Oh my God, what are we to do now?
Oh well.

Not that Canadian hands are so clean...

'Compelling evidence that Canadian-transferred detainees are still being tortured in Afghan prisons emerged yesterday from the government's own follow-up inspection reports, documents it has long tried to keep secret...' Detainee torture remains a reality, reports show

'The attorney general yesterday rejected growing congressional calls for a criminal investigation of the CIA's use of simulated drownings to extract information from its detainees...' www.washingtonpost.com

What a surprise.

Flip - Flop

Torture OK?

Has there ever been a more repugnant example of political pandering than John McCain's decision to vote against a bill banning waterboarding, putting hoods on prisoners, forcing them to perform sex acts, subjecting them to mock executions, or depriving them of food, water, and medical treatment?

That's right, John McCain, the former POW who has long been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's disturbing embrace of extreme interrogation techniques.

But that was before his desperate attempt to win over the lunatic fringe that is running the Grand Old Party.

Read more at the link...

"An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out."

- Will Rogers


Had anyone here heard of waterboarding before the Mukasey nomination hearing? Had I been Mukasey when the question was asked, I would have answered, "Waterboarding? Tell me a little more about that."

I Think it had been in the news since abu Graib or shortly thereafter. The practice was also know to historians who studied the Inquisition. I'm also fairly certain I have read about it over the years in articles describing the horrors of dictatorships and/or cruel and repressive regimes at various times throughout the world. (Of course, little did I know then that, thanks to bush & Co., the US would be one of those regimes. I was foolish enough to believe the Constitution meant something.)

Frankly, I was wondering if McCain would give up his last claim at honor and principles and embrace the Dark Side completely. Once he started kissing up to the Religious Right, ignoring the fact that they smeared him shamelessly in 2000 and ignoring that he called them dangerous to the American way of life, I felt this might follow. I believe it was Henry Clay who said "I'd rather be right than be President." With his actions, McCain has said "I'd give anything to be President." I don''t think he is going to get to the Oval Office, but he certainly has given up a great deal. It is a shame that a once-honorable man makes such a mistake so late in life. It's what he will probably be remembered for.

Christopher Hitchens -- author, journalist, political pundit, & professional curmudgeon -- writing in Vanity Fair (Believe Me, It's Torture) gives a vivid description of his recent experience as a voluntary waterboarding subject. Determined to resist the technique, he caved almost immediately. The account is chilling. He comments:

quote:

I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.

Nothing like a first-hand account of this method of interrogation to help focus the issue.

Nice to know that the Bush government is running the 1957 playbook of the 'red menace'. And that it's known to produce false confessions.