Roughly one hundred people have died in U.S. custody since September 11, 2001. But Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has the temerity to say this:
“You’re talking about threatening to kill a guy, threatening to attack his family, threatening to use an electric drill on him — but never doing it,” King said. “You have that on the one hand — and on the other you have the [interrogator’s] attempt to prevent thousands of Americans from being killed.”
“When Holder was talking about being ‘shocked’ [before the report’s release], I thought they were going to have cutting guys’ fingers off or something — or that they actually used the power drill,” he said.
Nevermind that King just detailed several felonies that he has no interest in prosecuting, he’s simply lying when he says that our armed and intelligence forces never actually carried out their threats. I take no pleasure in reminding you of this Human Rights Watch report that is now four years old.
Since August 2002, nearly 100 detainees have died while in the hands of U.S. officials in the global “war on terror.” According to the U.S. military’s own classifications, 34 of these cases are suspected or confirmed homicides; Human Rights First has identified another 11 in which the facts suggest death as a result of physical abuse or harsh conditions of detention. In close to half the deaths Human Rights First surveyed, the cause of death remains officially undetermined or unannounced. Overall, eight people in U.S. custody were tortured to death.
Despite these numbers, four years since the first known death in U.S. custody, only 12 detainee deaths have resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official. Of the 34 homicide cases so far identified by the military, investigators recommended criminal charges in fewer than two thirds, and charges were actually brought (based on decisions made by command) in less than half. While the CIA has been implicated in several deaths, not one CIA agent has faced a criminal charge. Crucially, among the worst cases in this list – those of detainees tortured to death – only half have resulted in punishment; the steepest sentence for anyone involved in a torture-related death: five months in jail.
Despite this appalling record, and appalling lack of accountability, Rep. King wants to attack the Democrats and the Department of Justice in a “scorched-earth” campaign.
Pressed on whether interrogators had actually broken the law, King said he didn’t think the Geneva Convention “applies to terrorists,” and that the line between permitted and outlawed interrogation policies in the Bush years was “a distinction without a difference.”
“Why is it OK to waterboard someone, which causes physical pain, but not threaten someone and not cause pain?” he asked, warning of a “chilling” effect on future CIA behavior.
“You will have thousands of lives that will be lost, and the blood will be on Eric Holder’s hands,” he said.
King faulted his own party leaders for an insufficient response to yesterday’s announcement.
“They’ve declared war on the CIA. We should resist and fight back as hard as we can,” he said. “It should be a scorched earth policy. … This isn’t just another policy. This goes to the heart of our national defense. We should do whatever we have to do.”
This is captured-in-Bush Era-amber rhetoric, and it is total bullshit. The Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture establish “human” rights, not just rights for people who are not suspected of terrorism. Eric Holder never said that it is okay to waterboard people. He testified at his confirmation hearing that waterboarding is torture and is prohibited by law. Eric Holder is not declaring war on the CIA. And torturing people is not something that goes to the heart of our national defense.
We can’t allow this debate to take place within false parameters. People were murdered and people were tortured.
And, what is worse than anything, is the realization that the dreadful events of 9/ll may have an origin in these United States. The realization grows among an increasing number of people that World Trade Center buildings Numbers 1, 2, and 7 were destroyed by explosives planted from within. The debris field was too symmetric, the conversion of concrete and metal to dust was too instantaneous, the fire was not hot enough to melt the powerful core of the buildings for any other explanation to be plausible.
The pancake theory of destruction is refuted by the inadequate amount of rubble which would have resulted in a pile several times higher than actually occurred.
Further, collapsing floors would not have generated sufficient kinetic energy to propel large pieces of steel several hundred feet into the sides of adjacent buildings.
Finally, we have the direct evidence of our own eyes. The buildings, pulverized into dust, blew up and out as we have all seen in planned demolitions. They fell right into their own footprints and in no way did they crash onto other pieces of property.
Only in present day America would people refuse to acknowledge the glaring facts of 9/11, which facts were blatantly covered up in that sham of an investigation. Who wants to admit they were present at a fascist takeover of our very government? Let’s have a real inquiry as to what happened on that fateful day; with no special allowances to anyone for anything. Let the truth, whatever it is, prevail.
so, you’re an amateur physicist now?
keep your day job, dongi.
The WTC was attacked.
Attacked by guys who took flying lessons at a place owned by a man whose planes were flying heroin into Florida and who never even got indicted. Forty-three pounds of heroin seized at Orlando International.
What a glorious coincidence.
The collapse of those three buildings was awful neat, but the 9-11 Commission and Popular Mechanics says those three building were knocked down neatly by two planes, so it must be true.
Because we know that the CIA never lies and the Bush Administration would never manipulate our threat levels or lie to us to push us into a war.
The oligarchy would never let thousands of Americans die in order to make a buck, would they?
Booman, I lived through all the assassinations of the 60s and the Vietnam War.
yes, 19 hijackers flew four planes, three of which crashed into their intended targets, knocking down the WTC and trashing part of the Pentagon. If you want to argue that there was some American component to the attacks, I can listen to you. But if you want to argue that the WTC was attacked with airplanes so it could be blown up with explosives, I am going to invite you to join the Birthers, Truthers, and Teabaggers in the insane asylum.
I don’t have to be a physicist to understand concepts like momentum, gravity, and the explosive power of ferro thermite. Neither do I have to distrust my own eyes nor my ability to compare what I see happening in NYC and other parts of the world when it comes to demolition of buildings planned or not. I realize the power of group think and the mind sets so carefully cultivated by the Bush team. That doesn’t stop me from asking for more information when I think it necessary. And given all the peculiarities of 9/11 and the huge network of coincidences surrounding it, I think it is so necessary.
Perhaps, the following blog would be helpful.
http://www.ae911truth.org/
It consists of architects and while they are not physicists, they do know something about construction of buildings. Many of them are struck by the same coincidences that I have been.
Finally, George Bush and Co have perpetrated an amazing string of abuses upon values that we both hold dear and which abuses you have ably chronicled in many fine articles. He has also victimized several countries who posed no immediate threat to our well being, I mean Iraq by actual invasion and Iran by threat thereof. I think he was and is perfectly capable of trying to erect a fascist state in the US. That together with the amazing series of synchronicities surrounding 9/11 should be sufficient to reopen the investigations. Without truth on an issue so vital, the American Democracy is at peril. The truth may be terrible but it is our only hope for survival. I vote for truth and a continuation of the Republic we both love so well.
Actually, you do have to be a physicist to understand those things. That’s why they make them get degrees.
Here is an example of a building in Peking China that recently underwent a planned demolition. Notice any similarities to the buildings of the World Trade Center?
http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20090814/vuelan-edificio-mas-alto/566780.shtml
I wish someone would ask Peter King what his response would be to the British doing these, and similar, things to suspected IRA terrorists……
The Irish are good terrorists, dusky-hued Middle-Easterners are bad terrorists.
See the difference?
.
Pretty obvious timing, no? Right at the point where Obama’s health care reform dies, his people announce an investigation of the previous administration. Nice.
Thank you for including the (R-NY) or I’d never be able to tell the New York insane Representative King from the Iowa insane Representative King