That Dick Cheney, the once and in his own mind future Führer pokes fun at the idea that we ever engaged in torturing prisoners and although he's not well liked by any but the most extreme subhumans, he has never suffered any consequences for having directed and promoted things we used to hang people for when I was a boy: kidnapping, torture and murder. Republicans prefer to believe him, many of the rest of us believe so much in our essential virtue that we just don't want to hear any more of it.
It's not that there is no evidence of the Bush Administration's capital crimes, not at all. We have imprisoned and tortured many people with essentially no evidence against them, but there has been a constant flow of increasingly horrible information about kidnapping and the kind of torture even Limbaugh or Dick the Impaler himself couldn't pass off as a frat-boy prank. Crain Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan now tells us, says Raw Story, that the people the CIA sent to secret dungeons there were raped with broken bottles and/or boiled alive until they "admitted" to being affiliated with Al Qaida. Some were forced to watch their children being tortured and all so that the Bush administration could justify destroying Iraq to the eager war lovers back home.
"I'm talking of people being raped with broken bottles,"he said at a lecture in October that was re-broadcast by the Real News Network.
"I'm talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. I'm talking of people being boiled alive. And the intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA, and was being passed on."I'm not ashamed to say that I'm ashamed of my country. I'm ashamed not so much by the monsters and tyrants and murderers of children some of us still revere as heroes and patriots, but by the way we still support what they did, still can't accept the horror, don't want to be told about it, still want to continue crimes as hideous as any ever committed, because after all, these people are "suspects." These people are "the worst of the worst" whether guilty or not and most of all they aren't Christian, like us. It's not really important anyway, not like gay marriage or insurance company profits or ACORN or tax breaks for Cheney and Bush.
The same article was sent to me yesterday. It was forwarded by the young man who's the subject of my latest post.
ReplyDeleteAs I told him, it seems that the CIA has a cadre of absolute thugs whose raison d'etre is to damage both the CIA's ability to conduct its overall mission (gathering intelligence from many sources) and U.S. foreign policy. The Wargazms they get from torturing people are just, y'know, a bonus.
I think the biggest fear Washington has about dealing with the wanton torture and abuse of other world citizens is that it will trigger off tea bag riots and right wing anarchy.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, to ignore such a dark period in our history is... well, I guess it is what we do best.
From the American Indians to the Japanese to the African Americans and now the Middle Easterns we have long been a country that has committed and covered up all manner of bigotry and abuse.
I caught an item this morning about the CIA officers convicted in absentia by an Italian court for the kidnapping and rendition of an innocent man. They were caught by their own poor OPSEC -- they left far too much personal info behind. The entire operation seems to have been half-baked. The money quote: "The Bush Administration threw all caution to the wind."
ReplyDeleteDemocommie, about the young man whom you posted about, would you like a guest invitation to post the story and follow-ups here? I recall your making the request to publicize this story.
ReplyDeleteRocky, earlier this year I shared concerns about the timing of disclosures and whipping up the hornets nest of winger anarchists. But this time I don't care. We have seen the worst, and I am thoroughly appalled and disgusted. The DoJ should should release the worst accounts first and let public condemnation and outrage carry the story forward. It is time to hold the criminals accountable and put Cheney in prison.
I wonder just how much public outrage there would be? I suspect we'd have more accusations of "America hating" and contrived outrage about just how bad Muslims are and of course about the candy-ass, bleeding heart liberals who don't remember 9/11.
ReplyDeleteCaptain: "I suspect we'd have more accusations of "America hating" and contrived outrage ..."
ReplyDeleteThat is the wingnut repertoire and always will be, but we don't have to listen to that claptrap. In recalling the Civil Rights era, what galvanized national opinion were the atrocities that occurred at the time ... and those voices drowned out the Dixiecrats. So what I am suggesting here, once people are shocked by what the government did in their names, those voices will drown out the wingnuts. Or do you think, Captain, that I am being too generous in my expectations?
"Public Outrage"
ReplyDeleteWhat is that?
Day in and day out we get "BREAKING NEWS", then you have the shock jocks of Fox News who open every show with something totally over the top,
Our world is just one constant PUBLIC OUTRAGE....we have so much to be outraged over that no one has enough time to catch their breath between outrages...
We are all numb from outrages and its easier to just turn your back to all of it...
With all the 'schemed' outrages that we are subjected to everyday, how can you tell what is truly outrageous versus that which is hype and spin?
Octopus:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your generous offer of a guest pass, I will try it if you want to set it up. I've tried that sort of thing in the past and was not able to do so, but maybe I can do it now.
I fear that expose of torture practices will spur many of these tea bagger types to demand more of it. This is a crowd that wants government to keep it's hands off their Medicare. It's difficult if not impossible to overestimate their stupidity.
ReplyDeleteTruth101 said... I fear that expose of torture practices will spur many of these tea bagger types to demand more of it.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right about that. We outsourced the most extreme forms of torture. Waterboarding, we can handel that, our soldiers undergo it themselves as part of their training, so it can't possibly be torture... but raping someone with a broken bottle or boiling them alive?
Applying "free market" principals just makes sense. Let foreigners do the jobs Americans don't want to do (or get caught doing). If the free market says torture is A-OK, then surely it must be A-OK with Jesus.