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
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:17 AM
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Saving Lives, Damning Souls
Posted on
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
by Gary A. Ballard
The CIA has always operated as a shadowy organization, sometimes following questionable policies with enough moral ambiguity to provide a fertile ground for equally questionable tactics. Mining the harbors of Nicarauga, smuggling drugs and selling weapons to Iran to fund the Contras, secret drug research programs, brainwashing techniques, propping up the Ba'ath Party in Iraq, overthrowing the government of Iran and installing the Shah in 1953, all of these things have been attributed to the CIA since its inception. It comes as no real surprise then that the CIA has been the frontrunner organization in America's recent embrace of torture to fight the war on Terror. Just last week, we learned that videotapes of torture sessions involving waterboarding by CIA operatives were destroyed to "protect the identities of the operatives involved." Of course, the protection such operatives required was not from revealation to our enemies but from criminal prosecution once our government de-assified its collective head and chose to follow the law again. But now we have a former CIA operative who participated in torture speaking out, and his words are a slap in the face.
This man admits he used waterboarding. He admits that now he considers waterboarding torture, and that he regrets using the technique. How nice of him. The most galling part of his statement is that the use of the technique he now regrets "saved lives." He traded away America's good name, America's soul, to "save lives."
Bully for you.
I do understand that there are people working their asses off to make me safe. I understand there are a metric fuckton of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are now more likely to be tortured and decapitated when they are captured because someone thought waterboarding was A-OK.
I also understand that as a citizen of this country, I never authorized agents to torture in my name, to break the laws of this land to make me safe. The cost is entirely too high. Every person, guilty or not, who was tortured in the war on terror, was ostensibly tortured IN MY NAME, and in the name of every other American citizen. Those acts of barbarism were done without my knowledge, without my consent, without even the backing of the laws of this land, and they were wrong. They tarnish the very soul of this entire country and everyone in it. Not only were the wishes of the American people that we NOT torture anyone made explicit in the law, those wishes were ignored for what? The sake of expediency? To justify more abuses of the law such as warrantless wiretapping and indefinite imprisonment without the right to object to such confinement?
Kiriakou says that he regrets the torture because "Americans are better than that."
No, it was not necessary at the time. We haven't moved beyond that because not only are we still doing it, the Bush administration has been attempting to make sure those techniques are legal now and are retroactively legal. His cronies in the CIA are destroying evidence just in case he can't bless those acts with the legal stamp. We haven't moved beyond it because assholes like you haven't accepted that such acts are wrong now and more importantly were wrong then. The lives that were supposedly saved, a quantity that cannot be measured because we'll never know what would have been, those lives were not worth damning our souls with the stink of barbarism.
America is SUPPOSED to be better than that, but we've let ourselves believe the lie. We've let ourselves believe the lie that we can do no wrong, that we are better than everyone else. The ugly truth is we have allowed ourselves to fall to a mentality that is no better than the vicious bastards we claim to oppose.
This man admits he used waterboarding. He admits that now he considers waterboarding torture, and that he regrets using the technique. How nice of him. The most galling part of his statement is that the use of the technique he now regrets "saved lives." He traded away America's good name, America's soul, to "save lives."
Bully for you.
"It's easy to point to intelligence failures and perceived intelligence
failures, but the public has to understand how hard people are working to make
them safe," [Kiriakou] said.
I do understand that there are people working their asses off to make me safe. I understand there are a metric fuckton of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are now more likely to be tortured and decapitated when they are captured because someone thought waterboarding was A-OK.
I also understand that as a citizen of this country, I never authorized agents to torture in my name, to break the laws of this land to make me safe. The cost is entirely too high. Every person, guilty or not, who was tortured in the war on terror, was ostensibly tortured IN MY NAME, and in the name of every other American citizen. Those acts of barbarism were done without my knowledge, without my consent, without even the backing of the laws of this land, and they were wrong. They tarnish the very soul of this entire country and everyone in it. Not only were the wishes of the American people that we NOT torture anyone made explicit in the law, those wishes were ignored for what? The sake of expediency? To justify more abuses of the law such as warrantless wiretapping and indefinite imprisonment without the right to object to such confinement?
Kiriakou says that he regrets the torture because "Americans are better than that."
"Maybe that's inconsistent, but that's how I feel," he said. "It was an
ugly little episode that was perhaps necessary at that time. But we've moved
beyond that."
No, it was not necessary at the time. We haven't moved beyond that because not only are we still doing it, the Bush administration has been attempting to make sure those techniques are legal now and are retroactively legal. His cronies in the CIA are destroying evidence just in case he can't bless those acts with the legal stamp. We haven't moved beyond it because assholes like you haven't accepted that such acts are wrong now and more importantly were wrong then. The lives that were supposedly saved, a quantity that cannot be measured because we'll never know what would have been, those lives were not worth damning our souls with the stink of barbarism.
America is SUPPOSED to be better than that, but we've let ourselves believe the lie. We've let ourselves believe the lie that we can do no wrong, that we are better than everyone else. The ugly truth is we have allowed ourselves to fall to a mentality that is no better than the vicious bastards we claim to oppose.
Labels: Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, Fascism, Government Corruption, Habeus Corpus, Iraq, Politics, Presidential Campaign 2008, Torture
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 8:54 AM
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Mukasey and the Water
Posted on
Friday, November 02, 2007
by Gary A. Ballard
One of the stories coming out of Washington this week has been the contentious debate over the confirmation process of Judge Mukasey as Attorney General. For weeks, it seemed as if Mukasey would be a shoe-in to replace Raging Douchebag Alberto Gonzales as AG. Democrats spoke of Mukasey as a consensus candidate, one without any huge ideological hangups. But then a strange thing happened. Someone in the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Mukasey a simple question, and Mukasey's answer was neither simple, nor did it especially answer the question. The question was a masterful political move, and one I hope signals a sea change in the manner in which the Senate handles the White House from this moment forward.
