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Rice Confirms WH, Senior US Leadership Linked With Alleged Illegal 2003 POW Abuse Plans


The Senate Armed Services Committee held hearings on the POW interrogation planning.  Secretary of State Rice in written responses to the Senate Armed Services Committee disclosed 2003-era meetings discussing POW treatment.
Levin: "These were the most senior officials in the United States government, advisors to the President, meeting in the White House."
Senator Levin lists others connected with this alleged POW abuse planning: Rumsfeld, Chertoff, John Yoo, Tenet, Gonzalez, Ashcroft, and other White House and NSC legal advisers. (The referenced ten (10) tabs in Levin's opening statement are not the same as in the SASC25 tabs, from the first round of hearings on POW interrogation planning.)

G
eneva prohibits all POW abuse, and this legal requirement applies to the United States as a detaining power, regardless the status of the POWs.
Senator Levin: In a written response to questions I sent her in July 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was then the National Security Advisor to the President, responded on September 12th that, in 2002 and 2003 there were meetings at the White House where specific CIA interrogation techniques were discussed. [TAB 3]
Congress needs to explain why it took five (5) years to gather this evidence of the planned abuse of POWs in violation of the laws of war.

T
he Department of Defense provided interrogation training with the premise the prisoners were unlawful combatants. This is irrelevant.  Geneva imposes on the United States, as a detaining power, the legal obligation to treat all prisoners humanely.

The testimony shows the military personnel discussed their legal concerns with legal counsel:
Colonel Moulton (retired): [In late July or early August 2003] I asked Lt Col Kleinman what the legal status of the detainees was and what techniques the [Task Force] wanted to see demonstrated. I was told that the detainees were designated unlawful combatants and that the techniques being requested were ones used by [Joint Personnel Recovery Agency] personnel during Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training.
Recently the Psychological Association supported a petition imposing restrictions on members interacting with similar interrogations.  The wording merely affirms an existing legal standard under the laws of war: Complicity with POW abuse is not lawul or permitted:
APA: "[P]sychologists may not work in settings where “persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law (e.g., the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions) or the US Constitution (where appropriate), unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights”.
Nuremberg clearly established the legal duty of all civilians, not just doctors to not engage in war crimes. Once civilians participate in war crimes they loose their protected status under the Geneva Conventions and become legitimate military targets during armed conflict.

Despite this risk of lawful attack, American civilians are alleged to have have ignored the threat of death during combat, and knowingly supported and engaged in alleged illegal war crimes planning.

The gaps in medical ethics should not have existed. APA must explain why its existing ethics standards did not adequately meet the legal requirements under Nuremberg; and why this revision was required.

The APA restriction relates to psychologists allegedly assisting with interrogation planning:
TPMM: Two SERE-affiliated psychologists, Bruce Jessen and James Elmer Mitchell, assisted the CIA in "reverse-engineering" the SERE training received by U.S. forces in order to determine what coercive techniques would successfully break an al-Qaeda detainee.
Rice's Attorney disclosed a planning meeting at the Presidential level in the White House or Old Executive Office bulding:
Senator Levin: Her legal advisor at the time, John Bellinger, said in his September 12th written answers to my questions that he was present in meetings at the White House or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building “at which SERE training was discussed.” [TAB 4]
The war crimes conference discussed which sanctions should be imposed on legal counsel for their failure to fully enforce the laws of war; and not remove themselves from this alleged illegal war crimes planning. Among the recommended actions include disbarment and prosecution of legal counsel for violations of the Geneva Conventions.

These legal consequences can be broadly applied to any and all civilians who have, in effect, breached their legal obligations under Geneva. It is an open question whether foreign powers do or do not enforce Geneva against American civilians who have engaged in war crimes.

Russian combat forces could be directed against American civilians and other personnel in Poland and Eastern Europe for their alleged complicity with the alleged war crimes.

Geneva Violations Strains NATO, US Military

Russia sits on the Polish border. The United States is more than 5,000 miles away. Russia in Georgia demonstrated it has superior military weapons, and can easily defeat the outdated NATO defense systems.

Eastern European countries (former Warsaw Pact allies of Russia) after joining NATO have focused their military programs on counter-terrorism, not on developing conventional military forces the US requires to hide war criminals from justice.

NATO does not have the military capability to defend itself against Russia's lawful use of force to punish American civilians in Eastern Europe who have breached the laws of war. 

Russia has expanded its patrols along the Alaskan border, and has increased its military cooperation with Venezuela. The increased Russian presence along the United States means the United States cannot fully dedicate all US military forces to the bungled military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Congressional failure to enforce Geneva means the Congress has been complicit with reckless military decisions and strains on military forces. 

Congress in failing to enforce the laws of war, sent a green light to the President to expand a reckless campaign, further straining American military forces, and leaving the United States exposed to military attack.

