I think its going to take a long time for the American people to digest their passive participation in the performance of torture. Massive psychological traumas can take years to fully process, especially considering the scale of other events in which American torture took place. There are varying degrees of recognition though, much among arts, film and television, like this. Coney Island has a new ride:
But it was still shocking to many when artist Steve Powers created a Coney Island attraction called the Waterboard Thrill Ride. It's not really a ride, it's more of a peep show.
This is an act of artistic brilliance I believe. In the historic heart of urban American leisure, we are confronted with our collective guilt.
Since his self-inflicted traumatic experience he has decided perhaps it is "torture. Doubtlessly you have heard about this by now, so I won't dwell on it more than the following excerpts for context.
Of this, I believe. I believe in honesty and empathy. I trust in reports that reveal in 2002, the Department of Justice assured the Central Intelligence Agency interrogators who violated anti-torture laws they would be safe from prosecution. Emissaries only need a sincere "faith they caused no "prolonged mental harm." I believe that neither branch of government cares for what I hold dear.
A provocative ThinkProgress piece by Ali contains this excerpt from the impending issue of Newsweek:
[Suzanne Smalley:] On torture, why should the CIA be treated differently from the armed services regarding the use of harsh interrogation tactics?
[John McCain:] Because they play a special role in the United States of America and our ability to combat terrorists. But we have made it very clear that there is nothing they can do that would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act, which prohibits torture. We could never torture anyone, but some people misconstrue that who don't understand what the Detainee Treatment Act and the Geneva Conventions are all about.
Trolls on your marks. Get Set. Counting down: 3, 2, 1. Go.
John Ashcroft thinks it's okay to torture members of the United States Armed Forces. However, Mr. Ashcroft sometimes has problems with facts and reality. It seems unlikely that he would approve of the use of waterboarding on his own person. Perhaps waterboarding would help change his mind.
A special shout out to Michael Savage. The "brats" aren't faking autism. In Michael's case I'd say he's not faking stupidity either.
Just for the record, in case anyone gets confused, I'm voting for the candidate who works out (That's bad, Nutz?). He's a strong man, both physically and of character. You may have heard of him. His name is Barack.
Number of times I wanted Ron Paul to run the show: -1000
Number of insane things Congress has done: I lost count.
Keep your head down, this bazooka has a hair trigger.
Onward.
As I've long suspected based on various reports coming forward, it appears that during the testimony of John Ashcroft before Congress that high profile detainees such as Abu Zubaydah were abused, tortured and waterboarded months before the Bybee and Yoo Memos offering legal justification for such actions were even written.
But during questioning, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., pointed out that the abuse of Zubaydah had reportedly begun weeks, if not months, earlier. "Did you offer legal approval of interrogation methods used at that time ... prior to August 2002?"
"I have no recollection of doing that at all," Ashcroft responded. He added that he did not remember anyone else at the Justice Department doing so either. He said later in the hearing that Zubaydah’s interrogation "was done without the opinion that was issued on the first of August."
The unsavory details of torture techniques don't normally come up in polite conversations. Many people don't want to think about the subject. The average person devotes even less of their thoughts to the principles of resisting torture. To clearly understand exactly why the current leaders of our nation are guilty of war crimes the subject needs to be discussed. Only by examining torture from the perspective of the victim can the subject really be understood with full clarity.
Classified documents regarding torture have been released, with everything blacked out but "waterboarding." An astute person does not need classified material to learn about torture. The methods employed by the intelligence community today are not new. United States citizens suffered from all of these methods in the past, at the hands of other governments. It happened so regularly our military teaches courses in resistance techniques. The press may crave documents to point to as evidence, but they aren't necessary to learn the truth. References do follow the diary though.
Caution: Graphic and disturbing information after the flip.
Caught a video of conseva-Brit Christopher Hitchens being voluntarily waterboarded for a Vanity Fair story. His comments in the video are chilling, especially considering his prior support for the evil that is being done in the name of the good ol' red, white and blue. Or as he described the Iraq War a couple of years ago....a war to be proud of. Link and more to follow.
Here we are, in the near-aftermath, where the smoke has to some extent lifted on the legacy of our descent headlong into imperial madness.
We have now come to the point where those who bear the burden for enabling this lunacy are coming forward to prostrate themselves before us, and beg for mercy from those of us who knew the depths of their sociopathic zeal from day one.
One particularly sad example of those swept into the tide of bolstering aggressive war is supposed ‘liberal intellectual’ Christopher Hitchens; who emerged from a cocoon of rage and self-perceived emasculation following 9/11, reborn into a freshly-winged neo-con.
A man so indoctrinated with loathsome contempt for religion; he saw in his unlikely allies on the right an opportunity to wield his angry sword against those branded as fanatics. Yet, the ultimate irony finds him in bed with the very same monotheist ‘fascists’ he so desired to rid the world of at any cost.
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter recently requested that arch-contrarian Christopher Hitchens get in on the torture debate, Plimpton-style. Ever the badass, Hitchens accepted.
The only two qualifiers I would offer are: 1) as far as the real thing is concerned, it pretty much begins exactly where this demonstration ends, and that, 2) the truly awful thing about torture is the loss of autonomy and personal will. So such a demonstration, while salient, remains just that: a demonstration.
Of course I don't mean people here. I mean your average voters who watch some news and make attempts to educate themselves on the candidates. Do they know?
I mean it's all so incredible. A man who was himself tortured -- endorsing torture? It is unbelievable in the most literal sense of the word. And yet that's John McCain.
Earlier today when I was piecing this diary together, I asked the community whether people realize McCain is pro-torture. Kossack AnnCetera said that they do not, but added that accurate information might help people see the truth -- so long as it's palatable.
Unfortunately there's nothing palatable about the fact that torture is now a campaign issue in the year 2008 in the United States of America. But what is worse perhaps is people who are against torture voting for a man who is not.
That, apparently, is the difference between good torture and bad torture. At least according to the CIA.
Torture "is basically subject to perception," CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting
This is all according to some information which has not been made public this week, but should not be confused with the study that came out today citing signs of physical abuse/torture found on inmates examed by Doctors who are being held at Guantanamo.
The statement said the Marines conducted an investigation as soon as the YouTube video came to the attention of commanders.
"The actions seen in the Internet video are contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine and will not be tolerated," according to the statement.
On the video, (Lance Corporal David) Motari smiles as he is holding the puppy and then hurls the dog over a cliff. An unknown person operating the video cameras is heard laughing and another voice saying "that's mean, Motari."
Has Homeland Security determined that the puppy was not an enemy of America, though? Motari could simply have been protecting our country from juvenile canine terrorists.
That's right--members of the Bush Administration are about to receive a very, very sternly worded, written request from the attack pens of those rabid Democrats.
Most of us were taught in school that there are certain things that we simply don't do just because, well, we're the United States of America. And you'd think that under the most fanatically religious president we've ever had, you'd have a greater respect for these ideals.
Instead, what have we got?
* The people currently in custody on Gitmo for planning 9/11 may be manifestly guilty, but any guilty verdict may not be legitimate because the information was obtained via torture.
* If we believe the second Manning memo, the Iraq war is the first no-questions-asked war of aggression in American history.
* We have a president and an attorney general who think one needs to be briefed in order to determine whether waterboarding is torture.
* We have a president who thinks he can arrest anyone and hold them indefinitely.
The point being? Whoever is our next president will have the ardurous task of beginning something that will take several terms to do--restore who we are as a nation.
