Wasn’t the ‘For The War’ and now ‘Against The War’ called ‘Flip Flopping’ or was that in another time/space?

As was the United States ‘Once Upon A Time, ‘Against Torture’!

Good EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY By Louise Arbour is the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

At the International Herald Tribune

{snippits on the flip}
No exceptions to the ban on torture
Louise Arbour International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2005

GENEVA The absolute ban on torture, a cornerstone of the international human rights edifice, is under attack. The principle we once believed to be unassailable – the inherent right to physical integrity and dignity of the person – is becoming a casualty of the so-called war on terror.

At one time this Country ‘Condemned’ those who used Torture. Our ‘Fearless?’ leaders, of the present, even gave ‘Torture’ as a reason Saddam was so evil and thus a Reason for our Invading a Country that Did Absolutely Nothing To Us!

Particularly insidious are moves to water down or question the absolute ban on torture, as well as on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Governments in several countries are claiming that established rules do not apply anymore: that we live in a changed world. They argue that this justifies a lowering of the bar as to what constitutes permissible treatment of detainees. An illegal interrogation technique, however, remains illegal whatever new description a government might wish to give it.

The World hasn’t changed, nor have the Greedy, who relish Power/Wealth above all else. They my be differant faces, with many of the same even, Conspiring amoung themselves to keep the Inhabitants of this World in Fear. With that Fear leading them to follow like Sheep into Wars/Conflicts which in turn make for More Power/Wealth for the few!

Let me turn to my second concern. An unknown number of “war on terror” detainees are alleged to be held in secret custody in unknown locations. Holding people in secret detention, with the detainee’s fate or whereabouts, or the very fact of their detention, undisclosed, amounts to “disappearance,” which in and of itself has been found to amount to torture or ill-treatment of the disappeared person or of the families and communities deprived of any information about the missing person.

Trivial thought to those who will practise ‘disappearance’ of others, for they know they will Never ‘disappear’!

On Human Rights Day, I call on all governments to reaffirm their commitment to the total prohibition of torture by:
Condemning torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and prohibiting it in national law;
Abiding by the principle of non-refoulement and refraining from returning persons to countries where they may face torture;
Ensuring access to prisoners and abolishing secret detention;
Prosecuting those responsible for torture and ill-treatment;
Prohibiting the use of statements extracted under torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, whether the interrogation has taken place at home or abroad;
Ratifying the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol, as well as other international treaties banning torture.

But U.S. Policy/Practice with a Wink Wink:

Torture Is An American Value:

Reality Vs. The Rhetoric

Fall 2005, By S. Brian Willson, The Veteran, Vietnam Veterans Against The War

S. Brian Willson was head of a USAF combat security unit in Vietnam. A lawyer by training, and a writer (www.brianwillson.com), he is a member of Humboldt Bay Veterans for Peace, a Northern California contact for VVAW, and a member of the Arcata Nuclear Free Zone and Peace Commission.

I became aware of torture as a U.S. policy in 1969 when I was serving as a USAF combat security officer working near Can Tho City in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. I was informed about the CIA’s Phong Dinh Province Interrogation Center (PIC) at the Can Tho Army airfield where supposedly “significant members” of the VCI (Viet Cong infrastructure) were taken for torture as part of the Phoenix Pacification Program. A huge French-built prison nearby was also apparently utilized for torture of suspects from the Delta region. Many were routinely murdered.

Naive, I was shocked!

The Agency for International Development (AID) working with Southern Illinois University, for example, trained Vietnamese police and prison officials in the art of torture (“interrogations”) under cover of “public safety.” American officials believed they were teaching “better methods,” often making suggestions during torture sessions conducted by Vietnamese police.

Instead of the recent euphemism “illegal combatants,” the United State in Vietnam claimed prisoners were “criminal” and therefore exempt from Geneva Convention protections.

VETERANS DON”T CONDONE TORTURE!!
FOR MANY KNOW ‘THAT WHICH YOU PRACTISE/GIVE YOU RECEIVE IN RETURN, IN ANY FORM AVAILABLE’!

Veterans for Common Sense
1101 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
contact@veteransforcommonsense.org | 202-558-4553

Have been waging this Battle against the use of Torture, myself included

Open Letter – Demand an Independent Commission on Torture
Nearly four years after the beginning of the War on Terror and over one year after the publication of the photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the full scope of the abuse is still unknown.
A number of investigations have been conducted, each of them within the Pentagon and only looking at individuals below on the chain of command. None of these investigations had the authority and scope to address the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, relationships with the FBI or CIA, or the White House.

Help spread the word that we need a real investigation — not partisan spin.