Obama Praises WWII Zionist Butcher Churchill

Barack Obama has praised Winston Churchill's refusal to torture German spies during World War II as an example of why the United States was right to abandon waterboarding and other methods of torture.

Apr 2009

The president said he recently read an article where he learned for the first time that the British wartime prime minister had stoutly refused to use violent interrogation of hundreds of detainees even as "London was being bombed to smithereens".

"Churchill said 'we don't torture' when the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat," he said at a White House press conference to mark his 100th day in office.

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"And the reason was Churchill understood if you start taking short cuts over time that what's corrodes what's best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country." The president's observations on Churchill marked the first time he has offered such praise of any major figure. He was even suspected of hostility to the wartime leader, after he returned a bust of Churchill gifted to George W Bush's Oval Office by Tony Blair.

Amid fears that the special relationship was cooling, it was observed that in his autobiography Mr Obama mentioned that his Kenyan relatives thought his grandfather may have been tortured in during the Mau Mau rebellion during Churchill's second term in Downing Street.

The article he referred to on Atlantic.com referred to the interrogation methods of Colonel Robin "Tin Eye" Stephens, commander of the wartime spy prison and interrogation centre codenamed Camp 020, which were revealed when MI5 papers were declassified in 2005. He submitted prisoners to intense, psychologically tough, all night questioning but wrote that violence was counter-productive as it produced unreliable information.

Mr Obama repeated that he regarded waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning and was used hundreds of times of individual al-Qaeda suspects as torture.

He added that his decision, made in the first week of his presidency, to ban "enhanced interrogation methods" approved by the Bush administration, and to close secret CIA prisons, would make Americans "stronger and safer over the long term" and deny extremists a vital "recruitment tool".

"What makes us a beacon to the world is holding true to our ideals when it is hard not just when it is easy," said Mr Obama, who two weeks ago released four memos justifying harsh interrogation methods written by Bush lawyers.

He said that the notion that waterboarding supplied useful intelligence was not proven, because conventional interrogation had not been tried.

In a dig at former vice president Dick Cheney, who has said classified documents would show that waterboarding worked, Mr Obama implied he had read the same and other classified material, and none would make him change his decision.

Mr Obama refused to characterise the previous administration's rationale for waterboarading as justifying torture, though he called it a mistake. David Axelrod, senior White House adviser, said afterwards that the president preferred to "look forward rather than back". Mr Obama has been clear that he does not want to CIA agents who carried out dubious interrogations prosecuted.

Obama: 'I believe waterboarding was torture, and it was a mistake'

US president cites Churchill's refusal to resort to torture during the Blitz as he rejects use of interrogation technique

'Waterboarding is torture,' says Obama Link to this video

Barack Obama has rejected the former US vice-president Dick Cheney's defence of waterboarding, citing the refusal of the then British prime minister, Winston Churchill, to resort to torture even at the height of the Blitz in the second world war.

At a White House press conference to mark his first 100 days in office, the president addressed issues ranging from concern over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into militant hands to Bush administration torture policies.

Obama said he was comfortable with his decision to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techiques used at Guantánamo Bay and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secret detention centres around the world under his predecessor George Bush.

In an unequivocal statement, he said: "I believe that waterboarding was torture and, whatever legal rationals were used, it was a mistake."

Obama has been criticised, in particular by Cheney, for making public four secret Bush administration memos detailing interrogation techniques approved for use by the CIA, including waterboarding. Cheney has called on Obama to release other classified documents he claimed would show that valuable intelligence was gained from detainees interrogated in this way.

Obama responded by pointing to the example from the Blitz: "I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British, during world war two, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said 'we don't torture', when all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat. And the reason was that Churchill understood you start taking shortcuts, and over time, that corrodes what's best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country."

Obama said he had read the classified material mentioned by Cheney, but this did not answer the question of whether the information could have been obtained in another way and whether use of these techniques made the US safer.

Obama said he believed it was possible to get information in ways that stayed true to the country's ideals. Torture had provided al-Qaida with a recruiting tool, he added.

He promised to try to be more open about sensitive documents that are classified or released with large parts blacked out. There were times when the national interest dictated such an approach, but it was a blunt instrument, he said. His administration was looking into alternative mechanisms, such as a judge being given access to classified material to make a ruling.

Asked about US worries about Pakistan and whether its nuclear arsenal might fall into militant hands, Obama said he was "gravely concerned" about the fragility of Pakistan. But he added: "I'm confident that we can make sure that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is secure, primarily, initially, because the Pakistani army, I think, recognises the hazards of those weapons falling into the wrong hands.

"We've got strong military-to-military consultation and cooperation. I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan; more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile."

He was concerned too, but not to the same degree, about the recent resurgence of violence in Iraq. "The political system is holding and functioning in Iraq" and the incidence of bombings "remain very low relative to what was going on last year".

