Obama Legal Team Meets With Anti-Torture Generals

WASHINGTON — A dozen retired generals met with President-elect Barack Obama's top legal advisers Wednesday, pressing their case to overturn some of the Bush administration's terrorism-fighting policies.

Obama has criticized practices that he says amount to torturing detainees during interrogations and has promised to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Among those who met with Eric Holder, Obama's pick to be attorney general, and Greg Craig, the incoming White House counsel, were Gen. Charles Krulak, a former Marine Corps commandant, and retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, former chief of the Central Command.

"It's important that the dialogue is going," Hoar said. "Part of the challenge here is big and philosophical. Part is nuts and bolts. How do you translate the rhetoric of the campaign and the transition period into action?"

The generals would like to see authority rescinded for the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods that go beyond those approved for use by the military; an end to the secret transfer of prisoners to other governments that have a history of torture; and the closing of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

They organized against the current policies through an advocacy group, Human Rights First, shortly after the 2004 revelations of prison abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. They helped win passage of a 2005 bill requiring that all U.S. prisoners, including those taken by the CIA, receive humane treatment.

President George W. Bush in March vetoed legislation championed by the retired officers that would have held the CIA to the military's interrogation methods.

The transition team official said no decisions about the detainee policies will be made until after the inauguration and Obama's full national security and legal teams are in place.

Comments

[LeeCalif]

This shows why a THIRD PARTY is critical for this country.

Hypocrites like Wyden & Feinstein change on a dime.

When demorats torture, it's A-OK.

[LightningJoe]

I can't believe some Democrats, who should know better, are starting to backtrack on their antipathy to torture (Ron Wyden, for one).

Torture is never okay. Not even in the mythical "ticking bomb" scenario. As a member of the clergy once said of assisted suicide, it should always be illegal, even if sometimes it is the only option.

What that means (for those unused to parsing English) is that the act is such a violation of civilized behavior that -- even though it may sometime, to someone, seem to be the only option available -- it should nevertheless only ever be done by someone who knows ahead of time that it's illegal, and that a conviction and punishment will be the price of doing the deed.

This makes perfect sense to me. If torture ever does become the only option in a particular situation, the torturer himself must know that he will pay the price for having done it. If indeed the need for torture is great enough, then some real person is going to have to decide that the good of the country trumps even their own freedom.

[Agentlady007]

Self Defense Did you allread the book yet? Well, I 'll read you the chapters.

[Mostro]

Why is this headline so low on the front page?

I guess Obama's "broken promises" sell better.

[ArmyCentrist]

America cannot be a shining example to the rest of the world when we don't hold ourselves to a higher standard. The main reason that terrorism is flourishing all over the Third World is because of our tarnished image. You have to have the hearts/minds of the people on your side, and that's what we need to get back to really defeat global terrorism. If our actions are just, what leg do these terrorists have to stand on?

[NewArtz]

Torture is the tool of sadists who have no concern for humanity. They accept its cruelty because they are cruel. Those who torture forfeit all appropriate authority in order to pursue lawless gain. No matter how guilty the victims of torture, the executioners of torture trump their guilt. Torture is worse than cold blooded murder as the sole purpose of its practice is to cause pain, suffering and humiliation from which death becomes the only rescue.

Every American is guilty of its government's use of torture. We are judged by the deeds of those we allow to rule us. We are torturers and have forfeited greatness in order to exert power over those who are helpless to resist. Those who promote torture are of the same soul as those who crucified Messiah and are stained with the blood of innocent martyrs. Torture establishes craven evil in the human heart. Those who accept torture are not "saved", but will burn forever in the consuming torture of the merciless god they serve.

[UncommonSenz]

So then.. if I understand your ranting... torture is ok for torturers. So it is ok for "the merciless god they serve" to torture them, but then wouldn't the god have to be tortured too... I mean you gotta be consistent.

Instead of labeling those who committed torture as being evil, and Every American is guilty" of complicity... why not look to stop the practice and ensure that it does not happen in the future. Seems a lot more effective than damning everybody to hell as punishment.

[StillAmused]

The world is watching...

ACCOUNTABILITY.

