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Forum Post: OWS & Obama Announce Crushing Infant Testicles is Not Torture - Broken Glass in Vagina Hope&Change

Posted 12 years ago on March 5, 2012, 5:43 a.m. EST by hdean (-29)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Crushing babies testicles? Your proof? ↥like ↧dislike reply permalink


"Crushing babies testicles"? Google

Google "testicle crushing iraq", ... there are 100's of story's about this practice in Iraq, ..and everywhere in the world the US Soldiers operate.

They're going to bring this shit to the USA, now that NDAA has been signed by Obama in Dec 2011.

President Has Legal Power to Torture Children ... of children, since one of its most influential legal architects is advocating the President’s right to order the crushing of a child’s testicles? ... few others and adopted by the Administration has resulted in thousands being abducted from their homes in Afghanistan, Iraq ... informationclearinghouse.info/article11488.htm More results Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children ... deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the ... literally to death in U.S.-run torture centers in Afghanistan, Iraq ... prisonplanet.com/articles/january2006/090106torturechild... John Yoo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... If the President deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles ... complicity in torture and other crimes against humanity at Abu Ghraib in Iraq ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo USA CRUSHES CHILDREN'S TESTICLES IN FRONT OF MUSLIM PARENTS TO ... How would you feel if your child's testicles was being ... This money has been used to illegally occupy Iraq ... if they mention the possibility of someone crushing a ... youtube.com/watch?v=vvz-uqa7Soc More results The WaPo Did Not Scoop This Story in 2005 | Emptywheel If Yoo walked away thinking the President could order the crushing of childrens testicles.. then ... Coverage of protests in Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt and more ... emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/04/13/the-wapo-did-not-scoop-this-...


Crushing testicles and cutting off genitals and for women stuffing broken bottles up the vagina seems to have been the British torture of choice.

Later the British/USA taught the Afghans to castrate Russian soliders.

By the time of the Iraq wars started by Bush, the crushing of infant testicles had become textbook standard to get information from parents. As the the first son's breeding is the MOST important thing in the Asian world. The US MIL knows that the first crush is just a tease, and in general they learn all they need to know, prior to the second crush, but its hard to stop having fun when your working for Uncle Sam torturing baby's.

During the Vietnam War it was standard OP for USA-GI's to cut off genitals of children and make necklaces, this is why MAI-LAI massacre created such an outrage, cuz when the body's were exhumed all the villages had their genitals missing.

Rev Wright ( Obama's mentor ) was right about one thing, Whitey is the MOST evil mother fucker on the planet.

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34 Comments


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[-] 4 points by j91488 (14) from Menlo Park, CA 12 years ago

i really am from MENLO PARK :D. facebook just opened up down the street from me on willow road haha.

[-] -1 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Crushing testicles and cutting off genitals and for women stuffing broken bottles up the vagina seems to have been the British torture of choice.

Later the British/USA taught the Afghans to castrate Russian soliders.

By the time of the Iraq wars started by Bush, the crushing of infant testicles had become textbook standard to get information from parents. As the the first son's breeding is the MOST important thing in the Asian world. The US MIL knows that the first crush is just a tease, and in general they learn all they need to know, prior to the second crush, but its hard to stop having fun when your working for Uncle Sam torturing baby's.

During the Vietnam War it was standard OP for USA-GI's to cut off genitals of children and make necklaces, this is why MAI-LAI massacre created such an outrage, cuz when the body's were exhumed all the villages had their genitals missing.

Rev Wright ( Obama's mentor ) was right about one thing, Whitey is the MOST evil mother fucker on the planet.

[-] -2 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Where are your testicles? Obama needs them now.

I get so fucking bored here with the BOTS and Indian Call Center faggots, its always the same thing, ... I'm real cuz I have a location on my fucking registration, ... it was established at the beginning here that ONLY trolls place their location.

