Dear Hardball,
Your lead-off segment yesterday, "Torture and the Bush Administration," was a virtual "whitewash" of the subject, mediated by the unchallenged mendacity of Congressman Duncan Hunter.
In that segment, Mr. Hunter re-minted the oft-repeated "Big Lie" among torture advocates and apologists -- the egregious and demonstrably false mis-characterization that "unofficial" abuse was confined to the latenight depravity of "a few bad apples;" and "official" abuse has been limited to "3" admitted instances of the use of waterboarding against "the worst of the worst." Throughout the segment, "newsman" Chis Matthews and Congressman Jim Moran managed, effectively, to serve as co-conspirators in a concerted, ongoing effort to minimalize and deny the monstrous breadth and depth of the Bush Administration's criminal torture program.
What sort of journalistic flop could have disappointed me more? Perhaps, in an upcoming segment, Mr. Matthews can similarly and uncritically entertain a holocaust denier on his show, to test, further, the rank crudity of this kind of "reporting," on so grave and serious an issue as this.
Publically-available, though-still-limited disclosures reveal a far-flung horror show -- authored, unleashed, and orchestrated by top Bush Administration officials -- well beyond the "sick" abuses of England and Graner, and the "professional" waterboarding of KSM.
See, for example:
"The CIA's Favorite Form of Torture," by Mark Benjamin
"The first thing that happens is extraordinary hallucinations akin to mescaline," explained McCoy. "I mean extreme hallucinations" of sight and sound. It is followed, in some cases within just two days, by what McCoy called a "breakdown akin to psychosis."
"Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody," released by the ACLU
47 year old white male detainee died while in US custody. Cause of death: Blunt Force Injuries and Asphyxia; Manner of Death: Homicide. Autopsy revealed deep bruising of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, bruising on the lungs, hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large intestine. Examination of the neck structures revealed hemorrhage into the strap muscles and fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone. History of asphyxia, secondary to occlusion of the oral airway. Pleural and pulmonary adhesions. Hypertensive cardiovascular disease. According to report provided by the US army CID, the detainee was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless. The severe blunt force injuries, the hanging position, and the obstruction of the oral cavity with a gag contributed to this individual's death. DOD 00329 refers to this case as "gagged in standing restraint" DOD 003329 refers to this case as "1 blunt force trama and choking; gagged in standing restraint." DOD 003324 refers to this case with a note indicating "Q[uestioned] by OGA [Other Governmental Agency - non-military, often refers to CIA], gagged in standing restraint."
"Deaths of Detainees in the Custody of US Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan From 2002 to 2005," by Scott Allen, MD, et al
. . . 112 cases of death of detainees in United States custody (105 in Iraq, 7 in Afghanistan) during the period from 2002 to early 2005 were identified. Homicide accounted for the largest number of deaths (43) . . .
"Medical Investigations of Homicides of Prisoners of War in Iraq and Afghanistan," by Steven Miles, MD
"Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan," by Human Rights First
"Homicide Unpunished," a Washington Post Editorial
ONE OF THE most shocking photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shows a grinning guard giving a thumbs-up sign over the bruised corpse of an Iraqi detainee. Subsequent investigation showed that the deceased prisoner, an Iraqi named Manadel al-Jamadi, died of asphyxiation on Nov. 4, 2003: He was tortured to death by Navy SEAL and CIA interrogators who took turns punching and kicking him, then handcuffed his arms behind his back and shackled them to a window five feet above the floor.
"Down a Dark Road," by Richard Leiby
"Murder's torture," Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former Colin Powell aide, says . . . "Murder's the ultimate torture."
"Senate report links Bush to detainee homicides; media yawns," by Glenn Greenwald
The policies which the Senate Armed Services Committee [in their recent report] unanimously concludes were authorized by Bush, Rumsfeld and several other top Bush officials did not merely lead to "abuse" and humiliating treatment, but are directly -- and unquestionably -- responsible for numerous detainee murders.
"War Crimes," by Scott Horton
How often in our nation’s history has a Congressional Committee published a report which concludes that the President is essentially guilty of war crimes? Only once. It happened last week with the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee report on prisoner abuse. Put a sharper point on it: war crimes that produce the death of a detainee are punishable with the death sentence. And in this case we now have more than one hundred deaths potentially linkable to detainee abuse, linked to the President. Yet to the American mainstream media, which has made virtually no effort to comprehend the report, it was a non-event.
At best, yesterday's segment, "Torture and the Bush Administration," was a failure to engage in something approaching actual, diligent, honest reporting. At worst, it was a deliberate effort to obscure the hard and horrible truth about Bush & Company's involvement in the gravest of crimes -- crimes against peace and humanity.
A regular member of your viewing audience,
[manonfyre]