The domestic enemies are in Congress, in denial about their Geneva obligations. Members of Congress can be prosecuted under the laws of war.


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thanks for the update. Do you have any thoughts on what any of us can do about all this?

You asked if there was something that could be done. Putting aside the many suggestions already provided on this blog, and the war crimes conference recommendations, watch and discuss this video (scroll to bottom) with Rachel Maddow.

Look for this: "Executive Branch Accountability Act"

Here are the PDF-tabs showing Rice's written responses, and the other tabs listed on Levin's website.

This is the information linking Addington, Rizzo, and Chertoff to the Guantanamo visits.

Comments I and II look at the OVP records retention requirements under Geneva: This link Rice, through the POW abuse meetings, with Addington, Rizzo and Chertoff who visited Guantanamo.

12 of 46, Tab 6 shows the meeting Addington, Chertoff, and Rizzo had at Guantanamo.

Data Mining

For the moment, we'll dig into the SASC10 Tab documents which include Rice's written responses and other tabls.

40 of 42 shows OPR had a six-month review of the POW abuse policies. There should be records.

Look to the bottom of the document, point 4:

"4. . . . Review . . .OPR will review this policy every six months

This means there should be an OPR review; or a decision to not review and provide a decision memo. There was a mandatory review for January 15th, 2004.

OPR is redacted on 38 of 42: Within 10 days of publication of the policy, July 15, 2003, there was to have been written standard operating procedures.

38 of 42 lists the Geneva conventions. This means the prisoners of war were known to be protected by Geneva; and the policies should have been consistent with Geneva.

This document removes all doubt that Geneva was "not clearly connected" with what the US government was doing when detaining prisoners. DOJ OLC cannot credibly argue there was "ambiguity" about whether the US had legal duties as a detaining power when the US government documents expressly reference the Geneva Conventions related to prisoners.

38 of 42 also is important when considering the public statements about "post 9-11 world".

Look at the list of documents, and their publication dates. Some of them are 1956, clearly well before 2001.

Addington, Yoo, Gonzalez, and other legal counsel cannot argue that Geneva did not apply; rather, despite 9-11, the US government knew that legal obligations going back to at least 1956 were still applicable in 2003, the date of this memo.

It is an absurd argument to suggest 9-11 changed everything. If it did, DoD would not have referenced any document before 2001.

Civilian Detention

Look at the reference list item d. Army regulation 190-8: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees. . . "October 1st, 1997

This is a pre-9-11 docuent relted to civilians. there is no excuse for the US to have, at either Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, or the CIA blacksites, to have claimed "after 9-11, the US could abuse anyone."

Even US citizens cannot be treated this way, yet the US Congress has turned a blind eye to this President's abuses agaisnt American civilians.

The US lawyers cannot argue they were unclear about the legal requirements. The DoD documents show the US government knew of legal requirements applicable to civilians; and that the US, as a detaining power, had a legal obligation to respect the specific legal requirements appliable to civilians, POWs, and others at any US-connected facility.

It should have been known that moving the POWs to Guantanano or a black site in E. Europe would not make a different over whether or not civilians can be mistreated. What makes the abuse detestable is that without a trial, the United States government subjected non-charged personnel to abuse. That is backwards. Punishment can only be inflicted after a trial.

War of Choice

These documents show, when caught, the American legal community and President made excuses for war crimes; but did not timely implement a credible oversight system ensuring all known-Geneva-requirements were adequately implemented in a war of choice in Iraq. That is evidence of reckless planning before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The war of choice was not urgent, but moving along an arbitrary timeline without regard to well known, applicable Geneva requirements. These are issues of international criminal law.

- Why wasn't the 1950-era Geneva requirements factored into war planning before the Iraq invasion?

- Why did the President not ensure -- before the invasion of Iraq -- there were adequate personnel in DoD to ensure all Geneva-treaty obligations were fully met?

Congress has no excuse for not confronting this President over war crimes.

35 of 42

3. The use of resistance to interrogation knowledge for "offensive" purposes lies outside the roles and responssibilites of JPRA."

The training was intended to teach US personnel what they might confront. The letter emphasizes the training is not intended to be applied to foreign-enemy POWs.

The training was an agreed-to situation where US personnel would be subjected to Geneva violations to prepare them for harsh detention. The US error was to use this training to conduct interrogation of Enemy Prisoners of War. It is an irrelevant argument that US personnel, during training, were subjected to Geneva violations: They volunteered. By contrast, enemy prisoners of war, once they are taken out of the fight, do not have the option to defend themselves while being abused.

34 of 42 shows a weekly status report.

34 of 42 shows a "contractor" in the distribution list for the weekly distribution list.

Congtractor

33 of 42 Colonel Moulton discussing with "Ron Mcneal, GS14" a DoD OPR. There would be other messages discussing this OPR by name.

