Whether "DC Don" Rumsfeld continues to hide in the Bush or eventually dons his striped apparel, let the record show Haynes provided the cover to protect Don's sensitive parts. If Don had any balls, he would admit he authorized torture, and not think Mora less.
BILL MOYERS: We now continue with excerpts from the
documentary "Torturing Democracy," written and produced by Sherry
Jones. The film is a stark account of the detention and torture - for
that's what it is, torture - of prisoners in the War on Terror who were
held at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and in secret CIA "black sites"
overseas. But in addition to its depiction of brutality, "Torturing
Democracy" also credits the brave few who stood up to those in power
and said, "No." In Washington, Alberto Mora, the Navy's top civilian
lawyer, challenged Jim Haynes, the Pentagon's general counsel.
NARRATOR: In early January, 2003, in a move guaranteed
to be reported straight to the Vice President's office, and so at
considerable risk to his career - Alberto Mora drafted a memo calling
the tactics still being used at Guantánamo: "at a minimum, cruel and
unusual treatment and, at worst, torture."
NARRATOR: On January 15th, he told Jim Haynes that if
the interrogations were not halted, he would sign the memo - exposing
the Administration's policy.
ALBERTOR MORA: Jim pushed the memorandum back at me in
its envelope and said, "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish
with this," which was an astonishing comment. And then he said, "Well,
I'm happy to inform you that the Secretary is considering rescinding
his authorities." So I said, "Considering?" And then he said, "I know,
I know. Let me get back to you."
NARRATOR: To defuse the growing rebellion inside the
Pentagon, Rumsfeld did suspend approval of the harshest tactics. And he
asked the military's top lawyers to weigh in on interrogations - a year
after the first prisoners had arrived at Guantánamo.
GENERAL THOMAS ROMIG: We only had one conversation with Mr.
Rumsfeld. He came in and gave us a pep talk. And basically said this is
so important, and what you're doing will affect the United States for
years to come. And it was, I thought it a little strange that we were
getting a pep talk on something like this. Maybe it was an attempt to
get us to do what they wanted to do politically.
NARRATOR: In fact, Jim Haynes had already turned to the
War Council's reliable scribe, John Yoo. And Yoo wrote an 81-page legal
opinion expanding the still secret "torture" memo. He now added, for
example, that the President had the authority to approve tactics that
could include drugging a prisoner, as long as the drugs did not:
"create a profound disruption...substantially interfering with his
cognitive abilities or fundamentally altering his personality."
And, that to violate US law against maiming - "cutting, biting,
slitting" - must be specific "to the body part the statute specifies
...the nose, ear, lip, tongue, eye or limb."
Alberto Mora asked John Yoo to meet him in the Pentagon.
ALBERTOR MORA: And as he was talking, I
was becoming more concerned and more alarmed, and ultimately I asked
him the question, "Well, John, does this mean the President has the
authority to order torture?" And he said, "Yes."
NARRATOR:
Yoo's memo pushed even further, opining that anyone prosecuted for following the President's orders would be legally protected.
GENERAL THOMAS ROMIG: There isn't a court internationally or in
the United States that would support that theory. If you've committed
an act of torture or war crime, but because you believe you are
operating under the umbrella of a presidential war powers, the
commander in chief war powers, you're immune. The commander-in-chief
doesn't have the power to make that which is illegal under the law of
war, legal.
NARRATOR:
But Jim Haynes ordered a report based on John Yoo's assertions.
ALBERTOR MORA: Jim Haynes invited me to speak to him
privately as to my thoughts. I said, "If I were you, I'd put this in a
desk drawer. I'd never, never let it see the light of day again. Just
let it go away."
GENERAL THOMAS ROMIG: I was told, that, you know, we're not
going to go forward on it, everything's on hold, you've been listened
to, and many of those techniques that were at the extreme end are now
out the window.
ALBERTOR MORA:
We thought we had won. The word from Guantánamo was that the abuse of prisoners had stopped.
NARRATOR: In fact, they had lost. And they had been
deceived. The top military lawyers would not find out for more than a
year that in April, 2003, Rumsfeld had secretly given the go-ahead to
use 24 harsh interrogation techniques at Guantánamo.
