Torture: The Justification

"Our aim is to put you in hell so you will tell the truth. These are the orders we have from our superiors, to turn your lives into hell." --- US soldier to Abu Ghraib detainee [1]

Coming out of the woodwork ... as if from the woodcut of waterboarding in the Spanish Inquisition, stepping out, into our lives, assuming three dimensional features, taking on flesh tones, inhaling and exhaling... figures who declare with serious faces that ... torture .... Works.

They tell us:

• We will extract confessions from you.
• We know that you know what we want.
• We will tell you what we know about you and your co-conspirators and what we know that you know.
• We will tell you again and again and again and again until you tell us what we have told you so that we may know the truth. [2]
• We will pour jugs of water onto your face till you choke and struggle against your binds, to purify you.
• We will tell you that if you don't talk that you will surely die.
• We will put you in coffin-sized boxes for hours.
• We will throw you against the walls. Repeatedly.
• We will strip you naked and set dogs upon you.
• We will deny you sleep for days upon days.
• We will tell you that we will not ever stop until you have made your peace with us and confess freely and fully.
• We will slap you and beat you until you tell us what we want.
• We are, you must know, a merciful people, a kind people, a just, and a moral people.
• There are no more merciful, more kind, more just, more moral people than us.
• We are so just and moral that we can do these things to you and not be sullied by it.
• We remain moral and righteous as we beat you because our intentions are so pure. [3]
• We are protecting Americans' lives and if we have to suffocate you or beat you to death, we do so in the name of the American people, whose lives are more precious than your pitiful lying life.
• Our morality and justice is so great – Lord Be Praised - that you envy us this righteous life that we live, which is why you hate us so.
• But we are stronger and mightier than you.
• For we have God on our side.
• And you, you have nothing but superstition.
• We spit on your Quran.
• We are God's soldiers. [4]
• We will put your heads on sticks and rock your world. [5]
• We will demonstrate the superiority of our All Mighty compared to your pitiful heathen beliefs.
• We shall turn your life into a living hell.
• We shall teach you a lesson that you will not forget, nor your family, nor your neighbors, nor your mosque, nor your countrymen.
• In the Middle East, in Asia, in the world as a whole, we are the One.
• For you have no power. We have it all.

Notes

1. From Andy Worthington, 'Seven Years of Torture: Binyam Mohamed tells his story'.
2. "Understandably unable to resist the effects of the torture, Binyam proceeded to confess to whatever wild theories were put to him by his torturers. 'They had fed me enough through their questions for me to make up what they wanted to hear,' he said. 'I confessed to it all. There was the plot to build a dirty nuclear bomb, and another to blow up apartments in New York with their gas pipes.' As Rose noted, 'This - supposedly the brainchild of the 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - always sounded improbable: it was never quite clear how gas pipes might become weapons.'"Binyam added, 'I said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had given me a false passport after I was stopped the first time in Karachi and that I had met Osama bin Laden 30 times. None of it was true. The British could have stopped the torture because they knew I had tried to use the same passport at Karachi both times. That should have told them that what I was saying under torture wasn't true. But so far as I know, they did nothing.'" From Worthington, 'Seven Years of Torture'.
3. "Obama credited not Mr. Bush but the former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael V. Hayden and the former director of national intelligence Mike McConnell, who 'really had America's security interests in mind when they acted, and I think were mindful of American values and ideals.'" (From Helene Cooper and Stolberg Gay Stolberg, 'Obama Ponders Outreach to Elements of Taliban', New York Times, March 7, 2009.
4. "'You are the sovereign. Your name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb,' a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting on what lay ahead for them." The scene was reported by Agence France-Presse on Nov. 6, 2004" (From Mark Crispin Miller, 'Bush and Cheney's War on the Enlightenment', in Dennis Loo and Peter Phillips (eds.), Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2006) 193. - And, "At Fallujah, the Marines used napalm and white phosphorous - weapons banned by international law - to immolate the people living there, and saw that it was good; for in King David they thought they could see themselves, Agence France-Presse observed: "'The marines drew parallels from the verse with their present situation, where they perceive themselves as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world.'" Miller, 'Bush and Cheney's War', 194.
5. "With regret," the Russian official said, "I have to say that you are going to get the hell kicked out of you [in Afghanistan]." One of the Americans responded... "We're going to kill them," the U.S. official asserted. "We're going to put their heads on sticks. We're going to rock their world." From Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002), 103.

