This brutal and inhumane program was well-known at the time, at least to those who wanted to listen. But William Colby, the head of the CIA told a congressional investigation in 1971 that the Phoenix program was "entirely a South Vietnamese program." He said this even though he initiated the program on behalf of the CIA. No U.S. government officials were ever prosecuted for the crimes committed under the Phoenix Program.
The "this is not our program" excuse was used during the Bush regime when 173 Iraqi prisoners were located in an Iraqi Interior Department prison. The survivors had been tortured to such an extent that their skin was falling off. When Don Rumsfeld the Secretary of War was asked about this prison being run by the U.S. puppet government he replied, "Look, it's a sovereign country. The Iraqi government exists." This was a transparent attempt to shift blame for the torture and prison conditions from the U.S., but the media let him get away with it. Now it appears Obama will too.
Vietnam – Con Son Island "recreational camp" pictures make Life Magazine
Another scandal that was exposed during the Vietnam War also illustrates that the U.S. has a long history of involvement in torture. Ten congressmen in 1970 went to investigate the so-called "U.S. pacification" program. This program was allegedly winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese to support the U.S. and it puppet government.
The congressmen went to visit Con Son Island where the government maintained a prison for political prisoners. On the plane to the island, the U.S. prison "advisor" told the congressional delegation that the prison resembled "a Boy Scout Recreational Camp." He ironically referred to it as the "the largest prison in the Free World."
He had hoped to put on a show for the visitors, but the congressional investigators, using a map provided by a former Con Son prisoner, actually discovered a "hidden" prison on the island. They found prisoners incarcerated in small tiger cages under deplorable conditions. One prisoner had fingers cut off; another had his head split open; prisoners had open sores from their shackles. Most were suffering from various ailments, including malnutrition. The prisoners begged the delegation for water as they passed the cages.
Pictures taken at the scene, by future Senator Tom Harkin who was a congressional staffer at the time, appeared in Life magazine and had the same shock value as those published showing what happened at Abu Ghraib during the Bush years. Readers of Life and many others could not believe that their American government could be responsible for such an atrocity.
One Con Son prisoner went on to tell her story in a book entitled "Just as I Thought." She told of being beaten with clubs and of being suspended above the ground and hung from a hook for days at a time. She had her head locked between steel bars. She suffered a version of water boarding and was deprived of sleep. She was fed only bread and milk. Years after the war, she still suffered painful spine injuries and had to wear a neck brace. But she was one of the "lucky" ones, as many prisoners perished as a result of their torture and abuse.
[One interesting fact about the tiger cages used in Vietnam is that they were constructed by Texas military contractor RMK-BRJ. This company was a corporate forerunner of Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Even then the private contractors got rich from their share of the war contracts. During the Bush regime years, U.S. companies also made a tidy profit on the export of torture. Amnesty International, in its report entitled, "The Pain Merchants" (December 2003), reported that U.S. companies then were exporting torture instruments to twelve countries, which the U.S. State Department reported regularly engaged in torture. The U.S. rendered prisoners for torture to many of these same countries under its extraordinary rendition program. The companies had 2002 sales overseas of $14.7 million of electroshock equipment and $4.4 million of restraints. Twelve thousand leg irons were sold to Saudi Arabia in 2002.]
Teaching torture at the School of Americas
Still another fact that exposes the lie that the U.S. does not torture is the U.S.-run School of the Americas (SOA). (It has had different names in its long sordid history.) It originally was located in Panama and later was relocated at Fort Benning, Georgia.SOA students came from various western hemisphere client governments of U.S. imperialism. Military and police personnel from these countries were taught torture and other crimes by the U.S. military instructors. Training manuals, that have been declassified, indicate the U.S. military personnel taught torture techniques similar to those later used at the hellhole prisons run by the military under the Bush regime.
The manuals recommended the immediate hooding and blindfolding of prisoners right after their capture. The use of forced nudity, sensory deprivation and overload, sleep and food deprivation, sexual humiliation, the use of extreme temperature, forced stress positions, isolation, and other tortures were part of the curriculum at SOA. In 1996, a U.S. Government Intelligence Oversight Board concluded that training manuals condoned "execution of guerrillas, extortion, physical abuse, coercion and false imprisonment".
