From Giovanni Montelli: BUSH ADMINISTRATION PLAYERS Though the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Study shows that former President Bush was not briefed on the program for four years, not until 2006, he was touting the program continually in press conferences from that point on. In his memoirs he officially stated that it was he who authorized the torture program. In 2006, when the study from the Senate Intelligence Committee implied Bush was first told about the program, he held several press conference and continually stated vehemently that this torture program was necessary and the best tool to gather intelligence. In one of those press conferences, he spoke on the transfer of high value detainees from the CIA program to Guantanamo Bay and made claims that the CIA program garnered intelligence from some of the detainees that is now known not to be true. High-Value Detainees Moved to Gitmo; Bush Proposes Detainee Legislation defense.gov/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=721 By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 – President Bush today announced the transfer of 14 high-value terrorist detainees from CIA custody to confinement at the Defense Department’s detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that he asked Congress to authorize military commissions to try them. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and 11 other accused terrorists previously held by the CIA will be held in Cuba and await trial, Bush told a White House audience that included some family members of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Mohammed is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush said. He added that Abu Zubaydah smuggled al Qaeda leaders out of Afghanistan at the start of the U.S. military action there in late 2001and that bin al-Shibh helped Mohammed plan the 9/11 attacks. While in CIA custody Zubaydah provided information that led to the capture of Mohammed and bin al-Shibh, Bush said. Other information Zubaydah provided was used to help stop a planned terrorist attack inside the United States, Bush said. Until then, he said, the U.S. had no previous information that that attack was afoot. Others within the group of terrorists formerly held by the CIA who are now at Guantanamo are believed to be responsible for the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Bush said. Another excerpt displays that Bush certainly knew about the program and wanted Congress to pass legislation to grant immunity to soldiers who has either guarded or questioned detainees. Bush also said he asked Congress today to protect U.S. service members who guard or question prisoners from possible improper prosecution under currently ill-defined rules. Geneva Convention provisions under Common Article 3 that describe proper and improper conduct with prisoners “are vague and undefined, and each could be interpreted in different ways by an American or foreign judges,” Bush said. As it currently stands, some military and intelligence personnel involved in capturing and questioning terrorists could be at risk of prosecution under the War Crimes Act, when all they’d done was to perform their jobs properly and professionally, Bush said. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the decision along with other officials to not brief President Bush. But former Vice President Dick Cheney said that Bush knew everything about the program in a December 10, 2014 interview. foxnews/…/cheney-defends-cia-interrogation-…/ In that Fox news interview, Cheney denied Bush was kept out of the loop. He said the then-president was in fact an integral part of the program and he had to approve it. Asked if Bush knew specific details of how specific interrogations were being conducted, Cheney was more vague, saying: We did discuss the techniques. There was no effort on our part to keep him from that. Cheney went on to label the Senate Intelligence Committee’s study as full of crap. But Americans and the media were silent on these crimes in the Bush administration, but want to attribute all these falsehoods to the Obama administration.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 06:14:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015