TORTURE Updates/ACTION & Ongoing DIALOGUE - Includes why the US Army Field Manual is Defective

JUST IN: Firedoglake: New revelation of complicity & possible media cover-up here

Be sure to skim the many COMMENTS at the above URL as some of these also have little-known information and URLS to related items.

This same items was also just posted to Valtin's Blog: here

Def. Dept. to Release Prisoner Abuse Photos by May 28 Also Click to see ACTION STILL ALIVE CALLING FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR - Home Page at ACLU dot org here Please Sign

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Jane Mayer - a report from LA not too long ago, just discovered with the burning question for Mayer from 911 on..."how to defeat this enemy without becoming this enemy?" here

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U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Refusing Torture Duty
here

Part II US Soldier Killed Herself After Refusing Torture Duty
here

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IMPORTANT clarification on The ARMY FIELD MANUAL as quite defective - NO - MUCH WORSE.

"...as long as the Obama administration maintains its support for the Army Field Manual in its current form, then he is breaking international and probably domestic law re torture and use of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners. PHR says the AFM continues use of SERE techniques in its Appendix M. I take it a step farther and see its program of inducing fear and phobias, use of isolation, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and allowance for use of drugs (so long as they don’t cause “permanent damage”) as providing the core program of KUBARK [the CIA’s 1963 counter-terrorism interrogation manual].

But whether one sees it as KUBARK or SERE-based is a historical question. More salient is that this is the guideline no doubt used at Bagram today, and against human rights norms. With so much going on right now, it’s easy to forget that current U.S. policy is not abuse-free, and this is not a fight against abuse based in the past. No one knows this better than you, who have so effectively documented the persistence of abuse in what is now Obama’s Guantánamo.

from Valtin's COMMENT on Andy Worthington's site, April 25th, 2009 (see URL to Valtin's blogs below)

Andy Worthington says...My reply:

...I appreciate your comments about the current use of prohibited techniques, and for raising, again, the question of Appendix M of the Army Field Manual. This is a topic that needs looking at in greater detail, and I hope to tackle it soon. What should have happened after Obama issued his Presidential orders on taking office, for example, is that the Geneva Conventions, which had been discarded under his predecessor, should have once more been prominently positioned in every US facility in which interrogations take place, but I’ve seen no evidence that this is the case.

Here, by the way, are two posts by Valtin about Appendix M of the Army Field manual:

Torture Loopholes in Army (also from Center for Constitutional Rights - CCR's website:Close Torture Loopholes in the Army Field Manual - here and from Valtin's blog -

How the US Army Field Manual Codified Torture and Still Does here

Dated April 25th, 2009 & found at Andy Worthington dot co dot uk from COMMENTS under
here

The above Exchange was VALTIN who also writes for Daily Kos dot com here
with ANDY WORTHINGTON
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Former FBI Authority Rejects Torture
here
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Some inspiration!

Some news from California on beginning of inquiry to hopefully impeach Judge Jay Bybee: here

From digbysblog here As California Goes ... by digby

Congratulations to dday, the Courage Campaign and the LA Democrats, for pushing through the resolution at the California Democratic Convention to begin an inquiry to (potentially) impeach Judge Jay Bybee. This was a truly grassroots effort that came out of simple human outrage that a man who authored those repulsive torture memos could possibly be allowed to pass judgment on others as a judge in one of the highest courts in the land.

The next step will be to make the California Democrats --- and there are a boatload of them -- do what their state party wants them to do. More on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I couldn't be prouder of my pal and colleague dday who really pushed this thing into the blogosphere and testified at the convention for passage. Just shows to go you that some of us bloggers aren't just cheeto eating blowhards.

(Keep watching California on this one)