Done and Released
The Obama Administration certainly did the right thing today by releasing the Torture Memos today. (The link is to Salon, and you may have to sit through an ad.) They note that no CIA staff involved with torture will be prosecuted.
The ACLU has uploaded pdfs of each memo here. It will take abit to read these, but if Greenwald’s excerpts are any indication, this is horrible stuff.
Good for them. I hope that this does bolster the effort to get the perpetrators of these memos and those who decided to implement them in front of a judge, but I’m not holding my breath.
Tags: torture
They read like a description of a Soviet Gulag. It is simply beyond outrageous.
It is beyond outrageous. I read that the Spanish have decided against prosecuting the Bush 6 — I really hope they take that back and expand the list. The people who wrote these memos and authorized this behavior ought to lose their citizenship in this country.
This is a step in the right direction although I think someone should be prosecuted. How are we going to prevent it from happening again?
Exactly U.I. If these folks walk away with no accountability why wouldn’t another gang try the same thing in the future?
One of these jackasses is sitting on a Federal bench for cripes sakes. Can he be impeached? Has anybody been disbarred? Can the victims or their families sue this gang for every dime they’ve got?
The Holocaust victims’ families got some sort of settlement didn’t they?
Ya wouldn’t want to give money to terrorists but I’d sure love to see Halliburton sold off and the money given to some good Islamic charity.
Bush should have been on trial at The Hague three years ago.
Those Pirates didn’t really get a fair trial. who ordered THEIR deaths?
Those memos… what was done in our name… dear God…
Bone-chilling
a.p,
C’mon man.
Price is a loose cannon 🙂
just playin devil’s advocate guys.
Now now Price you know better than admit a logical thought in this group
torturing people to get nothing is ALOT different than instantly killing terrorists who are about to kill an innocent American who was trying ot deliver food to suffering people. i actually support the killing of the pirates and oppose torture…. i know Rush was raising the question and i wanted everyone to get practice refuting his dumb ass claims. don’t associate me with you
lol, I doubt anyone thinks I am the company you keep. 🙂
fwiw – those pirate ordered their own death. It is the price of the profession they chose. They were more likely to end up dead by one way or another. There is no cause to have sympathy for them, it is what they chose.
None of us feel sympathy for the pirates.
None of us feel any sympathy for the lawyers who wrote this mess or their bosses who OKed their implementation, either.
None of us feel sympathy for the pirates.
The killing of any human being by another human being diminishes all of us, regardless of the reason.
So I feel sympathy for the pirates as I feel sympathy for the torturers, who must live their lives knowing what they did.
My sympathy is for the people suffering under the desperate conditions that led to making such poor decisions. Once they became violent thugs and kidnappers, my sympathy is gone.
One country’s “violent thug” is another country’s heroic soldier.
All deaths by violence diminish us. When we lose sympathy and empathy for even the most misguided among us, we lose our humanity.
I must’ve missed those votes on waterboarding as torture.
anonone ?
“One country’s “violent thug” is another country’s heroic soldier.” ????
Are you kidding me? These are pirates they are attacking unarmed merchants, they are thieves, not heroes – not soldiers, thieves. You cheapen true heroes and soldiers and frankly that is just disgusting.
I must’ve missed those votes on waterboarding as torture.
No you didn’t. Bush didn’t take any votes. He did the torturing under his own initiative.
Hey Bob, you been reading the news:
“A senior enlisted U.S. Army soldier–Master Sergeant John Hatley–was convicted two days ago by a military jury in Germany of executing four handcuffed, blindfolded Iraqi men by shooting them in the backs of their heads.”
People who make a career out of killing other people cheapen us all.
First I know nothing about that nor have commented on it one way or the other. Second I stand by my statement. If this sergeant has been convicted by a US military court he is no hero.
he is no hero
Nor are the people who get medals for dropping napalm on children. Or setting land mines. Or the myriad of other murderous crimes committed by people wearing uniforms and those who issue their orders.
Do you imagine that the militaries of the world will disappear, that the militants, extremists, jihadists, and others will just simply stop killing because it cheapens us all.
Yes.
When individual soldiers lay down their weapons and refuse to kill, when war is no longer glorified, and when people who kill are no longer honored, then we will have peace.
That is the only way.
Like John Lennon, I do “imagine.”
“I hope someday you’ll join us.”
I am a huge John Lennon fan. Unfortunately he is an example where a little bit of reasonable protection could perhaps have gone a long way. Not that he had any reason to fear for his life nor certainly any fault in his fate. What he imagined for is far far away and I doubt even he would have denied that after what happened to his city.
I never said it was close. In fact, I think it is more likely that we will destroy our planet and ourselves before that dream is reached.
But, nevertheless, civilization was able to basically abolish slavery even though it was once common and thought to be a part of the natural order of the world. So humankind is able to make global cultural shifts.
So let us go forward and teach peace, not war. Let us work together to abolish the root causes of terrorism and war. We have to at least try.
So if you continue with the imagine theme you have to say posessions are the root. Shall we give them up all at once or allow the government to take them one at a time ?
Do you believe that Bin Laden and company are willing compromise on the little things like womens rights, religious freedom, right to privacy ? Do you imagine yourself under Shia law? Do you imagine they would have it any other way ?
As a country we do much more of what you ask – peace corps, united way, plenty of other charities that promote peace.
You have to accept at some point there are those that simply will not accept the world as you wish for it to be. You may as well be describing their hell. That is just the way it is.