[realpolitic]

Prisoners at Guantanamo were being treated so harshly the FBI did not want anything to do with the process. After an agent of the FBI saw a prisoner chained to the floor lying in his own feces and pulling his hair out he wrote a memo to headquarters and the FBI banned all agents from Guantanamo. This terrible scene is an example of how prisoners were being treated there. They were treated with techniques found in the Army Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) manual, which is used to prepare our service people to prepare for torture from rogue nations who have no respect for the Geneva Conventions. It was the techniques used on American prisoners by the North Koreans in the Korean war and such treatment got many American prisoners to sign false statements saying that our troops committed atrociites. Such isolation and depravation techniques are not designed to get prisoners to talk and share information, but to get them to confess to any crimes one would like them to confess to for propaganda purposes.

[UncommonSenz]

But wait. I thought we had already concluded that Obama had utterly failed and turned his back on all progressive policies.

You mean we should actually wait and see what happens BEFORE we pass judgment and condemnation... well that makes no sense now. Even though this may seem like something completely in line with exactly what he said on the campaign trail, Holder has ties to the Clintons and therefore could never be anything other than pure evil.

Wow, its fun to prejudge everything... I can see why the chicken littles are enjoying whining about every pick by Obama signaling the coming apocalypse!

[canucklivinginUSA]

LOL, I love your kind of sarcasm

[jasdad]

This article certainly deserves limited merit. However, it's quite incredible how it overlooked the name of the general who suffered the most by stating the true facts concernng the Abu Ghraib atrocities, MGen Antonio Taguba. He was forced to retire prematurely under questionable circumstances. HIs name should be synonymous with everything good that came or is yet to come out of those revelations. Sad.

[realpolitic]

Yes, his crime was telling the truth and doing a thorough investigation.

[judiNJ]

I think he DID already "leave". I have been voting since JFK, and I have never see
anything like this. President Bush has really "left the house" and President Elect
Obama has had to step in before the electoral college has even met. Unbelievable!

[naschkatze]

This is great news, something which Obama is keeping his promise about and which I wish had a bigger heading.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Yeah instead of that "broken promise" bullcaca

[Sundialsvc4]

Under international law, even the law which the United States herself ==authored== ... the punishment for torture is death.

America must come clean. These high criminals do not represent this Country nor anything of what she stands for. Even though we have called them by such obligatory honorifics as "Mister President," "Mister Vice-President," "Madame Secretary," and even "Your Honor," the words of the Nuremberg Principles are quite clear. (They called themselves "Reichsmarshall" and "Fuhrer." Same words, different language. Hung 'em high, we did.)

If you tolerate High Crime, it will kill both you and your Nation.

If you aggressively but legally ferret it out and punish it, the word will flash around the world that America Is Back.

[Sundialsvc4]

When I say, "the punishment is Death," and "we will legally ferret it out and punish it," I do mean that we will positively make a SHOW of it.

"You cannot leave, because you are a flight risk, but you are 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty.' "

"We have a Bill of Rights and you are scrupulously entitled to every single one of them, even though you tortured your prisoners and treated them inhumanely for at least eight years."

"You will be tried by a Jury of your Peers and given every Due Process of Law, even though you denied your victims every one of these civilities."

"Your punishment, should you be found Guilty as Charged, will be certain and swift. If you are somehow found Innocent of All Charges, you will be given a limousine ride to the hotel or airport of your choice."

In other words: we renounce you and every thing that you did in our name. In this way we will show that we are Above you, and that 'We the People of the United States" always and forever will be. We will also show that, even though Justice is sometimes slow, she does come and she does bring her sword with her.

[schicklett3]

These barbaric treatments should stop now!
The United States of America DOES NOT TORTURE. PERIOD.

[BSERIUS]

Barack has already said the USA does not torture...He said this years ago.

[MajorKong]

In 1978 former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades.

During the investigation Italian security forces wanted to torture a suspect they believed had information.

General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa famously responded:
"Italy can survive the loss of Aldo Moro. It would not survive the introduction of torture."

[avraamjack]

This is excellent !

Hopefully after they correct this policy they can get around to repudiating the current policy of allowing gang stalkers to openly and notoriously poisoning people while the government and police just watch - instead of doing their job of protecting people and incarcerating dangerous people.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22gang%20stalking%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Hopefully.
.

[SeanONe]

Pfft doesn't exist, take your meds.

[avraamjack]

Hi Sean,

Why does the truth make you hostile and insulting?