Fight Fire With Compassion - Donald P. Gregg

[TacticalPeek]

Fight Fire With Compassion

By DONALD P. GREGG


Published: June 10, 2004


Recent reports indicate that Bush administration lawyers, in their struggles to deal with terrorism, wrote memos in 2003 pushing aside longstanding prohibitions on the use of torture by Americans. These memos cleared the way for the horrors that have been revealed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo and make a mockery of administration assertions that a few misguided enlisted personnel perpetrated the vile abuse of prisoners.

I can think of nothing that can more devastatingly undercut America's standing in the world or, more important, our view of ourselves, than these decisions. Sanctioned abuse is deeply corrosive - just ask the French, who are still seeking to eradicate the stain on their honor that resulted from the deliberate use of torture in Algeria. French soldiers had been tortured in Vietnam, in some cases revealing valuable information to their Vietminh captors. Senior French officers decided that the same tactics might work for them. As Alistair Horne put it in "A Savage War of Peace," use of torture may have won the battle of Algiers for the French, but it cost them Algeria.

snip

For the only time in my C.I.A. career, I disobeyed orders. I went to the chief bodyguard of President Park Chung Hee and told him that I found it difficult to work with the South Korean spy agency because it seemed more interested in stifling domestic dissent than in working against North Korea. I made clear that I was speaking personally, and that I had not been instructed to register a protest against their actions, of which the bodyguard was fully aware.

A week later, the powerful director of Korean intelligence was fired. He was replaced by a former justice minister, whose first action was to prohibit torture by the agency's officers.

Donald P. Gregg, national security adviser to George H. W. Bush from 1982 to 1988 and ambassador to Korea from 1989 to 1993, worked for the C.I.A. for 30 years. He is chairman of the Korea Society.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/opinion/10GREG.html


"make a mockery of administration assertions"
"make a mockery of administration assertions"
"make a mockery of administration assertions"

[punpirate]

1. Hmm... could be that Gregg...

... is part of that CIA "dump Bush" effort.

I do have to wonder if that's the intent, though, since Gregg is one of the most partisan of publicly-known CIA officials--there are some strong suggestions lingering still that Gregg was passing strategy info during the Iran hostage crisis to the Reagan campaign team in the 1980 election while he was working as a national security advisor to Carter.

He's also been tremendously loyal to Bush, Sr., over the years, so if this is meant to damage Junior's campaign, it could not have been done without Bush Sr.'s approval. Could it be that Poppy is showing Junior that Junior's made a mess of things and that Poppy's still in charge, if only because of his connections to the CIA?

After all, the elder Bushes wanted to see Jeb in the White House next.

Odd, odd, odd.

[Eloriel]

3. Exactly

It's tough figuring out the motives, loyaties and alliances at this time, isn't it?

One thing for sure: certain parts of our national governance infrastructure are in serious turmoil. Considering the reality of life under Bush2, I think that's a very good thing. Hope it all washes out on the side of The People, and the Constitution.

[UpInArms]

2. when people do the right thing

it has such a melodic ring:

A week later, the powerful director of Korean intelligence was fired. He was replaced by a former justice minister, whose first action was to prohibit torture by the agency's officers.

[myopic4141]

4. A question asked over and over.

Donald P. Gregg asked the same basic question that I had asked during the Reagan Adminstration's "Iran amok scam". One question was "what kind of democracy are we trying to promote to others" after finding out that a secret government was operating under Poindexter and company. Equally disquieting was the question "who in their right mind would believe that a people would favor a country that mines a harbor over a country that send mine sweepers to remove them" after finding that the US mined the harbor in Nicaragua. Same question applies to the blowing up of oil facilities vs supplying oil (US blowing up while USSR supplied).
Those were the questions of then; but, they apply to the current Administration as well. The most looming question for Bush is "how can we believe you have faith in either your religious tenets or American principles when you fail to follow them?" We cannot be comforted by Bush's "you should be comforted by the fact that everyone is following the law" when his Administration is working so hard to circumvent the spirit of that law. There is little comfort to be had by the image Bush is projecting of this nation.

[teryang]

5. I don't believe anything Gregg says

This is part of an orchestrated effort of the CIA to dissociate itself from the crimes of this administration. Gregg's story is patent bullshit in my opinion. Did he tell Park to free Kim Dae Jung? I don't think so. His appearance at this point with this contrived tale of the stellar moral qualities of a CIA putsch artist is only significant as a sign that some sort of power struggle is under way.