by Mark Silva
Richard Armitage, who served as chief deputy to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, says now that he would have resigned if he had known that the CIA was interrogating suspected terrorists with "water-boarding,'' that simulated drowning now banned in U.S. interrogations of detainees
The Bush administration maintained that it did not condone "torture,'' but this ex-deputy secretary of state says water-boarding is exactly that.
"As far as I'm concerned, that was torture,'' he said in an interview aired today by Al Jazeerah English.
The CIA has acknowledged using water-boarding on three high-value detainees in 2002 and 2003 with the permission of the both the White House and the Justice Department.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was involved in some of the meetings of the highest-level officials of the administration in which interrogation tactics were discussed, has refrained from calling any of it torture. Powell has told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, "There was no meeting on torture.''
Armitage, who worked closely with Powell, maintains that he was unaware of any of the water-boarding at the time. He and Powell were arguing that the Geneva Conventions should be followed in the interrogation of so-called "enemy combatants.''
He hopes that, "had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign,'' he said. "But I don't know. It's in hindsight now.''
Armitage left the administration after then-President George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004. He followed Powell out the door at State.
Armitage told Al Jazeera's English television that no one at the State Department knew prisoners were being abused until the Abu Ghraib scandal revealed it to the world in April 2004. Congress is at least as much to blame as Bush administration officials for prisoner abuse, he said, because lawmakers failed to conduct rigorous oversight of any of it.
""They weren't doing their job," he said.
President Barack Obama has put the brakes on CIA's harshest interrogations, requiring the agency to follow the guidelines of the Army Field Manual. He also has demanded closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba within a year.
CIA Director Leon Panetta has tolld Congress that secret sites abroad where CIA prisoners had been water-boarded and interrogated with other tough tactics are being closed down, and that he has no intention of prosecuting any CIA employees for their role in a program deemed legal at the time.
Armitage, in the Al Jazeerah interview, said he agrees that no one should be prosecuted.
Comments
Isn't this the same Richard Armitage that outed Valerie Plame?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/30/leak.armitage/index.html
Why would the left believe anything he says?
Posted by: Terry | April 15, 2009 7:42 PM
He and Powell should have resigned before the start of action in Iraq. They either knew the rush to war was orchestrated for political reasons and the claims about WMDs were bogus, in which case their character is suspect, or they didn't know, in which case their judgment and intelligence is suspect. Either way, they failed when their country needed them the most.
They chose to serve the Bush Crime Family and the Rove/Cheney war profiteers instead of their country.
Posted by: thebob.bob | April 15, 2009 8:05 PM
Well, duh. We pretty much had that figured out some years ago.
Why did he wait this long to
'fess up?
Was it Panetta's absolution that pricked his conscience?
Come to think, where does Leon get off saying no one will be prosecuted?
I thought that was the Justice Dept.'s job.
But maybe he just stepped in to take the heat for Holder.
Who seems to be campaigning for something.
Posted by: ornery | April 15, 2009 8:31 PM
3 people waterboarded, and that was only under bush? not so. the cia has been out-sourcing and collaborating in torture for decades, working with dictatorships in places like guatemala and paraguay. it studied torture and taught it in courses, even provided electric cattle prods. it helped to set up the coup in chile, where according to the investigative commission 22,000 were tortured. the u.s. gave saddam lists of people to be tortured and killed back in the days when saddam was our friend. the difference in the last few years is that 1) the govt officially approved torture, instead of pretending that it did not use it, and 2) the torture was documented and reported, thanks in part to the new small digital cameras.
Posted by: LatAm | April 15, 2009 8:53 PM
That's a dumb remark, Terry. Armitage, as one of the people who outed Plame (as Scooter also did), apparently has accurate information. Do you believe him Terry?
Posted by: Flo | April 15, 2009 9:04 PM
Good!....I'm glad they tortured those scumbags!! We stick their heads in a toilet and they cut our servicemen's heads off. Obama's smart enough not to change anything. Let the CIA do there job!!
Posted by: Joe | April 15, 2009 9:40 PM
Joe the dumb plumber,
1) Torture is not a swirly.
2) We invaded their country on a pack
of lies and deceit and slaughtered
tens of thousands of their
countrymen, women and children.
3) Grow a pair, enlist and go give
a few noogies.
Posted by: Blubber Snorter | April 15, 2009 10:07 PM
Oh Joe, you so macho! You da man!! Oh Joey.......hmmm
Posted by: darlene | April 15, 2009 11:16 PM
Ex-members of the Bush crime family including Bush himself might be wise to avoid doing any international travel for the rest of their lives.
