A former top State Department official said that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities. "There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."
Cheney has lobbied against a measure in Congress that would outlaw "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of prisoners. Cheney has come under mounting criticism for his position. Stansfield Turner, a military veteran who served as director of the CIA during the Carter administration, labeled him the "vice president for torture."
While traveling in Latin America, President Bush defended U.S. treatment of prisoners, saying flatly, "We do not torture."
[CNN]
1 comment:
AMERICA HAS NOT only deceived its own youth and wrecked its own economy, but it has nearly annihilated both the land and the people of Iraq. Governments want young people to believe that war is necessary, but that is rarely -- if ever -- true.
Nationally, Bush professed to be a moderate and got elected; then he turned rightist. For his vice president, he picked a man with a record of war and a record of oppression. Bush was just waiting for an excuse to get tough to show his true colors. He needed an emergency to get public opinion behind him and now he has one. But consider Cheney; just draw a mustache on him and you see what he really is, who he really is, in his heart. How could we put such a man as next in line for the presidency?
But with the media shaping people's opinions with such uniformity, there's not a lot of trouble with differing viewpoints. If you do happen to differ from the vast robotic crowd, don't submit to peer pressure or economic pressure.
Ted Rudow III
Menlo Park
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