32 of 42

Note on the left side there are three-hole punches. This suggests these emails were printed, and held in a binder.

Recall a similar problem with the DOJ-WH emails: They were not from the original databases, but were printed copies.

- Someone knew to retain them;

- It's unknown what other documents have not been retained.

30 of 42 references a "word" document, implicitly suggesting that the original word file would show who else made changes to the document.

Another Example

This is similar to the data trace done on the DoD documents transferred into the White House; or ones which former DoD personnel, subsequently assigned to the white house, were linked with word documents connected with the DoD emails. Here is a sample check-sum done on one word document to trace it to the White House.

Sample Document To Trace

This is a known document that was sent. You'll want to check JCON to see if there is something else that matches. This is the bridge from the White House to DoD through the classified systems including Intel Link and SiprNet.

You'll want to first do a complete search of this known-disclosed document to establish a baseline of the known communication systems used to transfer this document; then review the same systems to find similar word-documents related to POW abuse.

To get the full connection between the word-trace with a checksum, the POW abuse comments in word, and the DoD emails, look at this first comment, then read the ones embedded. You'll see the name of the White House-connected employee on the word document and within the DoD emails as it flows through the classified systems. Recall, these fall under the crime-fraud exception to privilege; and it is illegal to classify evidence of war crimes, especially when the evidence has been disclosed and referenced publicly in DoD-connected emails and published FOIA-connected data.

29 of 42 COMSEC audit done.

This is a communications audit done on communiation systems to ensure they meet legal requirements applicable to DoD. This would create several records:

- Trip reports
- Travel records
- Funding flows through DoD pay
- Official orders
- A completed inspection report
- Summary provided to commanders
- NSA-related communiations on the status of the NSA-related secure communications

29 of 42: This is a term which is not well known:

"Core Captivity Curriculum Working Group"

Here is the joint staff website which, in 2003, mentioned this term.

There was at least one meeting in Spokane, WA of this working group, not just the New Brunswick, Nova Scotia meeting.

29 of 42

Item "c" suggests DoD personnel are being detained in Columbia:

"The SOUTHCOM Personnel Recovery Support Team remains on a 24-hour recall standby to support Combatant commander requirements should Columbian rebels release detained DoD personnel."

If this were speculative or a contingency, unclear why others, other than "Columbian rebels" were listed. Seems too specific to believe that DoD personnel are not actually being detained, and the US is awaiting their release for recovery.

29 of 42: Note the DoD-level visibility to POW issues:

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs

28 of 42 mentions Ft. Huachuca (spelled in the DoD document incorrectly, "Huchuca".

This connects the DoD with the same facility which is alleged to have been complicit with the NSA domestic surveillance data mining; the DOD military analysts; and the domestic use of NSA-data to coordinate CIFA-JTTF activities against American civilians without a warrant.

NSA Telecoms

This implicitly means the contractors involved with domestic data mining had a role in uploading information to the NSA, using that to target Americans' communications without a warrant despite the FISA requirement during wartime to work with the FISA court.

28 of 42 Captain Kaufman

25 of 42 Home STU-3 call

This indicates that someone has a home-based classified voice communication system. The STU-III is something which encrypts data. To have one installed at home implies an important, 24-hour requirement to conduct sensitive communications. There would be records of similar systems, and other records of like communications.

Discovery

This memo fatally discloses the existence of a conversation over a classified communication system, and allows us to inquire into the details of that now-disclosed, non-classified aspects of that conversation.

Foolishly, the comment in the disclosed summary includes specific J3 communications, names, and other identifying information. This is important to follow-up to ask specific people about specific records, meetings, and other events related to this now-disclosed classified conversation.

Note they allowed "active demonstration" which is not something well understood. We've been led to believe they were merely passive, and wholly disconnected from any offensive training.

Moulton and Kleiman, part of the now-disclosed STU-III conversation appeared before the Senate, where this question arose:

Kleinman Testimony: Why did the special operations community find it necessary—and appropriate—to request interrogation support from an organization whose mission was, and is, to teach resistance to interrogation?

It's unclear how the specific STU-III call fits into this question or answer at the Senate hearing.

24 of 42: Is the "belief" reasonable:

General Wagner: "However, all others involved, including the JPRA CO and the CO of the task force believed them to be authorized actions under the existing decisions by the DoD General Counsel."

Strange, the DoD General Counsel was "confident" enough to have resigned.

Events happened mid-2003, and the "after action" report was not provided until January 2005, about 18 months later. Untimely, especially on Geneva.

22 of 42 redactions on email distribution list.

Note: J355C

21 of 42 training with CIA and DHS.

18 of 42 Bellinger (State Department Legal Advisor) June 2008 note to DoJ IG Fine.

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