Graduates of SOA went on to commit war crimes and other crimes against humanity in most of the nations of Central and South America. This is where it earned its nickname, the School of Assassins.
In a number of countries, SOA grads conducted military coups under the auspices of the U.S. government. In order to seize and maintain power, these military dictatorships practiced brutal terror against the populations of their countries. This terror included the arrests of thousands of people. Disappearances and the torture of prisoners became routine. Aiding and abetting these crimes were members of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies which often "advised" the torturers. Many survivors describe hearing their torturers talking to and getting instructions from people in nearby rooms who had "yankee" accents.
SOA continues to exist under a new name. Because of its infamous reputation, the War Department renamed it the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001. None of the military personnel responsible for the school teaching torture techniques to its nearly 60,000 graduates have ever been prosecuted or even charged. Each year Congress votes funds for the school at the request of the president. Its graduates make up the top echelons of the military in their respective country.
(Two excellent sources for the role played by the U.S. in the Americas are A. J. Langguth's "Hidden Terrors" and Michael Klare's and Cynthia Arnson's "Supplying Repression.") Exporting torture to Iran and the training of SAVAK U.S.-sponsored torture in the Middle East has a long history, just as it does in the Americas. In 1953 the Shah of Iran came to power, courtesy of a U.S. coup that overthrew the elected government. For the next quarter century Iran was a forward outpost of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East region. But the Shah needed an iron fist to maintain his position, so he got the assistance of the CIA and the Israeli Mossad to create SAVAK and to train its personnel. SAVAK learned well from its CIA and Mossad advisors and trainers. It routinely carried out disappearances and torture. It practiced virtually every kind of torture known, including: electrical shocks, forms of water boarding, sleep deprivation, extensive solitary confinement, the use of glaring searchlights, enforced stress positions, rape, the use of snakes particularly for women, dropping acid into prisoners noses, urinating on prisoners, and mock executions. SAVAK continued to kill and torture under U.S. auspices up to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. Is it any wonder while most of the people of Iran fear a return of U.S. imperialism to their country?The above are just a few of the vast number of crimes committed by the U.S. government. I did not even mention the millions killed in the slave trade, the genocide of native Americans, and other victims of crimes committed as the U.S. “settled” the land that is now the U.S. Many of these victims were tortured. I have also left out the torture that occurs in U.S. prisons within this country. How we deal with the past, determines the futureI am often asked why we should remember the past. Why not do as President Obama frequently states and look to the future?Well what is done, or not done, to remedy the crimes of the past makes a difference in the future. If those responsible for the Phoenix Program had been prosecuted, would we have had Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, and Gitmo? If the conditions were created to result in the trials of past presidents for the war crimes committed under their leadership, would we be where we are today debating whether we should have a truth commission, congressional hearings, trials, or doing nothing? Why were retired General Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq; former CIA Director George Tenet who ordered torture conducted by the CIA; and former Iraq Viceroy L. Paul Bremer who oversaw the occupation of Iraq; given Presidential Medals of Freedom instead of the prison sentences they deserved for their various crimes committed during the Bush regime? What message did Bush deliver to the other criminals in his regime when he gave these men their medals? What was the message to the world?The failure to prosecute those responsible for past war crimes is part of the reason that war crimes continue to be committed by those representing the U.S. government. Bush regime officials believed they could get away with ordering torture because there is plenty of past precedent to justify that belief. Troops, CIA agents, and others who conducted the actual torture believed they could get away with the “I was only following orders” defense because it has worked for those in the U.S., despite the judgments rendered at Nuremberg. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that they will not prosecute those following the orders of their superiors. Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have both said so. It also appears that those in the higher echelons of government and the military will also escape justice under the Obama administration if the president gets his way. If we fail to try to hold those responsible for torture (the top officials that ordered and enabled it, those that created the legal pretext for it, and those who actually conducted it) on behalf of U.S. imperialism accountable, then we are just as complicit in those crimes as they are. We are also guaranteeing that torture will continue as the U.S. continues to fight its war of terror. The U.S. has already been responsible for more than a century of torture. When will it be stopped if we do not try now?
