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The Torture Never Stops
Author: BobR    Date: 02/13/2009 13:37:14

As a society, we have certain boundaries beyond which we do not cross. For most of us, we do not cross them because of empathy, our understanding of human dignity, and the moral codes we have learned or created. A small minority cannot be trusted to stay within those boundaries, so we create laws and a means to enforce them. But what happens when those we've entrusted with the power to enforce the laws step beyond the powers we've granted and become as bad as (or worse than) those whose transgressions demand prosecution? Our outrage is strong and justified, and they are made to pay for their crimes. What happens when this occurs - not at a local or state level - but at an international level?

This is a question that is becoming increasingly clear demands an answer. With a new president in office and FOIA information requests being granted once again, the documentation is startling, horrifying, and infuriating.

At the head of the list is documented evidence that two men were tortured to death just two days after Rumsfeld okayed the abusive treatment:
Newly declassified Defense Department documents describe a pattern of “abusive” behavior by U.S. military interrogators that appears to have caused the deaths of several suspected terrorists imprisoned at a detention center in Afghanistan in December 2002, just two days after former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques against prisoners in that country.

Just let that thought roll around on your tongue for a minute and see if you can keep from spitting it out in disgust - the U.S. tortured at least two men to death.

Another report says that with all the focus on waterboarding, the levels to which we've sunk are much lower, including slicing genitals with a scalpel:
The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed’s genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, “is very far down the list of things they did,” the official said.

Sexual deviancy seems to be a central component in the arsenal of brutality against prisoners, if the anecdotal evidence is any indication. Another prisoner reports:
His lawyer, Ejaz Naqvi, has filed legal papers with Mumbai magistrate's court, claiming the "white woman" removed all his clothes and showed him pornographic films.

In the papers, he claims that three foreigners, including the woman, sexually abused him, causing him "severe itching and wounds" on his body, including his genitals.

Mr Ansari, a devout Muslim, claims this amounts to torture because it is against his religion, The Sun newspaper has reported.

A court in the Indian city ordered medical checks on "wounds on his private parts and all over his body."

To help ensure that their medieval tactics did not see the light of day, the Pentagon used several tactics, including running secret prisons, hiding detainees identities from the Red Cross, and delaying the release of prisoners when the attention of the press might be harmful. This shows that the Pentagon was complicit and worked with the CIA. THAT generally means that a higher body (ie: the Bush Administration) coordinated that cross-department cooperation.

So that brings us back to the original question: what to do? A recent poll shows that 2/3 of Americans want the abuses of the Bush Administration investigated. Despite the flow of information, however, the darkest secrets are still being held back. Even Obama is getting redacted documents. Meanwhile, KKKarl Rove is ignoring Congressional subpoenas while commentating on FOX News and torture policy architect John Yoo is teaching at Berkeley University.

This may take an international effort. The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) based in Switzerland may be involved in this. In a report on torture in 2007, they did not specifically mention the U.S., but it's pretty clear who they meant:
OMCT’s efforts are nonetheless more indispensable than ever, for while the 20th century brought absolute condemnation of torture, the early 21st century is witnessing a worrying phenomenon, revealed since 11 September 2001: namely the tendency in certain Western countries to consider certain forms of torture as legally acceptable. While the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereafter the Convention against Torture) establishes the absolute prohibition of these practices, it describes them differently. Various governments therefore attempt to circumvent and to interpret this international definition in order to justify certain methods. This evolution is extremely worrying, since it entails a certain degree of relativism and the erosion of the prohibition of torture, thereby calling into doubt its absolute nature in the name of cultural differences. The 1993 Vienna Declaration, in reaffirming the universality of rights, reaffirmed that various cultures cannot relativise human rights. Yet today it is those who fought for this Declaration in Vienna who are currently relativising the absolute prohibition of torture, under the guise of the right to security or the anti-terrorist struggle.

OMCT is headed by Kofi Annan, the former head of the UN, so they do carry some weight. They can work with the UN to ensure that the criminals of the past Administration face up for their crimes against humanity at the Hague. Hopefully, the U.S. will cooperate and "rendition" these animals to The Netherlands for their trials.

One final bit of consolation: We've often speculated on where the Bush Administration criminals would run to avoid prosecution. Bush has a spot in Paraguay, and Halliburton moved to Dubai, so we always figured Cheney would fake his death and end up there. However, Dubai may not be a pleasant place to stay much longer; it is spiraling down in an economic free fall:
With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

Whither now, Dick?


 

240 comments (Latest Comment: 02/14/2009 13:40:36 by Random)
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