[+] -7 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

You really think that is relevant to any fucking thing? Facebook just opened a server farm in Prineville, Oregon, and I can smell the feces.

[Removed]

[-] 3 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Obama is commander and chief of the US Military, their standard means of intelligence collection in the Persian/Arab world is infant mutilation, to the horror of the parents.

Why does OWS support such a man as Obama? Why does the majority of OWS lemmings support more killing and sexual mutilation?


Crushing testicles and cutting off genitals and for women stuffing broken bottles up the vagina seems to have been the British torture of choice.

Later the British/USA taught the Afghans to castrate Russian soliders.

By the time of the Iraq wars started by Bush, the crushing of infant testicles had become textbook standard to get information from parents. As the the first son's breeding is the MOST important thing in the Asian world. The US MIL knows that the first crush is just a tease, and in general they learn all they need to know, prior to the second crush, but its hard to stop having fun when your working for Uncle Sam torturing baby's.

During the Vietnam War it was standard OP for USA-GI's to cut off genitals of children and make necklaces, this is why MAI-LAI massacre created such an outrage, cuz when the body's were exhumed all the villages had their genitals missing.

Rev Wright ( Obama's mentor ) was right about one thing, Whitey is the MOST evil mother fucker on the planet.

[Removed]

[-] 2 points by GreatBallsOfFire (11) 12 years ago

I've had fish nuts but... seriously dude. Seriously

[-] -2 points by nweiner (-9) 12 years ago

With great OWS/OBAMA power comes great responsibility.

This OWS/OBAMA shit will come home to roost.

Karma, MOFU's, ... KARMA

[-] 0 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 12 years ago

yes the US has had war in the middle east for a long time

the attack on the twin towers was not a random target

but against the WTO for unfair trading practices

[-] -2 points by nweiner (-9) 12 years ago

Yes, and OWS has already established that the 911 twin-towers was an inside job by Bush.

I completely agree that WTO is why OWS has to wear diapers.

[+] -5 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Crushing testicles and cutting off genitals and for women stuffing broken bottles up the vagina seems to have been the British torture of choice.

Later the British/USA taught the Afghans to castrate Russian soliders.

By the time of the Iraq wars started by Bush, the crushing of infant testicles had become textbook standard to get information from parents. As the the first son's breeding is the MOST important thing in the Asian world. The US MIL knows that the first crush is just a tease, and in general they learn all they need to know, prior to the second crush, but its hard to stop having fun when your working for Uncle Sam torturing baby's.

During the Vietnam War it was standard OP for USA-GI's to cut off genitals of children and make necklaces, this is why MAI-LAI massacre created such an outrage, cuz when the body's were exhumed all the villages had their genitals missing.

Rev Wright ( Obama's mentor ) was right about one thing, Whitey is the MOST evil mother fucker on the planet.

[-] 2 points by ThaRapist (-17) 12 years ago

Stop going off-topic, man.

[+] -5 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Why? Thrassy-the-rapist ... now that is good.

NOPE. Now Obama has us going to IRAN to mutilate Persian infants, ...

Why not celebrate and talk about our good work, ... shit maybe this shit can come home to roost and US gang-bangers can start testicle-crushing suburban shoppers that don't turn over their ATM & PIN?

[-] 3 points by ThaRapist (-17) 12 years ago

Dude, get a life. You're getting kinda weird.

[-] 2 points by HitGirl (2263) 12 years ago

Those are the words of the Bush Lawyer John Yoo making an extreme example to justify the policy of water boarding. That is not the reality. Please show me real evidence that American soldiers are crushing children's testicles. You have no respect for America. Really, I haven't seen propaganda like this since the Nazi's.

[-] -2 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

I know that Indian Call Centers don't allow google, cuz if they did you would just cut&paste,... you'll just have to trust me and believe that if you had google, and did a search for 'iraq children testicle crushing' you would find 1,000's of links.

