Torture's Ok, But Simulating Torture - We'll Arrest You
David Swanson's newest article is up at World Can't Wait. It's entitled: "US Government Threatens to Prosecute Waterboarding."
An exciting development for those of us who have been waiting anxiously for precisely that headline.
Except that the waterboarding that our government is threatening to prosecute isn't the waterboarding that Cheney has touted the virtues of.
It's not for those who carried it out the 186 times that it was done to two known detainees: Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubadyah.
It's not for those in unknown and known locations like Abu Ghraib and Bagram who've been subjected to suffocation by water.
No, in their great wisdom, the US government is threatening to prosecute those who were planning to demonstrate what waterboarding is like in DC at Thursday's anti-torture rally.
The proponents of waterboarding like to describe waterboarding as "simulated drowning." It's not simulated anything. It's actual drowning, except the purpose isn't to fully suffocate those being tortured. The purpose is to stop just short of that finality. But let's accept their definition for the moment and say that according to our government "Simulated Drowning is OK, but Simulating a Simulation is Not."
Swanson's article begins this way:
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Comments
Maybe they should hire Cheney and Bush for the simulation so that it would got the correct way? Maybe they should hire from the jails the same doctors specialized to oversee waterboarding , to check that everything is going correctly so that nobody would be hurt?
Actually I agree with the department of Justice that waterboarding is so dangerous that it should not be demonstrated in public. But the department of justice should as well decide that it is as well dangerous in jails so that it should not be allowed there behind the closed doors.
Hi Dennis,
I think it will be easier to get the sun to rise in NY at midnight than to achieve your commendable goals.
As a parallel (of sorts), the Falun Gong within China have been subject to unspeakable acts of torture. No (few) actual pictures ever get out of China, however, these creative people have used art exhibitions "showing" methods of torture in explicit detail.
I can understand the "institutional forces" not wanting you to educate the American people in such a graphic way.
If the pictures cannot come out, maybe some of the victims can describe the torture to an artist...
Look at the site at the top of this "comment" - it takes a STRONG stomach to view the exhibits. (BE WARNED)
Some of the victims had raw sewage piped into their stomachs, via a tube through the nose (sometimes into their lungs). This was done during the forced feeding of hunger strikers.
Once again I admire your tenacity and single minded purpose, in attempting to make the planet we all live on - a better place.
Good luck to those Americans taking part next Thursday and to hell with the torturers from all nations.
I hope all countries watching this unfold can distinguish between the good freedom loving people and the "Torturers" regardless of nationality.
Beth: It does annoy me when I hear or see people call waterboarding "simulated drowning." It would be much more accurate to say that our elections are "simulated democracy," and that the winner of the 2008 presidential race is engaged in "simulated change."
Mal: I don't think it's THAT impossible! LOL. I will look at your link...
Hannu: It's interesting that the psychologist who they brought in who was convinced of the efficacy of torture under Bush had absolutely no experience or background in it. Actually, it's not interesting. It was necessary. Only a foundling could be that naive and wrong.
I can find absolutely no logical way anyone in our government can support, either by their silence or their speech, torture FOR ANY REASON. Thank you Dennis for being such a bulldog on this issue.
Mal: I don't think it's THAT impossible! LOL. I will look at your link...
That's what I mean Dennis, you're one tenacious individual.
I challenge ANYONE to put up a convincing argument as to what our world would look like, without people such as yourself and others, who dedicate much of their lives to the "GLOBAL" rights of their fellow human beings.
Tom: License to kill and torture. It's called: Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, Speaker of the House, Senator, Congressman/woman, General, CIA Director, ...
It's not Private, Private First Class...
Thanks for this post, Dennis. I was thinking that a day (June 26th would not really be enough)... that an entire week would be better.
rated
Torture Awareness Month.
In case it doesn't create the link here's the url: http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5673:june-is-national-awareness-torture-month&catid=117:homepage&Itemid=289.
Vonnia and soap box amy: Thanks for your comments. Yes, the hypocrisy is extraordinary. But then, it makes sense and IS consistent within the context of their Empire.