Source: Dennis Loo

Sadistic . . . violent . . . inhuman.

The US really has lost it.

There are those who clearly see the whole abuse of prisoners thing for what it is: Sadistic, violent, inhuman behaviour that is utterly beyond the pale - FULL STOP! - The problem is that the facts are so unacceptable to the self-image of Jane and and Jo sixpack and their 'Mom-an-apple-pie' Real America, that it can no more be squarely faced than can the implications of 911 truth or the murders of JFK, and MLK.

The result?

Outrage - absolute OUTRAGE. But not at the relentless systematic torture and abuse of prisoners, rather, at the prospect of further evidence of it being released in the form of official photos and videos. A sort of 'kill-the-messenger' syndrome with a twist.

So what does shiny new President 'Change you can believe in' Obama do? why cave in to the outrage and keep them under lock and key - naturally. Which is simply further confirmation of the horrific, obscene depravity of it all.

This in reply to a question about them at an ACLU convention from Seymour Hersh:

“Some of the worse that happened that you don’t know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men … . The women were passing messages saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened. Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has"

Meanwhile that reptile Cheyney is touring the studios explaining how torture 'saved American Lives' , which bad as it is, is not the half of it. It seems that it's first persistent use was aimed entirely at establishing a link between Saddam Hussain and Al Qaida to justify the invasion of Iraq. And that is EXACTLY what it did - falsely - with the 'confession' of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi who finally died in his Libyan prison last week. A confession used by Colin Powell in his infamous pre-invasion address to the UN

as Paul Krugman says in today's New York Times:

Let’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the non-existent link. There’s a word for this: it’s evil.

We don't do Torture

“The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.” President Bush on UN Torture Victims Recognition Day 26 June 2003

We don't torture people in America and people who say we do simply know nothing about our country. - George W. Bush Interview with Australian TV - October 18, 2003

“Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right and we are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law … Many have been detained, arrested, thrown in prison and subjected to torture by regimes that fail to understand that their habits of control will not serve them well in the long term.” Statement by President Bush released by the White House on June 26, 2005

"We do not torture." President Bush to reporters during a visit to Panama in November 2005

The American Torture Memos

These memos really are sick, sick SICK!

I've been acutely aware of the whole, undeniable, gross mistreatment of prisoners thing for years now but reading those documents is still shocking - not surprising but truly shocking. I was forcefully reminded of the NAZI's penchant for legalistic documentation of their atrocities. The US really has lost the plot when it comes to any shred of a claim to 'the moral high ground' - but, like its protege Zionist Israel, appears oblivious to its wretchedness.

There was an interview with a young black 'CIA Spokesman' on Channel 4 TV News last night. The guy was maybe 30-35 years old, handsome, clean cut, a bit like a young Sidney Poitier in appearance. His brief was clearly one of damage limitation and his performance was surreal. As usual with our MSM, he was given an easy ride by Krishnan Guru-Murthy the interviewer but in the event it made no difference. He was like a smiling automaton. I lost count of the stock phrases: 'Terrorism is worlds biggest threat'; 'to keep Americans safe from terrorism'; 'to keep Americans free from the fear of terrorism', 'Terrorism', 'Terrorism', 'Terrorists', 'Terrorists', 'Americans this', 'Americans that' - like clockwork. Substitute 'Terrorist(ism)' with 'Witch(craft)' and the meaning would have been unchanged. Inevitably - and quite unprompted - he invoked 9/11 with the words 'we lost over 3,000 lives to terrorists on 9/11 and we want to make sure that does not happen again'. Had I been that interviewer I would have shot back something like "..... but you have lost over 300,000 lives on your roads since then - that's the equivalent of over 100 9/11's !! - with maybe a further million dead and over 3 million displaced lives ruined by your military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you not think it high time we found some sense of proportion here?"

