Yesterday I re-posted a comment added to a Washington Post article, Lawmakers Urge Special Counsel Probe of Harsh Interrogation Tactics, by Joby Warrick.
Here is another comment I added today.
Set aside the raft of legal rights and responsibilities, hard-won over centuries, enshrined in our Constitution and codified in international law, that are at issue here. Ignore legal "niceties’ barring "coerced testimony;" 700 years of Habeas Corpus; battlefields dictates from the likes of George Washington and Abe Lincoln [among others] regarding the treatment of POWs.
Farther into the weeds, but still at issue here, overlook the blood-soaked revolution against the tyranny of the "unitary executive" that led to this country’s founding.
What is evident in many of the comments, here, and in the hearts and minds of too many members of our political "leadership," is moral cowardice and profound failures of conscience.
Pretending that US torture policy is limited to "frat house pranks" and making prisoners "wear panties on their heads" . . .
Confining this argument to "3" admitted instances of the use of water boarding, and contrasting that with our own military’s SERE training . . .
If only the torture horror show scripted, authorized, and unleashed by this Administration was that simple.
From a Washington Post review of Alex Gibney’s documentary, "Taxi to the Darkside" – "Down a Dark Road," by Richard Leiby:
"In 2002, a young Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who'd never spent a night away from his dusty little village, got lost in the fog of war and took a wrong turn into an abyss from which he would never return. It was a detention center at Bagram Air Base, where he was grilled on suspicion of being a Taliban fighter. Military interrogators hung him from a cage in chains, kept him up all night and kicked him senseless, turning his legs into pulp.
He lasted only five days. The Army initially attributed his death to natural causes, even though coroners had ruled it a homicide. Low-level soldiers were punished. It turned out that Dilawar (who, like many Afghans, used only one name) was not an enemy fighter, had no terrorist connections and had committed no crime at all."
More, from Richard Leiby’s review:
"Researchers at Human Rights First have categorized more than 70 detainee deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as homicides linked to gross recklessness, abuse or torture. The findings are based largely on the military's own records, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests . . .
‘Murder's torture,’ Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former Colin Powell aide, says in the film. ‘Murder's the ultimate torture.’"
Here are just "3" entries from the "military’s own records:"
Department of Defense Autopsy Number AO295 – death certificate for unnamed detainee who "died" while in US custody at Whitehorse Detainment Facility, Nasiriyah, Iraq:
"Died as a result of asphyxia (lack of oxygen to the brain) due to strangulation as evidenced by the recently fractured hyoid bone in the neck and soft tissue hemorrhage extending downward to the level of the right thyroid cartilage. Autopsy reveleaved bone fracture, rib fractures, contusions in mid abdomen, back and buttocks extending to the left flank, abrasions, lateral buttocks. Contusions, back of legs and knees; abrasions on knees, left fingers and encircling to left wrist. Lacerations and superficial cuts, right 4th and 5th fingers. Also, blunt force injuries, predominatnly recent contusions (bruises) on the torso and lower extremities. Abrasions on left wrist are consistent with use of restraints. No evidence of defense injuries or natural disease. Manner of death is homicide. DOD 003329 refers to this case as "strangulation, found outside isolation unit. "
Department of Defense Autopsy Number A02-093 – death certificate for unnamed detainee who "died" while in US custody at Bagram Collection Point:
"Multiple blunt force injuries. Abrasion in upper right forehead. Abrasion on right lower forehead above eyebrow. Multiple contusions on right cheek and lower nose, left upper forehead, back of head. Abrasions on chest, lower costal margin. Contusions on arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, upper inner arm, groin, inner thigh, right back of knee and calf, left calf, left lower leg. Cause of death was pulmonary embolism due to blunt force injuries. Manner of Death: Homocide."
Department of Defense Autopsy Number A03-144 -- death certificate for unnamed detainee who "died" while in US custody at Helmand Province, Afghanistan:
"Death caused by the multiple blunt force injuries of the lower torso and legs complicated by rhabdommyolisis (release of toxic byproducs into the system due to destruction of muscle). Manner of death is homicide. Decedent was not under the pharmacologic effect of drugs or alcohol at the time of death."
Blood lust in not a mitigating justification for the use of torture. Nor, for that matter, is oil lust. Indeed, there is no legal, ethical, or moral justification for the use of torture – period.
Open your eyes.
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See too:
"Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan"
"Homicide Unpunished" -- a Washington Post editorial