He was speaking at the end of a day in which he celebrated the 100 days milestone with a joint appearance at the White House in the morning with the Democratic party's newest recruit, Arlen Specter, the Republican senator, who could potentially give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

He had another cause for celebration later in the day when both the House and the Senate voted in favour of his $3.4tn budget, the biggest spending bill in US history. Not a single Republican in either chamber voted for it – and neither did the Republican defector Specter.

The budget is one of the most redistibutive in recent US history, with measures that include putting aside cash for the creation of a nationwide healthcare system.

After a flight to the midwest to address a townhall-style meeting at Arnold, near St Louis, Missouri, Obama held his third televised press conference since taking office.

At the press conference, he expressed satisfaction with the way the first 100 days had gone and tested out a slogan for his era, the New Foundation, echoing the New Deal. But it seems likely to fall by the wayside, as have other slogans the Obama administration has tested.

Obama, a smooth talker when reading from a teleprompter, is frequently thrown by the impromptu nature of press conferences and appeared stuck when asked what had surprised, troubled, enchanted and humbled him in his first 100 days in office. He said he had been surprised by the convergence of so many crises. Most presidents had only to deal with two or three at the same time whereas he faced seven or eight, he said.

He was troubled by the lack of cooperation from the Republicans and, strugging to find an answer, said he was "enchanted" by those serving in the US military, although he admitted enchanted was not quite the right word.

And he was humbled by the limits on his power, a recognition that there were other power bases in the country such as bankers and Congress that did not do what he wanted.

Today, he wakes up with another 1,362 days of his first term still to go.

Obama Defended Induced Labor Abortions

Obama Vows To Confront 'Holocaust Deniers'

WASHINGTON (AFP) – At a ceremony Thursday remembering millions of Jews slaughtered in World War II, President Barack Obama reaffirmed the strong US bond with Israel and vowed to confront Holocaust deniers.

"There are those who insist the Holocaust never happened, who perpetrate every form of intolerance -- racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism and more," Obama told a gathering in the Capitol Rotunda organized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"We have an opportunity and an obligation to confront these scourges," Obama said.

"We have the opportunity ... to commit ourselves to resisting injustice, intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take, whether confronting those who tells lies about history or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda, those taking place in Darfur," he said.

The US president's speech came just days after a UN conference on racism where Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced Israel as "the most cruel and repressive racist regime."

Obama reaffirmed the "strong and enduring" bonds between the United States and Israel.

"The nation of Israel rising from the destruction of the Holocaust" was a source of hope to all those who commit to fighting intolerance, he said.

Among those at the gathering, which was part of the US Holocaust Museum's Days of Remembrance, were five Poles who between them saved the lives of scores of Jews and have been awarded the title of Righteous among the Nations by the Holocaust remembrance organization, Yad Vashem.

"The Righteous remind us that no one is born a savior or a murderer. These are choices we each have the power to make," Obama said of the Poles as well as the villagers of Le Chambon in France, which refused to turn away or turn in Jews during the war, and saved 5,000 lives.

Jozef Wolszczak, now 90, and the doyen of the group of Righteous, saved the lives of 53 Jews in occupied Poland during the war, buying 20 of them for a kilo of gold from the Germans after a raid, giving 30 jobs in his small factory and harboring three more in his home.

Tadeusz Stankiewicz's family built bunkers in the woods southeast of Warsaw, in which 60 Jews hid.

"We did it because it was the only thing to do. How can you watch so many people suffering and not lift a finger to help them?" Stankiewicz told AFP.

Ireneusz Rajchowski's family sheltered dozens of Jews in their home, including a man they helped smuggle out of the Warsaw ghetto.

The rescued Jewish man and his family survived the war. His daughter, Barbara Gora, was in the Capitol Thursday, along with two more Righteous Poles, Alicja Schnepf and Anna Stupnicka-Bando, and Krystyna Budnicka, the only member of her Orthodox Jewish family to survive the war.

"The Righteous teach us ... that if we have the courage to heed that 'still, small voice' within us, we can form a minyan for righteousness that can span a village and even a nation," said Obama.

A minyan is the quorum required for Jewish communal worship. More than 6,000 Poles have been awarded the title of Righteous among the Nations, the largest number of any country.

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, used his time at the podium in the Rotunda to take on Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian leader was "the number one Holocaust denier in the world," said Wiesel, whose mother and sister died at Auschwitz, his father at Buchenwald.

"He used the solemn setting of a United Nations gathering again to insult the state of Israel in a way that no civilized person should ever do," he said, thanking the United States for boycotting the UN meeting in Geneva.