But of course such a question is absolutely verboten and more than any interviewers job is worth - and the interviewer knows it too (not to mention that the interviewee was clearly incapable of understanding such a question). So we are fed pap: "Americans have the right" etc etc ad-infinitum and of course, as loyal poodles we in the UK must support and assist in the enforcement of those 'rights'.

Frankly I am sick, weary and tired of hearing about 'Americans' - 'My fellow Americans' hand-on-heart, misty-eyed stares into the middle-distance to the strains of the 'By the Dawn's early light' - It's enough to make any sane human being want to puke. Patriotic nationalism - particularly of the sickly sentimental goodies -v- baddies American variety has one hell of a lot to answer for.

Gaza is our Guernica

The following is by Joseph E Fasciani originally posted at 'Thomas Paine's Corner' and offered here without comment other than 'spot-on' :

“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who has only eyes if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far, far from it: at the same time, he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.” Pablo Picasso

It is long past time for the world to acknowledge that the destruction of Gaza is the Guernica of our time. All our moral compasses will be set from this point, as to our attitude in this true holocaust. Not one of us is exempt; all will be weighed in the balance of our beliefs and actions.

“In 1937 Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, a mural, as the centerpiece for the Spanish Pavilion of the World’s Fair in Paris. It is a bitter irony that Guernica, the most lasting monument of the exposition, is the Twentieth century’s most enduring symbol of the horrors of war and the inhumane use of technology. It is a portent for the terrors of the next decade. The painting is based on the events of April 27, 1937, when the German air force, in support of the Fascist forces led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, carried out a bombing raid on the Basque village of Guernica in northern Spain.

“At that time such a massive bombing campaign was unprecedented. The hamlet was pounded with high-explosive and incendiary bombs for over three hours. The non-combatant townspeople including women and children were indiscriminately cut-down as they fled their crumbling buildings. The town of Guernica burned for three days leaving sixteen hundred civilians killed or wounded in its smoldering remains.

“The Fascist planners of the bombing campaign knew that Guernica had no strategic value as a military target, but it was a cultural and religious center for Basque identity. The devastation was intended to terrorize the population and break the spirit of the Basque resistance. In effect it was intended to “shock and awe” the Basques into submission. The bombing of Guernica was a sensation in the world press. The Times of London called it the arch-symbol of Fascist barbarity.”

From a series devoted to Responses to War created by David Hart of the University of Adelaide.

That the above description could be applied to the present horrors in Gaza with virtually no differences is condemnation enough for Israel to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Let us substitute Gaza for Guernica and Palestinian for Basque and see the eerie parallels:

“The Fascist planners of the bombing campaign knew that Gaza had no strategic value as a military target, but it was a cultural and religious centre for Palestinian identity. The devastation was intended to terrorize the population and break the spirit of the Palestinian resistance. In effect it was intended to “shock and awe” the Palestinians into submission.”

That this massacre is made by the same people who scream “Holocaust!” about themselves is of course the supreme irony, and –from a Christian point of view– the greatest self-incrimination and sin. Sin??? Well, there’s a word! Our idea of sin derives from the Greek word harmartia, which means to ‘miss the mark,’ something we cannot fault those precision Israeli bombers for. They locate and hit schools, hospitals, children’s shelters, and UN aid stations. Any and all humanitarian relief points are now suitable targets.

An Israeli friend of mine told me this was a common joke there twenty years ago:

“Why does Israel need expensive spy satellites?”

“So we can spot Palestinian kids picking up stones to throw at our tanks!”

For me, at nearly 66, it brings to mind all the black and white documentaries I watched as a child, often at rallies and memorials we attended with my father’s business partners, Sam Windstrauch and Sam Silberstein, two real Jews who had no interest in Zionism, nor did Albert Einstein, no matter how often he was asked to support “Israel Bond Drives”. Now the murderers are strangely transposed: the old black and white movies of the Nazis destroying Guernica or taking the Warsaw ghetto have morphed into full-colour TV journalists documenting Israel’s “Defense” Forces [IDF] taking Gaza, exactly as was done sixty years ago. The formerly abused become present abuser and use the same tactics: enclose the victims, cut off food, water, and fuel; bomb and shell one and all, set them fleeing in vain. Then move in and use all the newest weapons to maximize their deaths at minimal IDF losses. To date, it seems that goal is a kill ratio of 100:1 or better, if possible.

