Nov 10, 2005

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: The Torture Test

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: The Torture Test: "The Torture Test By Ray McGovern, TomPaine.com. Posted November 7, 2005. Recent revelations of CIA-run secret prisons abroad has put the issue of torture front and center once again."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just don't understand, WMD's and 9-11 aside, how this guy can get off scott free with no culpability. I assume you wanted to show me how civilians have suffered at the hands of the US/Bush. That's fine.....I understand your passion and your disgust at war.

But without the military....how do we stop people like Saddam from doing the same thing. Sure...we, along with the Soviets and the UK can take blame for giving him and Osama so much power.....but that doesn't help the present.

What do we do about African nations.......the money we send seems to only fatten the pockets of corrupt leaders.

What should we have done about Rwanda? The US, the UN and the rest of the world should have done something.......but what? Over 800,000 innocent people slaughtered and we watched it happen.
If we had sent our military in......and that would have caused added bloodshed.....would you have protested?
Kosovo?

Before the war, I wrote to our local newspaper and on other blogs that Saddam and his sons were reason enough to invade that country. I still believe that.

If in the next five years, Iraq is not a vastly better place than it was before we removed Saddam.....if they've been plunged into a bloody civil war....I will fully admit that my opinion about it was wrong...and that Bush fucked it up.

Mycos said...

Apparently Poe is still getting his "news" from FOX. The tip-off comes in the form of the disinformation he repeats here while honestly believing it it seems. He Blames Saddam Hussein for the deaths of all the Iraqi men, women and children who suffered and died as a result of US inspired UN sanctions. Everyone but the most short-sighted knows that it is only the people who suffer during economic sanctions and never the leaders, so one must ask themselves what was the real reason for them? The "Oil for Food" investigation is taking some turns that that are not at all complimentary to how many American (as well as others of course) private interests were able to insert themselves into a scenario which would have otherwise been under the eye of the worlds press.

As well, he uses Saddam Husseins name in the same sentence as 9/11, as if there were any connection whatsoever. Of course there isn't. In fact, Al Queda had made public declarations of the "evil" of Saddams secular regime and that he was a target of Al Queda, not an ally. How much more wrong can you get and what better an illustration can there be of the power of propaganda when disseminated by an unquestioning media i.e FOX, Judith Miller et al;.
He also uses the very existence of Saddams WMD arsenal as a point against him when those very same weapons were sold to him by the US as a bulwark against the Iranian onslaught, a war which Saddam started btw, ands a war that had the full backing of the USA, following the Iranian hostage crisis (Rumsfeld in particular playing a major part in the transfer of that weaponry BTW). He continues to say (pretend?) that the US really did not have any indication that Hussein had been stripped of his WMD's under the eyes and ears of the UN weapons inspectors, even though it and the CIA told the administration that they were confident there were NO WMD's left. IOW, it is a blatant lie when Bush contends that he had not been assured by many that they were quite sure they were all destroyed, Tenets statement on the matter to the contrary. you can be sure that Tenets lie to take the heat off the administration was the reason for both his Medal Of Freedom and his subsequent resignation. The CIA analysts would surely have a hard time working under a director politicized to such an extent....and he knew it. Then there's the statement about Saddams minders as somehow being relevant to their not finding any WMD's. First, they did find many weapons and they did destroy them. It is now quite clear that this is the case. But this is also what was reported back to the UN and the US back before the war, but ignored by Bush because it didn't suit his plans to occupy the Iraqi oil-fields (ever wonder why the only building occupied and protected from looting was the Iraqi Ministry of Oil?). But then there's the assertion that Saddams minders in some way obstructed the UN from doing their work. That's simply not the case. Hussein staged a couple of "refusals" as part of his political campaign to capture the hearts and minds of the international press and draw attention to the sanctions, but as for him being able to hide anything....there was obviously nothing to hide.

Now I could go on and on about how the picture that was painted by the administration and in large part continues to be stated by McLellan and FOX has been thoroughly refuted, but that would take more time than I have, never mind the obviously small attention span of the intended audience, so I won't. But if you have anything else specific that needs beating out of your head, just ask. I'll be happy to oblige ya.