Disgusting
Under the leadership of George Bush, the US has now descended to the level of Argentina under the generals, or Chile under Pinochet. This is the most shameful story i ever hope to read.
The article goes on to quote a CIA spokesperson dismissing the charges. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture," he (Paul Gimigliano) said.
Which, as anyone who watched any of the recent Republican debates, or read Andrew Sullivan's recent article on the "Verschärfte Vernehmung" as practiced in Germany under the Nazis, knows is a bald-faced lie.
What the practitioners of this form of government never seem to learn is that it always ends badly for them.
Always.
Six human rights groups urged the U.S. government on Thursday to name and explain the whereabouts of 39 people they said were believed to have been held in U.S. custody and "disappeared."
The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said they filed a U.S. federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act seeking information about the 39 people it terms "ghost prisoners" in the U.S. "war on terror."
"Since the end of Latin America's dirty wars, the world has rejected the use of 'disappearances' as a fundamental violation of international law," professor Meg Satterthwaite of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's School of Law said in a statement.
The report said suspects' relatives, including children as young as seven, had been held in secret detention on occasion.
The article goes on to quote a CIA spokesperson dismissing the charges. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture," he (Paul Gimigliano) said.
Which, as anyone who watched any of the recent Republican debates, or read Andrew Sullivan's recent article on the "Verschärfte Vernehmung" as practiced in Germany under the Nazis, knows is a bald-faced lie.
What the practitioners of this form of government never seem to learn is that it always ends badly for them.
Always.
Labels: George Bush, torture
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
2 Comments:
Sullivan's reference to "cold baths" (inducing hypothermia) gave me pause. I have a friend who was in the military back in the late 70s, and I think some years into the 1980s. He told a tale of being in a "simulation" of being a POW. His regiment went through this simulation of several days' length. Then most, but not all, went back to their normal duties. It was those that remained that had the "real" training. They were now truly prisoners: they thought they'd be going back to their normal lives, but they were detained. No questions were allowed; any attempt to ask a question was met with insults, at the very least.
The worst was that these soldiers were held naked in a concrete room, and sprayed with cold waters. This was in winter in a cold climate. They were allowed to get to the borderline of fatal hypothermia before they were allowed to warm up.
My question now is: who was being trained? The troops to "resist" torture? Or the torturers themselves?
By
Anonymous, at 7:47 AM
Hi Barry,
Thanks for this entry. When I heard this report yesterday I was totally sickened. I found myself wondering if this type of horror has been going on for years in our name? have we simply been unaware? Or... is this a new low? a byproduct of Bush's so called war on terrorism??
I long to believe it's an anomaly... that this level of barbarism didn't take place under the Clinton administration.
Yogi Beaver is planning to speak out against torture and (what she considers) illegal restraint/detention of human beings during her reign. It's not much but she'll do what she can in the quest for a more humane, sane and peaceful world.
By
Anonymous, at 9:49 AM
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