Tuesday, May 27, 2008

INTERNET IS ABUZZ WITH STORY THAT THE FBI IS INVESTIGATING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR WAR CRIMES, I.E. A FILE IS OPENED

INTERNET IS ABUZZ WITH STORY THAT THE FBI IS INVESTIGATING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR WAR CRIMES, I.E. A FILE IS OPENED

By Kevin Stoda

NEWSWEEK magazine (May 20, 2008) kicked off the story last week that a 370-page government report reveals the FBI has been putting together a case of War Crimes against other departments and the Bush-Cheney Administration.

The NEWSWEEK reporters, Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff, wrote, “The long awaited 370-page Justice report on the abuse issue may be the most authoritative public account yet on the fierce internal struggles within the Bush administration over how terror suspects should be interrogated. The report states that one FBI agent who witnessed the CIA's interrogation of Zubaydah in the spring of 2002 was so upset that he protested it amounted to ‘borderline torture.’ But when Office of Inspector General investigators in Jan. 2007 sought to question Zubaydah (who by then had been transferred from an overseas agency ‘black’ site to Guantanamo Bay), the CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo, refused to let them do so, the report states.”

These NEWSWEEK authors had opened their piece by stating, “The CIA last year refused to permit Justice Department investigators to question a key Al Qaeda detainee about what happened to him in the agency's custody, including reports that he was subjected to ‘waterboarding’ and other abusive interrogation methods.”

In summary, that NEWSWEEK article, entitled “Borderline Torture”, sought to make a statement that there exist a “fierce internal struggles within the Bush administration over how terror suspects should be interrogated”.

The announcement of the release of this government report sent sparks of interest through the internet last week.


INTERNET INTEREST IN “WAR CRIMES BUSH CHENEY”

Within days of the government’s report being issued, the buzz on the net had reached fever pitch with GOOGLE searches claiming the key words “War Crimes Bush Cheney” had reached 3,080,000 hits and YAHOO running even higher as 12,100,000.

Much of this heavy traffic was from blogs, but this one news article from the WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE was a fairly well written summary of the FBI-related report and general war crime interest in the USA. The piece has been copied widely on the web. It is entitled, “Terror: Watch: FBI Files Indict Bush, Cheney and Co. as War Criminals”.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/fbi-m23.shtml

Bill Van Aukin was the author of that piece who noted:

“Consider the account of the interrogation of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian national who was arrested by his own government, turned over to US forces and brought to Guantánamo in 2002:
“He was left alone in a cold room known as ‘the freezer,’ where guards would prevent him from sleeping by putting ice or cold water on him...
“He was subjected to sleep deprivation for a period of 70 days by means of prolonged interrogations, strobe lights, threatening music, forced intake of water, and forced standing.
“He was deprived of clothing by a female interrogator;
“Two female interrogators touched him sexually and made sexual statements to him;
“Prior to and during the boat ride incident, he was severely beaten.”
In addition, the document says, he was “led to believe he was going to be executed, and urinated on himself,” and was told that his mother and family would be detained and harmed.”
Author Van Aukin rightly stated that this report was just the tip of the iceberg and then related several similarly well-known cases involving Canadian and German nationals as examples of the numerous of counts on which the White House, the intelligence agencies and the executive branch need to be held accountable.
WHEN WILL IMPEACHMENT BEGIN IN THE USA?
Currently, if one puts in the five key words “War Crimes Bush Cheney Impeachment”, YAHOO shows nearly 6 million hits. Meanwhile, Google hits number almost 1,700,000.

The time appears to be ripe to take the media’s focus this summer of 2008 to Washington D.C. and aim for impeachment now.

The NEWSWEEK authors indicated clearly in their piece on the recently released federal report that there is furious infighting among and within branches of government by many officials in key positions who have monitored the comings and goings of the White House and intelligence branches --operating from its sphere.

This means that if proper war crimes cases are filed immediately, there will be numerous government officials ready to pass on findings and research on war crimes carried out under the watch of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.



NOTES


Isikoff, Michael & Hosenball, Mark, “Borderline Torture” , http://www.newsweek.com/id/138000

Van Auken, Bill , “FBI Files Indict Bush, Cheney and Co. as War Criminals”, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/fbi-m23.shtml

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