"the President of the United States is
not bound by laws banning the use of
torture and anyone he orders to torture
another could not be prosecuted"

Thieves Fall Out in the Bush
Administration Over American Torture in
Saddam's Torture Chambers, But It
Happened at Gitmo and in Afghanistan
Too. Don't Kid Yourself. 5/6

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5733-2004May5.html
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Hiding Our Eyes from the Truth of
Torture Policy

Anne Applebaum connects some dots in her Washington Post column, saying America could get the full truth of its new torture policy if anyone wanted to do so. But the White House won't tell, for obvious reasons. Congress' Republican majority apparently endorses this moral and legal corruption. The media can only get so much information. Which leaves the American people. Are we collectively so fearful that we will allow our government to make torture the law of the land? Will we demand some answers -- and some changes -- from the people we elected to represent us? If torture is, indeed, the new law of this land, America has sewn some truly evil seeds.

More Appalling Iraqi Torture Photos
Emerge. Impeachment Now! It Won't Happen
But It Should. America is Disgraced and
an Islamic Backlash for the Bush Cartel
Corporate Culture of Torture and
Humiliation Threatens Our National
Security. 5/6

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5623-2004May5.html
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"Regarding the Torture of Others"

Regarding the Torture of Others

There is more and more recording of what people do, by themselves. At least or especially in America, Andy Warhol's ideal of filming real events in real time -- life isn't edited, why should its record be edited? -- has become a norm for countless Webcasts, in which people record their day, each in his or her own reality show. Here I am -- waking and yawning and stretching, brushing my teeth, making breakfast, getting the kids off to school. People record all aspects of their lives, store them in computer files and send the files around. Family life goes with the recording of family life -- even when, or especially when, the family is in the throes of crisis and disgrace. Surely the dedicated, incessant home-videoing of one another, in conversation and monologue, over many years was the most astonishing material in ''Capturing the Friedmans,'' the recent documentary by Andrew Jarecki about a Long Island family embroiled in pedophilia charges.

An erotic life is, for more and more people, that which can be captured in digital photographs and on video. And perhaps the torture is more attractive, as something to record, when it has a sexual component. It is surely revealing, as more Abu Ghraib photographs enter public view, that torture photographs are interleaved with pornographic images of American soldiers having sex with one another. In fact, most of the torture photographs have a sexual theme, as in those showing the coercing of prisoners to perform, or simulate, sexual acts among themselves. One exception, already canonical, is the photograph of the man made to stand on a box, hooded and sprouting wires, reportedly told he would be electrocuted if he fell off. Yet pictures of prisoners bound in painful positions, or made to stand with outstretched arms, are infrequent. That they count as torture cannot be doubted. You have only to look at the terror on the victim's face, although such ''stress'' fell within the Pentagon's limits of the acceptable. But most of the pictures seem part of a larger confluence of torture and pornography: a young woman leading a naked man around on a leash is classic dominatrix imagery. And you wonder how much of the sexual tortures inflicted on the inmates of Abu Ghraib was inspired by the vast repertory of pornographic imagery available on the Internet -- and which ordinary people, by sending out Webcasts of themselves, try to emulate.

What is torture?

So, coincidentally, BoingBoing reader Tony sends in this timely reminder that real definitions of torture do exist. Here is one of them -- from the UN Convention Against Torture, which the US government ratified along with 70 other countries. Tony says, "Every time I turn on the TV or radio, the media and the government itself is talking about US military 'abuses.' Let's be clear: what's happening at Abu Ghraib is not 'abuse' but 'torture.'"

If I were thinking clearly last night, I'd have told my friend, "It's torture when they do it. It's abuse when our guys do it."
Link

Torture

Torture Inc.

But it's not torture?

More U.S. Torture Detailed

CNN: ACLU: Records show Marines tortured Iraqi prisoners. The abuse of naked Iraqi prisoners received the bulk of publicity, but those incidents were just some of many clandestine occurrences in which detainees endured shock, burns and mock executions, newly released Pentagon records reveal.

"Legalizing Torture "

The torture memoranda

Hellboy and Tux Torture

Contract to torture

torture is not an american value

I am joining a growing list of Americans who oppose the confirmation, of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General.

As the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, Gonzales's advice led directly to the abandonment of longstanding federal laws, the Geneva Conventions, and the United States Constitution itself. Our country, in following Gonzales's legal opinions, has forsaken its commitment to human rights and the rule of law and shamed itself before the world with our conduct at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The United States, a nation founded on respect for law and human rights, should not have as its Attorney General the architect of the law's undoing.

In January 2002, Gonzales advised the President that the United States Constitution does not apply to his actions as Commander in Chief, and thus the President could declare the Geneva Conventions inoperative. Gonzales's endorsement of the August 2002 Bybee/Yoo Memorandum approved a definition of torture so vague and evasive as to declare it nonexistent. Most shockingly, he has embraced the unacceptable view that the President has the power to ignore the Constitution, laws duly enacted by Congress and International treaties duly ratified by the United States. He has called the Geneva Conventions "quaint."

