Ever wonder why George Tenet got the Medal of Freedom? Here's the answer.

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22detain.html

"This extraordinary consensus was possible, an examination by The New York Times shows, largely because no one involved — not the top two C.I.A. officials who were pushing the program, not the senior aides to President George W. Bush, not the leaders of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees — investigated the gruesome origins of the techniques they were approving with little debate.

According to several former top officials involved in the discussions seven years ago, they did not know that the military training program, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, had been created decades earlier to give American pilots and soldiers a sample of the torture methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans.

Even George J. Tenet, the C.I.A. director who insisted that the agency had thoroughly researched its proposal and pressed it on other officials, did not examine the history of the most shocking method, the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The top officials he briefed did not learn that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia."

[Supersedeas]

1. prosecuted in WWII and the perps were hanged.

[EFerrari]

2. How did Dick Cheney get the NYTs to publish this? n/t

[WeDidIt]

3. Hell, prosecuted AMERICAN SOLDIERS during Vietnam

and imprisoned said torturers.

[merh]

4. I've debated torture with soldiers and vets that claim to have gone

through the SERE programs. They claim that the techniques are not torture. I ask them why they are put through it if it is not to teach them how to survive torture, they just argue since they have been through it they know.


Of course, it never enters the minds of the SERE trainers and/or the participants that there is a huge difference between a sanctioned exercise and real detention. The soldiers know that the government handlers will not kill them, will not let them die. The detainees were always afraid of death.

This article is infuriating, I learned in grade school that they dunked witches to get them to confess in Salem. The officials didn't know what waterboarding was, my ass.

[EFerrari]

5. Before buying into this story, check out one from Salon that

uses the Senate report and comes to a very different conclusion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5510053

[glitch]

8. A lot of people resigned rather than work with these ghouls.

If Tenet thought he was mitigating their worst by staying he needs to come clean now. Tell everything he knows, expose it all, not just bits in books. If he doesn't he is just another disposable bush stooge.
Dead stooge walking.

He needs to be fully debriefed.

[EFerrari]

9. I remember that. More people left when they stuck Porter Goss

in there, too, remember?

[glitch]

11. Yeah I do. Another bfee true believer.

He probably won't even talk on his death bed.

[madrchsod]

6. a waterboarding scandal that rocked the nation....1912

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/20/american-waterboardi.html


they must have slept through "military 101" in war college.

[UTUSN]

7. Tenet, Yoo, ----------but don't let CHEENEE off the hook (or Shrub)

**********QUOTE********
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30338039//

Gruesome origins of 'torture' tactics overlooked

Officials failed to probe the history, efficacy of brutal interrogation methods
By Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti

.... ...Nor were most of the officials aware that the former military psychologist who played a central role in persuading C.I.A. officials to use the harsh methods had never conducted a real interrogation, or that the Justice Department lawyer most responsible for declaring the methods legal had idiosyncratic ideas that even the Bush Justice Department would later renounce. ....
.... But it was the C.I.A. that was proposing the methods, and John Yoo , the Justice Department official who was the principal author of a secret August 2002 memorandum that authorized the interrogation program, was mostly interested in making a case that the president’s wartime powers allowed for the harsh tactics. ....

...At a series of small-group and individual briefings attended by Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Ms. Rice and Attorney General John Ashcroft , Mr. Tenet and his deputy, John McLaughlin, laid out their case.
They made a persuasive duo, former officials who heard their pitch recalled. Mr. Tenet, an extroverted former Congressional staff member, was given to forceful language about the threat from Al Qaeda, which he said might well have had operations under way involving biological, radiological or even nuclear weapons. Mr. McLaughlin, a career intelligence analyst, was low-key and cerebral, and some White House officials said they found his support for the methods reassuring. ....

Ms. Rice insisted that Mr. Ashcroft not just pass along the conclusions of his Office of Legal Counsel, where Mr. Yoo worked, but give his personal assurance that the methods were legal under domestic and international law. He did.

The C.I.A. then gave individual briefings to the secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld , and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell . Neither objected, several former officials said.

Mr. Cheney, whose top legal adviser, David S. Addington , was closely consulting with Mr. Yoo about legal justification, strongly endorsed the program. Mr. Bush also gave his approval, though what details were shared with him is not known. ....