Keep up the good work, and I'm glad that Goldman Sachs was able to help your family have rice and curry. Lastly I hope there is Bhopal arsenic in your soil, ... may your family rot in hell.

[-] 2 points by HitGirl (2263) 12 years ago

You are one of the dumbest fucks I've ever found on this site. Your stuff makes Jared Loughner's posts look sane. Don't buy any guns and don't skip your meds. That's assuming your not writing this stuff from your complex in Pakistan. Aiding terrorists is against the law, so is using propaganda on the American people, so the FBI has probably got your address by now...

[+] -6 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

You Rock. ( as another of my favorite people here would say )

[-] 1 points by HitGirl (2263) 12 years ago

Shucks...thanks DKA...:)

[+] -5 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

I just calls em as I sees em.

[-] 1 points by j91488 (14) from Menlo Park, CA 12 years ago

...... :D

[-] 0 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Where are your testicles? Obama needs them now.

His US MIL has run out of arab/persian testicles to crush, .. now time to come to USA for some fun.

[-] 0 points by j91488 (14) from Menlo Park, CA 12 years ago

i guess im a troll then :D anybody else live around the east palo alto area? talk about freaking illegal aliens, i mean jeeze. they are everywhere with their big dodge trucks, and their big wives, with their kids running allover the place. did you know that 57% of immigrant families are on some form of government assistance? oooo no no no "they do the jobs that we dont want to do, yea yea". thats why 9% are unemployed right? i go to the foodstamp office, and i see mexican families leaving with their food stamps in a nice ass new mercedes or ram truck. i feel like im the only white person in east palo alto, god dam

[-] -2 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

There is this one Indian Call Center asshole on the OWS payroll, and he always starts his sentences in lower case, ... looks like he's got a new handle this hour.

English as a second language, I thought they hired you $1/day curry eating fucks cuz you knew english?

I want an OP post here about why Indians males like fat bitches and why they like to fuck their children. Somebody please make this post, ... lets once and for all get these ICC fucks all riled up. ( Yes, they really do like their women fat, and their childrens legs spread )

[-] 0 points by j91488 (14) from Menlo Park, CA 12 years ago

lmao

[+] -6 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Deep profound, ... intuitive.

We have a saying here at OWS, anybody that has a location on their post is NOT a real person. Anybody that hides their location is a real person.

Virtually everybody here is a BOT or an Indian Call Center employee making $1/day to post crap,

[-] 3 points by pewestlake (947) from Brooklyn, NY 12 years ago

I'm a real person, really from Brooklyn, NY and I really think you're a real tool.

That is all.

[-] 1 points by DayumShame (148) 12 years ago

Good point bro.

[-] -3 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

But above you say your in Menlo, and here you say NY, ... but who gives a fuck?

Where are your testicles? Obama needs them now.


I get so fucking bored here with the BOTS and Indian Call Center faggots, its always the same thing, ... I'm real cuz I have a location on my fucking registration, ... it was established at the beginning here that ONLY trolls place their location.

[-] 2 points by pewestlake (947) from Brooklyn, NY 12 years ago

Different person, nimrod. And if you're so bored, go the fuck away.

LOL

[-] 0 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

Crushing Children's Testicles: Welcome to the New Freedom ... Under growing pressure from the people, President Obama has made a significant departure from the his position of last week that, "nothing ... forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=5731.0
Daily Kos: Child Testicle Crushers Unite Against Sotomayor Okay, it's just one advocate for crushing the testicles of a child, but it's certainly a big name in the world of torture-enablers; former Justice Department ... Senator Obama may become President Obama, and Michelle Obama might run for office. dailykos.com/story/2009/05/26/735635/-Child-Testicle...
Rock The Truth: Crushing Children's Testicles Is Not Torture Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can ... MSM Sabotage Campaign Against Obama Fails;

