Bush’s torturers follow where the Nazis led
Posted on October 8, 2007 by pjwalker911
The Nazis argued that “the acts of torture in no case resulted in death. Most of the injuries inflicted were slight and did not result in permanent disablement”. This argument is almost verbatim that made by John Yoo, the Bush administration’s house lawyer, who now sits comfortably at the Washington think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
To keep America secure the US military and Government will and has used any actions they deem necessary . And now its revealed that the British also used harsh and abusive interrogation techniques on Iraqi prisoners/ POWs.And yet they claim that our Western values are superior to those of Islamic nations.
But when we do it we have "God on our side" that's our defense.
Updated 1:19 & 1:43 PM, Nov. 7, 2010
"Alas, in so many ways Guantánamo is not the exception but far closer to the rule of our criminal justice system, and the case of Omar Khadr, rather than being an anomaly of the War on Terror, is in all too many ways positively all-American."
In the 1980s "Death Squads" in El Salvador and Honduras were backed by the US government to suppress any insurgency and to eliminate all critics of the US backed government in El Salvador. Those assassinated were not all armed insurgents but included peaceful critics of the government which included journalists, teachers, doctors, social workers, priests and nuns etc. . These Death Squads were under the direction of John Negroponte .
In order to create the appearance of an all out civil war or sectarian conflict Negroponte was brought into Iraq to set up a similar operation to the ones he directed in Latin America.
In Iraq "Shia Death Squads" were trained and deployed by Negroponte and the US military and the White House to slaughter Sunni Iraqis. By fueling such sectarian violence the US could then say that the problem in Iraq is not caused by the United States' invasion force but was an internal domestic dispute which had become brutally violent.
Latin death squads invade Iraq
And here's another video of the US Military and Government's use of Shia Death Squads ( the El Salvador Option)to suppress Sunni Insurgents which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi Sunnis which included Sunni Insurgents and innocent non-combatant Sunnis-all Sunnis were treated as the enemy which led to Ethnic Cleansing of Sunni by Shia Death Squads. So much for American forces spreading democracy and supporting the rights of all of Iraqi citizens.
American agenda under Bush /Cheney Regime was the dismantling of Iraq as a nation state and the destruction of its civil society.
Shia Death Squads - Iraq - Part-3/5-
Anyway the abuse and torture of prisoners (detainees) in Iraq is once again demonstrated with some graphic video evidence presented in a British court dealing with a case brought forward by over 200 former inmates of UK prisons in Iraq, What is shown in this video is a clip from just one of the over 1200 extant videos of British soldiers abusing prisoners. What they also show is that the soldiers were trained to carry out interrogations and how to breakdown a prisoner using abusive harsh techniques.
Unfortunately this will have little impact on Americans who are no longer interested in the various wars they are fighting.
Another reason this will have little effect on Americans or on its government because in their "Legal Revisionism" they have insisted on defining torture in such a strict unnatural manner given its common let alone its Legal meaning and usage.
So now we have the updated newspeak version of the definition of the word "torture". Words have meaning and can have dire consequences when twisted by governments , bureaucracies, those in positions of authority from a president a prime minister or a general or some other person in a position of authority in order to give an action which otherwise would be considered immoral or illegal thereby making such actions have a veneer of Legality.
The highly imaginative conjured up definitions of words such as "torture" "abuse" "detainee" "interrogation" "Rights" "human decency " "dignity" "National Security" was and is part of a policy to give a legal veneer to what otherwise is considered illegal and immoral.
Odd how so many Uberconservatives, Neocons and Neoliberals and the Religious Right and much of the wealthy elite (Christian Dominionists) attack notions such as relativism except when it serves their purpose. The governments of the USA and Britain and their Fascist like enablers are in fact in the business of language distortion to suit their own agenda ala George Orwell .
It is also noteworthy that the definition of words such as "torture", "Abuse", "POW" these Brown Shirted thugs have invented in order to cover their asses are nullified by decades of numerous legal and ethical experts who have defined "torture" and "abuse" "POW" etc. in order to be able to prosecute individuals or military personnel who were involved in such brutal actions which are essentially crimes and to take on those in power who gave the orders. These would include such as those at Nuremberg, those who are experts working with International Human Rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch , the International Committee of the Red Cross the World Court and the Special addendum to the Geneva Conventions dealing with the treatment of all prisoners and what is and what is not acceptable.
No prisoner no matter whether designated POW or Enemy Combatant or Spy or insurgent(those who defend their homes)they are to be treated in a civilized manner that is they are shown some basic respect as being fellow human beings that is they are treated with dignity . It is accepted by all non-American and non-British authorities that there various forms of torture which are physical and psychological telling a prisoner you going to kill him or their spouse or children etc is a form of psychological abuse and torture.
