Breaking The Will

torture is a war crime. The administration should be tried for crimes against humanity. I can't even stand the thought of water-boarding. How one person can do this to another human being is beyond me. Bush and company should be ashamed of themselves! Just think...they call themselves Christians while torturing their fellow man. It is atrocious and should not be allowed to take place in our country.

Torturing Democracy
This documentary chronicles how US detention and interrogation policies in the Administration's war on terror descended into "at a minimum, cruel and unusual treatment and, at worst, torture" in the words of the former general counsel of the United States Navy. It features high-level State Department and Pentagon insiders - military men who opposed the increasingly harsh treatment of men in US custody. One Marine Lt. Colonel, assigned to prosecute a so-called "high value" detainee, refused to do so when he concluded that the prisoner's confession was coerced through torture. Calling that interrogation "morally repugnant," this military officer told producer Sherry Jones, "If we compromise our ideals as a nation, then these guys have accomplished much more than driving airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."
For the first time on television, the former chief Judge Advocate General of the Army reveals the inside story of how the top military lawyers in a Pentagon task force set up by the Secretary of Defense in early 2003 were deceived by Rumsfeld's secret authorization of interrogation tactics they had opposed. "The commander in chief doesn't have the power to make that which is illegal under the law of war, legal," the former top JAG concludes. This program details the fierce struggles waged by these military and administration insiders - whose belief in the country's traditions and values led them to the highest acts of patriotism. They were unable, in the end, to overcome formidable resistance from the most powerful figures in the Pentagon and the White House.

I am deeply ashamed that our government has shown it is no different than the "axis of terror" and Iraqi governments in its treatment of individuals. The individuals at Gitmo are human beings. Many have never been charged with a crime. Many were rounded up and first questioned in CIA prisons in countries with less concern for their rights, then dumped in Gitmo. The conditions they are subjected to are beyond belief, regardless of their crime. And these men are essentially prisoners of war...after 8 years of terror, we are no more closer to catching Osama than ever. But we have compromised forever the concept of the Geneva Convention. That means OUR soldiers can now be tortured accordingly, and we have no moral grounds on which to object. This administraiton has violated every concept our constitution was founded on...that ALL men are created equal and endowed by their creator (GOD) with basic rights...this "Christian" administration has bastardized the concept and disgraced the name of Christianity in its behavior...and if it can happen to them, it can happen to all of us. Bush has ignored the Supreme Court's directives to stop...if the executive branch refuses to execute court rulings, then it is outside the law. We are a government of the law. So we not have a coup, essentially. THis is larger than getting a bit of info. Plus, experts including the soldiers that built the SERE training, tell you that you are not getting viable info. At some point in torture, the individual says anything and is relatively mad, so the intelligence is worthless. This is a war crime and I don't see how Bush and Cheney escape the prosecution given Pinochet. We find it obscene when down by Nazis or Koreans. Why is it ok for us to do it? THink people...it is being done in YOUR name. After 8 years these men remain in Gitmo, most in solitary confinement for all that time, and constant torture, with NO recourse. What would you do? If you are truly a conservative and revere the constitution and what it stands for this should be repulsive to you.

If they are a threat then eliminate them. War is not a video game, read your history. If people want to torture prisoners then they will need to change laws. Once again war is a method of eliminating an enemy. Prisoners are protected. You idiots.

The fact is that the CIA needs to do whatever necessary to get the information they need to win this war!

This is not a conventional war this is terroism we are dealing with!!
These are religous fanatics who will stop at nothing to kill period in the vane hope we all will become devoted to Islam!
and if we have to resort to other methods to save lives and our country so be it,I happen to like living in a free country devoid of Islamic and terroist rule!!!!!

Torture that feels life threatening is wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Period, end of story. I'm so glad Bush & Cheney are almost gone.

This man has been a walking, breathing, living, humanly-embodied I.Q. test for Americans.

And they are about to complete it with an amazing test number.

What difference does it make? The Democrats have signaled that they have no intention to prosecute anyone for this because they don't want a "witch hunt." So basically If the perpetrators are not prosecuted, then the they are giving the next fascist-power-hungry president the go-ahead to do it all over again in the future. We learn nothing from history. The only way to stop this from ever happening again is to hold war-crimes against these people. But it's not going to happen because the Democrats, the Republicans -- and the American people -- know that they are just as guilty (by the sin of omission for allowing it to happen and doing nothing) as the people who actually did the torture.

observer101 - YOU are the clueless one. You have no professional knowledge of successful interrogation practices - aside from watching "24." The goal of interrogation is not retribution, it's to get actionable intelligence. Abusing prisoners results in FALSE information ( see LARRY LINN's earlier comments). Don't believe Larry? Read "American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day", USAF, who was physically tortured, mentally broke, but STILL LIED to his captors in Vietnam. In fact, key secrets were withheld by all 700+ US captives despite physical torture, even by non-comms with no training. In WWII the US was extremely successful with rapport-building with both Japanese and German prisoners.

Ask a pre 2001 professional interrogator in the US or Israeli military what works and it won't involve "enhanced interrogation." I hope Cheney, Addington, Rumsfeld, Bybee, Haynes, Yoo and thei top echelon goes to prison for both employing bad practices that didn't get reliable information and deceiving the nation. Our national reputation is tarnished byond compare.

VET: By the sounds of it YOU sir should have dodged the draft..As a matter of fact maybe you should just go to Canada or farther...EVERY ADMINISTRATION has to be involved in some type of torture...So to pretend that just Bushs admin is the only admin involved in this mild form of torture is just stupid on yours and anyone elses part that believe that. Lets just see how GREAT Obamas Admin handles terrorists that are captured...I hate to bust your little bubble but the terrorists are still there and they still hate the U.S...And your precious Obama doesnt seem to be in any hurry to bring the troops home as he so eloquently told everyone after his winning the election...Sorry seems the liar administrations are back...Lets see how much he backslides during his term..Atleast Bush told the bleak truth as opposed to Obamas outrageous lies that are starting to become painfully obvious..Just like it will be a blatant lie if he says that the U.S. will not participate in water torture...You and your type should just go on with your head in the sand like ostriches..Ill continue being an ever watching chickenhawk....

Just goes to show you how stupid the Bush administration is. Every officer going through SERE training knows that the purpose of the "torture" session is to get a taste of torture before "breaking down". The faster you capitulate the faster the session ends and it's on to the next evolution. As someone who has undergone SERE training, I can tell you it's widely known that resistance is futile and confession is expected. To extrapolate that data into a national security policy by a bunch of draft dodger/ and chickenhawks really is just mind blowing.

Hundreds tortured, thousands killed, millions depraved and not a single member of themedia community dares to propose the prosecution of those cro magnons that ruled America fpr eight years and brought about the Great Desaster we are experiencing.
Charly Wallace, Greece

This is a test.