It is amazing Mitt Romney, a man whose family has cowered from military service for generations, is for enhanced torture. Romney also claims strong moral values, supports tortures which includes extreme sexual humiliation, rape, including children raped in front to their parents, and explicit sexual contortions. On second thought, somehow it doesn’t seem too shocking Romney supports the sexual abuse of children and the tormenting parents by mocking the sexual abuse of their children. Not shocking at all.
McCain on enhanced tortures -
–
Romney recently stated:
“I am convinced this is the time to tell Americans the truth,” said Romney. “We have to be honest and people will do the right thing. The silent majority is less and less silent.” Mitt is right; it is time for truth - even if it is the truth Romney doesn’t want told -
Mitt Romney’s support of enhanced torture is not a difficult stretch. Judge Bybee, Tom Flanagan, Mitchell, Jessen, DeLand, McCotter, were involved in the creation of the enhanced torture program. All are fellow Mormon Church members and Temple recommend holders, the same as Mitt,
Cofer Black, one of Romney’s advisers during his last presidential race, hand was in the selection Mitchell and Jessen’s development of enhanced tortures. Romney welcomed Black to his staff with his announcement:
"I am pleased to welcome Cofer Black to our campaign. He has a long and impressive career dedicated to making America safer and more secure in the world," said Governor Romney. "Our country faces a new generation of challenges and Black's experience at the forefront of our nation's counter-terrorism efforts will be a tremendous asset."
In order to begin to untangle the web which created the torture programs the background on the key players is necessary - and their background is where things get really interesting
Mitchell and Jessen had no experience with intelligence interrogations, they worked in the SERE program, which is a survival program for military personal that may be taken captive.
“And sources within JPRA knew a lot about Mitchell and Jessen. They said they were self-promoters, they were cowboys. They disapproved of the kind of techniques and their cozying up to the CIA. But they told us that they live here because it’s a nice place to live. And even though their mailing address is Langley, Virginia…”- Katherine Eban from Democracy Now interview.
According to Jeffrey Kaye’s article on Fireddoglake “…..another insider, who says he has some knowledge of the individuals involved, has indicated that it was Roger Aldrich, Mitchell and Jessen’s superior officer, the man who indeed hired them in the 1990s, who was responsible for the idea of reverse-engineering SERE techniques and contracting out services to the government.”
“Aldrich was an officer in the Air Force Reserve, who was also civilian chief of the Air Force’s Special Survival Training Program (SSTP), which was later folded into the JPRA agency. From this position, the source says, he hired "many people into lucrative civil service jobs at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, paying from $75K to $150K per year plus fantastic benefits." Aldrich used his influence and position to dole out patronage, and gained a loyal, devoted following.
"He took Mitchell and Jessen and promoted them. After 9/11, he hatched a scheme with the two men to offer interrogation and training services to the military and CIA for a great deal of money.”
Their contact at the CIA was Cofer Black.
“By the start of 2002, Dr. Mitchell was consulting with the C3 Center, whose director, Cofer Black, and chief operating officer, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., were impressed by his combination of visceral toughness and psychological jargon. One person who heard some discussions said Dr. Mitchell gave the C.I.A. officials what they wanted to hear. In this person’s words, Dr. Mitchell suggested that interrogations required “a comparable level of fear and brutality to flying planes into buildings.”
The enhanced torture program was implemented to the dismay of many experience intelligence interrogators who felt Mitchell and Jessen could wind up with charges pressed against them, which earned them the name of "The Poster Boys".The feeling was Mitchell and Jessen would wind up on the FBI's "Most Wanted List".
Mitchell and Jessen were given the nickname of the “Mormon Mafia” by peers at the CIA, due to the power they had within the agency. CIA and FBI interrogators who disagreed with Mitchell and Jessen torture program, found themselves countered with the stern message “you have lost your spine”, from the Mormon Mafia poster boys.
After the story of the abuses broke:
“Panetta fired all the C.I.A.'s contract interrogators, including the former military psychologists who appear to have designed the most brutal interrogation techniques.
DeLand and McCotter were tapped to set up Abu Ghraib
Gary DeLand was recommended by Lance McCotter to assist in setting up Abu Ghraib.
DeLand and McCotter relationship goes back to the Utah Department of Corrections and working for Management & Training Corporation, where both are executives. Management & Training Corporation is a private correction corporation started in Utah in the 1980’s by Utah State graduate Scott Marquardt and Lyle Parry.
