In order to understand why torture ordered by American government officials cannot be swept under the rug and who the real bad guys are, along with the brutality of it all, I recommend to watch this:
It is interesting beacuse the faces of the actors of the drama, those who have been in the news during the last few days, such as Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, appear in this documentary film (more below)
It is also worthy of note to mention that the "Discovery Channel" bought the rights to the film to then declare that they would "never put it on the air" because it wass too "controversial."
Later on HBO bought the rights and has been broadcasting this brutally honest piece on the criminals who authorized the torture and, today, roam around free and give speeches in CNN or have quite comfortable positions in "think-tanks" in Washington D.C.
Some excerpts:
The cast of characters include a man named Alberto Mora, a decent Republican who did this:
"Alberto J. Mora is a former General Counsel of the United States Navy. He led an effort within the Defense Department to oppose the legal theories of John Yoo and to try to end coercive interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay, which he argued are unlawful."
The cast also includes this name:
"Carolyn Wood, United States Army captain, is a military intelligence officer who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. She was implicated by the Fay Report to have "failed" in several aspects of her command regarding her oversight of interrogators at Abu Ghraib. She was alleged by Amnesty International to be centrally involved in the 2003 Abu Ghraib and 2002 Bagram prisoner abuse cases...As of October 2008, CPT Wood remained on Active Duty, assigned to the 501st Military Intelligence Brigade, and is the Company Commander of the Headquarters and Operations Company of the 527th Military Intelligence Battalion."
One more excerpt:
Watch it if you can, because an image is worth 1000 words in this case. What is painful to listen to is the rationale of the servicemen who did this. They argue that they were "following orders" but, even more dramatic, if you are aware of the experiences of the torturers in uniform elsewhere, those in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay or any country in Africa, there is absolutely no difference between their "justifications" and the ones used by American torturers in uniform.
This is what, I think we ought to remember every day:
Thanks to George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, some of our men and women in uniform put their values, moral principles and ethics in the toilette and became criminals."
Finally, more video material:
* UPDATE: I am reminded that this film won the Oscar in 2007 for best documentary, beating Michael Moore's "Sicko."
(Thanks, LaughingPlanet)