Gord's Notebook : BUSH :STATE OF THE UNION

Monday, January 28, 2008

BUSH :STATE OF THE UNION - U.S.THE TORTURE STATE

There was an excellent CBC/ BBC Documentary Mystery Flights on the CBC's The Passionate Eye on Renditions and torture which can be watched in segments on YOUTUBE. Unfortunately , for some reason Embedding has been disabled on YOUTUBE- is it a matter of copyright or censorship?

Here's the link:
CIA MYSTERY FLIGHTS at YouTube PlanetUSAnia
CIA MYSTERY FLIGHTS

It is described as :

For some time now it has been an open secret that the CIA has flown terror suspects across the globe and handed them over to governments notorious for their poor human rights record. Critics see this as a ruse to outsource torture seeking to avoid legal responsibility. But not all 'delicate' questioning is delegated to foreign governments. In cooperative countries so-called 'black sites' were set up where US agents had full control but due to fact that the sites were nominally under foreign jurisdiction (like Guantanamo Bay) human rights guaranteed by US law were considered not applicable by the administration. Yet still the agents would assume typically governmental activities like arresting, detaining and interrogating suspects, even under foreign jurisdiction.

STATE OF THE UNION - U.S.THE TORTURE STATE

Here once again is Condoleeza Rice defending kidnappings / renditions, torture and other crimes . She also warns Europeans that the U.S. is the Super Power and can find ways to silence any European government . Next they could have European leaders or family members or friends disappeared or just make things very difficult for those countries who object in any way to U.S .foreign policies. Condi " makes them an offer they can't refuse". One wonders if she had been in power when Martin Luther King in the 1960s was making his speeches and holding illegal demonstrations would she have sent him to Guantanamo or just disappeared .Remember at that time the U.S. was involved in the Cold War with Russia and China and fighting a war in Vietnam so King could have been characterized as being guilty of sedition and giving aid and comfort to America's enemies. One must also remember in the 60s there were millions of Americans who either were suspicious of Dr. King or just hated him because he was claiming that America was in fact not a just society. It also shows that just because someone is an African American woman doesn't mean that she automatically is in support of human rights except for those who are middle class or wealthy.

Gitmo on CBC- Renditions and the Disappeared
Aired on June 11, 2007
The Bush Administration is flinching under a series of blows to its enemy combatant policy.

A U.S. appeals court which has ruled that the government cannot indefinitely detain an immigrant named Ali Al-mari without laying charges.

And twenty-five CIA agents face a judge in Rome...accused of kidnapping a muslim man who was flown to Egypt -- where he says he was tortured.

At the same time, European investigator Dick Marty has just released a report with what he calls proof of CIA secret prisons in Poland and Romania.

Michael Scheuer worked for the CIA for 22 years and is the author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. Architect of the original rendition program under the Clinton administration, he defends the practice.

He calls it successful yet it is generally agreed that most of the people imprisoned are not guilty of terrorist actions. Besides war is tough and if you have to use Nazi style techniques that's just too bad. So forget the Nuremberg trials or Universal Human Values . This he believes is just more wailing and crying of those crazy human rights groups . He seems to believe Human Rights can be taken away from anyone who is deemed an enemy of American security or interest .So the American Constitution and The Bill of Rights can not be applied in a time of war and surely should not protect the rights of non-Americans . And as a recent Judgement in the U.S. court claims all " detainees " are " Non-persons" and so have no legal rights .

For more on Gitmo's legal limbo, Avi talks to Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who calls it a 'breakdown of justice'.

Ah well it doesn't matter we in the west have our own set of values . We are by definition superior to all other peoples in the world . So we have permission from God I guess to treat all non Westerners in whatever way we please. Though Americans view all Non-Americans as all being inferior to the American Race or Nationality . Their only loyalty is to their Father Land and not to other peoples or nations.

and for more on the Bush legacy here's Al-Jazeera
C.I.A. Burn Video Tapes of Terror Suspect Torture- Al-Jazeera
The U.S. C.I.A. admit burning old interrogation videotapes to hide the brutal methods used against suspects. (less)
Added: December 09, 2007