Porn Producer Invokes Bush/Yoo Defense
The violations of civil liberties here is horribly ironic. You can torture people, but not pretend to.
Written on October 7, 2008 | Posted in News, President Bush, law, society, torture | Leave a comment
The violations of civil liberties here is horribly ironic. You can torture people, but not pretend to.
A secret Red Cross report reveals that some C.I.A. interrogation techniques constitutes torture.
The man in charge of Hoa Lo prison where McCain was a POW supports his presidential bid and denies harm.
Gen. Myers shut down legal scrutiny of military torture. What law hasn’t Bush’s Washington broken?
Now if only W.H. Press Secretaries would do this: Instead of talking, just shut up instead of lie.
Your tax dollars at work
Support the war in Iraq? Then these videos are for you.
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/deadpuppy.flv[/flv]
U.S. Soldier in Iraq throws a puppy off a cliff
Read more about it here, here, and here.
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/ussoldierstorturehurtdog.flv[/flv]
U.S. Soldiers throwing rocks at an injured dog
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/ussoldierstorturesheep.flv[/flv]
U.S. Soldiers throwing a flash bang at a farmer and sheep
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/abugharibsoldier.flv[/flv]
Oh ya, they torture people too
Kill more puppies: Support McCain in ‘08
Update: Motari found?
Image: http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/apr_bush_mccain_070425_ms.jpg
WARNING: Nudity & Graphic Images
Disturbing new photos have been posted on Wired with accompanying video from a lecture on Abu Ghraib by psychologist Philip Zimbardo. The interview article, How People Turn Evil, From Stanford to Abu Ghraib, provides a fascinating look into human psychology. For ease of viewing the photos are posted below:
Keep in mind that this is the doing of the U.S. military and C.I.A., paid for by your tax dollars, under the management of President Bush, and that GOP presidential front runner John McCain wants to continue the mission in Iraq. McCain also recently voted to continue torture practices:
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/mccainflipflop.flv[/flv]
Olbermann on McCain
Horrendous crimes occur in all wars. The decision to commit to war or vote to support war is the acknowledgment that rapes, mutilations, and torture will occur because of it, and reasoning behind such a decision must weigh those consequences. The threat posed by Iraq certainly did not qualify, and those Americans who supported the Bush administration’s march to war are all culpable, including those who voted Republican in 2004.
As Zimbardo states in his interview, “situations can be sufficiently powerful to undercut empathy, altruism, morality and to get ordinary people, even good people, to be seduced into doing really bad things”. The current presidential election has the potential to be such a situation, and voting for the Republican nominee in November is a vote to continue the Iraq war, perpetuating the horrible crimes that occur because of it.
This is the symbol of America under Republican leadership.
We should be proud of our armed forces and those who protect our nation through intelligence gathering. It is the Republicans that have created a situation that turns good people evil. Vote for the grown ups. Vote Democratic.
See also:
All photos from Wired
Senate gives Mukasey a pass
Watching U.S. Senators question Attorney General Michael Mukasey at the Justice Department Oversight session is infuriating. Not only does Mukasey refuse to directly answer any question, no matter how simple, the senators give him a pass. This is oversight malpractice.
When asked by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) of the Senate Judiciary Committee if the U.S. military is waterboarding or has waterboarded a person in the past, Attorney General Michael Mukasey just said “not that I’m aware of.”
Liar. Liar.
U.S. Soldiers in Vietnam waterboarding a suspect near Da Nang in 1968.
If a random blogger knows about U.S. military abuses in the past, how could any Attorneys General not know?
Mukasey is a failure as the top law officer in the U.S., and as a responsible U.S. citizen. He, more than any other, has the power to reign in the legal power to torture other people, and he not only refuses, but refuses to answer basic questions about it.
Watch the testimony on fast forward and look at how many times he looks down or looks away from the questioner, each time he is being asked a direct question about something that makes him uncomfortable. Even when Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass) asked Mukasey that if Mukasey himself was waterboarded, would he consider it torture, Mukasey could only say “It would feel like torture.”
Dispicable. Dispicable.
Still want the Republicans in power?
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images: http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2007/0710/mukasey_1029.jpg, http://alittlereality.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-waterboarding-torture.html
Canada to diplomats: U.S. tortures people
Truth - Another reason to move to Canada.
A training document produced by the foreign ministry openly admits the United States is a country where prisoners are at risk of torture. “The manual - part of a training course on torture awareness for diplomats - also includes Israel, China, Iran and Afghanistan on its watch list.”
This really shouldn’t be news at all. Our American government tortures people. Period. And those who chose to vote the current administration back into office, while knowing from the media that the government allows torture, are complicit.
Back in 2005 the U.S. openly admitted to its torturing ways. AFX News Limited reported that the “acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity. ” Sources at the UN said “this is the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities.”
Our Canadian friends to the north should be applauded for their honesty. Friends tell friends what they need to hear, not what they want to here. The foreign ministry, though indicating this is not a policy document representing the views of Canada, deserve credit for ’speaking truth to power’ as they say, even if indirectly.
Excerpts from the BBC article:
[The document] also classifies some US interrogation techniques as torture.
“The training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government,” said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.
The manual lists US interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and the blindfolding of prisoners under “definition of torture”.
It also refers to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held. Critics say it ridicules Ottawa’s claims that Omar Khadr is not being mistreated.
There was no immediate response from either the US or Israel.
The torture awareness course was introduced after Ottawa was strongly criticised for its handling of the case of a Canadian who was deported from the US to Syria in 2002.
Syrian-born Maher Arar - who was accused of being an al-Qaeda member - says he was tortured during his 10 months in a Damascus jail - a claim strongly denied by Syria.
A Canadian government inquiry exonerated Mr Arar of any links with terrorist groups. It also showed that Canadian diplomats had not had any formal training on how to detect whether detainees had been abused.
Read the full article here.
With the 2008 election now in full swing, public discourse on the subject of torture appears to have been moved to the back burner. It is amazing to me that the elimination of torture is not higher on the list of priorities of the presidential aspirants. Here is a small sampling of what the current crop would do on their first days as president.
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/freddayone.flv[/flv]
Fred Thompson - First day in office
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/billdayone.flv[/flv]
Bill Richardson - First day in office
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/rudyfirstday.flv[/flv]
Rudolph Giuliani Ad “First Day”
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/firstdays.flv[/flv]
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson - First days in office
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/mccaindayone.flv[/flv]
John McCain - First day in office
The only presidential candidate with the sense to close the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on the first day of his presidency is the same man who said it would be “fine with me” if the U.S. military stayed in Iraq another 100 years.
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/mccain100years.flv[/flv]
McCain on U.S. forces in Iraq
Wonder what the other Republican candidates think about “enhanced interrogation techniques”? Here is a small example:
[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/romneytorture.flv[/flv]
Mitt Romney on Guantanamo Bay
And the torture continues…
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200602/r72694_504843.jpg
http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/ross/archives/1212196.jpg
Rachel Maddow, Alan Keys & Chris Matthews
Quote of the day
Waterboarding appears to have entered American lexicon as the debate over the torture technique increases in public discourse.
This evening on MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews responded strongly to Rachael Maddow’s (Air America) assertion that the star of the Des Moines Register GOP debate was former ambassador Alan Keys:
“I’d like to waterboard you right now.” -Chris Matthews to Rachael Maddow
Matthews is great, but it appears he needs to tone his tongue. Just a few days ago he said:
“If I was black I’d vote for Barack [Obama].”
Ug.
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http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/475184830_1785e7bfe6.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ywywvc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Keyes
