Another JAG Officer Resigns Over Bush Torture Policy

[jd in .hu]

Despite cover-up attempts, secrets explain U.S. torture
by Andrew Williams
[Lieutenant Commander officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps]

It was with sadness that I signed my name this grey morning to a
letter resigning my commission in the U.S. Navy.

There was a time when I served with pride, knowing that by serving
with the finest men and women in the country, we were part of an
organization whose core values required us to "do the right thing,"
and that we were far different from the Soviet Union and its gulags,
the Vietcong with their torture camps and a society of surveillance
and informers like Nazi Germany.

We were part of the shining light on the hill who didn't do those
things. Sadly, no more.

The final straw for me was listening to General Hartmann, the highest-
ranking military lawyer in charge of the military commissions, testify
that he refused to say that waterboarding captured U.S. soldiers by
Iranian operatives would be torture.

His testimony had just sold all the soldiers and sailors at risk of
capture and subsequent torture down the river. Indeed, he would not
rule out waterboarding as torture when done by the United States and
indeed felt evidence obtained by such methods could be used in future
trials.

Thank you, General Hartmann, for finally admitting the United States
is now part of a long tradition of torturers going back to the
Inquisition.

In the middle ages, the Inquisition called waterboarding "toca" and
used it with great success. In colonial times, it was used by the
Dutch East India Company during the Amboyna Massacre of 1623.

Waterboarding was used by the Nazi Gestapo and the feared Japanese
Kempeitai. In World War II, our grandfathers had the wisdom to convict
Japanese Officer Yukio Asano of waterboarding and other torture
practices in 1947, giving him 15 years hard labor.

Waterboarding was practiced by the Khmer Rouge at the infamous Tuol
Sleng prison. Most recently, the U.S. Army court martialed a soldier
for the practice in 1968 during the Vietnam conflict.

General Hartmann, following orders was not an excuse for anyone put on
trial in Nuremberg, and it will not be an excuse for you or your
superiors, either.

Despite the CIA and the administration attempting to cover up the
practice by destroying interrogation tapes, in direct violation of a
court order, and congressional requests, the truth about torture,
illegal spying on Americans and secret renditions is coming out.

Andrew Williams, Gig Harbor

more info:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/30/94732/880/248/427919

[jd in .hu]

original source:
http://www.gateline.com/opinion/story/295.html