WAS CHENEY THE TORTURER IN CHIEF?
***
The bottom line on torture is that no State in the Western tradition has advocated torture that we know of. No official of the West ever came forward, and had the impudence and folly to claim that torture was indispensable (Cheney), and had to be covered up (Obama). Until today.
This is not just an embarrassment for civilization, this is a much graver threat against it than bin Laden, and the few pathetic savages that followed him like decerebrated sheep, ever presented. This time the fish of civilization is truly rotting by the head, an ominous fate.
"Torture" comes from "tortura" the Latin for twisting. That was embarrassing, twisting people like wet laundry, so the Middle Ages preferred to call it "the question". Cheney calls it "enhanced interrogation". Question, or interrogate, in an uncomfortable situation. According to the rogue lawyer, Bybee, it's not torture, as long as people are not dying.
Even in the Middle Ages, statements obtained under torture could not be used during judicial inquiry.
In the Middle Ages, statements made under torture had to be confirmed without torture being a threat; it was also widely viewed by judicial and government officials that torture contaminated the plausibility of whatever suspects said, and turned them into victims. For that precise reason, Jehanne d'Arc was not tortured (all the more since the prosecution's case against her was so weak).
By 1600 CE, torture was not taken seriously anymore because police work had become so good, torture was irrelevant. By 1700 CE, torture was unlawful in Britain, and some famous official was relentlessly prosecuted for having suspended once a woman in a painful position during a police inquiry.
Although many Nazi counter terrorist units practiced torture, the Nazi State never came out and claimed torture was good. True the Nazis were doing atrocious things in secret, but when do we know that a State is doing atrocious things in secret? When it changes the conversation, and does not want to show the pictures anymore? Do not forget the Red Cross used to visit Auschwitz, and saw nothing untoward in that concentration camp. What the Red Cross did not know, and what the Nazis had hidden in plain sight behind the concentration camp, was an extermination camp. In the later, millions were exterminated. What do we know about the worldwide CIA Gulag? Well, we know it exists. How many did it kill, how many did it torture?
The moral sink the USA is disappearing into has no bottom. Doctors -American doctors- violating their Hippocratic oath, were in attendance during torture. It was not out of goodness; they were ready to practice tracheotomy during water boarding. It is already known that more than 100 died under torture. But how many is it really? Thousands? Why not? True, a few Nazi doctors practiced torture (Mengele), but the state did not organize it. In the Middle Ages, neither lawyers nor doctors were in attendance during torture: that was below the dignity of their office.
As pointed out in the New York Times today, official Pentagon numbers show that American attacks on civilian with flying robots kill about 2 terrorists for 100 innocent civilians killed. We are in Nazi counter terrorist moral territory here. What is the difference with what the Nazis were doing in Ukraine in 1942? If it turns out, the Nazi terrorist/innocent kill ratios were better.
Robotic bombing from the air is not just a recipe to lose a war, it's a recipe to lose civilization. That the Taliban gets inside houses is no defense. Just leave houses alone. Get a grip on your callousness.
What the brain challenged Cheney showed in his interview with Bob Schieffer on TV is that he may have ordered torture personally, and somehow misled Bush. It is time to apply the law. Both national and international law say that torture is unlawful. The law of the land also say that the president has to implement the law, and defend the Constitution of the USA. If Obama is unwilling to do it, he is breaching the law too.
This thing is bigger than Obama. Or the office of the president of the USA. Roman law forbid the torture of citizens. This is about civilization. If the USA wants to be known as the United Sadists of America, Obama can proceed on his present course. I wish him bad luck.
Patrice Ayme
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment