Saaed Mortazavi is sometimes called the “Torturer of Tehran” but probably not to his face. The man also known as “Butcher of the press” has been given authority by the Iranian government to "interrogate" people involved, or said to be involved, in the demonstrations in Tehran. Mortazavi earned his nicknames for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003 says the Times Online. The TOT was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists in 2004, held for long periods of solitary confinement in secret prisons, where they were allegedly coerced into signing false confessions.
I expect to be hearing a great deal about how Iranian concern over the strange results of the recent election are the products of American propaganda and the protest sponsored, choreographed and financed from Washington, DC.
Of course such things are more effective in terrorizing the locals than in convincing them that these confessions don'e have more to do with cattle prods and genitals than with American interference, but isn't it too bad that the US has lost any ability to deplore enhanced interrogation? Isn't it too bad that the US must remain silent about starting wars and killing people based information extracted by torture?
Thank you George W. Bush and all the other cowards who dragged our proud country down to the level of these savages!
Bush's contribution to American hypocrisy is torture, but I can’t just single out GWB as the sole screwer-upper of our relationship with Iran.
ReplyDeleteIn goes back to 1953 with the overthrow of Mossedegh, the installation of an oppressive puppet regime known as the Shah, dual containment policies, Iran-Contra, Ollie North, the downing of a Iranian commercial airliner with 300 civilians aboard, our oil profligacy, our duplicity and arrogance that radicalized the region … more than a half century of missteps compounded by every American president.
Lots of blame to go around … not to be heaped on just one bad actor.
Enough time has gone by that we could pretend to be sorry for what we did decades ago, but they're still standing up for torture in that misbegotten party. The recent bad actors are still acting badly and their supporters still support it. A large part of this country still supports torture.
ReplyDeleteWe can't really show that we've repented or that we really stand up for the human rights we bellow about and we can't now say anything about torture. Before Bush we could at least say we oppose it with a straight face. Before Bush we could still criticize Saddam for torture.
Even if this is another increment of dignity and credibility taken away from us, it's still taken away and it doesn't take away guilt from Bush to say other presidents were bad too.
Thank you George W. Bush and all the other cowards who dragged our proud country down to the level of these savages!
ReplyDeleteI'm calling BS on this blithering statement.
Even when we disagree on what is or isn't torture, we agonize, apologize, and discuss human rights. And we don't legally employ ANYTHING involving killing, beating, rape, cattle prods to the genitals, or torture.
So despite your overdramatization, we still do have some moral authority. Especially if the President would claim said moral authority (since he opposes the "occupation" of Iraq and all alleged torture).
It won't stop Iran from lying to try to control their people. But the people who are fighting to get the real news will know. And if we are united on what we all believe is unacceptable rather than whining about the things we disagree over, then that too gives credence to the future free people of Iran.
Patrick said: "Even when we disagree on what is or isn't torture, we agonize, apologize, and discuss human rights. And we don't legally employ ANYTHING involving killing, beating, rape, cattle prods to the genitals, or torture."
ReplyDeletePatrick that statement simply is not true.
"German prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for thirteen CIA operatives linked to the kidnapping and torture of German citizen Khaled El-Masri. The arrest warrants were announced at a time that the US practice known as extraordinary rendition is coming under increasing scrutiny around the globe. We speak with award-winning journalist Stephen Grey. [includes rush transcript]
German prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for thirteen CIA operatives linked to the kidnapping and torture of a German citizen three years ago. The man -- Khaled El-Masri -- was seized in Macedonia and then flown on a CIA jet to a secret U.S. jail in Afghanistan. He was held for five months, tortured and then released.
The arrest warrants for the CIA agents were announced at a time that the US practice known as extraordinary rendition is coming under increasing scrutiny around the globe. In Italy, another 26 CIA agents face prosecution for their role in the abduction of the Egyptian cleric Abu Omar off the streets of Milan. In Spain, a judge ruled on Thursday for the state’s intelligence agency to declassify any documents it has about secret CIA flights.
