Letters to the Editor
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My mom used to tell me...
... that these kinds of things were done in the Soviet Union, and that I was lucky to live in the U.S. because we would never do these things.
What happened?
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Is MaCain gonna?
Does John have the balls or political desperation to address these concrete charges or make them a political issue?
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Alkaline
My mom used to tell me...
... that these kinds of things were done in the Soviet Union, and that I was lucky to live in the U.S. because we would never do these things.
What happened?
The US is becoming the Soviet Union. The US is becoming Nazi Germany. It may not be possible to prevent it, but we must try, on the presumption that it may not be too late, except for the victims who have already gone before us.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
- James Madison
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Amerika, bleiche Mutter!
Wie haben deine Söhne dich zugerichtet
Daß du unter den Völkern sitzest
Ein Gespött oder eine Furcht!Amerika, pale mother!
How have your sons ill-served you
That you are scorned by all people -
A thing of obloquy and terror!=====================================================
Noch weiz ich an im mêre | Daz mir ist bekant,
Einen lintrachen | Sluoc des heldes hant,
Er badet sich in dem bluote: | Sîn hût wart hurnîn,
Des snîdet in kein wâfen: | Daz ist dicke worden schîn.- Das Nibelungenlied
And I know even more, more I can tell.
Once, by his violent hand, a dragon fell.
He bathed in blood, grew hard, and can't be slain.
And many have seen this againand yet again.
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The American way
...It was fun while it lasted.
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There are other cells
I do not approve of torture, etc.
However, I eagerly await the next series on the rape rooms of Afghanistan and the torture chambers of Iraq.
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@thingswesaid
Do you think we shouldn't prosecute garden-variety murderers because they're not as bad as serial killers?
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To paraphrase a t-shirt
I like the moral low-ground. It's easy, and there's lots of people to share it with.
Remember kids, capitalist totalitarianism is so much better than communist or Islamic totalitarianism!
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"In another cell there was just a bucket."
Can you imagine that there might be a less-self-esteem-inducing job than emptying the poop buckets of secret prisoners? Probably, W.Bush and Cheney consider this a high-status position.
Probably, in our American CIA/military/Republican security system, people need top security clearances to collect and empty these poop buckets, and to clean them out. We cannot allow anybody other than proven American patriots to have contact with these dangerous terrorists. They might try to smuggle out WMDs with their shit!
Support our troops! And get the poor privates and lance corporals who have to dump the secret prisoners' secret shit to testify against the brutal idiocy of our secret prisons!
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Disgusting
This is the reason America is despised around the world, even George Orwell would be sick to his stomach if he was still around. I watched the Bush family (Laura & co.) celebrating Christmas at the White House and I thought to myself does she have a clue what her husband has wrought on this country. I am ashamed of America.
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Let them eat cake
Sometimes I wonder if we really deserve our democracy. Thousands of men and women died for the ideals of freedom in the great wars. The brave hearts have either died, dying, or succumbing to despair. We have let petty men with their petty fears rule our country. Do any you now doubt that they would consider any one you any more worthy of your freedom than those that they consider their enemies. Soon any american who doesn't believe or drink the cool aid will become the enemy. The founding fathers were right to be fearful - this democracy will be undone from the inside - all in the name of safety and security.
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what can we do?
I read this, and I feel ashamed to be an American.
What can we do? Why is the Bush administration not being tried for war crimes? Why are these sites still running? Where is the accountability? Why have proceedings not begun for impeachment of our criminal leader?
I feel powerless. My government continues to embarrass me, let me down. And I feel that there's nothing I can do.
To all of those being tortured, imprisoned, killed over this stupid war: I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry.
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Black Sites and Black Lists
There is no doubt that anyone with even a sliver of empathy would be outraged by the inhumanity of this physical and psychological mistreatment of an individual in the custody of our government.
Somehow, the fact that this Yemeni man is seemingly an unfortunate victim of circumstance allows the reader to rationalize away the growing threat of assertive and unchecked executive government power to our own communities and persons. In other words, even this detailed accounting won't make it real to most of us. Many here will read the article, shake our heads, and go about our daily business. Many will conclude that this will really only be serious and threatening when it could directly affect our lives, and perhaps find comfort in a belief that such a scenario is unlikely to happen. After all, we all have regular sounding names and would never conceivably cross paths with counterterrorism efforts in Jordan, would we? Isn't the government really just doing this to protect us from future terrorist attacks, even if the effort is a bit rough around the edges?
In October 2006, George Bush signed the Military Commissions Act into law. This grants our President the power to declare individuals "enemy combatants", and to set conditions of detainment, including permissible interrogation tactics and the final decision on the definition of torture. The enemy combatant classification can include a US citizen who is "engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States", a broad context. This act does not require that individuals be charged with any crime and sets no maximum duration to imprisonment. Most see the MCA as allowing the President to detain individuals at will for an indefinite duration, subject to interrogation methods of his choosing.
The full real world application of the MCA remains to be seen, although some have speculated that it might first be applied to anti-war activists, animal rights activists (some of whom have already been classified as terrorists by the administration), and environmental activists. A further step could extend the classification to thought leaders among government opposition groups, and yet further into dissenting media voices. Should such detainments begin on any scale, fear alone would likely silence and subdue broad segments of our society.
Let us hope that this administration applies these powers with tremendous restraint, lest some voices among us wind up like Mr. Bashmilah.