA s harsh interrogation program of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay or secret overseas prisons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It turned out that neither  psychologist had waterboarding or interrogation experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> They went to two individuals who had no interrogation experience, said Air Force interrogator Col. Steven Kleinman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Regardless of who performed the interrogations, questions remain as to what constitutes torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Former Bush administration officials insist that waterboarding and  enhanced interrogation techniques were not torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The use of these tactics tends to increase resistance on the part of the detainee to cooperating with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>So they have the exact opposite effect of what you want, said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), arguing against torture.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Whether or not waterboarding or  enhanced interrogation techniques worked is anyone s guess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Levin s assertion that coercive tactics don t work can t be proven, anymore than Cheney s claim that  enhanced interrogation techniques yielded actionable intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush officials tortured logic and legal definitions for the ostensible noble purpose of saving the country from another terror attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Former Bush officials insist that waterbaording  enhanced interrogation techniques saved lives and did not constitute torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While it s true that bamboo was never inserted under detainees fingernails, it s also true that the Bush White House did back-flips to redefine torture and get intel from Afghan prisoners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Instead of blaming the past administration, Obama would be better off reducing semantic confusion and helping to clarify appropriate standards of common definitions.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;<u><b>About the Author</b></u></p> <p><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He&#39;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<u><br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>