Hey Mitt, Let He Who is Without Sin Waterboard the Next Detainee

While Mitt Romney launched a major defensive today over the "controversy" surrounding his Mormon faith, a much more relevant issue that would define a potential Romney presidency has taken a back seat to his attempt to shore up the radical Christian right wing of the Republican party: Romney's torture policy.

In a Republican debate last summer, Romney sought to out-thug his rivals on the issue, calling for "enhanced interrogation techniques" of detainees and for an expansion of the population at the US gulag at Guantanamo. "I am glad they're at Guantanamo," Romney declared. "I don't want them on our soil. I want them on Guantanamo, where they don't get the access to lawyers they get when they're on our soil. I don't want them in our prisons, I want them there. Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo."

Receiving very little attention in the media regarding Romney's radical vision for an intensification of the Bush administration's cruel and inhumane "war on terror" policies is the behind-the-scenes puppet master of these ideas: J. Cofer Black. A 28-year CIA veteran, Black is currently the number two man at the Bush administration's favorite mercenary firm, Blackwater Worldwide. For much of the past year, he has served as Romney's senior advisor on counter-terrorism.

For those who have followed Black's career, the statements flowing from Romney's tongue have hardly been a surprise. At the CIA, Black ran the agency's extraordinary rendition program, the government-sanctioned kidnap and torture operation where people are abducted and sent to third country hell-holes to be tortured, often while interrogated with questions provided by US intelligence operatives. Black was also the official who famously told Congress, "All you need to know: there was a before 9/11 and there was an after 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves come off." Oh yeah, his nickname in the Bush White House? "The flies on the eyeballs guy," bestowed upon him after he pledged to Bush to leave the Taliban and al Qaeda with flies crawling across their eyeballs in Afghanistan. He was also fond of talking about whacking off heads with a machete, shipping severed heads in cardboard boxes on dry ice and putting skulls on pikes. Romney, like most candidates, says he opposes torture. But, as the Bush administration has repeatedly illustrated, such declarations mean squat. Remember the "quaint" Geneva Convention?

Romney sought today to convince the "base" his Mormonism will not dictate the nature of his presidency, saying, "Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin." But Cofer Black is someone who already has "exerted influence" over Romney and would do so on a daily basis if given a place in the White House.

While Romney has only occasionally mentioned Black's involvement with his campaign, he invoked the Blackwater vice chair's name in the recent CNN/YouTube debate, during a tense sparring match with Sen. John McCain over the issue of waterboarding, the practice of simulating drowning of a prisoner under interrogation.

When asked about it, Romney said, "I do not believe that as a presidential candidate, it is wise for us to describe precisely what techniques we will use in interrogating people." He added that he opposes torture, but then said, "I want to make sure that what happened to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed happens to other people who are terrorists." What happened to Mohammed was reportedly waterboarding.

McCain, who has come out strongly against the tactic, looked at Romney and said, "It's in violation of the Geneva Conventions. It's in violation of existing law. And, Governor, let me tell you, if we're going to get the high ground in this world and we're going to be America that we have cherished and loved for more than 200 years, we're not going to torture people. We're not going to do what Pol Pot did. We're not going to do what's being done to Burmese monks as we speak. And I suggest that you talk to retired military officers and active-duty military officers like Colin Powell and others, and how in the world anybody could think that that kind of thing could be inflicted by Americans on people who are held in our custody is absolutely beyond me."

It was then Romney played his Cofer Black card. "I'm not going to specify the specific means of what is and what is not torture so that the people that we capture will know what things we're able to do and what things we're not able to do," Romney shot back. "And I get that advice from Cofer Black, who is a person who was responsible for counterterrorism in the CIA for some thirty-five years." It was a dramatic exaggeration of Cofer Black's career. He was only in the CIA for 28 years and was "responsible" for counterterrorism only 3 of those years. Nonetheless, Black is a serious thug with a frightening disregard for human rights. He is a perfect fit as the vice chair of Blackwater and the head of Erik Prince's new private CIA, Total Intelligence Solutions. As the Blackwater empire continues to expand -- even amidst the mounting scandals -- Blackwater appears to have its own presidential candidate as well--or at least one whose presidency could make the company's profitable business under Bush look like a church bake sale.

While the media focuses on Romney and the influence of Mormonism on his potential presidency, it's much more important to shed light on the shadowy, pro-torture advisor shaping Romney's vision for the continuation and escalation of the most brutal components of the machinery of the "war on terror." Oh, and, Mitt, on the subject of religion: Let he who is without sin waterboard the next detainee.

To read about Blackwater's new re-branding campaign and continued profiting from the war despite the scandals, see my new article, "Blackwater's Bu$ine$$" -- out today -- in The Nation magazine.