Gary DeLand, served as the head of the Utah Department of Corrections from 1985 to 1992. Deland had been named in numerous law suits involving abuse of prisoner in the correction facilities he was over. “Deland was the named defendant in Littlefield v. Deland, where, according to the Court, a young mentally ill man was kept naked for 56 days in a "strip cell" with no windows, no interior lights, no bunk, no floor covering, and no toilet except for a hole in the concrete floor.”
Lane McCotter, served in the Utah Corrections system from 1992 until he was forced to resign in 1997. McCotter had worked prior to Utah for prison systems in Texas, and New Mexico, which resulted also in numerous abuse claims while under his watch.
The “Department of Justice's own Civil Rights Division released a 36-page report documenting inhumane and unsafe conditions at a jail run by a private prison company, Management & Training Corporation, where McCotter is a senior executive.”
“Texas, where McCotter served as director of the Department of Corrections for two years, he faced allegations in 1985 of erasing the parts of a video that showed the beating of a prisoner by a guard.”
In Utah, a SWAT team led to the death of an inmate after they burst into a mentally ill patient’s cell. (Remember the SWAT team for later in the post)
“A statement provided by Schumer's office reviews McCotter's employment history, including his resignation as Utah prison director in 1997 after a mentally ill inmate died after spending 16 hours strapped to a chair. Schumer's news release also calls attention to the Justice report criticizing MTC's management of the Santa Fe County jail, and notes that the New Mexico Corrections Department also raised concerns about the jail."
"While McCotter's company was under state and Department of Justice investigation, Attorney General Ashcroft selected him to serve as one of four civilian advisers to oversee the reconstitution of Iraqi prisons," Schumer noted. "Why Attorney General Ashcroft would send someone with such a checkered record to rebuild Iraq's corrections system is beyond me," Schumer said.
Then, on May 20, in a case of unfathomable irony, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that McCotter, along with three other corrections experts, had gone to Iraq. The very same day, Justice Department lawyers began their first negotiations with Santa Fe County officials over the extensive changes needed at the jail to avoid legal action.”
“The New York Times reported that McCotter "directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year," and McCotter himself admitted he worked closely with American military police officers at the prison complex.”
“While Lance McCotter worked establishing Abu Ghraib, he reportedly walked around handing out wads of cash, three million dollars worth, to people rebuilding Abu Ghraib prison.”
He also worked with according to “The Nation, Deland and McCotter "worked along with Brig. Gen. Karpinski and MPs from various battalions" at Abu Ghraib.” Brig. Gen Karpinski later became the scapegoat for the prison abuse. DeLand and McCotter left Abu Ghraib prior to the abuse story breaking.
Janis Leigh Karpinski is a central figure in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.
Another destroyed video tape?
Outside of Mitchell and Jessen firing from the CIA, a few low level prison guard charged after taking photographs, and Karpinski made scapegoat, there was been no accountability for the creators of the enhanced torture programs has happened.
Harry Reid, also a member of the Mormon Church, discouraged investigation into the tortures and probing of the memo’s which approved the program. “After the release of these memos why then is Harry Reid not in line with almost every Democratic Politician?”
“A serious setback, however: Harry Reid, whose Senate would rule on an impeachment in the House, doesn't seem to like the idea:”
Reid stated:
"Judge Bybee has a good professional reputation in Nevada," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said in an e-mail "While the memos that have been released are disturbing to Sen. Reid, at this point in time, he doesn't think we should be making a rush to judgment.”
Back in Utah, the legacy of DeLand and McCotter prison system is tragic. Tragic not to the prison inmates, but with children of Mormon Church wards. News papers in Utah ran the abuse stories:
“PROVO — A former corrections officer and SWAT team member at the Utah State Prison was charged Friday with nine felony sex offenses involving a child. Davis was hired by the Utah Department of Corrections in December 1998 and was most recently working for Adult Probation and Parole Region 4, which is Utah County, said Jack Ford, Utah Department of Corrections spokesman”
And –
“WEST VALLEY CITY -- A former LDS bishop and administrator with the Utah Department of Corrections was accused Tuesday of molesting several teenage boys over an extended period of time.
David James Gomez, 57, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday for iinvestigation of 50 counts of forcible sodomy, 15 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, 10 counts of sodomy on a child, all first-degree felonies, and 50 counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies. He was being held Tuesday without bail."
"Gomez is accused of raping, sodomizing and fondling several boys 10 to 13 years ago, according to police. He came in contact with the boys while serving as bishop (Mormon Bishop) of the Hunter 10th Ward.”
DeLand and McCotter were sent to Iraq to set up a prison system similar to the prisons in the United States, they appear to have succeeded, as well as succeeding in tarnishing the name of the people of America.
Romney’s stand on enhanced tortures, as well as his selection of Cofer Black on his 2008 presidential staff, will lead some to ask if in voting for Romney in 2012, would return the United States back to the torture programs which brought disgrace on American people?