(Congress briefed: ) "Gang of Four: " (Democrats ) Nancy PELOSI and Senator Bob GRAHAM. (Rethugs: ) Porter GOSS and Richard SHELBY.

********UNQUOTE********

[librechik]

10. so, we finally have an answer to the question: Were they evil or just STUPID???

apparently they're going with stupid.

Too bad ignorance is no excuse.

[bvar22]

12. But torturing "in Good Faith" IS an excuse....

...at least to the Obama Administration.

There is NO SUCH THING as Torturing in Good Faith....
I am amazed that anyone is lending this any crediblity.
The concept is deplorable...shameful.

Torturers are CRIMINALS, even when they have a note fronm thier lawyer (OLC).
The OLC Memos could be considered during the Sentencing Phase after an Indictment & Public Trial.

[librechik]

15. i'm sure you're right--but he can do this only with vast public outrage

forcing him into it--and soon he will have that.

[Psychic Consortium]

17. They consistently use the stupid defense: "no one could have anticipated ________" etc etc

[bvar22]

13. The MoF was also REWARD for this little piece of FRAUD.

This is Tenent sitting behind Powell at the UN as Powell presented his fraudulent case for the Invasion of Iraq.
Powell actually used Cartoon Drawings of "Mobile Biological Warfare Labs" to PROVE that Saddam had WMD....fucking Cartoon Drawings!!!! as PROOF!!!!

Tenent sitting behind Powell gave the full weight of the CIA to Powell's fraudulent presentation.
It also kept Powell from Chickening Out during this shameful performance.
Tenent got the Medal of Freedom as his reward for being a "Good German".

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Tenet obeyed his masters very well.

[struggle4progress]

16. Eh, Bush tossed out Medals of Freedom like Mardi Gradi beads. He mixed real American heros with

conservative hacks who supported his administration ...
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient

July 9, 2002
Hank Aaron
Bill Cosby
Placido Domingo
Peter Drucker
Katherine Graham
D. A. Henderson
Irving Kristol
Nelson Mandela
Gordon Moore
Nancy Reagan
Fred Rogers
A. M. Rosenthal

July 23, 2003
Jacques Barzun
Julia Child
Roberto Clemente
Van Cliburn
Vaclav Havel
Charlton Heston
Edward Teller
Dave Thomas
Byron White
James Q. Wilson
John R. Wooden

November 12, 2003
Lord Robertson

December 2, 2003
Robert L. Bartley

June 4, 2004
Pope John Paul II

June 23, 2004
Arnold Palmer
Edward Brooke
Doris Day
Vartan Gregorian
Gilbert Grosvenor
Gordon B. Hinckley
Estee Lauder
Rita Moreno
Arnall Patz
Norman Podhoretz
Walter Wriston

December 14, 2004
L. Paul Bremer III
Tommy R. Franks
George J. Tenet

http://www.medaloffreedom.com/PresidentsDreamTeam.htm


Bush Gives Medal of Freedom to 'Pivotal' Iraq Figures
By Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page C01
... President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tommy Franks, the now-retired Army general who led the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; former CIA director George Tenet, who told Bush it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction; and L. Paul Bremer, who presided over the first 14 months of Iraq reconstruction. Past recipients have included Mother Teresa, Mr. Rogers, Rosa Parks and Pope John Paul II ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63623-2004Dec14.html

Bush Presents Medal of Freedom to Former Joint Chiefs Chairman
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2005 – President Bush presented retired Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a White House ceremony today ... The president also awarded the medal to three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, actress and comedian Carol Burnett, Internet pioneers Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, historian Robert Conquest, singer Aretha Franklin, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, actor Andy Griffith, broadcaster Paul Harvey, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery, golfer Jack Nicklaus, baseball hall-of-famer and Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson, and Paul Rusesabagina, who rescued thousands from genocide in Rwanda ... http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=18344