The question was, "Do you consider water-boarding torture?"
Sane, rational people without any sort of authoritarian agenda should be able to answer that question quite easily without resorting to semantic discussions or abstract wankery. The phrase "a shock to the conscience" does not need to be invoked. To my mind, one shouldn't even need to reference the Geneva Conventions to determine the answer to this question. One only need examine the history of the "interrogation technique" known as waterboarding to determine the answer. One only need look at the names our country will be associated with, and the answer becomes clear.
The caring priest of the Spanish Inquisition used waterboarding. A prisoner in the tender embraces of Stalinist Russia could look forward to a terror dunking. One shouldn't forget that Cambodia's Khmer Rouge used the technique. In the halls of history, the United States of America, the "we don't torture" Americans, the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" Uncle Sams, the "no cruel or unusual punishment" champions of the U S of A, we use waterboarding. We will be placed in history among the luminaries of oppression, brutality and needless slaughter such as Josef Stalin.
If waterboarding isn't torture, then we should apologize to Cambodia for illegally bombing the country during the Vietnam War (something we should do anyway). If waterboarding isn't torture, we should apologize to the Soviet Union for the Cold War. And if waterboarding isn't torture, the Spanish Inquisition should be given its reputation back. After all, these people used waterboarding against a great enemy that threatened them and such harsh techniques were justified until that enemy was defeated.
It is torture, Judge Mukasey. Claiming you can't answer one way or the other because it's a classified technique is legal waffling, considering just how much knowledge the public has of the technique. Refusing to comment affirmatively because to do so would require you as Attorney General to actually prosecute those who ordered and carried out the use of the technique is a gutless, weasel move that speaks of cowardice and systemic corruption. If you as Attorney General would not confirm this technique as illegal and against the tenets of the Constitution, then you are no more effective a replacement for the spineless, mewling twat that was Alberto Gonzales than a cardboard cutout.
The Justice Department has been eaten away from the inside by an institutional cancer, a disease of the heart and mind that has replaced integrity with obedience, politics with justice. The department needs a firm hand to weed out the inbred political incompetence and base corruption and restore one of America's vital government institution. It requires someone who would actually enforce the legal subpoenas issued by the Congress on people like Harriet Miers and Karl Rove, no matter what the White House had to say about it.
But most importantly, the job requires that you take a stand against the vile attacks on America's soul that criminals like George W. Bush, Jr. and Dick Cheney have launched. It requires that you admit that waterboarding is a torture that stains all Americans' hands with blood
Update: I found this fantastic article on waterboarding, written by Malcolm Nance, a former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, California. This man knows all about torture techniques, as he's trained our soldiers how to resist such techniques for years.
The question was, "Do you consider water-boarding torture?"
Sane, rational people without any sort of authoritarian agenda should be able to answer that question quite easily without resorting to semantic discussions or abstract wankery. The phrase "a shock to the conscience" does not need to be invoked. To my mind, one shouldn't even need to reference the Geneva Conventions to determine the answer to this question. One only need examine the history of the "interrogation technique" known as waterboarding to determine the answer. One only need look at the names our country will be associated with, and the answer becomes clear.
The caring priest of the Spanish Inquisition used waterboarding. A prisoner in the tender embraces of Stalinist Russia could look forward to a terror dunking. One shouldn't forget that Cambodia's Khmer Rouge used the technique. In the halls of history, the United States of America, the "we don't torture" Americans, the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" Uncle Sams, the "no cruel or unusual punishment" champions of the U S of A, we use waterboarding. We will be placed in history among the luminaries of oppression, brutality and needless slaughter such as Josef Stalin.
If waterboarding isn't torture, then we should apologize to Cambodia for illegally bombing the country during the Vietnam War (something we should do anyway). If waterboarding isn't torture, we should apologize to the Soviet Union for the Cold War. And if waterboarding isn't torture, the Spanish Inquisition should be given its reputation back. After all, these people used waterboarding against a great enemy that threatened them and such harsh techniques were justified until that enemy was defeated.
It is torture, Judge Mukasey. Claiming you can't answer one way or the other because it's a classified technique is legal waffling, considering just how much knowledge the public has of the technique. Refusing to comment affirmatively because to do so would require you as Attorney General to actually prosecute those who ordered and carried out the use of the technique is a gutless, weasel move that speaks of cowardice and systemic corruption. If you as Attorney General would not confirm this technique as illegal and against the tenets of the Constitution, then you are no more effective a replacement for the spineless, mewling twat that was Alberto Gonzales than a cardboard cutout.
The Justice Department has been eaten away from the inside by an institutional cancer, a disease of the heart and mind that has replaced integrity with obedience, politics with justice. The department needs a firm hand to weed out the inbred political incompetence and base corruption and restore one of America's vital government institution. It requires someone who would actually enforce the legal subpoenas issued by the Congress on people like Harriet Miers and Karl Rove, no matter what the White House had to say about it.
But most importantly, the job requires that you take a stand against the vile attacks on America's soul that criminals like George W. Bush, Jr. and Dick Cheney have launched. It requires that you admit that waterboarding is a torture that stains all Americans' hands with blood
Update: I found this fantastic article on waterboarding, written by Malcolm Nance, a former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, California. This man knows all about torture techniques, as he's trained our soldiers how to resist such techniques for years.
Labels: Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, Fascism, Government Corruption, Presidential Campaign 2008, Raging Douchebag Week, The Stalin Monologues, Torture
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:29 AM
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