(The reference are too numerous to list on the post page, and are listed on the comments section. One can link to all sources used in the post)
Showing posts with label Mormon Missionaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mormon Missionaries. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Mitt Romney will be at Bob Bennett's Side During GOP Convention.
added April 26,2010
According to Mormon Church owned Deseret News, Mitt Romney will be Senators Bob Bennett’s big weapon during the GOP convention. Jim Bennett, the senator’s son said Romney is to be standing by Bennett’s side through-out the convention, in an attempt to strengthen Bennett’s lagging support in Utah. The senator has been under attack by ultra-conservative Club for Growth, in the Beehive State. A blog piece regarding Romney and Senator Bob Bennett’s son Jim’s controversial statements at a Utah meeting, were run as an attack ad by Club for Growth. More can be read on the controversy on a March blog piece titled:
“Could Trouble Be Brewing For Romney In Utah?” can be linked to by clicking on the March blog list located on the side bar of this blog.
Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:57 p.m. The Deseret News reported the Club for Growth has complained that Utah Senator Bob Bennett’s son has told people to be ‘deceptive’. Bennett is a family friend and a long time backer of Mitt Romney’s. Mitt Romney at the same meeting told people to vote more than once. Club Growth seized on the statements by the two good friends, Mitt and Bob Jr. on their website complaining of the two encouraging deceptive tactics.
Another good friend of Senator Bennett’s son’s is Karl Rove. Rove along with Romney are out on the campaign trail for Bennett. Yes, Bennett’s son is friends of both Mitt Romney and Karl Rove. This is not the first time Rove has made appearances in Utah for Bennett, All Business in 2009 reporter on Rove, when Karl was in Utah for his 40th High School reunion took time during his visit to campaign for the Senator. All Business, felt Rove’s appearance on behalf of Bennett odd writing: “Perhaps this odd partnering will prove a plus for Bennett among next year’s delegates to the state Republican convention (Imagine! Karl Rove!).”
Is Rove an “odd partnering” with Senator Bob Bennett? Not at all, Bennett groomed Karl Rove. Senator Bennett and Rove have a long history together. Wikipedia sheds light on Bennett/Rove ties.
“In December 1969, the man Rove had known as his father left the family, and divorced Rove's mother soon afterward; it later became known he was homosexual.[8][9] After his parents' divorce, Rove learned from his aunt and uncle that the man who had raised him was not his biological father; both he and his older brother Eric were the children of another man. Rove has expressed great love and admiration for his adoptive father and for "how selfless" his love had been.[10] In 1981 Rove's mother committed suicide in Reno, Nevada.[10]”
“In the fall of 1969, Rove entered the University of Utah, on a $1,000 scholarship,[11] as a political science major and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. As with many others of his generation, enrollment in college protected him from being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Through the University's Hinckley Institute of Politics, he got an internship with the Utah Republican Party. That position, and contacts from the 1968 Bennett campaign, helped him land a job in 1970 on Ralph Tyler Smith's unsuccessful re-election campaign for Senate from Illinois. Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson III won.”
“In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead, printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing", and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally. (Dixon eventually won the election). Rove's role would not become publicly known until August 1973.”
Roves antics didn’t end with the fake campaign fliers in 1970, Rove is later linked to:
“Sources quoted by Time magazine and CBS' "60 Minutes" maintained that Rove used his influence with a U.S. attorney to get a bribery conviction against former Democratic Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.”
Rove has also been implicated in several U.S. attorney generals firing, the leaking of CIA agent Valarie Plame’s identity, and involvement in Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Outside of both Romney and Rove campaigning for Bennett, the two also share other similarities according to journalist Mark Halperin --
“Over the years, I have covered and interviewed both men and admittedly have found them rather difficult to decode, personally and sometimes professionally.”
Rove and Romney connections and similarities do not end with Bob Bennett, or being difficult to ‘decode’.
Beth Myers, a Rove protégée, was Mitt Romney’s campaign manager in Romney’s 2008 presidential run and Rove became a strong voice in promoting an M&M ticket (McCain/ Mitt) after Romney bowed out of the GOP presidential race after Super Tuesday.
HANNITY: We continue with our friend, FOX News contributor Karl Rove. All right Karl Rove, I never, ever doubt my good friend Bob Novak, and he's saying that you're suggesting that Mitt Romney would be a good VP choice for John McCain.
