The so-called confessions of tortured criminals are usually worthless, especially when others than themselves are inculpated.
~snip~
It were better that children never came into the world if they are born under a government which mistakenly inculcates falsehood as a means to escape punishment and suffering.
~snip~
And the founder of the Christian faith has said: " It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than he should offend one of these little ones. "
NYTimes Feb 27, 1881
Simulposted at docudharma.com
Please, contact The White House, Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress and demand justice for these crimes.
In a New York Times article from Feb 27 1881 the New York Times expounded on the family oriented torture and corporal punishment inflicted on children and how it was entirely unacceptable.
Often we are told by the faithful that we are all "Gods children"
128 years ago, this was common sense.
Today, not so much
The article centers around the practice of many 19th Century families who, when accusing their own children of wrong doing, after that child has plead their innocence, have beaten that child until a confession is given.
Such practices as solitary confinement, withholding of meals and other forms of torment, then seen as uncivilized and barbaric in 1881, were all justified and made legalish by the Bush/Cheney Administration.
The article uses several examples of lynchings to illustrate the opinion that torture is, effectively, lynch mob behavior. One such story tells the tale of the practice in a Northern California county of hanging a man from a tree who was accused of a crime. When the man was half dead they would lower him down and demand the names of his co-conspirators. This would happen two or three times, and then, when the crowd was satisfied they would hang the man until he died. Then they would round up those whom the first hanged man had accused and hang them as well.
The only difference between this and what happened under Bush/Cheney is that the assumed guilty usually aren't killed. Usually.
It is strange that, although trial by torture has been abandoned throughout the civilized world, so far as legally constituted tribunals are concerned, it yet survives in many families. Now and then, to be sure, we hear of such a public trial, but this is usually conducted by a mob, and in a partly civilized district.
NYTimes Feb 27, 1881
Today, the mob is the powerful and elite of our broken, corrupt political system.
Or, rather, one party in particular. That party is the current Republican party and the previous Bush/Cheney Administration.
The biggest story of the Iraq war is not about missing weapons of mass destruction, or about deep-cover CIA officers getting their covers blown by vengeful White House agents, or even about 896 dead American soldiers. These have been covered to one degree or another, and then summarily dismissed, by the American mainstream news media. The biggest story of the Iraq war has not enjoyed any coverage in America, though it has been exploding across the international news media for several weeks now.
The biggest story of the Iraq war is about the torture of Iraqi children.
A German TV magazine called 'Report Mainz' recently aired accusations from the International Red Cross, to the effect that over 100 children are imprisoned in U.S.- controlled detention centers, including Abu Ghraib. "Between January and May of this year, we've registered 107 children, during 19 visits in 6 different detention locations," said Red Cross representative Florian Westphal in the report.
The report also outlined eyewitness testimony of the abuse of these children. Staff Sergeant Samuel Provance, who was stationed at Abu Ghraib, said that interrogating officers had gotten their hands on a 15 or 16 year old girl. Military police only stopped the interrogation when the girl was half undressed. A separate incident described a 16 year old being soaked with water, driven through the cold, smeared with mud, and then presented before his weeping father, who was also a prisoner.
anotheramerica.org
At the time the above article was written there had only been 896 American deaths in Iraq. Today the number is four times larger and still growing. Even then, the deaths of innocent Iraqi citizens remain uncounted.
All of this was done to justify a war of aggression against Iraq that never should have been.
There must be equal consequences under the law if we are to presume that we have equal rights.
Please, contact The White House, Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress and demand justice for these crimes.
You can contact Attorney General Eric Holder and demand accountability here
BY MAIL
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
BY PHONE:
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
Office of the Attorney General - 202-353-1555
U.S. DOJ FAX number for AG Holder
FAX: (202) 307-4613
BY E-MAIL
E-Mail the Attorney Generals Office at AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Disclaimer: THIS E-MAIL ACCOUNT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SERVICE OF OFFICIAL, CASE-RELATED OR LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND IS NOT MONITORED FOR SUCH SUBMISSIONS OR FOR OTHER TIME-SENSITIVE COMMUNICATIONS. E-mails with attachments will be deleted because they may contain viruses.
You can Contact President Barack Obama's White House to demand accountability here
CALL The White House at 202-456-1111 and E-Mail the WH here
Tell the Democratic House of Representatives Leadership that you support H.Res 383 and want open public investigations of Bush/Cheney.
Contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi [D-CA8] by E-Mail here
Or Call (202) 225-0100
Contact House Rules Committee chairman Rep. Louise Slaughter [D-NY28] by E-Mail here
Or Call (202) 225-3615
Be sure to mention that you want a closed rule that allows no amendments on H.Res 383 that leads to open, public hearings on the policies and War Crimes of the Bush/Cheney Administration.
Contact House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer [D-MD5] by E-Mail here
Or Call (202) 225-4131
Contact House Majority Whip James Clyburn [D-SC6] by E-Mail here
Or Call (202) 225-3315
Contact H.Res 383 Sponsor Representative Barbara Lee [D-CA9] by E-Mail here
Or Call (202) 225-2661
Contact House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers by E-mail here
Or Call (202) 225-5126
If torture was un-civilized and unacceptable in 1881, why is it a viable option for many today?
It is not, and never should have been.
But the system pursued is precisely the same as that in vogue in medieval times when the rack and the thumbscrew were in constant use.
NYTimes Feb 27, 1881
We can not move forward into the next millennium if we do not punish those who would have us return to the practices of the dark ages.