Begin with the idea that you should never, ever, torture anyone, and you won’t go wrong. But once you decide it’s okay to torture people as long as you call it “enhanced interrogation techniques,” you are not only going to be condemned by posterity, you are going to have to cover up what you have done. And if you can’t cover it up sufficiently, people might actually get embarrassed enough to actually hold you accountable for being monsters. At least, that could happen in theory, though probably not in America.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I could say it would give me eternal pleasure to see Cheney undergo “enhanced interrogation techniques”, but then what kind of person would I be?
Yes, the “eye for an eye” form of justice has too many downsides. I would be content to see Cheney (and all those that participated in similar inhumane acts — including lying this country into a war) spending some time in a cell to reflect on his life and stripping him off all the wealth he and his wife accumulated. Let them live out their final years on income equal to that of the poorest seniors.
Oh, it’s certainly true that “eye for an eye” justice is problematic.
BUT, given the well-documented lack of empathy of modern conservatives, the only way that they’re going to finally turn against torture is if they have the VERY REAL FEAR that it will be used against THEM.
So it’s not just justice. It’s putting torture back into that box of things to never, ever, EVER do.
If you know a nicer way, that would actually work, please advocate for it.
And to think some poor SOB had to die to keep that bastard cheney alive. Can you imagine a worse hell?
The same sort as me. I used to dream of waterboarding Cheney while telling him, “Come on! It’s not torture! You said so, remember?”
and shame on our allies:
○ Poland says no coup in Kiev – foreign minister Sikorski
○ New minister Andriy Parubiy, member fascist Fatherland party, to lead investigation into sniper killings
What a bunch of cowards! They didn’t even have the guts to do this right here in America. I’m thoroughly disgusted by all of them.
So the branch responsible with oversight doesn’t have unfettered access to their computer systems to conduct their oversight? What?
they see what they are supposed to see.
In this case, they say more than that, so the official line is worthless.
except, the CIA is using the dispute to keep the whole report tied up.
So why can’t the CIA just “move” stuff to the side of the firewall that the overseers “aren’t supposed to see”? It’s just giving them further incentives to cover shit up.
That’s the dispute. The CIA claims that congressional staffers got around their firewall.
Right, I get that. But my question is, “Why aren’t the staffers allowed in that area to begin with, considering the fact that the CIA has great incentive to just move stuff to that area that they don’t want the overseers to see?” The CIA shouldn’t have set-up a “network share drive.”
IOW, there should be no dispute because the CIA shouldn’t be allowed to disallow overseers into certain parts of their network. Every part of the network should be free-reign, and they should have been able to access the Panetta Report without having to jump through hoops or overcome said firewall.
Welcome to the Security State.
I don’t like this one bit. What are investigators supposed to see, and how is it possible to restrict access to critical information and maintain adequate oversight? If Feinstien’s committee agreed to restrictions of access, this could well be a legal problem for investigators. (Assuming a firewall to restricted material was breached.) The report should be released and the American public should be able to see what exactly was done in their name.
They finally got Augusto Pinochet – didn’t they? You’re right – America won’t right this wrong on its own – but the International Community, one way or another – WILL! Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Adelman, John Yoo, et al. – don’t just be afraid, be very afraid! Try going to Europe soon, fellows!
No. Most get away and live comfortably. Of the few that don’t get away, it’s not so much for their crimes against the people but for defying or not following the dictates of sponsoring powers. And almost all members of their families get away with their lives and the loot.
Then there was the CIC/CIA BFF for four decades Klaus Barbie.
Yet still Americans don’t get why ordinary Bolivians would hate the US government. And other Americans, including self-identified liberals, continue to claim that US interference in the domestic affairs of other countries are “conspiracy theories.”
My father was on the Philippine Islands when it fell and was in the Hundred Mile Death March. He spent almost 4 years in a Japanese prison of war camp in Manchuria and was tortured in various ways including starvation (6″3′)65 LBS when freed.
He served for a total of 27 years in the military and was always proud to say that the USA would not torture others. I am glad that he passed away before all of this happened. He would of considered it a slap in the face.
I am so sorry your father had to go through that. I can only imagine that 4 years of a nightmare like that feels like a lifetime, particularly when you don’t know if you’ll ever get out. Your father must have been one tough cookie to have surveyed that.
I hate what these bed-wetting cowards have done to our country.
The deep state will preserve its power no matter what we think.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
The Deep State does not consist of the entire government. It is a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies: the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department. I also include the Department of the Treasury because of its jurisdiction over financial flows, its enforcement of international sanctions and its organic symbiosis with Wall Street. All these agencies are coordinated by the Executive Office of the President via the National Security Council. Certain key areas of the judiciary belong to the Deep State, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose actions are mysterious even to most members of Congress. Also included are a handful of vital federal trial courts, such as the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Manhattan, where sensitive proceedings in national security cases are conducted. The final government component (and possibly last in precedence among the formal branches of government established by the Constitution) is a kind of rump Congress consisting of the congressional leadership and some (but not all) of the members of the defense and intelligence committees. The rest of Congress, normally so fractious and partisan, is mostly only intermittently aware of the Deep State and when required usually submits to a few well-chosen words from the State’s emissaries.