The Americans and British believe it is only torture if there is organ failure, death or maiming . So beating up prisoners is OK, raping them with led lights is OK, simulating fellatio , having male POWs parade naked in front of guards male and /or female these are just guys having fun blowing off a bit of steam that's what the US military claims or that it is just a few bad apples when in fact such abuse is policy and condoned or is just ignored. Besides as most American citizens would say if the US or UK military or other agencies are holding someone then they must be guilty and don't deserve our sympathy. But then again we shouldn't be surprised as new reports come out officially or leaked to the press illustrating what many had feared might happen that is how this acceptance or the ignoring of physical and psychological abuse of POWs has slowly trickled down as it were to the police forces and to civilian prisons in the United States. For instance they use tasers on people who are pulled over for a traffic violation or an individual has an epileptic seizure is treated as a belligerent hard core criminal.
Interrogation Techniques at 'Britain's Abu Ghraib' Revealed
Video showing brutal mistreatment is submitted during high court proceedings brought by former Iraqi inmates By Ian Cobain November 06, 2010 "The Guardian"
- -Evidence of systematic and brutal mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at a secret British military interrogation centre that is being described as the UK's Abu Ghraib emerged today during high court proceedings brought by more than 200 former inmates.
Warning: video contains material that viewers may find disturbing
Chase Madar at Tomsdispatch argues that much of the abuse taking place at Guantanamo is not that unusual as it appears to be the norm in American civilian prisons throughout the United States.
As he also points out there are those liberals who get all upset about "child soldiers" in foreign countries but are indifferent to the suffering of child soldiers held at Guantanamo or prisons in Iraq or Afghanistan , These same liberals are also indifferent towards the plight of children being held in American civilian prisons who are treated the same as adult prisoners which is contrary to International Law and therefore in itself constitutes abuse.
Beyond this abuse juveniles in American prisons are subject to physical and psychological abuse which may also constitute torture. But as we have seen over the years that few Americans are concerned about their fellow citizens being abused in American prisons.
No One Cares About Child Soldiers if They're in Guantanamo by Chase Madar, TomDispatch via Alternet,Nov. 5, 2010
In many ways, Guantanamo is not the exception, but far closer to the rule of our criminal justice system.
...it so happens that a great many of America’s unsung domestic prisons also routinely abuse inmates, Guantánamo-style, are unable or unwilling to prevent inmate rape, employ long-term, sustained solitary confinement (which gives waterboarding a run for its money), and in actual practice are often beyond the rule of law. Confessions, true or false, obtained through violence and threats, aren’t restricted to Guantánamo either. They are not all that hard to find in our contiguous 48 states. And for the rest of our prison system, where are the outraged German journalists? Why are no British “law lords” calling the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado, a “legal black hole” as law lord Johan Steyn termed Guantánamo?
Alas, in so many ways Guantánamo is not the exception but far closer to the rule of our criminal justice system, and the case of Omar Khadr, rather than being an anomaly of the War on Terror, is in all too many ways positively all-American. To be sure, taking a child soldier you’ve captured in a foreign land, whose interrogation entailed stringing him up half-naked in a five-foot-square cell with wrists chained to the bars at eye level and a hood clamped tightly over his face, then prosecuting him for “murder” because he allegedly tossed a grenade on a foreign battlefield, does present some legal issues that don’t ordinarily come up in Spokane or Chillicothe.
But Gitmo, a “betrayal of American values”? Would that it were! Alas, for nearly every grisly tabloid feature of the Khadr case, you can find an easy analog in our everyday criminal justice system. In a sense, much of our War on Terror has proven a slightly spicier version of our “normal” way of doing criminal justice.
Child Soldiers and Juvenile Offenders
The Khadr case should have been a bit queasy-making for us Americanos. Hasn’t there been a surge of concern for child soldiers in book clubs and church groups across the land? Turns out, however, that this long-distance compassion goes up in smoke at closer range. The second a child soldier points his gun at an American, not another African, it’s adiós victimized child, hello hardened terrorist.
The hypocrisy in all this is less flaming than it may appear. After all, clemency for youth offenders, be they child soldiers or just local kids, runs against the American grain these days. If we routinely prosecute children even younger than 15 as adults -- and we do -- why should a foreign child soldier be any different?
In fact the U.S. even has a few dozen inmates doing life without parole for acts committed when they were 13 or 14, and most of these sentences were mandatory rather than the prerogative of a particularly nasty judge. (Some small progress: last May in Graham v. Florida the Supreme Court decided that juveniles can get life without parole only if there’s homicide involved.) Overall, the U.S. has in recent years had precious little mercy for its children, or anyone else’s.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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