How the Democrats are aligning themselves with Bush’s torture policies

By Weekly Archive On Dec 4, 2007

Every
Saturday, the president of the United States gives a radio address to
the nation. It is followed by the Democratic response, usually given
by a senator or representative. This past Saturday the Democrats
chose retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to give their response, the
same general accused in at least three lawsuits in the U.S. and
Europe of authorizing torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading
treatment of prisoners in Iraq. This, combined with the Democrats’
endorsement of Attorney General Michael Mukasey despite his
unwillingness to label waterboarding as torture, indicates that the
Democrats are increasingly aligned with President Bush’s torture
policies.

Sanchez
headed the Army’s operations in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. In
September 2003, Sanchez issued a memo authorizing numerous
techniques, including "stress positions" and the use of
"military working dogs" to exploit "Arab fear of dogs"
during interrogations. He was in charge when the abuses at Abu Ghraib
prison occurred.

Brig.
Gen. Janis Karpinski, who headed Abu Ghraib at the time, worked under
Gen. Sanchez. She was demoted to colonel, the only military officer
to be punished. She told me about another illegal practice, holding
prisoners as so-called ghost detainees: "We were directed on
several occasions through Gen. [Barbara] Fast or Gen. Sanchez. The
instructions were originating at the Pentagon from Secretary
Rumsfeld, and we were instructed to hold prisoners without assigning
a prisoner number or putting them on the database, and that is
contrary to the Geneva Conventions. We all knew it was contrary to
the Geneva Conventions."

In
addition to keeping prisoners off the database there were other
abuses, she said, like prison temperatures reaching 120 to 140
degrees, dehydration and the order from Gen. Geoffrey Miller to treat
prisoners "like dogs."

And
it’s not just about treatment of prisoners. In 2006, Karpinski
testified at a mock trial, called the Bush Crimes Commission. She
revealed that several female U.S. soldiers had died of dehydration by
denying themselves water. They were afraid to go to the latrine at
night to urinate, for fear of being raped by fellow soldiers:
"Because the women, in fear of getting up in the hours of
darkness to go out to the portolets or the latrines, were not
drinking liquids after 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. And in
120-degree heat or warmer, because there was no air conditioning at
most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their
sleep. What [Sanchez’s deputy commanding general, Walter Wojdakowski]
told the surgeon to do was, ‘Don’t brief those details anymore. And
don’t say specifically that they’re women. You can provide that in a
written report, but don’t brief it in the open anymore.’"
Karpinski said Sanchez was at that briefing.

Former
military interrogator Tony Lagouranis, author of "Fear Up
Harsh," described the use of dogs: "We were using dogs in
the Mosul detention facility, which was at the Mosul airport. We
would put the prisoner in a shipping container. We would keep him up
all night with music and strobe lights, stress positions, and then we
would bring in dogs. The prisoner was blindfolded, so he didn’t
really understand what was going on, but we had the dog controlled.
The dog would be barking and jumping on the prisoner, and the
prisoner wouldn’t really understand what was going on."

Reed
Brody of Human Rights Watch elaborated on Sanchez: "For those
three months of mayhem that were occurring right under his nose, he
never stepped in. And, also, he misled Congress about it. He was
asked twice at a congressional hearing whether he ever approved the
use of guard dogs. This was before the memo came out. And both times
he said he never approved it. [W]e finally got the actual memo, in
which he approves ‘exploiting Arab fear of dogs.’ " Brody
dismissed the military report clearing Sanchez of any wrongdoing:
"It’s just not credible for the Army to keep investigating
itself and keep finding itself innocent."

This
is not about politics. This is about the moral compass of the nation.
The Democrats may be celebrating a retired general who has turned on
his commander in chief. But the public should take pause.

The
Democrats had a chance to draw a line in the sand, to absolutely
require Mukasey to denounce waterboarding before his elevation to
attorney general. Now they have chosen as their spokesman a
discredited general, linked to the most egregious abuses in Iraq. The
Bush administration passed Sanchez over for a promotion, worried
about reliving the Abu Ghraib scandal during the 2006 election year.
Now it’s the Democrats who have resuscitated him. Have they no shame?

Amy
Goodman is the host of the nationally syndicated radio news program,
Democracy Now!

King
Features Syndicate

Posted
on November 28, 2007, Printed on November 30,
2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69138/