Though many CIA agents will concede that torture
does not work, never mind the moral implications, our leaders have long been really into it. The torture debate is nothing new.
Back in the Vietnam war, the US built detention centers in which the South Vietnamese would use various methods to extract information from the enemy. Allegations of mistreatment of innocents led to Congressional investigations...
At the end of these Hearings, U.S. Representatives Paul McCloskey, John Conyers, Bella Abzug and Ben Rosenthal stated their belief that "The people of these United
States have deliberately imposed upon the Vietnamese people a system of justice which admittedly denies due process of law," and that in doing so, "we appear to have
violated the 1949 Geneva Convention for the protection of civilian people."
They also stated their belief that "torture is a regularly accepted part of interrogation," and that "U.S. civilian and military personnel have participated for over three years in the deliberate denial of due process of law to thousands of people held in secret interrogation centers built with U.S. dollars."
Today on WHUS' Talk Nation Radio, I heard Dori Smith discussing GOP Congressman Rob Simmons (CT-2). She interviewed Douglas Valentine, author of The Phoenix Program a book about the CIA's efforts to destroy the VietCong. The information discussed above comes from one of his Counterpunch articles. His book contains information from a 90 minute interview with a pre-politician-era Rob Simmons from 1988. Basically, as a CIA spook, Simmons was an advisor at these interrogation centers. These were, like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, places where inevitably, many innocent people were tortured. There is little doubt that he was well aware of the torture going on at these facilities he oversaw.
His political ads make him seem like an old sweetheart, but we're talking about a guy trained in paramilitary techniques who was apparently involved with targeted assassinations of Viet Cong figures. OK...so maybe that seems like a guy you'd like involved in the fight against terror...but this is a guy who would withhold medical treatment from bleeding suspected Viet Cong until they were willing to tell...something...whether they knew anything worth telling or not. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the book mentioned in the program (and it isn't archived yet) that contains the quote of Simmons' actual words, but the quote caught a man who didn't have any problem admitting on tape, having committed actions that are directly in breach of the Geneva Conventions.
In another except from Douglas Valentine:
As a CIA officer, Rob Simmons traveled 12,000 miles to take the lives of Vietnamese men and women in their own backyards. He did so unflinchingly.
""I'm a poor farm girl," he says, mocking a woman he had in the PIC. "So we released her and watched her for three months, and then we put her name in the paper. Arresting and watching suppressed her. It suppressed the organization too."
Valentine points out that this is psychological warfare. Is it really any surprise that Simmons voted to suspend habeas corpus for detainees and to legalize torture? Not only will his vote absolve the Bush administration of war crimes, it would also serve to absolve Simmons himself!
Here, Dori had a quick exchange with Simmons about his glory days:
Smith: But they were talking about 25,000 dead under the Phoenix program -assassination by computerized...
Simmons: No, no no.
Smith: ...system.
Simmons: No.
Smith: ...and they were also talking about the reading of the mail...
Simmons: Hogwash.
Smith: ...of the American people.
Simmons: It's hogwash.
Smith: ...but these facts were admitted.
Simmons: No they were not.
Smith: ...if you read the testimony they admitted this.
Simmons: Well I served for three and a half years in Vietnam and again there was a lot of propaganda, a lot of disinformation about the agencies' various programs. Bill Colby was in charge of the Phoenix program He went on to become the Director of Central Intelligence. He was an honest and decent man. He would not engage in those activities.
Smith: So you are saying Phoenix didn't happen?
(The candidate walked away.)
So we can see why it's no surprise why Rob Simmons voted to allow the President to "interpret" the Geneva Conventions as he sees fit, or to hold detainees without due process. He might not like to talk about his past much these days, but he's been involved in such un-American activities for many years. Democrat Joe Courtney is running for Congress in Connecticut District 2. Let's unseat the torturer, shall we?