Torture, U.S Style

Folks,

It was common after 9/11 for the government and its uncritical supporters
to use "the terrorists will have won" (a "discursive prion" if there ever
was one!) in order to get what they want. Now I'm going to use it: the
Bush Administration is *torturing* human beings, has admitted it publicly,
and the majority of American people don't seem to give a shit. When we can
look our government in the eye as it tells us it's torturing people *to
make us safe*, and we don't even blink, then the terrorists really have
won. 

A government which tortures its political enemies -- according to Bush's
own claims about Iraq -- is a threat to humanity, an enemy of freedom, and
morally bankrupt.

From Harper's Weekly,

  The Bush Administration found it necessary to deny that torture will be
  used against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda leader captured in
  Pakistan last week, but confirmed that "routine techniques" such as
  sleep and light deprivation and withholding food and water and medical
  attention might be used. 

  [These so-called 'routine techniques' are, simply put, torture
  techniques; though perhaps on the less barbaric end of the spectrum,
  they are torture techniques nonetheless. If the government admits to
  doing this, I think it's safe to assume it's doing even worse things it
  won't admit to doing. --Kendall]

  Officials confirmed that during the questioning of Abu Zubaydah, an Al
  Qaeda leader who was shot several times when he was captured, American
  interrogators withheld pain killers; and they confirmed that terrorism
  suspects are routinely forced to stand or kneel in "uncomfortable
  positions" for long periods wearing black hoods in the extreme cold and
  heat. Officials confirmed that during the interrogation of Omar
  al-Faruq, another senior Al Qaeda operative, sleep and light deprivation
  and prolonged isolation were used, that Faruq was fed very little, and
  that he was exposed to temperatures ranging from 10 to 100 degrees. In
  the end, he decided to talk.

  Another Guantanamo Bay detainee attempted to commit suicide; it was the
  twenty-first such attempt. Military officials were conducting a criminal
  investigation into the deaths of two Afghan men at the American air base
  at Bagram, Afghanistan; evidence suggested that the men had been beaten
  to death while in U.S. custody.

I don't want to live under a government which tortures its political
enemies, in a country where the majority of my fellow citizens silently
support such crimes.

Kendall Clark
-- 
Jazz is only what you are. -- Louis Armstrong