Amy Goodman: Abu Ghraib: One of Al’s Claims to Fame

[marmar]

from Truthdig:


Abu Ghraib: One of Al’s Claims to Fame


Posted on Aug 28, 2007
By Amy Goodman

The abrupt resignation of Alberto Gonzales as United States attorney general on Monday morning was not soon enough. But the policies and politicization of justice that have been his hallmark remain. From torture, warrantless wiretapping and the firing of U.S. attorneys to the expansion of powers of the executive branch, Gonzales has been a dogged enforcer and defender of the most egregious policies of the Bush/Cheney administration.

Take torture. In January 2002, Gonzales wrote a memo calling some provisions of the Geneva Conventions “quaint.” After that came the notorious August 2002 Bybee memo, which served as the legal basis for the harsh interrogation techniques subsequently revealed in the Abu Ghraib photos.

The memo argued that any interrogation technique would fall short of torture if it did not cause pain “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death.” It allowed anything less than “significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., lasting for months or even years.” Gonzales allowed the CIA and the Pentagon to use the Bybee memo as the basis of their operational directives, allowing harsh interrogations while protecting their officers from possible prosecution for war crimes.

This led to practices like the use of dogs in interrogations. Former U.S. Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis recalled his use of dogs in Iraq: “We were using dogs in the Mosul detention facility, which was at the Mosul Airport. We would put the prisoner in a shipping container. We would keep him up all night with music and strobe lights, stress positions, and then we would bring in dogs. The prisoner was blindfolded, so he didn’t really understand what was going on, but we had the dog controlled.” Not so quaint.

As I watched television news coverage of the Gonzales resignation, with the volume off, they were showing images of dogs. The bottom of the screen read, “Pleads Guilty.” I wondered, were the networks telling the truth about the legacy of Gonzales? I turned up the volume. The report was about quarterback Michael Vick and his dogfighting scandal. I heard President Bush use the phrase “dragged through the mud.” Was he talking about what happened to detainees? No, just the reputation of the last of his Texas cronies to leave the White House. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070828_the_tortured_tenure_of_gonzales/