For more on Cofer Black, see my book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Comments

[OhgReaTone]

Romney is not like the founder of the Mormon faith , Joseph Smith. Smith opposed everything traditional, while Romney embraces anything that will win votes. So what does Romney believe?
Ohg.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2007/12/07/the-mormon-bible-and-mitt-romney/

[overeducatedcartoonist]

Hey, Jeremy, it's "Let **him** who is without sin waterboard the next detainee."

[zjr909]

The wretched truth about torture isn't that it doesn't work - but that it ALWAYS works. That is, if you consider what it's really all about. It's not about gathering intel; it's about obtaining a confession. That's all torture ever was, ever is, or ever will be. It's oppression, pure and simple. Anyone who tries to say otherwise has never looked at its history. That's why the only guaranteed way to stop the use of torture is to NEVER accept anything obtained under torture. We know that authoritarians (be they right or left wing) have no capacity to reject such forced confessions; so it has to be the rest of us, who still have some modicum of humanity remaining, who have to refuse outright EVER to accept the fruits of torture - and to utterly oppose any sleazy pol pandering to the torture brigade. That means every Republican candidate except McCain; and at least one Democratic candidate who seems to have bought into the absurd "ticking timebomb" scenario.

[villastrangiato]

It's easy for gutter slime like Mitt Romney and J. Coffer Black to endorse torture and renounce the Geneva Conventions as quaint relics - they figure they'll never be captured or tortured by the "enemy" so why would it matter to them? They figure that as long as we run the international criminal court - "our people" will never be the ones on trial for crimes against humanity.

nice.....and to think there are soldiers in the armed forces that would vote for creeps like this......

[cognate]

If Jesus could take crucifixion, a mere human can take waterboarding, no?

[Delaware22]

"hypocrisy"

[Delaware22]

From the Bush/Gore fiasco to the Supreme Court shocker to Bush's squandering of global unity after 911 to the lies about WMD's to Abu Ghrab, Gitmo, secret renditions, waterboarding and the suspension of habeas corpus, each time I think to myself, surely, this particular attack on all that defines us as Americans will be the catalyst to wake us from our slumber...instead, the nightmare continues. There are no flag-draped coffins on the nightly news reminding us of the true cost of war. No Draft; no personal sacrifice. Our president tells us to go shopping! That sound we hear isn't a cash register, it's our Constitution being put through the Bush Administration's shredder. So, why should Romney's hypocricy surprise me? More of the same from our politicians, hypocricy; and we as a nation respond with more of the same, apathy.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Waterboard ALL the candidates, 30-second elimination, 60-second elimination, then a 2-minute elimination. Survivor/winner has to
write a 1,000 word essay on the Constitution in
the 21st century WHILE balancing on a barrel.
Then, the 'swimming with sharks' segment,
this should narrow down the field pretty
tightly, and, for the final elimination
round, to be held on that see-through plexi-
thing at the Grand Canyon, a sudden-death
geography quiz elimination round.
It's a long way DOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNN....

LOL

[Lisette]

See what happens Romney when you mix politics and religion.

You got just what you asked for.

Did you think those narrow minded evangelicals were going to accept you?

Ha ha boy did you get taken for a ride.

As our Founding Fathers put in the Constitution, separation of Church and State.

No one bothered your Father about being a Morman.

Back when Americans were nicer people,
before the religious nuts put their 2 cents in with all that family values nonsense.

[dnels14]

how long was this so -called greatest speach. quote msnbc.(most stupid news by chris matthews). 20mins..all talk and no definition of mormonism. another quote by chris "greatness this morning".. hardball is pathetic and bias

[Driver125]

I was just about to say something like "They would have to be out of their minds to elect this half-baked piece of dough.....
Then it flashed into my mind......... George Bush!!--Twice!!!

[Gorsegrower]

Jeremy,

It's properly 'let him,' not 'let he.' The subject of the verb is 'who.' OK?

[TazeMe65]

"be America that we have cherished and loved for more than 200 years..."

Was the America that firebombed Dresden the America you "cherish and love"?

What do you think about what happened to Tucker and Manchaca? To me this is a perfect example of why the Geneva Convention treaties are "quaint".

[DasBoot]

I don't care if Mitt believes that Jesus will return in Jerusalem or in Missouri. Who cares? This is the real stuff.

Today Mitt claimed that religion should inform all decisions a president makes. So how does he justify torture? With classic realist theory, reason of state, as Machiavelli suggested.

Here is a link to JFK's 1960 speech, just for comparison. Mitt Romney, you are no JFK!
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/66.htm

[YankeeCanuck]

Oh. Dear.
I was scared enough before I read this.