ROVE: Well, I talked with Bob recently, and we got to talking about the vice-presidential choice, and I shared with Bob, I've been traveling around the country recently — in fact, tonight I'm at the University of Pittsburgh where I'm a guest of the Pitt Program Council. And as I go around the country, I'm hearing a lot of conversation about VP, and I told Bob I was surprised by how often I was hearing the name Mitt Romney, and there seems to be some level of enthusiasm for the M & M ticket, "McCain & Mitt."
HANNITY: All right, but is that Karl Rove's choice?
ROVE: I'm going to try to remain to be a little objective and detached. I'm just reporting to Bob what I heard. And I was in Florida, southwestern Florida on Friday night. I heard it there. I mentioned it tonight; I met with the Pitt College Republicans before the speech I'm going to make later on tonight. I met with the Pitt College Republicans earlier this evening. They asked me the question of what I was hearing about it. I shared with them the M & M ticket, and there was a lot of enthusiasm there for it.
Robert Novak wrote:
“Former White House political guru Karl Rove is urging that Sen. John McCain pick Mitt Romney as his running mate, writes veteran Washington columnist Robert Novak.”
“According to Novak, Rove and other GOP bigwigs want Romney in the No. 2 spot despite the bad blood that exists between the former Massachusetts governor and McCain, an enmity that grew out of their heated rivalry during the Republican presidential primaries.”
Sen. Bob Bennett of course, was a big backer of Mitt Romney during Romney’s 2008 Presidential run.
Bob Bennett for Mitt Romney
And Romney of course is backing Bob Bennett in his re-election efforts –
Mitt Romney for Bob Bennett
Don’t You feel a bit hypocritical Romney?
Karl Rove stomping for both –
Roves appearance on the campaign trial for Bennett lead one journalist to write:
“With Karl Rove stumping this weekend for Sen. Bob Bennett's re-election campaign, should Bennett's Republican opponents -- Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Cherilyn Eagar and, possibly, Tim Bridgewater -- worry about going to jail anytime soon?”
“It's a tongue-in-cheek question, I admit. Rove's “
“But the fact that the opponents of Rove's clients tend to get indicted, and convicted, on what many critics have called dubious charges and questionable evidence, brings into question what Bennett hopes to accomplish in terms of his sketchy image with the party's right wing.”
“He is accused in the book Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove… with having used his friendship with an FBI agent to get corruption indictments against two state bureaucrats”
“It's a tongue-in-cheek question, I admit."
References found in comment section:
__________________________________________________________________________________
Robert Millet of Brigham Young University Teaches LDS Missionaries to avoid answering peoples question, in effect not to answers questions the truthfully. Is this what a religious teacher should do?
and this version:
According to Mormon Church owned Deseret News, Mitt Romney will be Senators Bob Bennett’s big weapon during the GOP convention. Jim Bennett, the senator’s son said Romney is to be standing by Bennett’s side through-out the convention, in an attempt to strengthen Bennett’s lagging support in Utah. The senator has been under attack by ultra-conservative Club for Growth, in the Beehive State. A blog piece regarding Romney and Senator Bob Bennett’s son Jim’s controversial statements at a Utah meeting, were run as an attack ad by Club for Growth. More can be read on the controversy on a March blog piece titled:
“Could Trouble Be Brewing For Romney In Utah?” can be linked to by clicking on the March blog list located on the side bar of this blog.
Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:57 p.m. The Deseret News reported the Club for Growth has complained that Utah Senator Bob Bennett’s son has told people to be ‘deceptive’. Bennett is a family friend and a long time backer of Mitt Romney’s. Mitt Romney at the same meeting told people to vote more than once. Club Growth seized on the statements by the two good friends, Mitt and Bob Jr. on their website complaining of the two encouraging deceptive tactics.
Another good friend of Senator Bennett’s son’s is Karl Rove. Rove along with Romney are out on the campaign trail for Bennett. Yes, Bennett’s son is friends of both Mitt Romney and Karl Rove. This is not the first time Rove has made appearances in Utah for Bennett, All Business in 2009 reporter on Rove, when Karl was in Utah for his 40th High School reunion took time during his visit to campaign for the Senator. All Business, felt Rove’s appearance on behalf of Bennett odd writing: “Perhaps this odd partnering will prove a plus for Bennett among next year’s delegates to the state Republican convention (Imagine! Karl Rove!).”
Is Rove an “odd partnering” with Senator Bob Bennett? Not at all, Bennett groomed Karl Rove. Senator Bennett and Rove have a long history together. Wikipedia sheds light on Bennett/Rove ties.
