This week, President Obama released several documents that indicate the widespread use of torture in the so-called “War on Terror” as well as a further description of the tortures used….In addition to waterboarding, we have sticking people in a box with insects, nudity used as a tool of humiliation, sleep deprivation and “walling” in which prisoners are thrown against a fake wall that makes a big noise that makes them think that in fact they have hit the wall a lot harder than they have.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jE5iJQobx6q1nypm9I4woOiNOlZwD97KGGB00
Of course, there are still those in the prior US administration that insist that this was not torture but torture by any other name is still torture….What’s disappointing about this is that the President exempts those that committed these crimes against humanity from any prosecution….I would be especially interested in prosecuting those who ordered acts of torture starting with former VP Dick “Himmler” Cheney.
It is also hard to believe that once the US was doing this it wasn’t doing other things even more graphic and damaging….The USA has history of this type of behavior during the cold war.
We live in a world where reality is often warped by television and other media and a population of Americans who are too stupid to recognize the difference….The fascistic TV show “24”, itself the creation of a dedicated neo-conservative, has presented us with the scenario of torture used several times to extract information from terrorists in life or death situations such as the whereabouts of a nuclear weapon that is going to be detonated….Has this type of situation ever happened? Most of the people tortured by the US since 09/11 were foot soldier level muhajeedin types picked up in Afghanistan predominantly who had little or no knowledge of world events….There have also been a number of innocent people tortured at Guanatanamo Bay and later released who wrote about their experiences.
Torture produces whatever you want people to say and this is often ridiculous and fantastic information which is readily jumped on by the torturers….Consider the many orange levels in post 09/11 USA false alarms that largely came about through torture.
Then there is this story….
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65608.html
The USA lost the moral high ground in fighting terrorism once it started employing torture….The difference that should be clear to the world between a strain of primitive backwards religious intolerance versus modern democracy ceased to be clear and became muddy and obtuse….For me, this struggle has lost all clarity and I refuse to even take sides anymore.
I can’t support the US’s actions but I’ve long been disgusted in America’s actions abroad….I no longer pay taxes but I think it might also be time to start looking into canceling my US citizenship.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jE5iJQobx6q1nypm9I4woOiNOlZwD97KGGB00
Of course, there are still those in the prior US administration that insist that this was not torture but torture by any other name is still torture….What’s disappointing about this is that the President exempts those that committed these crimes against humanity from any prosecution….I would be especially interested in prosecuting those who ordered acts of torture starting with former VP Dick “Himmler” Cheney.
It is also hard to believe that once the US was doing this it wasn’t doing other things even more graphic and damaging….The USA has history of this type of behavior during the cold war.
We live in a world where reality is often warped by television and other media and a population of Americans who are too stupid to recognize the difference….The fascistic TV show “24”, itself the creation of a dedicated neo-conservative, has presented us with the scenario of torture used several times to extract information from terrorists in life or death situations such as the whereabouts of a nuclear weapon that is going to be detonated….Has this type of situation ever happened? Most of the people tortured by the US since 09/11 were foot soldier level muhajeedin types picked up in Afghanistan predominantly who had little or no knowledge of world events….There have also been a number of innocent people tortured at Guanatanamo Bay and later released who wrote about their experiences.
Torture produces whatever you want people to say and this is often ridiculous and fantastic information which is readily jumped on by the torturers….Consider the many orange levels in post 09/11 USA false alarms that largely came about through torture.
Then there is this story….
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65608.html
The USA lost the moral high ground in fighting terrorism once it started employing torture….The difference that should be clear to the world between a strain of primitive backwards religious intolerance versus modern democracy ceased to be clear and became muddy and obtuse….For me, this struggle has lost all clarity and I refuse to even take sides anymore.
I can’t support the US’s actions but I’ve long been disgusted in America’s actions abroad….I no longer pay taxes but I think it might also be time to start looking into canceling my US citizenship.
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