Yes, June, the United States DOES Torture... But Only a Little
Posted on
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
This morning's news provided me fodder for a new political posting from two separate but related stories. The first is from CNN, a report from a group of physicians dedicated to human rights that confirms what we already knew, some of the detainees held at Gitmo have been tortured. The second report, from the Wall Street Journal of all places, confirms that as early as 2002 Pentagon lawyers were looking at and approving harsh interrogation techniques that some military lawyers were pretty adamant could be considered torture. So yes, June, the United States really does torture people, has done for years and by the way, at least 11 of those people were never charged with any crimes despite being held for over three years.
In other words, we detained, tortured and imprisoned innocent people who were not terrorists.
The report in the CNN story came after two-day examinations with 11 former detainees who came from Afghanistan or Abu Ghraib in Iraq and were later shipped to the legal black hole of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Both medical and psychological tests proved these people were tortured, including such lovely treatment as "beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and sodomy." And unlike our own prison system, this treatment wasn't administered by other prisoners but by the jailers. Is this the type of treatment we should be inflicting on anyone?
Bear in mind, these people were not terrorists. They had not been charged with any crime when these acts were perpetrated. They were given no reason for their imprisonment. They were given no access to a jury of their peers, shown no evidence to explain why this punishment was being inflicted. They were just rounded up, shuttled off from one prison to the next and beaten, sodomized and electrocuted. And after three years of this vile shit, they were let go, completely innocent of any wrongdoing. These weren't suicide bombers, or decapitators. These were just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. They weren't allowed to speak with someone from their country's embassy. How would any American react if an American citizen had been treated this way? For fuck's sake, much of America was up in arms when a 19-year old American citizen was caned in Singapore, and he at least got a trial. How can we honestly claim moral indignity when American hostages are kidnapped overseas if our government is doing the exact same thing?
We can't, not without being the biggest fucking pile of hypocritical assholes on the planet. Our President and everyone he allowed to perform this kind of brutality on detainees are guilty of war crimes and should be suitably punished. Nothing would fill me with greater pride in our country than seeing this cabal of brutal fucksticks brought before an international war crimes trial and convicted.
The Wall Street Journal story is just as infuriating. In 2002, just months after Gitmo was opened, Pentagon lawyers debated and ultimately approved "harsh interrogation techniques." That includes approval by the grand pappy of the Pentagon himself, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. When it was suggested to these lawyers that perhaps asking the experts on interrogation, the FBI, about the efficacy of such extra-legal measures, they refused. Rummy was apparently "very jealous of other agencies" and it would have been "unthinkable" to bring that up to the Secretary.
Yeah, fuck you Donald. Rather than sully yourself by speaking to experts on the subject, you'd just rather try to drown some brown people. Even some military criminal investigators thought these techniques would "shock the conscience of any legal body" and warned that it "looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are made of." And yet, they went forward with these techniques based on a legal redefinition of the detainees' status, the idiotic "illegal enemy combatant" tagline that justified ignoring the laws of our land and the Geneva Conventions.
Tell me again why our President and his administration should not be impeached, convicted and thrown to the wolves of the international community for war crimes? The United States is no longer a place where the moral high ground exists, not when this type of behavior is encouraged by the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President and the President himself.
In other words, we detained, tortured and imprisoned innocent people who were not terrorists.
The report in the CNN story came after two-day examinations with 11 former detainees who came from Afghanistan or Abu Ghraib in Iraq and were later shipped to the legal black hole of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Both medical and psychological tests proved these people were tortured, including such lovely treatment as "beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and sodomy." And unlike our own prison system, this treatment wasn't administered by other prisoners but by the jailers. Is this the type of treatment we should be inflicting on anyone?
Bear in mind, these people were not terrorists. They had not been charged with any crime when these acts were perpetrated. They were given no reason for their imprisonment. They were given no access to a jury of their peers, shown no evidence to explain why this punishment was being inflicted. They were just rounded up, shuttled off from one prison to the next and beaten, sodomized and electrocuted. And after three years of this vile shit, they were let go, completely innocent of any wrongdoing. These weren't suicide bombers, or decapitators. These were just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. They weren't allowed to speak with someone from their country's embassy. How would any American react if an American citizen had been treated this way? For fuck's sake, much of America was up in arms when a 19-year old American citizen was caned in Singapore, and he at least got a trial. How can we honestly claim moral indignity when American hostages are kidnapped overseas if our government is doing the exact same thing?
We can't, not without being the biggest fucking pile of hypocritical assholes on the planet. Our President and everyone he allowed to perform this kind of brutality on detainees are guilty of war crimes and should be suitably punished. Nothing would fill me with greater pride in our country than seeing this cabal of brutal fucksticks brought before an international war crimes trial and convicted.
The Wall Street Journal story is just as infuriating. In 2002, just months after Gitmo was opened, Pentagon lawyers debated and ultimately approved "harsh interrogation techniques." That includes approval by the grand pappy of the Pentagon himself, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. When it was suggested to these lawyers that perhaps asking the experts on interrogation, the FBI, about the efficacy of such extra-legal measures, they refused. Rummy was apparently "very jealous of other agencies" and it would have been "unthinkable" to bring that up to the Secretary.
Yeah, fuck you Donald. Rather than sully yourself by speaking to experts on the subject, you'd just rather try to drown some brown people. Even some military criminal investigators thought these techniques would "shock the conscience of any legal body" and warned that it "looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are made of." And yet, they went forward with these techniques based on a legal redefinition of the detainees' status, the idiotic "illegal enemy combatant" tagline that justified ignoring the laws of our land and the Geneva Conventions.
Tell me again why our President and his administration should not be impeached, convicted and thrown to the wolves of the international community for war crimes? The United States is no longer a place where the moral high ground exists, not when this type of behavior is encouraged by the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President and the President himself.
Labels: Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, Government Corruption, Iraq, Politics, Torture
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:17 AM
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