Torture has been, and most likely continues to be, used by this administration as a means of intimidation. It was never intended to get information or to punish enemies. It is used to show our so-called enemies that we are capable of and will resort to whatever it takes. They don't care what their allies and what their own people think. They only care that their enemies get the message.

I thought the word "communist" refers to a generic believer in the eventual evolution of a stateless, classless society.

In this case we're talking about members of the Chinese Communist Party, which would make them Communists with a capital C.

There is a difference. Generic believers in a stateless, classless society don't necessarily believe in torture.

As long as we're talking about the weird relationship between Republicans and Communists, we shouldn't forget that the Nixon administration gave a critical leg up to the 1973 Communist coup in Afghanistan that eventually led to the Soviet invasion.

And then there's Dick Cheney, our national right wing Bolshevik VP.

Sigh.

I'm sure that the "goal" of eliciting false confessions will go over just so well when Gitmo confessions are offered in evidence at the war-crimes trials of prisoners.

Even Bush-appointed judges are going to slap this misadministration silly.

Can you answer a simple question or do I have to torture you?

How low does a administration have to fall before we finally say yup! these guys are the bad guy's. The Bush administration is beyond all boundaries ever set and never crossed. Is there anyone who can do anything to finally stop them and boot them out and procecute them for their crimes. What does it take lieing about a blow job? What? tell me or I'll have to water board you. Is this even America anymore? I got to tell you I don't recognize it anymore. Maybe it's Bushelvainia but it's not the United State of America. I am an American not what it's become. All you Bushies that wear your little pin flags maybe you better start thinking about which country your supporting. Bushelvainia or America and stop preaching patriotizm to me. Maybe the only solution is revolution against the administration not OUR country. Mc Cain? more same.

Let your votes be your weapon, vote out every Bush republican.

Treason is the correct word that discribe this administration.

Since the "Global War on Terror" was pretty much crubbed from Trotsky's "Total Revolution," it's not surprising they would use the same tactics to execute it.

crubbed = cribbed ... but I kind of like crubbed, a combination of "club" and "crib" perhaps? A sort of inept or sloppy cribbing?

I believe it is pretty disingenuous to suggest that the use of Communist Chinese coercion techniques were applied in error to detainees in Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and in the CIA prison archipelago.

I was trained as an Army combat interrogator in 1969, and in that training was included detailed instruction on communist coercion techniques, including the point that they by design elicit false confessions. In fact we were taught that false confessions for propaganda purposes were the intended purpose in applying such techniques. The point being made to us trainees was not to emulate these techniques because our mission as POW interrogators was to acquire actual facts for use by military intelligence. Plus it was emphasized these techniques violated the Geneva Conventions, with which we were indoctrinated to comply.

These coercive techniques were used by the US military, but only in SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape)training for pilots and others at higher risk of enemy capture. The coercive techniques were applied to SERE trainees as part of the Resistance phase of training. I served as a SERE instructor for candidates for the Army's Recondo scouts. In the training we used coercion to elicit false confessions to war crimes, not to obtain intellgience.

After the Afghanistan campaign, the Bush administration needed a steady stream of ominous threats to help in the 2002 mid-term elections, to justify its "War on Terror" abuses of the US constitution, and to help with the propaganda build-up to the Iraq invasion.

I believe that the extraction of false confessions of terror threats and spurious connections between Al Queda and Iraq was the primary reason the coercive techniques were used, knowingly, at the DOD policy level. Of course they didn't tell the interrogators why they were doing it, they just told them it was their patiotic duty to do it.

...that our govt uses torture to intimidate foreign enemies.

But it has another effect, one which, based on what we've seen of the Patriot Actors, may well be intentional:

It intimidates American citizens who might dare to criticize our sock puppet president or the people who paid for him to accept the presidency as consolation prize for not being named Baseball Commisioner.

Similarly, prisons serve a dual function of putting bad guys away from us, but ALSO reminding the middle class what can happen to them if they step out of line.

If the Iraq War were a book we'd all be rolling our eyes at yet another improbable plot twist.

"No President is that stupid. Commie torture tactics from the Korean War? C'mon!"

(shakes head)

Everyday I read about the exploits of Capt. Fuck-up and his All Star Band of Idiots and mutter, "This can't be true! It just can't! No group of human beings could ever ascend this high in government and be this idiotic/crazy!"

But, as Bush has pointed out himself, we're always misunderestimaing him.

why not torture techniques?

and I'll say it again. America needs to VOMIT up George Bush, Dick Cheney, et al. America needs to purge itself of these criminal modern-day robber barons. This entire damn country needs a huge dose of Ipecac. Only when this country has vomited up this administration to the point of dry heaves will any change start to happen.

I don't think Obama is a big enough dose but it would be a start. Oh, and Speaker Pelosi? Traitorous scum that also needs to be flushed.

Lori