MoveOn Pushes Back On Gitmo, Torture

MoveOn.org made a new push on Friday to persuade members of Congress to support the closure of Gitmo and back the White House in its decision to end the use of torture on detainees.

In a video made with VoteVets.org, the group showcases the testimony of Afghanistan veteran and counterintelligence agent, Jay Bagwell, insisting that torture and Gitmo were both counterproductive to U.S. military interests.

"As a counterintelligence agent it is very clear to me, torture puts our troops in danger, torture makes our troops less safe, torture creates terrorists," he says, later adding, "All to often, detainees have pamphlets on them, depicting what happened at Guantanamo."

In addition to the video, MoveOn also distributed a petition to its subscribers, urging them to express their support for the closure of Gitmo to elected officials in Congress.

"Guantanamo Bay is a constant reminder of the Bush-era abuses of our laws," it reads. "Please support President Obama's decision to close the prison by January 2010."

The petition and video come just over a week after the Senate rejected the Obama White House's request for funds to help close Gitmo. But the politics of the clip are as noteworthy as the timing. The main voice in favor of keeping Gitmo open and continuing harsh interrogation techniques has been the civilian figure that paved the way for the use of both.

Dick Cheney has been ubiquitous in recent weeks in defense of the previous administration. And now, it seems, the former vice president's critics feel the best way to push back is to contrast his words with the testimony from the people who, in implementing his policies, found them failing or counterproductive.

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[underthegun1]

01:02 AM on 06/01/2009

Obama= guilty of aiding and abetting war criminals

And yet everyone still defends him for it.



I voted for him too, but don't put the blinders on. Demand JUSTICE FOR ALL.

[texanna]

08:32 PM on 05/31/2009

MoveOn is about to make itself irrelevant if it doesn't grow a spine and start holding Pres Obama's feet to the fire as they held shrub's. MoveOn slavishly devoted itself to the election of candidate Obama and it doesn't appear that they have taken off their rose-colored glasses yet. Why aren't they yelling as loudly about the Pres' doubling down on the "good war" as they yelled about shrub's efforts in the "other, wrong war"? Why aren't they mobilizing their members in favor of true health care reform? Why aren't they standing on street corners with signs condemning the billions for the banksters but bankruptcy for our auto industry?

[JonRaymond]

03:42 PM on 05/31/2009

Stop war. Join the revolution. http://stopwarproject.ning.com

[bazokbros]

01:39 PM on 05/31/2009

Maybe MoveOn might want to use their resources on how to get people health care and jobs instead of implying all the detainees in Gitmo are being horribly tortured and probably innocent. If we wanted to really punish these detainees, put them in LA County jail off Rampart St. or any of NY county jails. That's the real hell on earth.

[FrozenNorthObserver]

02:18 AM on 05/31/2009

that was about as weak kneed as MO could have made it. How can you broach the the T word without calling for inve stiga tion and pro secu tions. Mind you in the WH's opinion there has not even been any cri mes just "pol icy diff erences" Ch ild ra pe is a "pol icy diffe rence" Now there is something you can wave the fl ag over

Ho lder Says He Will Not Permit the Crimi naliz ation of Poli cy Differences - ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=7410267&page=1

http://firedoglake.com/2009/04/26/sunday-late-nite-criminalizing-policy-differences/

[naschkatze]

12:15 PM on 05/31/2009

Yes, I think MO is being too wishy-washy on torture. They seem to be unwilling to find fault with Obama now after having committed to him. But that has happened to many of us on a personal basis. I wish I could take back the money I gave to Obama and divvy it up between the ACLU and Amnesty International. I have received several e-mails from MoveOn lately which end up as usual asking for a donation, but I have not received any on torture. The administration and its supporters now seem to want to pass the buck onto Congress while it is perfectly in Holder's domain. Holder does not want to criminalize policy differences? Doesn't he realize that those decisions were already criminal? BTW, the Obama administration continues to refer to torture as enhanced interrogation techniques.

[Polly]

05:01 PM on 05/30/2009

As a member of Moveon I am thrilled to see this !! I hope we can go on to prosecute at least the lawyers who tried to make this legal.

[starkcr31]

04:03 PM on 06/02/2009

If you want to prosecute, you will have to do the same against Nancy Pelosi and the other democrats in congress that knew about it and approved it.

[brandnewstuff]

10:10 PM on 05/29/2009

Thanks Mr Bagwell-- for being an American- not a litmus test

[We-Are-The-Ones]

06:58 PM on 05/29/2009

Good. Excellent. Wonderful.

[blukazoo]

04:44 PM on 05/29/2009

Sic 'em.

[JohnHKennedy]

04:23 PM on 05/29/2009

MoveOn doesn't support prosecution for the Bush Torturers.