U.S.-sponsored torture in the Middle East has a long history, just as it does in the Americas. In 1953 the Shah of Iran came to power, courtesy of a U.S. coup that overthrew the elected government. For the next quarter century Iran was a forward outpost of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East region. But the Shah needed an iron fist to maintain his position, so he got the assistance of the CIA and the Israeli Mossad to create SAVAK and to train its personnel. SAVAK learned well from its CIA and Mossad advisors and trainers. It routinely carried out disappearances and torture. It practiced virtually every kind of torture known, including: electrical shocks, forms of water boarding, sleep deprivation, extensive solitary confinement, the use of glaring searchlights, enforced stress positions, rape, the use of snakes particularly for women, dropping acid into prisoners noses, urinating on prisoners, and mock executions. SAVAK continued to kill and torture under U.S. auspices up to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. Is it any wonder while most of the people of Iran fear a return of U.S. imperialism to their country?The above are just a few of the vast number of crimes committed by the U.S. government. I did not even mention the millions killed in the slave trade, the genocide of native Americans, and other victims of crimes committed as the U.S. “settled” the land that is now the U.S. Many of these victims were tortured. I have also left out the torture that occurs in U.S. prisons within this country. How we deal with the past, determines the futureI am often asked why we should remember the past. Why not do as President Obama frequently states and look to the future?Well what is done, or not done, to remedy the crimes of the past makes a difference in the future. If those responsible for the Phoenix Program had been prosecuted, would we have had Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, and Gitmo? If the conditions were created to result in the trials of past presidents for the war crimes committed under their leadership, would we be where we are today debating whether we should have a truth commission, congressional hearings, trials, or doing nothing? Why were retired General Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq; former CIA Director George Tenet who ordered torture conducted by the CIA; and former Iraq Viceroy L. Paul Bremer who oversaw the occupation of Iraq; given Presidential Medals of Freedom instead of the prison sentences they deserved for their various crimes committed during the Bush regime? What message did Bush deliver to the other criminals in his regime when he gave these men their medals? What was the message to the world?The failure to prosecute those responsible for past war crimes is part of the reason that war crimes continue to be committed by those representing the U.S. government. Bush regime officials believed they could get away with ordering torture because there is plenty of past precedent to justify that belief. Troops, CIA agents, and others who conducted the actual torture believed they could get away with the “I was only following orders” defense because it has worked for those in the U.S., despite the judgments rendered at Nuremberg. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that they will not prosecute those following the orders of their superiors. Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have both said so. It also appears that those in the higher echelons of government and the military will also escape justice under the Obama administration if the president gets his way. If we fail to try to hold those responsible for torture (the top officials that ordered and enabled it, those that created the legal pretext for it, and those who actually conducted it) on behalf of U.S. imperialism accountable, then we are just as complicit in those crimes as they are. We are also guaranteeing that torture will continue as the U.S. continues to fight its war of terror. The U.S. has already been responsible for more than a century of torture. When will it be stopped if we do not try now?
The above are just a few of the vast number of crimes committed by the U.S. government. I did not even mention the millions killed in the slave trade, the genocide of native Americans, and other victims of crimes committed as the U.S. “settled” the land that is now the U.S. Many of these victims were tortured. I have also left out the torture that occurs in U.S. prisons within this country. How we deal with the past, determines the futureI am often asked why we should remember the past. Why not do as President Obama frequently states and look to the future?Well what is done, or not done, to remedy the crimes of the past makes a difference in the future. If those responsible for the Phoenix Program had been prosecuted, would we have had Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, and Gitmo? If the conditions were created to result in the trials of past presidents for the war crimes committed under their leadership, would we be where we are today debating whether we should have a truth commission, congressional hearings, trials, or doing nothing? Why were retired General Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq; former CIA Director George Tenet who ordered torture conducted by the CIA; and former Iraq Viceroy L. Paul Bremer who oversaw the occupation of Iraq; given Presidential Medals of Freedom instead of the prison sentences they deserved for their various crimes committed during the Bush regime? What message did Bush deliver to the other criminals in his regime when he gave these men their medals? What was the message to the world?The failure to prosecute those responsible for past war crimes is part of the reason that war crimes continue to be committed by those representing the U.S. government. Bush regime officials believed they could get away with ordering torture because there is plenty of past precedent to justify that belief. Troops, CIA agents, and others who conducted the actual torture believed they could get away with the “I was only following orders” defense because it has worked for those in the U.S., despite the judgments rendered at Nuremberg. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that they will not prosecute those following the orders of their superiors. Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have both said so. It also appears that those in the higher echelons of government and the military will also escape justice under the Obama administration if the president gets his way. If we fail to try to hold those responsible for torture (the top officials that ordered and enabled it, those that created the legal pretext for it, and those who actually conducted it) on behalf of U.S. imperialism accountable, then we are just as complicit in those crimes as they are. We are also guaranteeing that torture will continue as the U.S. continues to fight its war of terror. The U.S. has already been responsible for more than a century of torture. When will it be stopped if we do not try now?
