Bread and circuses
Nov. 8th, 2005 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockThis is just too disgusting for words:
Jamadi’s bruises, [a forensic pathologist who examined the case records] said, were no doubt painful, but they were not life-threatening. Baden went on, “He also had injuries to his ribs. You don’t die from broken ribs. But if he had been hung up in this way [with his hands tied behind him in a painful position known as a "Palestinian Hanging"] and had broken ribs, that’s different.” In his judgment, “asphyxia is what he died from—as in a crucifixion.”
So basically we've at least done the equivalent of crucifying one if not more Iraqi prisoners so far. But see, now it's all right 'cause they've made it legal:
The Bush Administration has resisted disclosing the contents of two Justice Department memos that established a detailed interrogation policy for the Pentagon and the C.I.A. A March, 2003, classified memo was “breathtaking,” the same source said. The document dismissed virtually all national and international laws regulating the treatment of prisoners, including war-crimes and assault statutes, and it was radical in its view that in wartime the President can fight enemies by whatever means he sees fit. According to the memo, Congress has no constitutional right to interfere with the President in his role as Commander-in-Chief, including making laws that limit the ways in which prisoners may be interrogated. Another classified Justice Department memo, issued in August, 2002, is said to authorize numerous “enhanced” interrogation techniques for the C.I.A. These two memos sanction such extreme measures that, even if the agency wanted to discipline or prosecute agents who stray beyond its own comfort level, the legal tools to do so may no longer exist.
via Hullabaloo
And this is pretty interesting too:
Cheney is seeking to persuade Congress to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency from the proposed torture ban if one is passed by both chambers.
***
Without confirming or denying the existence of such prisons, Bush said, "Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people."
He pointedly noted that Congress shares that responsibility with the administration.
"We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture," Bush said.
via Rising Hegemon
Well we do not torture except, you know, when we do. I don't see what Cheney's all upset about, though, I mean they've got memos that say it's totally ok to run secret prisons and torture and kill anybody deemed a terrorist (with or without any real evidence), and that Congress can't do a thing about it, so there.
Jamadi’s bruises, [a forensic pathologist who examined the case records] said, were no doubt painful, but they were not life-threatening. Baden went on, “He also had injuries to his ribs. You don’t die from broken ribs. But if he had been hung up in this way [with his hands tied behind him in a painful position known as a "Palestinian Hanging"] and had broken ribs, that’s different.” In his judgment, “asphyxia is what he died from—as in a crucifixion.”
So basically we've at least done the equivalent of crucifying one if not more Iraqi prisoners so far. But see, now it's all right 'cause they've made it legal:
The Bush Administration has resisted disclosing the contents of two Justice Department memos that established a detailed interrogation policy for the Pentagon and the C.I.A. A March, 2003, classified memo was “breathtaking,” the same source said. The document dismissed virtually all national and international laws regulating the treatment of prisoners, including war-crimes and assault statutes, and it was radical in its view that in wartime the President can fight enemies by whatever means he sees fit. According to the memo, Congress has no constitutional right to interfere with the President in his role as Commander-in-Chief, including making laws that limit the ways in which prisoners may be interrogated. Another classified Justice Department memo, issued in August, 2002, is said to authorize numerous “enhanced” interrogation techniques for the C.I.A. These two memos sanction such extreme measures that, even if the agency wanted to discipline or prosecute agents who stray beyond its own comfort level, the legal tools to do so may no longer exist.
via Hullabaloo
And this is pretty interesting too:
Cheney is seeking to persuade Congress to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency from the proposed torture ban if one is passed by both chambers.
***
Without confirming or denying the existence of such prisons, Bush said, "Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people."
He pointedly noted that Congress shares that responsibility with the administration.
"We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture," Bush said.
via Rising Hegemon
Well we do not torture except, you know, when we do. I don't see what Cheney's all upset about, though, I mean they've got memos that say it's totally ok to run secret prisons and torture and kill anybody deemed a terrorist (with or without any real evidence), and that Congress can't do a thing about it, so there.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 06:21 pm (UTC)Seriously, though, the US needs to get a spine and recognize that everyone, not just citizens, has unalienable rights.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 07:42 pm (UTC)You're right, of course, what the hell was I thinking? :)
Seriously, though, the US needs to get a spine and recognize that everyone, not just citizens, has unalienable rights.
Yeah this whole Animal Farm-esque "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." shit is getting very old.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 12:33 am (UTC)So... does this mean that most of the crap spewing out of Hollywood were initially designed as torture devices in Eastern European hellholes?
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 02:19 am (UTC)It explains so much, doesn't it?
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 02:23 am (UTC)Highlander 2.
Chris Katan's entire career.
Star Wars, the prequel.
It... really does. Does this make me a tinfoil hat moonbat?
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 02:35 am (UTC)Yes, welcome brother.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 06:54 pm (UTC)Wouldn't Orwell be vomiting right about now - probably blood, in fact, from his secure cell in a foreign country where he most certainly would NOT be being tortured?
I keep waiting for the rest of this country to wake up. And waiting. And waiting...
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 07:45 pm (UTC)I'm waiting for the apologists to start in on how this guy was a high level terrorist and undoubtedly deserved what he got...and how we would've gotten some valuable information from him if only he hadn't...you know...died.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 10:18 pm (UTC)I heard several heads exploding yesterday in my region, including my own. It's just completely fucked up cognitive-dissonance hypocrisy par excellence bar none, but I already know nothing but bullshit comes from that man's cakehole. Ain't nothing new there, just the magnitude of the brown mountain.
*BOOM*
Sorry. Did it again.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 01:11 am (UTC)Like "Nobody has done anything wrong in this administration, which is why we've taken the unprecedented step of mandatory ethics refresher courses for government employees."
It's like the Reagan years all over again.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 03:33 am (UTC)... which was like the Nixon years all over again...
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 01:58 am (UTC)The CIA is considering a probe into this whole 'secret torture prisons in the Warsaw block' story.
NOT because having secret torture prisons is bad and they want to spank whoever set them up.
Because they might need to prosecute whoever leaked this information.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 02:00 am (UTC)(We outsource it to private firms who do it for cheaper.)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 02:22 am (UTC)The CIA is considering a probe into this whole 'secret torture prisons in the Warsaw block' story.
NOT because having secret torture prisons is bad and they want to spank whoever set them up.
Because they might need to prosecute whoever leaked this information.
Well, ya know, they have to keep their priorities straight. And we know how much this administration hates leakers...
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 03:35 am (UTC)Durr... /B-b