From Pat Lang’s column. Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about this torture stuff. I definitely did not like it during the The War on the Iraqi People. I know we have been torturing people over at Guantanamo. The whole notion of the prisoners at Guantanamo is insane. We called them “illegal combatants” but under International Law, there is no such category. We called them that so we could keep them in there forever, never charge them, treat them terribly, abuse them and torture them.
Those men in Guantanamo are one of two things. They are either:
1. POW’s.
2. Terrorists.
They are really only terrorists if they were plotting terror attacks against US facilities, probably on the mainland. In that case they would be violating the laws covering acts committed in the US. As far as attacks on US facilities and US civilians overseas go, I do not know what laws these fall under. Certainly attacks on US troops overseas are not terror attacks. That’s ridiculous. One boy at Guantanamo was arrested for “murder” for killing a US soldier during wartime, the Afghan War. That is completely outrageous.
I believe that most of those at Guantanamo are simply POW’s. If they are POW’s, then they have to go to a POW camp and they must be treated according to the laws of war. Real simple.
If they are terrorists, then they need to be put in prison and tried under criminal law.
They don’t want to call them POW’s because then they would have had to treat them decently, so they called them “illegal combatants.” They couldn’t call them terrorists because then they would have to put them in US prisons and subject them to criminal trials. They worry that they would not have enough evidence to go to trial and also that they might be acquitted. So that they won’t have to do either of these things, they made up a fake category called “illegal combatants.”
Incredibly, the American people went along with this garbage. It’s hard to figure.
Of course they lied about torturing people. They called it enhanced interrogation techniques. They’re lying. That’s yet another lie. There’s no such thing as enhanced interrogation techniques. It’s either torture or it’s not. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it. But since we are a party to the Anti-Torture Treaty, they figured they had to lie and call their torture something other than torture. They started torturing people because of 911. They got caught with their pants down during 911, and they didn’t want it to happen again, so they started torturing people in order to stop the next 911. It’s hard to say how well it worked.
However, we do know that the CIA lied about the effectiveness of the torture program. They lied and said that the torture program helped catch Bin Laden. A dumb Hollywood movie was made about the capture of Bin Laden. In this stupid movie, the lie is again repeated that Bin Laden was captured due to CIA torture. However, investigations revealed that the CIA was lying, and instead, torture played no role in the capture of Bin Laden whatsoever.
I suppose I would leave it up to the American people. If the people want the US to torture detainees, fine, so be it. We will join the nations of torturers. At that point, we should leave the Torture Protocol Treaty.
However, if the people think we as a nation should not be torturing, then we should stop torturing people. I am getting tired of all the lying and BS. Commit to it, do it and be done with it or renounce it and don’t do it.
The US Must Purge Itself
CIA Director Brennan’s self administered auto de fe fell flat. He met with POTUS this AM and was evidently told to get his statement in line with the president’s position “or else.” The “else” is pretty clear. He could easily find himself doing the “Hagel Two Step.” As a result the gospel according to Brennan backed away from any real defense of the deeds of CIA in its tormented and torturing history since 9/11.
On the one hand, he told us that information derived from torture was, at times, useful. On the other hand he told us that it is “unknowable” if the information so derived had any real value. He said that some of the things done by CIA officials were “abhorrent” but in answer to a question was ambiguous and non-committal as to whether or not it might be necessary to do the same kind of things in the future.
Well, pilgrims, as shown in the map above the US is a signatory of the UN Convention Against Torture. This convention signature was ratified by the US Senate and for that reason has the status of US federal law.
The CIA and its Corps of Tormentors disgraced and soiled the United States as did the US Army at Abu Ghraib. Insufficient punishment was meted out to the senior army culprits at Abu Ghraib, but now there is a chance to make an example of the monstrous fools who motivated, directed and executed this renewal of the Inquisition. It should be mentioned that Cheney and Rumsfeld played a direct role in encouraging US Army intelligence to torture prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
I suggest the following as steps to be taken by the SST community:..