I am often asked why we should remember the past. Why not do as President Obama frequently states and look to the future?Well what is done, or not done, to remedy the crimes of the past makes a difference in the future. If those responsible for the Phoenix Program had been prosecuted, would we have had Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, and Gitmo? If the conditions were created to result in the trials of past presidents for the war crimes committed under their leadership, would we be where we are today debating whether we should have a truth commission, congressional hearings, trials, or doing nothing? Why were retired General Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq; former CIA Director George Tenet who ordered torture conducted by the CIA; and former Iraq Viceroy L. Paul Bremer who oversaw the occupation of Iraq; given Presidential Medals of Freedom instead of the prison sentences they deserved for their various crimes committed during the Bush regime? What message did Bush deliver to the other criminals in his regime when he gave these men their medals? What was the message to the world?The failure to prosecute those responsible for past war crimes is part of the reason that war crimes continue to be committed by those representing the U.S. government. Bush regime officials believed they could get away with ordering torture because there is plenty of past precedent to justify that belief. Troops, CIA agents, and others who conducted the actual torture believed they could get away with the “I was only following orders” defense because it has worked for those in the U.S., despite the judgments rendered at Nuremberg. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that they will not prosecute those following the orders of their superiors. Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have both said so. It also appears that those in the higher echelons of government and the military will also escape justice under the Obama administration if the president gets his way. If we fail to try to hold those responsible for torture (the top officials that ordered and enabled it, those that created the legal pretext for it, and those who actually conducted it) on behalf of U.S. imperialism accountable, then we are just as complicit in those crimes as they are. We are also guaranteeing that torture will continue as the U.S. continues to fight its war of terror. The U.S. has already been responsible for more than a century of torture. When will it be stopped if we do not try now?
Why were retired General Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq; former CIA Director George Tenet who ordered torture conducted by the CIA; and former Iraq Viceroy L. Paul Bremer who oversaw the occupation of Iraq; given Presidential Medals of Freedom instead of the prison sentences they deserved for their various crimes committed during the Bush regime? What message did Bush deliver to the other criminals in his regime when he gave these men their medals? What was the message to the world?The failure to prosecute those responsible for past war crimes is part of the reason that war crimes continue to be committed by those representing the U.S. government. Bush regime officials believed they could get away with ordering torture because there is plenty of past precedent to justify that belief. Troops, CIA agents, and others who conducted the actual torture believed they could get away with the “I was only following orders” defense because it has worked for those in the U.S., despite the judgments rendered at Nuremberg. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that they will not prosecute those following the orders of their superiors. Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have both said so. It also appears that those in the higher echelons of government and the military will also escape justice under the Obama administration if the president gets his way. If we fail to try to hold those responsible for torture (the top officials that ordered and enabled it, those that created the legal pretext for it, and those who actually conducted it) on behalf of U.S. imperialism accountable, then we are just as complicit in those crimes as they are. We are also guaranteeing that torture will continue as the U.S. continues to fight its war of terror. The U.S. has already been responsible for more than a century of torture. When will it be stopped if we do not try now?
If we fail to try to hold those responsible for torture (the top officials that ordered and enabled it, those that created the legal pretext for it, and those who actually conducted it) on behalf of U.S. imperialism accountable, then we are just as complicit in those crimes as they are. We are also guaranteeing that torture will continue as the U.S. continues to fight its war of terror. The U.S. has already been responsible for more than a century of torture. When will it be stopped if we do not try now?
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