Crushed Testicles, Civilian Massacres, Nuclear ... As for John Yoo, whether crushing testicles, wiping out entire villages or preemptively ordering nuclear obliteration, apparently it's not a war crime if ... his efforts to create virtually unlimited presidential war powers - and an almost unlimited regime of detainee torture - "my gift to the Obama ... perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001769.htm
Jimmy Carter’s Prayers Answered – Obama now Sucks more ... The early days of the crisis helped Carter’s ratings, though his failure to win the release of captured Americans, coupled with a bad economy, led to his HUMILATING TESTICLE CRUSHING defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980. Welcome to “Hope and Change” under Obama……. ferrellgummit.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/jimmy-carters-prayers-answer...
New Torture Photo Shows Prisoner's Testicles Being Crushed ... And Obama shouted publicly if those explicit facts and exposures are exposed to public views of international community, US will be in danger for ... New Torture Photo Shows Prisoner's Testicles Being Crushed Sh.it! That must've hurt a lot. engforum.pravda.ru/index.php?/topic/181943-new-torture-pho...
John Yoo: CRUSHING CHILD'S TESTICLES NOT ILLEGAL! Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it ... there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including by crushing that child’s testicles. godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message804631/pg1
The suggestion that it’s ok to crush the testicles of a ... Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that ... Lindsey Graham: If Obama defeats GOP obstructionism on health care, the GOP will obstruct even more! blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/politics/2008/11/25/the-suggestion-that...
John Yoo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia During the debate Cassel asked Yoo, "If the President deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child ... in PDF format, available from the website of the US House of Representatives House Committee on the Judiciary. ^ John Yoo, My Gift to the Obama ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo
cut testicles off eunuch - hand held hooks for moving trays cut testicles off eunuch. Deuteronomy 23:1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or .... No man whose private parts have been wounded or cut off may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

Torture USA style: Crushing a Child's Testicles Torture USA style: Crushing a Child's Testicles ... The Day ObamaCare Died - Sung by 'Barry' Obama; Isn't Lying Part of the MSM's Job? careandwashingofthebrain.blogspot.com/2010/02/torture-usa-style-crushing-chil...
Ouch! Wrestler loses testicle after bout - KIAH The crushing kick to the crotch ruptured Millers right testicle. Miller is suing Guido and also the event promoter for legal fees and unspecified medical expenses. ... Federal judge admits to sending racist Obama email 39online.com/newsfix/kiah-testy-wrestler-20120302,0,...
Change of Subject: Your predictions for 2011 Obama will go right on thumbing his nose at those that elected him and most will continue to cheer for him anyway. ... And BTW, saying that if you were president you wouldn't authorize testicle-crushing of children doesn't answer the question, should the president have the ... : If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him? ... Obama :"The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security ... commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/07/6889
Alex Jones' InfoWars.net: Manning the guns in the fight ... Tape of Obama ‘palling around’ with terrorists could derail 2012 campaign. ... Parents protest freedom-crushing food police who search lunch bags of schoolchildren
ATTENTION LIBERAL MALES! PLEASE SURRENDER YOUR TESTICLES ... I am not actually suggesting that liberal males should surrender their testicles, not actually even ... The Truth About Commission Crusher Lately there has been a lot of talk about this new program that ... Global Warming Government government lies healthcare Jefferson Jeffersonian King Obama lies Obama Obama ... reetzality.com/attention-liberal-males-please-surrende...
Sounds sustainable: Philadelphia councilwoman will 'retire ... "We're sorry": Obama voters have regrets Exclusive: the final ACORN sting KopechneCare Mission Accomplished: Obama nukes economy

