Torture memos
The WaPo has a nice collection of the Bush Documents on torture: Among them, the Bybee memo, where he argues that Geneva convention doesn't apply to Al Qaeda prisoners; the Ashcroft recommendation, stating that Taliban soldiers were protected under international law; Bybee denying POW status to Talibans; Rumsfeld stating which interrogation techniques are appropriate; Bybee's memo on legally defensible torture, and by Bush himself, a memostating that he has the right to order torture, yet he magnanimously declines the privilege. For now.
As the python said it, according to the Rumsfeld, it is only torture if you are intent on causing pain. Which means that, if your objective is to extract information it is OK to cause pain, becasue, you know, it is only incidental.
Did you know, dear readers, that the USA runs the most famous torture university? I t is called the School of the Americas, it has 60,000 LatinAmerican military graduates, and it is famous for its torture manuals, declassified thanks to the FOIA. Your dear president Reagan actions in El Salvador are a good example of the torture school accomplished.
But that is for later.
Comments
Dear Camilo,
Thank you SO MUCH for the information on the torture memos!!! I am writing an article about that subject and all these documets are of great importance to me. If you can, please contact me at the e-mail triale@ajato.com.br
Thanks again,
Alessandra, São Paulo - Brasil.
Posted by: Alessandra | January 23, 2005 11:06 AM
You make me sick. Don't you think that if we could've prevented 9/11 from happening by torturing someone we should have? I mean thank the Lord that you have an army and government that protects your freedoms so that you can sit behind your little computer screen and say whatever the fuck you want to. It always amuses me to see people like you that take your freedoms for granted and badmouth the military that fights to protect them for you. Of coarse I am embarrased for the nation for the events that occured at Abu Ghraib, but I don't see you giving a damn about the beheadings that Al Qaeda does to your fellow Americans in the Armed forces and media. Next time you think about making a post, just think of why you are able to make it. That's all. Feel lucky that you live where you live. Feel lucky that the women and men in the service fight for you to bash them and the cause they stand for.
Posted by: Angry American | May 9, 2005 11:16 PM
You are wrong. The practice of torture is an old one in the USA. Thanks to the FOIA, we civilians have now access to the manuals, memos and policies that document that. The USA has had for a long time given training, advisors, and military aid to dictators and killers. The fact that the scandals in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib are shocking you is because, until that moment, you could argue that torture was not happening. Now, you have to content with that fact, and accept it.
The other issue: the USA is supposedly a state of law. Torture can not coexist with that assertion, so you either negate all human rights, yours included, or you grant to others their own. Otherwise, the cost in human lives and social and economic disruption promptly escalates beyond what you can imagine.
Cases? Think of all the countries where human rights take a back seat, and see their dismal economic and social indicators.
So, in response, dear Angry American, it is in your best interest to have a state that respects the rights of its citizens. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to sit at your anonymous computer making vacuous threats.
Posted by: camilo | May 10, 2005 9:23 AM