In fact Spain has already moved towards prosecuting six former Bushies for war crimes and torture today while Bush, Cheney, Rove etc will be up on the docket next after they finish up the first trial.
"Spanish prosecutors have decided to go ahead with a criminal investigation of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David Addington, and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith."
http://washingtonindependent.com/38531/bush-six-to-be-indicted-today-in-spain
Posted by: Borat | April 15, 2009 11:45 PM
Blibber, NONE of those tortured came from Iraq. One of them was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was the mastermind behind 9/11 and the one who chopped off Daniel Pearl's head. He was the Number 3 in Al Qaeda.
Anyway, I have no problem with torturing head-chopping terrorist nuts, especially when it also saved potentially thousands of innocent lives. Even if only one innocent life was saved, I'd still have no problem with water-boarding some head-chopping terrorist.
Posted by: John D | April 16, 2009 12:14 AM
Ahh, once againm we hare from the Great Americans who want the US to be known as a country that tortures. They have looked at our former enemies like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, and Saddam's Iraq and have decided that those countries were on the right track, and that US was wrong for criticizing their use of torture.
Posted by: Lou | April 16, 2009 9:13 AM
Thank you darlene....many have said the same!
Posted by: Joe | April 16, 2009 9:30 AM
Dumb Dumb,
4) Torture doesn't work. Look it up.
Posted by: Blubber Snorter | April 16, 2009 9:55 AM
Blibber, NONE of those tortured came from Iraq. One of them was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was the mastermind behind 9/11 and the one who chopped off Daniel Pearl's head. He was the Number 3 in Al Qaeda.
Anyway, I have no problem with torturing head-chopping terrorist nuts, especially when it also saved potentially thousands of innocent lives. Even if only one innocent life was saved, I'd still have no problem with water-boarding some head-chopping terrorist.
Posted by: John D | April 16, 2009 12:14 AM
.
And -- just for the record and withholding judgment for the time being -- do you have any problem with a perfectly innocent person who has no information whatsoever being tortured on the outside chance that they might be withholding something? Is it the best idea for us to torture anybody we find who might look suspicious and let god sort it out afterwards? How about if the information we get is false and we act on it anyway and kill innocent people in the meantime? Again, no judgment on this. Perhaps you're right (although I suspect not), but I'd like to hear how well you've thought it through.
.
And -- ALSO for the record -- I am NOT pleased to see American soldiers (or American civilians for that matter) getting their heads chopped off. It does NOT "arouse me." Nor am I sympathetic to actual, honest-to-goodness terrorists, especially and specifically to the extent of wanting them released or providing them with tea and crumpets. I only throw that part in because of your history of deciding that anyone who doesn't shoot first (or torture first) and ask questions later always is in favor of mollycoddling terrorists and wants to have our citizens murdered.
Posted by: Op109 | April 16, 2009 11:02 AM
Op, three to five terrorists were "tortured." A handful does not constitute folks who just happened to be detained ending up being tortured or waterboarded.
In reality, those held at Gitmo were treated quite well. They were fed well and according to their religion, they were given good housing, they were allowed to pray five times a day, they were given health care. By all rights, those detainees were treated much better than Dan Pearl or any of the other folks held captive and beheaded by Al Qaeda.
Oh, Blubber Snorter (Which is a very good name for a lefty, by the way), we did not kill tens of thousands of anyone;s countrymen, women or children. Now, if you want reality about women and children being killed, I would suggest you do a little research about the practices of the Taliban, Saddam Hussein and various other Islamic kooks.
Posted by: John D | April 16, 2009 1:30 PM
Didn't CIA admit within the past 2 months that it had destroyed hundreds of interrogation videos?
What do you suppose was on those videos?
Posted by: ornery | April 16, 2009 2:04 PM
Johnny Torture, What was so wrong with Saddam In your opinion? He killed lots of Muslims, which you support. He invaded Iran, which you support. He tortured lots of muslims, which you support. I would think Saddam would be your hero, everything he did , you are in favor of.
Posted by: Lou | April 16, 2009 2:19 PM
It's not all out yet. They haven't found the memo on forcing detainees to watch Fox News.
Posted by: Jason Wright | April 16, 2009 5:06 PM
Flo,
You only get "outted" once.
Posted by: Terry | April 17, 2009 6:36 AM