Obama Made Eradicating Osama A Top Priority. Bush, Not So ... President Barack Obama kept his promise to the American people that he would capture or kill ... Iraq in the first place when we hadn’t finished the job of hunting down bin Laden and crushing ... With testicle bites and really bright lights Their victims sure took a lickin’ lynnrockets.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/obama-made-eradicating-osama...
Yahoo! Canada Answers - Is Obama going to end the war on drugs? by ATTENTION Testicles that is all Member since: August 01, 2009 ... Obama can't end the war anymore than any other U.S. President has been able to. ... by Libertarian is crushing ACORNs Member since: July 05, 2009 ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100131021142AAbKEu7
A.M. Links: Boston Globe Endorses Jon Huntsman, Jon Huntsman ... Testicle-crushing torture fetishist John Yoo says Obama is abusing his power. Do you want hot links and other Reason goodies delivered to your inbox twice a day?Sign up here libertariosusa.org/2012/01/06/a-m-links-boston-globe-endor...
Am I seeing a pattern here? | Wizbang Is it just me, or does death seem to always be hovering around the Obama Administration? ... 19th Amendment) was the deciding factor in the success of Prohibition (18th Amendment) one should treat his assertion of sanctioned testicle crushing as ... wizbangblog.com/2011/10/21/am-i-seeing-a-pattern-here/
John Yoo - Eliot Spitzer - Mistake To Kill Bin Laden | VIDEO ... I think that the Obama administration had several options. I think it’s bizarre that you would say that in our democracy that people shouldn ... You understand that there’s an audio clip of Yoo making the testicle crushing statement, right? mediaite.com/tv/torture-memo-author-john-yoo-killing...
Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Obama: "I Cannot ... Barack Obama's campaign has just sent over a statement saying that he cannot support Michael Mukasey for AG absent some clearer language from ... 300 million lives), I would definitely allow waterboarding of one innocent child -- I take it you are referring to Professor Yoo's "crushing testicles ... tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/10/obama.php
RebelReports - Bush-era 'Black Shirts' Continue Reign of ... Bush-era 'Black Shirts' Continue Reign of Terror Under Obama at Gitmo: gang beating prisoners, breaking bones, gouging eyes, squeezing testicles, and 'dousing' them with chemicals. rebelreports.com/post/108165060/bush-era-black-shirts-co...
Obama - Hitler Connection: Do People Know What Socialism Is? category, an anonymous organization posted a billboard in Kansas City, Mo., that compares President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler and Mao ... Maybe that's because we don't believe in crushing childrens' testicles to extract information from the parents. sodahead.com/united-states/obama---hitler-connection...
Debt Ceiling Tick-Tock | Firedoglake The comparison with Hitler tactics is appropriate as right wingers use a no holds barred approach like choking eye goughing and testicle crushing. ... Obama has woke up the sleeping giant, BABY BOOMERS want answers? Why did certain political leaders tell them to vote for OBAMA? firedoglake.com/2011/07/24/debt-ceiling-tick-tock/
On Pro-Colonialism - Ta-Nehisi Coates - National - The Atlantic Dinesh D'Souza is right, like many American liberals including Barack Obama, I think British colonialism in East Africa was morally wrong and ... Crushing testicles and cutting off genitals and for women stuffing broken bottles up the vagina seems to have been the British torture of choice.

LF: Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s ... ... held George W. Bush accountable for the opinion of his advisor John Yoo who once publicly argued that there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including the crushing of said child’s testicles? I'm against torture. Why Obama is the President of War not “Change” - This penetrating overview and analysis traces the ideology driving the Obama administration back ... John Yoo, a Berkley law professor had justified “crushing a child’s testicles” if they were deemed to be a member of the opaque “Axis of Evil.” John Yoo Accuses President Obama Of Abusing Power But Says GOP Presidents Should Defy Supreme Court Decisions ... To sum up: John Yoo thinks presidents should be able to order the crushing of a child's testicles and ignore Supreme Court decisions, but it's an abuse of power ...

[+] -5 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

Crazy Rant Much?

[-] -1 points by hdean (-29) 12 years ago

During the Vietnam War it was standard OP for USA-GI's to cut off genitals of children and make necklaces, this is why MAI-LAI massacre created such an outrage, cuz when the body's were exhumed all the villages had their genitals missing.

