Navy JAG Andrew Williams Resigns Over Torture

[DeSwiss]

Navy JAG Andrew Williams Resigns Over Torture

ThinkProgress
December 29, 2007 9:00

Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams, a JAG officer with the U.S. Naval Reserve, recently resigned his commission over the alleged use of torture by the United States and the destruction of video tapes said to contain instances of that torture. As ThinkProgress reported in December, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, repeatedly refused to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranian military torture.

Explaining his resignation in a letter to his Gig Harbor, WA, newspaper — the Peninsula Gateway — Williams said Hartmann’s testimony was “the final straw”:

The final straw for me was listening to General Hartmann, the highest-ranking military lawyer in charge of the military commissions, testify that he refused to say that waterboarding captured U.S. soldiers by Iranian operatives would be torture.

His testimony had just sold all the soldiers and sailors at risk of capture and subsequent torture down the river. Indeed, he would not rule out waterboarding as torture when done by the United States and indeed felt evidence obtained by such methods could be used in future trials.

Thank you, General Hartmann, for finally admitting the United States is now part of a long tradition of torturers going back to the Inquisition. In the middle ages, the Inquisition called waterboarding “toca” and used it with great success. In colonial times, it was used by the Dutch East India Company during the Amboyna Massacre of 1623.

Waterboarding was used by the Nazi Gestapo and the feared Japanese Kempeitai. In World War II, our grandfathers had the wisdom to convict Japanese Officer Yukio Asano of waterboarding and other torture practices in 1947, giving him 15 years hard labor.

Waterboarding was practiced by the Khmer Rouge at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. Most recently, the U.S. Army court martialed a soldier for the practice in 1968 during the Vietnam conflict. General Hartmann, following orders was not an excuse for anyone put on trial in Nuremberg, and it will not be an excuse for you or your superiors, either.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/29/andrew-williams-jag">More

- The Inquisition. The Dark Ages. Yep, that pretty much covers the Bush years.....

[panzerfaust]

1. An officer of integrity

Sadly so rare that it makes the news ... yes, read that either way.

[salin]

2. WOW - very, very powerful.

k & r

[globalvillage]

3. I read about that the other day

http://dwahzonsvillage.blogspot.com/2007/12/another-jag-officer-takes-stand-on.html

There's also a link to Ian Fishback's letter. Both brave and honorable men.

[DeSwiss]

4. My main concern here....

...is that all the people of good conscience are resigning because of their ethical objections to the behavior and decisions of their so-called "superiors."

Leaving behind those without any conscience or ethics at all....

[rockybelt]

5. But only

if those people go off in silence. Those that are true patriots will stand against the treachery of those who are at the heart of the treason.

General Hartmann gave comfort and aid to the enemy with his statement/non-statement regarding the use of torture. That is treason.

[DeSwiss]

7. I couldn't agree with you more.

:thumbsup: ;)

[salin]

10. this is what the diehard bushies do *not* get...

and they were warned many, many times per safeguarding the geneva conventions - and the reason is it protects our troops as well as giving protection to others. Once the line is crossed... then you have the sticky wicket with all trying to "protect" the Commander in Chief guy ... as in - they have to keep giving BUshco cover for their torture - EVEN WHEN in this case - to do so means to directly allow that this treatment could be done to US troops and not be torture.

We are far down the slippery slope - bushco drug us down and his rw lackies cheered on the avalance.

[flashl]

6. America owes a GREAT debt to its JAG officers,

they have taken their complaints to Congress and the SCOTUS.

[DeSwiss]

8. I agree that....

...we owe them that debt for risking so much to uphold the rule of law, and more.

And the Congress owes them action. But they're getting precious little of that....

[SalmonChantedEvening]

9. Saluting Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams

You do your country proud sir.

Thank you. :patriot: