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never would have guessed
States which have Signed but not yet Ratified the Convention Against Torture
Belgium
Bolivia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Gabon
Gambia
Iceland
Indonesia
Morocco
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
Sudan
United States of America<-----right below the Sudan where genocide is in progress. Hmm, makes me proud to be an American, knowing my govt, despite all the rhetoric, doesn't give a shit about basic human rights. (this is an older treaty, possible we ended up signing it, but couldn't find anything that said we did.)
In a world gone mad the US helps lead the way back into the Dark Ages. A time in which laws were made to fit a leaders needs. A time when trials were a pretense at fairness. A time when you were arrested, tried, and executed without benefit of public accusation, public trial, or empowered defense advocate.
The US, by thumbing its nose at signed treaties and domestic laws which prevent secret trials, torture, murder, and false imprisonment of any citizen, detainee, or POW; is following a path established by the worst leaders in history. From Stalin to Pol-Pot and from Hitler to Hussein the use of secret detention centers, the use of torture, and the uncaring murder of political prisoners helped shape US law and UN/NATO treaties. Now, it seems, we have lost our way and accepted the "ends justify the means" path of totalitarian injustice. Like Stalin the US has established secret detention centers to incarcerate political prisoners; the prisoner's crime? Being a SUSPECTED Islamic terrorist. But how do we know that only Muslims are being held? How do we know that other US detractors, worldwide, are not being kidnapped and incarcerated without due process? The answer is: We don't know. The US has made sure that groups like amnesty international are not allowed to know more about terror techniques than is necessary. Most of what groups like Amnesty know is relayed to them by former detainees.
This culture of immorality and corruption, bred by Bushco, has not made the US safer since 9-11. It has made us less safe. "We fight them there so we don't have to fight them HERE." That may be true. Our troops and allies in the Middle East are prime targets. Once we pull out and come home the hatred and resentment we've helped to nurture against us in the Middle East will be re-directed at US targets.
I don't know how this govt came to its decision to lower us to the standards set by the likes of Hitler and Stalin. I don't know how any intelligent American politico could sleep at night knowing that their orders (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Cheney, and Bush) are causing the torture and murder of potentially innocent people who are being held in inhumane detention centers without charge or benefit of counsel. Doesn't sound like "the protection of America" as they would have us believe, but rather it sounds like Gestapo tactics designed to allow those in power to act like GOD.
didn't want to deny Alberto Gonzales his place in the pantheon of traitorous American leaders.