[-] -2 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 12 years ago
[+] -5 points by bensdad (8977) 12 years ago

Mr TROLL - FROM YOUR LINK: DATED 2005 says nothing critical of Obama - thats your job


Don’t forget to collect your paycheck from your masters


http://occupywallst.org/forum/to-all-you-obama-slimers-/


David or Charles or Ruppert ?


I’m still waiting for the media to start covering the news that a head of state–the head of our state–just admitted to approving torture. As of 9:30, only UPI has joined ABC and the WaPo in noting this story–which is about all they do, note it (though the foreign press is beginning to take note). For its part, ABC seems to have gotten bored with breaking the news that the President authorized his top aides to set up a torture regime–by 5PM yesterday they had removed the story from their Top Headlines (but worry not, you can still find the story of Sam, the dog that invited himself to his owner’s funeral, among the Top Headlines).

While we’re waiting for what I’m certain will be a barrage of stories covering the fact that the President thinks it’s okay to torture so long as John Yoo says so, I thought I’d look at the WaPo’s claim that they had already covered this story. I mean, I’m glad that the WaPo saw fit to cover the story–it even made it onto page A3; I should be glad it was not relegated to Lifestyles. But it’s clear the WaPo is missing what’s new with this story.

In its story, the WaPo claims it covered this in January 2005.

The Washington Post first reported in January 2005 that proposed CIA interrogation techniques were discussed at several White House meetings. A principal briefer at the meetings was John Yoo, who was then a senior Justice Department attorney and the author of a draft memo explaining the legal justification for the classified techniques the CIA sought to employ.

The Post reported that the attendees at one or more of these sessions included then-presidential counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, then-Defense Department general counsel William J. Haynes II, then-National Security Council legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, CIA counsel John A. Rizzo, and David S. Addington, then-counsel to Cheney.

The Post reported that the methods discussed included open-handed slapping, the threat of live burial and waterboarding. The threat of live burial was rejected, according to an official familiar with the meetings.

State Department officials and military lawyers were intentionally excluded from these deliberations, officials said.

Gonzales and his staff had no reservations about the proposed interrogation methods and did not suggest major changes, two officials involved in the deliberations said.

A search on WaPo stories from January 2005 referencing Haynes, Rizzo, and Gonzales returns just one story, regarding Alberto Gonzales’ involvement in setting up the torture regime (recall that Gonzales was up for Senate confirmation as AG in January 2005). The story does, in fact, reveal that the lawyers got together to discuss torture techniques in early 2002.

The memo was signed by Jay S. Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal appellate judge, but written with significant input from Yoo, whom Gonzales had tried to hire at the White House and later endorsed to head Justice’s legal counsel office. During the drafting of the memo, Yoo briefed Gonzales several times on its contents. He also briefed Ashcroft, Bellinger, Addington, Haynes and the CIA’s acting general counsel, John A. Rizzo, several officials said.

At least one of the meetings during this period included a detailed description of the interrogation methods the CIA wanted to use, such as open-handed slapping, the threat of live burial and "waterboarding" — a procedure that involves strapping a detainee to a board, raising the feet above the head, wrapping the face and nose in a wet towel, and dripping water onto the head. Tested repeatedly on U.S. military personnel as part of interrogation resistance training, the technique proved to produce an unbearable sensation of drowning.

But these are a completely different set of meetings from the Principals meetings that ABC has been reporting on. Not only does this earlier story suggest all these discussions remained at the level of the lawyers–Gonzales, Bellinger, Addington, Haynes, and Rizzo, rather than Condi, Cheney, Rummy, and Tenet. But it reports that the military and State were left out of the briefings entirely. It even asserts that Condi and Michael Chertoff (who may have been involved in the Torture Memo) were excluded.

Cut out in the final decision making were military lawyers, the State Department and Chertoff, as well as Rice, her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, and Rice’s legal adviser, John Bellinger.