Meanwhile the Canadian government agreed last week to pay nearly nine million dollars to Maher Arar. He is the Canadian citizen who was seized by U.S. officials in Kennedy airport in 2002 and then sent to a Syrian jail where he was tortured. Khaled El-Masri, Abu Omar and Maher Arar were all seized as part of the secretive U.S. program known as extraordinary rendition. El- Masri and Arar tried to sue the CIA in federal court but their cases were dismissed on grounds that they would reveal state secrets. Earlier this week El-Masri’s lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, called for accountability."
source
And this:
"Two Afghan prisoners were killed while in US custody at their base at Bagram, a military coroner has concluded.
The report said "blunt force trauma" had contributed to the deaths.
The detainees had spent about a week in the detention facility when they died last December.
However, US spokesman Colonel Roger King told BBC News Online the pathologists' verdict was not final - a military investigation had been launched and was due to be completed later this month.
There are hundreds of former Taleban and al-Qaeda prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and in various overseas facilities.
Last month, human rights groups accused the US Government of subjecting the prisoners to physical abuse leading to a number of deaths and attempted suicides in custody."
source
Everyone wants to believe their country is the best and that it would never sink to the level of barbarians. But the fact is that this country has engaged in these barbaric acts, and pretending it didn't won't make that shame any easier to live with.
Crap, I forgot something in my statement, Shaw. The line as I had intended to write it should have said: "And we don't legally employ ANYTHING involving killing, beating, rape, cattle prods to the genitals, or torture on our own people. I apologize for the blatant inaccuracy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a country that isn't involved in bad stuff. But the things the CIA does in other countries don't necessarily bother me.
Nonetheless, the dirty dealings in international affairs of others never justifies the systemic oppression of your own people. That was the point I was trying (and failed) to get across.
Patrick M: "And if we are united on what we all believe is unacceptable rather than whining about the things we disagree over ... "
ReplyDeleteWhere are you going with this? Are you suggesting we should all goose-step to the march of the über-patriots who got us into this mess and all be united in our hypocrisy?
Shall we just forget that our government destroyed a decent democracy in Iran over oil resources 56 years ago, and now pretends to be the great defender of Iranian democratic aspirations?
Shall we forget the other presidential candidate who now pretends to speak for those very same people whom, last year, wanted to “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran?”
So we celebrate freedom, democracy, and human dignity … our own mainly … while refusing to subject our venerations to critical self-examination. Why, the mere mention of freedom and human dignity from the mouths of über-patriots is enough to terminate all debate and kill all doubt.
Is this where you are going, Patrick?
Perhaps he's making my point for me. Americans aren't too disturbed by what we do "in other countries" like Guantanamo or Iraq to non-Americans and if they are, they clean the spots off their hands by pretending it's just minor stuff. Easy to say that in the comfort of your desk chair.
ReplyDeleteOverdramatization? Perhaps, but not as overdramatized as it is in countries that have reason not to like us. It doesn't help when we explain that they're not "our people" and so it's OK to torture them, does it?
Much of the world thinks of us as worse than we are and stories about torture serve to keep it that way, fair and balanced or not and it's hard enough to regain a lost reputation without this kind of moral relativity.
Well, I guess this is "whining" since that's what they call any attempt at introspection or any doubt as to our transcendent virtue and I'm sure the follow up will include something like "who gives a shit what the world thinks - we're Americans!"
Oh, and thanks for spelling über correctly.
Patrick wrote: "Crap, I forgot something in my statement, Shaw. The line as I had intended to write it should have said: "And we don't legally employ ANYTHING involving killing, beating, rape, cattle prods to the genitals, or torture on our own people. I apologize for the blatant inaccuracy."
ReplyDeleteJose Padilla was "our own people."
I just love it...
ReplyDeleteOn one hand we go on and on about globalization and how great free markets are...
Then on the other hand when discussing values and morals we because so nationalistic...we don't care what our country does to a Canadian or a German national because they all have Arabic names...
Actually the truth of the matter is that globalization is all about getting stuff cheap and no one gives a crap about morals and values when it involves more than just fancy speech
Film Recommendation:
ReplyDeleteErrol Morris/Philip Gourevitch
'Standard Operating Procedure'
Lynnde England appeared on Ira Glass' 'This American Life' earlier this week and it was powerful. It will turn up on his site archived later this week. Rumsfield, George, Dick et. al. carry one and this unfortunate woman actually did time.