That prosecution is the only thing that will stop future use of torture.

Pressure MoveOn to do their job and
pressure Obama to prosecute thos who violated our Federal Torture Laws.

SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Them For Torture

http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
.

[gbrooks]

10:16 AM on 05/31/2009

Signed. Thanks for the link.

Why in the world would MoveOn not support investigating those who approved and carried out torture? Are they so blindly pro-Obama that they won't do the right thing?

[naschkatze]

12:17 PM on 05/31/2009

Yes, they committed to Obama rather than Clinton during the primaries, and I guess they don't want to admit now that Obama is not perfect. Yet many of us individual voters and members of MoveOn have had to do just that.

[naschkatze]

12:20 PM on 05/31/2009

Signed, but I hope I haven't done so before. I sign all petitions related to prosecution of war crimes. Oh well, they'll sort it out.

[westreal]

01:39 PM on 05/29/2009

Push on MoveOn. And push hard

[wonketteRAWKS]

12:19 PM on 05/29/2009

Where's your ad urging the release of the photos and holding those responsible for it?

[OKnight]

12:22 PM on 05/29/2009

same place chaineys confession is...

[naschkatze]

12:20 PM on 05/31/2009

Exactly.

[JJeff88]

12:17 PM on 05/29/2009

I'm for "getting along to go along" as much as the next guy; but these abuses are simply too blatantly wrong. (Reports that the new Abuse photos show rape sexual assault are proof positive that our leaders were responsible for some really bad things). As a democracy, every citizen must share in being accountable for what our government has done. We need to set things right.

Closing Gitmo would at least be a start. Unfortunately, members of Congress allowed themselves to be rolled by the totally bogus conservative NIMBY argument (as if our prison system doesn't know how to effectively incarcerate high-danger inmates !!!)

The other argument - i.e. how do we handle detainees who have proved to be dangerous but whose cases have been tainted and would be likely to be overturned by our court system? - seems problematic on face value: (If we release them, they represent a threat to our security. If we detain them indefinitely without trial, we're violating their civil liberties).

But there may be an out: Congress could pass narrow legislation making specific behavior by detainees (a) a "crime" because it "threatens the nation's security", (b) subject to life without parole, (c) to be tried in a standard US court with (d) evidence considered standalone (i.e. not to be thrown out should evidence involving other misdeeds be considered "tainted")?

We can't sweep this problem under the rug. No solution may be perfect, but we at least have to try.

[Cyberoptic]

12:26 PM on 05/31/2009

If we detain them indefinitely without a trial, that is also threatening our national security.

We live in a community of other nations. We can't just take people off the streets of other nations and put them in our jails until they die, without a trial, and not expect the other nations to act in their own defense and interests.

Patraeus just said that Bush's torture policy was against the Geneva Conventions. Torture policy like that also threatens our national security for the same reasons.

If we detain them indefinitely without trial, we're violating their civil liberties).

[jubei]

11:52 AM on 05/29/2009

If Gen.Petraeus and Gen.Powell said that they stand behind the President 100% in closing down Gitmo and ending torture,that means Obama is doing something right!

[Monrocsol]

12:19 PM on 05/29/2009

I remember when we were all screaming at Petraeus, remember?

When a President says, "let's move on to the future", as damn Obama says, that means that both parties are guilty (of torture)!

[starkcr31]

01:25 PM on 05/29/2009

Well if he is, that would a first. I don't see a huge problem with this assuming he doesn't put these people in with the general prison population or release them. I don't really see a point though either. This is purely a symbolic gesture.

[rich misty]

11:41 AM on 05/29/2009

http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/terrorism?OpenDocument

Republicans are less and less a political party, and more and more a gang of very hardened criminals.

[kassandrasduplex]

11:50 AM on 05/29/2009

Misty, there are few differences between the modern Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They are both run by millionaires and billionaires who generally don't have your concern in mind when they pass regressive bills or agency decisions, such as the recent EPA approval to destroy another45 mountains in Appalachia for coal mining. (Not much coverage over that Obama supported decision.) What is interesting is how the media are hypng an issue which supposedly is long past but not emphasizing the current healthcare "reform" bills being devised in Congress. If progressive folks such as yourself (you are either progressive or regressive, for distributing the benefits of society more equitably or for more wealth to the wealthy) don't get active with your representatives and senators you will likely personally or through acquaintance be burned by what is coming.

[OKnight]

12:01 PM on 05/29/2009

yawn....

[Monrocsol]

12:23 PM on 05/29/2009

Obama can do no wrong! One day they will wake-up.

It took Katrina to wake these people from the Bush slumber!

[OKnight]

11:52 AM on 05/29/2009

that's the fact, jack...