By DAVID STOUT
Published: December 16, 2006
... These are the recipients: Ruth Johnson Colvin, founder of Literacy Volunteers of America. Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana and former head of the United Negro College Fund. Paul Johnson, historian and journalist. Riley (B.B.) King, musician. Joshua Lederberg, Nobel laureate for research in bacterial genetics. David McCullough, historian and biographer. Norman Y. Mineta, former representative and secretary of transportation and commerce. John (Buck) O’Neil, player and manager in the Negro League and first black coach in the Major Leagues. William Safire, former Op-Ed columnist of The New York Times. Natan Sharansky, Israeli politician and former imprisoned Soviet dissident ... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/16/washington/16medal.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/M/McCullough,%20David

Bush announces 2007 Medal of Freedom winners
The winners are:
* Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel economics prize winner
* Oscar Elias Biscet, an anti-abortion and pro-democracy activist and political prisoner in Cuba
* Francis Collins, Human Genome Project leader
* Benjamin Hooks, US civil rights leader
* Retired Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois and former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee
* Harper Lee, author of the book To Kill a Mockingbird
* Brian Lamb, founder of the C-SPAN cable public affairs network
* Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia and the first woman elected to head an African country
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bush_announces_2007_Medal_of_Freedom_winners

Bush To Award Gen. Peter Pace With Medal Of Freedom
... Yesterday, the White House released a list of the newest recipients, who will be honored at a White House ceremony next week. Included in that list is former Rumsfeld yes-man Gen. Peter Pace ... http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/12/bush-pace-medal/

Bush awards Donna Shalala Medal of Freedom
> Posted by William Gibson on June 11, 2008 12:13 PM
... Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., has worked throughout his career to improve the lives of those suffering from neurological disorders. His groundbreaking contributions to medicine and his inspiring efforts to help America’s youth fulfill their potential have strengthened our Nation. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., has dedicated his life to expanding the horizons of human knowledge. His efforts to advance our understanding and treatment of HIV/AIDS have brought hope and healing to millions around the world. Tom Lantos was a champion of human rights. The only Holocaust survivor to serve in the Congress, he devoted himself to securing liberty for oppressed people around the world and became a powerful witness for the importance of freedom. General Peter Pace, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), is one of our Nation’s most accomplished and respected military officers. His selfless service and visionary leadership have helped keep our Nation safe. Donna Edna Shalala is one of our Nation’s most distinguished educators and public officials. She has worked tirelessly to ensure that all Americans can enjoy lives of hope, promise, and dignity. Laurence H. Silberman has devoted his life to promoting, enforcing, and defending the rule of law. He has been a stalwart guardian of the Constitution, and his work to strengthen our national security institutions has made Americans safer ... http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/dcblog/2008/06/bush_awards_donna_shalala_meda_1.html

Bush Awards Medals of Freedom to Three Allies
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009; Page C01
... Former Australian prime minister John Howard accepted the nation's highest civilian honor after spending the night at Blair House, the 119-room presidential guesthouse -- edging out someone else who had hoped to crash there . . . President-elect Barack Obama. Appearing well rested after his night at the exclusive address, Howard jokingly clutched his neck, as if he were about to be choked, as Bush prepared to bestow the medal. That one cracked up an East Room crowd packed in to see Bush honor Howard and two other staunch allies, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and former British prime minister Tony Blair ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011301710.html

[pleah]

18. So, none of these people ever had history in school?

Yeah, right.

[KharmaTrain]

19. The Horse Was Long Out Of The Barn

The more I read of these memos and the timeline, the more I'm convinced the "enhanced interrogations" memos were written AFTER the fact...to cover up what had already happened and legitimize future torture...playing a conveluted word game to try to make the "law" square with what already had gone on.

There was ZERO due dilligence on if these methods or if torture worked. The evidence that the booosh regime tortured prior to the OLC memos abound and cheney, von rumsfeld and their puppets were told to codify what was going on to cover their asses, nothing more, nothing less. We're seeing it every time crashcart attempts to "justify"...like a murderer claiming "justifiable homicide".

Overall, this shows how little respect these goons had toward real freedom...that good should prevail over evil not through torture but through pushing ideas. Since these war criminals didn't have ideas, just bloodlust, they needed to "legitimize" their actions in legal gobbidygook and let "history" sort it out.

It is interesting how quiet Tenet has been in the past year...not a peep in this "debate" if torture works. Looks like his silence was bought and delivered.

[leftofthedial]

20. Get a rope...

[mmonk]

21. That and the slam dunk

involving yellow cake.