“In December 1969, the man Rove had known as his father left the family, and divorced Rove's mother soon afterward; it later became known he was homosexual.[8][9] After his parents' divorce, Rove learned from his aunt and uncle that the man who had raised him was not his biological father; both he and his older brother Eric were the children of another man. Rove has expressed great love and admiration for his adoptive father and for "how selfless" his love had been.[10] In 1981 Rove's mother committed suicide in Reno, Nevada.[10]”
“In the fall of 1969, Rove entered the University of Utah, on a $1,000 scholarship,[11] as a political science major and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. As with many others of his generation, enrollment in college protected him from being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Through the University's Hinckley Institute of Politics, he got an internship with the Utah Republican Party. That position, and contacts from the 1968 Bennett campaign, helped him land a job in 1970 on Ralph Tyler Smith's unsuccessful re-election campaign for Senate from Illinois. Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson III won.”
“In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead, printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing", and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally. (Dixon eventually won the election). Rove's role would not become publicly known until August 1973.”
Roves antics didn’t end with the fake campaign fliers in 1970, Rove is later linked to:
“Sources quoted by Time magazine and CBS' "60 Minutes" maintained that Rove used his influence with a U.S. attorney to get a bribery conviction against former Democratic Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.”
Rove has also been implicated in several U.S. attorney generals firing, the leaking of CIA agent Valarie Plame’s identity, and involvement in Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Outside of both Romney and Rove campaigning for Bennett, the two also share other similarities according to journalist Mark Halperin --
“Over the years, I have covered and interviewed both men and admittedly have found them rather difficult to decode, personally and sometimes professionally.”
Rove and Romney connections and similarities do not end with Bob Bennett, or being difficult to ‘decode’.
Beth Myers, a Rove protégée, was Mitt Romney’s campaign manager in Romney’s 2008 presidential run and Rove became a strong voice in promoting an M&M ticket (McCain/ Mitt) after Romney bowed out of the GOP presidential race after Super Tuesday.
HANNITY: We continue with our friend, FOX News contributor Karl Rove. All right Karl Rove, I never, ever doubt my good friend Bob Novak, and he's saying that you're suggesting that Mitt Romney would be a good VP choice for John McCain.
ROVE: Well, I talked with Bob recently, and we got to talking about the vice-presidential choice, and I shared with Bob, I've been traveling around the country recently — in fact, tonight I'm at the University of Pittsburgh where I'm a guest of the Pitt Program Council. And as I go around the country, I'm hearing a lot of conversation about VP, and I told Bob I was surprised by how often I was hearing the name Mitt Romney, and there seems to be some level of enthusiasm for the M & M ticket, "McCain & Mitt."
HANNITY: All right, but is that Karl Rove's choice?
ROVE: I'm going to try to remain to be a little objective and detached. I'm just reporting to Bob what I heard. And I was in Florida, southwestern Florida on Friday night. I heard it there. I mentioned it tonight; I met with the Pitt College Republicans before the speech I'm going to make later on tonight. I met with the Pitt College Republicans earlier this evening. They asked me the question of what I was hearing about it. I shared with them the M & M ticket, and there was a lot of enthusiasm there for it.
Robert Novak wrote:
“Former White House political guru Karl Rove is urging that Sen. John McCain pick Mitt Romney as his running mate, writes veteran Washington columnist Robert Novak.”
“According to Novak, Rove and other GOP bigwigs want Romney in the No. 2 spot despite the bad blood that exists between the former Massachusetts governor and McCain, an enmity that grew out of their heated rivalry during the Republican presidential primaries.”
Sen. Bob Bennett of course, was a big backer of Mitt Romney during Romney’s 2008 Presidential run.
Bob Bennett for Mitt Romney
And Romney of course is backing Bob Bennett in his re-election efforts –
Mitt Romney for Bob Bennett
Don’t You feel a bit hypocritical Romney?
Karl Rove stomping for both –
Roves appearance on the campaign trial for Bennett lead one journalist to write:
“With Karl Rove stumping this weekend for Sen. Bob Bennett's re-election campaign, should Bennett's Republican opponents -- Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Cherilyn Eagar and, possibly, Tim Bridgewater -- worry about going to jail anytime soon?”
“It's a tongue-in-cheek question, I admit. Rove's “
“But the fact that the opponents of Rove's clients tend to get indicted, and convicted, on what many critics have called dubious charges and questionable evidence, brings into question what Bennett hopes to accomplish in terms of his sketchy image with the party's right wing.”
“He is accused in the book Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove… with having used his friendship with an FBI agent to get corruption indictments against two state bureaucrats”
“It's a tongue-in-cheek question, I admit."
References found in comment section:
__________________________________________________________________________________
Robert Millet of Brigham Young University Teaches LDS Missionaries to avoid answering peoples question, in effect not to answers questions the truthfully. Is this what a religious teacher should do?
and this version:
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