Sunsara Taylor on FOX’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on 4th Anniversary of the Iraq War

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On March 19, the four-year
anniversary of the Iraq war, in a lightening exchange on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor,
Sunsara Taylor of World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime, seized the high
ground with exposure and basic truths about the Iraq war and U.S. policy on
torture rarely heard on national TV.

1. She exposed the war as a
crime, not a mistake, and nailed the premises as false: “Iraq had
nothing to do with 911. Iraq
had no WMDs. George Bush lied to the world, he lied to the troops and he lied
to the American people.”

2.  When O’Reilly denied the U.S. has tortured
anyone and challenged her to name someone, Taylor documented the case of Maher
Arar(1) a Canadian citizen abducted by U.S. officials at JFK, sent to Syria to
be tortured for a year, and later exonerated by the Canadian government. She
exposed how the German and Italian governments have issued warrants for the
arrest of U.S. officials involved in rendering and torturing of their
citizens(2). She quoted John Yoo, a top Bush legal advisor who justified
torture, even stating in a public debate that crushing the testicles of a small
child could be legitimate if “the President thinks he needs to do
that.”(3). She quoted U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski who ran
the prison at Abu-Ghraib talking about Rumsfeld’s direct hand in the torture in
that prison(4).

When O’Reilly dismissed all
these examples as “America
hating” and asked why no one knew about any of this, Sunsara threw it
back: “You know why people don’t know? Because it’s done in secret.
Because it’s covered up and news programs like yours don’t report the truth….
you are complicit and you are covering up war crimes and crimes against
humanity.” 

As www.newshounds.us
(“We watch FOX, so you don’t have to”) puts it: “Bill O’Reilly
met his match in Sunsara Taylor of worldcantwait.org… He badgered her and pulled
‘the Hannity,’ repeating the same questions and comments over and over in faux disbelief
but she kept up with him, ignoring his inane distractions, arguing the facts
passionately, calling the war illegal and citing Nuremberg.”

  —

(1) A Canadian government
inquiry cleared Maher Arar of all terrorism allegations on September 18, 2006. The
Prime Minister made a formal apology to Arar on behalf of the Canadian
government and offered him $10.5 million plus legal fees to a settle a lawsuit.
 Arar is a 34-year-old wireless
technology consultant, a Canadian citizen born in Syria. On Sept. 26, 2002, while in
transit in New York’s
JFK airport returning home from a vacation, Arar was detained by US officials
and interrogated about alleged links to al-Qaeda. Twelve days later, he was
flown to Syria
in shackles, where he was held in a tiny “grave-like” cell for ten
months, beaten, tortured and forced to make a false confession.    http://www.maherarar.ca and http://www.ararcommission.ca/.

 

(2) An example of Italian
government’s action against U.S.
extraordinary rendition is the Imam Rapito episode. This Islamist cleric was
kidnapped in a joint CIA-SISMI operation in Milan
on February 17, 2003, and rendered to Egypt. He was tortured both in Italy and Egypt. He was released February 11,
2007, at which time an Egyptian court ruled that his imprisonment was “unfounded.”
Investigating prosecutors in Italy
have sent extradition requests for 26 US
citizens who have been indicted for this rendition, including head of CIA in Italy. A trial
is scheduled to begin in June 2007.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition

 

(3) John Yoo debate with
lawyer Doug Cassel, January 8, 2006, Chicago
public forum

Cassel: If the President deems
that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the
personÕs child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty.

Cassel: Also no law by Congress. That is what you wrote in
the August 2002 memo.

Yoo: I think it depends on
why the President thinks he needs to do that.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11488.htm

 

(4) Brig Gen. Janis
Karpinski, testifying Bush Crimes Commission, January 21, 2006

JK: And he said, the only
memorandum is the one that’s posted out here–it was posted on a column, in the
cellblock. Right outside this little admin office that they were using.

MC: What did that memorandum
say?

JK: The memorandum said that
it was an approval of harsher interrogation techniques.

Q: And who had signed that
memorandum?

JK: That memorandum was
signed by the Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld.

MC: And what kinds of
techniques were authorized in that memorandum, signed by Donald Rumsfeld,
Secretary of Defense?

JK: It was one page, and he
authorized sleep deprivation, stress positions, meal disruption–serving their
meals late, not serving a meal. Leaving the lights on all night while playing loud
music. Issuing insults or criticism of their religion, their culture, their
beliefs.

MC: And was there a note in
his handwriting on the side?

JK: Yes, in the margin on
the left-hand side.

MC: And what did that
say? 

JK: It said, “Make sure
this happens!!” With two exclamation points. And it was written alongside
of the list of the interrogation techniques.

— International Commission
of Inquiry on the Crimes Against Humanity of the Bush Administration,
www.Bushcommission.org

  

  

Transcript of March 19
INTERVIEW of Sunsara Taylor by Bill O’Reilly

BOR: Where am I making my
mistake here, Ms. Taylor?

ST: We are 4 years today
into a war that was launched on the basis of lies, that has cost over half a million
Iraqi lives, thousands of U.S. soldiers’ lives, it has led to an unmitigated
disaster for the Iraqi people. The destruction of their infrastructure, the
fastest growing refugee crisis in the world — over 100,000 Iraqis fleeing Iraq
each month-because of what this country has done. And just to be clear, to
finish your question, there were no WMDs, there were no links to Al Qaeda. This
colonial occupation was –

BOR: Colonial — let’s take
it one by one. You say the war was founded on lies.

ST: It was.

BOR: And the big lie was
what?