While we don’t know whether Richard Myers was included in the Principals meetings described by ABC (I’ve got my suspicions), ABC, at least, insists that Powell was involved in those meetings, an assertion Powell doesn’t deny.

ABC News’ Diane Sawyer sat down with Powell this week for a previously scheduled interview and asked him about the ABC News report.

Powell said that he didn’t have "sufficient memory recall" about the meetings and that he had participated in "many meetings on how to deal with detainees."

Powell said, "I’m not aware of anything that we discussed in any of those meetings that was not considered legal."

And ABC describes Condi as having chaired the meetings on torture, whereas the WaPo reports she was left out of the process entirely.

But the biggest difference between the two stories, of course, is the role ascribed to Bush. The earlier WaPo article alludes to how, through Gonzales, Bush got directly involved in the process of authorizing torture.

[Former Associate White House Counsel Helgi] Walker said she is aware of criticism that Gonzales "should have been saying ‘I believe this or that’ " about some of the provocative issues presented to him. "He did not see his job as being about him" but about advocating Bush’s interests, she explained. "The judge is not consumed with his own importance, unlike some others in Washington."

[snip]

Gonzales, after reviewing a legal brief from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, advised Bush verbally on Jan. 18, 2002, that he had authority to exempt the detainees from [Geneva] protections. Bush agreed, reversing a decades-old policy aimed in part at ensuring equal treatment for U.S. military detainees around the world.

[snip]

In early February 2002, Gonzales reviewed the issue once more with Bush, who reaffirmed his initial decision regarding his legal authority but chose not to invoke it immediately for Taliban members.

Implicitly, the article suggests that the torture all went through–if not arose from–Bush. After all, if Gonzales pushes military tribunals through while "advocating Bush’s interests," doesn’t that mean Bush was the one pushing the military tribunals?

The article also reveals how callous Bush is in signing away our Constitutional guarantees.

After a final discussion with Cheney, Bush signed the order authorizing military tribunals on Nov. 13, 2001, while standing up, as he was on his way out of the White House to his Texas ranch for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Barbara apparently never taught Bush that it is considered good form to sit down before you sign away Habeas Corpus.

So the WaPo certainly lays out Bush’s involvement in the push for torture. Yet, presumably because the article arose in anticipation of Gonzales’ confirmation hearings, it portrays Gonzales as being the central figure in the process. Also, the WaPo seems to be obsessed with the bureaucratic in-fighting behind the torture regime (which presumably betrays the motivations of its sources), and so presents the outcome as the result of competing influences, rather than the decisive role of Bush. The WaPo never voices the underlying truth: George Bush instituted a system of torture in the United States.

To be fair, I don’t know why journalists won’t voice that truth now. Perhaps it’s because they’ve known it–without saying it–for so long now, it feels stale. Perhaps its because they consider Bush a half-wit who therefore shouldn’t be held responsible for the things done in his name. Perhaps its out of some twisted attempt to protect the dignity of the office that Bush has already soiled, a belief that describing Bush’s centrality in the process will somehow taint the Presidency.

What the media seems to be missing, though, is the drama of a man who created a monstrous system, getting up and admitting (albeit in language designed to shield him from legal responsibility) that he did, indeed, deliberately create that monstrous system.

The traditional media has–laudably–spent the last six years painstakingly tracing the outlines of Bush’s regime of torture. That it took such efforts to do so is a testament to the understanding–both within the Administration and within polite society–that the torture regime was not to be spoken of openly. But here we are, after years of speaking of the torture regime in hushed tones and using primarily anonymous sources, with the President of the United States admitting it openly, casually. Sure, he hasn’t yet uttered the word torture. But the President himself has chosen to break the prohibition on admitting to the regime of torture. And, apparently, the press would prefer to carry on as if that prohibition remained. comment on this120 Comments Tags: George Bush, Torture, Alberto Gonzales 120 Responses to “The WaPo Did Not Scoop This Story in 2005”