As we step into the Ninth Circle of Hell, please note that the IDF’s weapons and tanks are the best that money can buy and the USA supply, in fact, pays for with the billions of dollars of “foreign aid” it generously gives to Israel every year. If the US gave its own citizens as much as it gives to Israel, each man, woman, and child would receive more than US$ 33,000.00 a year. Let me know when you got your cheque, as I have yet to get mine.

“Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? [Holocaust] I think not.”

That is from a recent statement by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law authority at Princeton University, 2009. He is a Jew. This much is certain: all these killers are true to their leaders, such as Bush 43, who told us that “I listened to the voices…and acted. I am the Decider.” Some leader! Some decisions!

Can anyone see Christ in anything that comes out from Bush 43, or from any Zionazi spokesperson? “For it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what proceeds from his mouth!” warned Joshua, 2000 years ago. Nothing’s changed. In the US of A and Canada, self-righteous “Christian” evangelicals aligned with ZioNazis defame Him for a fictitious “security” which cannot ever be, for there can never be peace without justice. In truth, they are not Christians. They, along with the ZioNazis, are the new murderous Pharisees of our era: if we have eyes that truly see, and unstopped ears to hear the screams of agony in Gaza, the Guernica of our time.

Zionist propaganda on Gaza

An article in today's Guardian by Uri Dromi headlined "Israel's use of force was justified" prompted a comment from me - along with about a thousand others identifying it as a text-book piece of Israeli propaganda by a man with close links to the Israeli Security Services (a fact that the Guardian saw fit not to mention). Comments were/are running about 10:1 in condemnation of the thrust of the piece and are well worth reading, along with the article itself, as a good illustration of just how polished and bare-faced the Zionist propaganda machine is. My comment was in the form of a series of somewhat rhetorical questions to Dromi. This is an expanded version of it:

I have some questions for Uri Dromi:

1. Which country is in breach of more UN resolutions than any other?
2. How many Israelis were killed by Hamas rockets in the 6 months leading to the breaking of the cease-fire? (Clue: it was less than 1)
3. Who broke the ceasefire on US presidential election day 4th November (a good day to bury bad news eh?) and how many people did they kill doing so?
4. Which is closest to the Palestinian/Israeli deaths ratio since the inception of the Israeli State - 2/1, 10/1, 100/1 ?
   
5. Who won the Internationally supervised Palestinian election in 2006 with close to 70% of the vote against their man rival with about 30% - IOW who are the legitimate DEMOCRATICALLY elected government of the Palestinian territories?
6. Whose Presidential term expired on 5th January but is still treated by both Israel and the West as the legitimate spokesman for Palestinians?
7. Which territory has been rigidly blockaded by land, sea and air ever since those elections and in spite of ceasefire undertakings?
8. How many miles of (a) Apartheid walls and (b) 'Jews-only' roads + Jewish settlements have been built in the Palestinian West Bank territory in the past 5 years - in further gross violation of UN resolutions?
9. If God had (allegedly) decreed that the British Isles were the 'Promised Land of XXXXX' and Uri Dromey and his family found themselves systematically dispossessed, exiled, imprisoned, ethnically-cleansed and generally treated as unwelcome inhabitants in their own homes etc etc., would he become 1. A collaborator. 2. A cowed and frightened individual keeping his head down to protect his family and hopefully avoid the attentions of the invaders, or c - An 'Insurgent', or 'Militant' - pick your own demonising euphemism?
10. Why is it A-OK for Israel to abrogate the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and posses nuclear weapons with the connivance of the West - at all - let alone when senior Israeli political and military figures such as Professor Martin van Creveld make statements like this this? :

"We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force…. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under."

The questions are of course largely rhetorical. On any reasonable analysis Zionist Israel is the most dangerous, repressive, racist and apartheid state on the planet. It is in fact a War Crime in progress.