[. . .]

With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him.

While it is vital that we defeat our enemies, we must not become them in the process. As a nation, we must stand united against Albert Gonzales and everything he represents. Torture is not an American value.

So Torture Is Legal?

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44874-2004Jun15.html
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Tales of torture

Should torture be legalized?

More from the torture beat

Torture’s

chronicle.com/free/v51/i20/20a01201.htm#torture
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Another Fan Of Torture Reveals Himself

Torture and Mayhem

The Mysterious Torture Jet: This story about a jet owned by a Red Sox executive that has apparently been used for secret flights, abductions, 'renditionings' and expulsions, transport of VIPs under the radar screen, and many trips in and out of Guantanamo, and which recently had its markings changed when private plane-watchers began logging its trail, appeared a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I have seen no follow up. Anyone heard anything new? More Intrigue in the Kazemi Torture-Murder Case: Today Canadian PM Paul Martin acknowledged that he knew Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi had been brutally tortured and murdered by Iranian authorities two years ago for daring to photograph a protest demonstration in Teheran. But this information was withheld so that the doctor who could refute the Iranian assertions that her fatal head wound was caused by 'a fall' (that was the official Iranian court ruling), could safely sneak out of Iran and not face a similar fate himself. That has now happened and the details of the torture are gruesome, even by Iranian standards. It is now likely that the Iranian ambassador to Canada will be expelled and Canada will cut off diplomatic relations with the barbaric government of that country. Civilized world we live in, eh? US Conservative says Bush is No Conservative: An interesting speech by conservative historian John Lukacs argues that Bush, Reagan and other neocons are not true conservatives, and have abandoned basic conservative principles in favour of lazy, psychopathic imperialism and dangerous populist nationalism. Interesting reading. US One-Way 'Free' Trade Policy Draws Global Reprisals: Canada, the EU and six other countries this week launched countervailing duties against US goods in protest against continuing US non-compliance with the WTO ruling that the Byrd Amendment violated 'free' trade agreements. Under the Amendment, the US has illegally imposed billions of dollars in phony 'anti-dumping' duties against goods from all its trading partners and paid over the proceeds to the industry oligopolies supposedly hurt by the dumping actions. Watch this one -- it signals the end of NAFTA and the demise of 'free' trade. Nothing is ever as it seems. Apologies to those upset by yesterday's April Fools' post. The graphic is, of course, from Hu gh Macleod.

Documenting torture

Frank conversation about torture

" US Military in Torture Scandal"

Torture and the chain of command

The administration's reaction to torture

DailyKos: Torture came from on high

dailykos.com/story/2004/6/13/185254/079
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MoveOn.org: Responding to Torture

moveon.org/torture
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The New Yorker on the torture at Abu
Ghraib

In case anyone missed this, there is a detailed article on the torture at Abu Ghraib in The New Yorker. Unlike the sniper rumor, this one is pretty much documented fact. I realize that this is obviously not standard behavior, but it is not a single wacko, but a group of soldiers. It's really quite appalling. How can something like this happen? What is the mood like among American soldiers in Iraq? Is there a general hatred or is it really isolated behavior? I can't imagine an occupying force being very successful without some basic respect for the local citizens.

I remember hearing that the occupying forces in post-war Japan were selected from soldiers who had not served in combat against the Japanese. Most of the stories you hear about the soldiers occupying Japan are good stories. I suppose it's easier to be nice when there is no resistance, but still... (My sister has a nice post about the story of our family's first interaction with the US occupation of Japan.)

I also heard from a Spanish friend of mine that there is very little if no hatred towards Muslims after the 3/11 attack in Madrid. People realize that it is a splinter group and are not blaming the Muslims.

I don't want to over-generalize, but trying to link Al Qaeda to Iraq and some of the hate crimes against Muslims in the US really highlights the lack of racial sympathy or understanding on the US's part. I think the US really needs to figure out how to deal with this racial intolerance and ignorance if it's going to try do any kind of nation building.

Before someone else says it, I think racism in Japan is also very bad, but we're not toppling regimes and trying to rebuild them. I wouldn't trust Japan with that either.

America's Problem - How Torture Came
Down From The Top

"torture that has happened at
Guantanamo"

Government silence in torture row

To Vary Your Gym Torture, Accessorize

Torture Policy (washingtonpost.com)

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44849-2004Jun15.html
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MSNBC - The Roots of Torture

msnbc.msn.com/id/4989481
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Was Abuse and Torture Our Policy?

Seymour Hersh (New Yorker): The Gray Zone. The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved las year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, t the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.

Torture and Truth and The Logic of Torture