Americans Growing Rage About Fraud Obama

Why I Live in the Middle of the Desert?
A Victim Of US Butchery Appeals
Mohammed Daud Miraki, PhD
4-20-9

"It was the middle of the night this past winter when the door of my house exploded out of its foundation. My family and I were awakened by the sheer noise of the explosion. My pregnant wife, my two daughters, my son and I stepped out of the house into our yard. As we approached the destroyed door of our yard, the intruding US soldiers had already entered the compound and they started firing at us. The bullets hit everyone in my family including my wife and our unborn child, two daughters, my son and I; everyone was killed except one of my daughters and I. After the shooting, the US forces ordered vicious attack dogs to drag the bodies of my family members out of the yard into the ally outside. I was also bitten by the dogs after I shielded my surviving daughter, who was also badly injured by an incoming US round. So, when I covered my daughter with my body from the attacks of these vicious dogs, the US troops ordered these vicious beasts to attack me as well. While my daughter and I were in great deal of pain from the injuries, the bodies of my pregnant wife, my daughter and my son were disfigured by the attack dogs of the US forces. The terror exercised by the US forces had created such a disastrous situation that my daughter and I were not in a state of consciousness and could not fully comprehend until the US troops left our village and our neighbors came to get us medical care. The painful molestation and disfigurement of the members of my family by the attack dogs and their bullet ridden bodies will always haunt me and my surviving daughter until the day we die. After my daughter and I recovered from our wounds, we took some of our belongings and a tent and moved to the middle of the desert in Laghmen Province since I could not live in the same house whose yard is stained with the blood of my wife and children." (My Interview with the Victims in Laghman Province , 2009) Ladies and gentlemen, I am leaving for Afghanistan on Thursday April 23, 2009. I wish to appeal on behalf of this father and daughter and raise money to build them a modest house away from where he used to live since his painful memories could not allow him to even visit his own village. I know those kind people who have always showed concerns for the victims in Afghanistan would be able to extend a helping hand to these victims. Kindly donate at www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com or contact me via email at mdmiraki@ameritech.net Sincerely, Mohammed Daud Miraki, PhD 5347 North Ravenswood Avenue Chicago , IL 60640 www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com mdmiraki@ameritech.net

What about the torture victims, Obama?

The US president could learn a lot from a juror who refused to accept that past injustices could not be addressed

Kathleen Hawk Norman was appointed forewoman, and led the charge as the jury imposed a death sentence for Daniel Bright III in 1996. The case seemed open and shut, and the entire penalty phase was over by lunchtime. It was an awful act; the worse because Bright turned out to be innocent.

Hawk Norman died unexpectedly last Thursday night, aged 54. Her obituary could teach President Barack Obama a thing or two.

When it comes to another tragic mistake – the recent predilection for torture – Obama tells the world that we should "look forward, not backwards". It is not the fault of the CIA agents, the argument goes, that they followed the law as the White House lawyers described it. Even though they might have wondered whether abusing prisoners was wrong, they were just doing as they were told, and we should not hound them now. For the security of the nation, the CIA must be allowed to get on with its job.

As Hawk Norman would have told Obama, she did not ask to sentence Bright to death; she was summoned by the court. Her father was a railwayman, and all her life she worked with the railways. When it came to jury service, Hawk Norman did as she was told, and followed the law as it was given to her. She considered the facts that the prosecution presented. Bright's alcoholic defence lawyer did nothing, so she assumed that there was nothing Bright could say.

Hawk Norman believed beyond a reasonable doubt that Bright committed murder, and was another guilty foot soldier in the war on crime; no doubt many CIA agents scoffed at their prisoners' claims of innocence in the war on terror. She was told that the death penalty would make society safer; just as some CIA agents perhaps thought that a spot of torture might secure America from another terrible attack.

Sad to say, Obama is afraid that if he looks too closely at the people who got us into this mess, he'll lose a lot of friends. Had Hawk Norman taken Obama's line, Bright might still be on death row. I well remember the first time I met her: she was aghast that the government might have misled her. The FBI hid a statement that not only exculpated Bright, but identified the real killer. From that day forward, she knew she could not move forward until she had looked closely at her past – why had this happened? How could she set it right?

One of her first acts was to apologise. Bright sent her a message, telling her not to blame herself, she had only been trying to do her civic duty. But this was not enough for Hawk Norman. "I felt so riddled with guilt," she said. "So embarrassed that I had been duped."

She appeared in court every time Bright's case came up, a red-haired woman with glasses who would bring an entourage of influential friends with her to ensure that justice was done. "She kept going, and going, and going and wasn't going to stop until I was free," said Bright. "She was my hero."

In 2004, finally Bright was set free. But Hawk Norman did not stop there. She set about helping him rebuild his life. She established an organisation, Jurors for Justice, as a focus for others who had been deceived by the legal system.

It only takes a few honest people, like Hawk Norman, for the truth to seep out. This is a lesson that Obama should take to heart. First, we learned about the torture memos. This week we discovered that waterboarding was not used just three times, but more than 250 – and 183 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed alone. Can you imagine? Pushing him ever closer to drowning, 183 times.

And on Wednesday this week, the British courts will consider again whether to reveal a small slice of truth about the torture of Binyam Mohamed.

Obama's slogan is bizarre. How should the victim of torture feel when we tell him that we are going to look only forward? We won't admit what we did to him, and we won't even say we're sorry?

And how will our children feel when they repeat our mistake, when they fail to learn from history because history got shuffled under the carpet?

Hawk Norman was a hero to Bright, a hero to justice and a hero of mine. Never too proud to admit her mistake, she led by example.