ST: Iraq had
nothing to do with 911. Iraq
had no WMDs. George Bush lied to the world, he lied to the troops and he lied
to the American people.

BOR: Did Bill Clinton lie to
the world when he said that he believed that Saddam had WMDs?

ST: We’re here on the 4-year
anniversary of an invasion–

BOR: Ms. Taylor, are you
going to answer the question? Did Bill Clinton lie to the world when he said he
thought Saddam had WMDs?

ST: I don’t know when he
made the statement. He might have been lying. I don’t know.

BOR: All right, you say that
there were 600,000 Iraqis killed, correct? According to the United Nations the Iraqi
body count is 53,952 since 2003. How does that equate with 600,000? This is in
the United Nations report, I have it right here in front of me.

ST: According to the Lancet
study, the medical journal in England,
it’s over 600,000. But I want to ask you, how many tens of thousands of deaths
are acceptable to you? How many hundreds of thousands are okay? This is an
illegal war. It’s a war of aggression by Nuremberg
standards.

BOR: It’s a legal war.

ST: It’s a war crime.

BOR: If it was a war crime
there would be action. It was not illegal because of the violation of the ceasefire
in the first Gulf War. The Lancet is a British medical journal run by far-left
people. You just used their facts.

ST: For four years the U.S. has tortured people in Iraq,

BOR: Let me ask you the same
question I asked the reverend [“Name a single person who has been tortured.”]

ST: Maher Arar, who has a
suit against the U.S.
and it’s been taken up to the Supreme Court. Maher Arar was tortured–

BOR: What did they do to
him?

ST: He was abducted at JFK
airport, he was completely innocent. He was rendered, he was shipped across the
world.

BOR: How was he tortured?
What did they do?

ST: He was beaten, he was
kept in sensory deprivation. This has happened time and time again.

BOR: You believe him?

ST: This is why the German
and the Italian government have extradited U.S. officials.

BOR: They haven’t extradited
anybody. They said that they believe that it happened.

ST: They have indicted-

BOR: Okay, this man’s case
isn’t adjudicated so far. We don’t know what happened to him. There was another
man who may be–

ST: John Yoo, one of the top
lawyers of George Bush’s administration, said in a public debate that George Bush
has the right to torture somebody, including, quote, by crushing the testicles
of their small child in front of them. I quote you from a public debate. This
is George Bush’s lawyer. This is the legal doctrine.

BOR: Whose small child was
that? Who was the child that got his testicles crushed?

ST: This was what he was
arguing is defensible.

BOR: You don’t know which
and he doesn’t either.

ST: This is the man who is
crafting the Military Commissions Act. And you know why people don’t know? Because
it’s done in secret. Because it’s covered up and news programs like yours don’t
report the truth. You have to tell people.

BOR: If it’s done in secret,
if it’s done in secret, how do you know it happened?

ST: Because it’s been
documented around the world.

BOR: Where are the documents?
I don’t see them. Where are they? Do you have them?

ST: Because people like you
don’t play them. Because you don’t want–

BOR: Well, can you give them
to me?

ST: Can I give them to you?
You’re the reporter — allegedly.

BOR: You’re making all these
slanderous accusations against your own government.

ST: These are facts.

BOR: They’re not facts. Give
me the documentation, I’ll put it on.

ST: — against the
government. the Bush administration. The Military Commissions Act legalized torture.

BOR: The International Red
Cross is at Guantanamo
Bay.

ST: Abu Ghraib, the whole
world saw it.

BOR: Who ordered Abu Ghraib?
Who ordered it?

ST: Rumsfeld’s handwriting
is on the walls of Abu Ghraib.

BOR: Rumsfeld’s handwriting
is on the walls?

ST: Yes, according to Janis
Karpinski, who was the brigadeer general in charge– You can have Janis Karpinski
come on–

BOR: I did — I had her on
twice.

ST: She testified to this.
This was military doctrine. You can put your head in your hands but you are complicit
and you are covering up war crimes and crimes against humanity. And if people
in this country do not step up and pour into the streets in protest like they
did last Saturday, to bring this war to a halt, in our millions, then we’ll be
complicit too.

BOR: Why aren’t they pouring
into the streets?

ST: Why? First of all many
of them are. But more of them need to be. And history is full of examples where
people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds– and it
starts with a few. 20,000 on Saturday.

BOR: Let me just recap.

ST: And everybody listening
should go to worldcantwait.org

BOR: The United Nations says
that there have been 59,000 Iraqis dead.

ST: And that’s acceptable to
you?! 59,000 deaths, that’s okay with you– for a war that had nothing to do
with the causes we were told.

BOR: So you say that Don
Rumsfeld’s handwriting is on Abu Ghraib, is that what you’re saying?

ST: I am quoting Janis
Karpinski. She testified to that.

BOR:  Okay, she was the general who was cashiered because
she didn’t oversee it. And the final thing is that you believe that your country
is an evil–

ST: I said — most of the
American people and the people of Iraq and the people around the world make a distinction
between the American people and the Bush administration, and I think we have to
take responsibility for stopping this–

BOR: But the Clinton administration
thought that Saddam had WMDs too.

ST: We need to impeach
George Bush for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

BOR: With all due respect
Ms. Taylor I think you’re really way out there but I appreciate you coming in and
letting people hear what you have to say and they can make their own decision.

ST: This war needs to stop
and we have to stop it.

BOR: If you want to stop it,
then you need to stop being hysterical and get your facts–

ST: I am talking about what
is really happening. You want to dismiss life and death of thousands and hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi people. These are facts.

BOR: You are simply a woman
who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. But that ‘s okay.

ST: These are the facts on
the ground in Iraq.