State of Denial

Torture as U.S. Policy and Practice

The recent hoopla about videotapes of the torture of ‘War on Terror’ prisoners Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri by CIA interrogators has drawn some odd denials from people who ought to know better by now. White House press spokesbot Dana Perino kept insisting to all questions that the US does not torture. Period, end of discussion.

What American with an IQ of over 75 believes this garbage, or the George W. Bush “doesn’t remember” knowing about those torture tapes – or ordering their destruction? Anyone who doubts US involvement in torture (and, too often, murder) should read Jennifer Hardbury’s Interview with Buzzflash for realistic background on this issue.

We have a president who holds the record for executions in the state of Texas, who exhibited signs of psychopathic personality disorder as a child (blowing up frogs) and who as drunken frat boy publicly defended branding of pledges with hot wire hangers. He has enlisted in his administration some of the most infamous American orchestrators and enablers of the torture-and-murder regimes in Central America Harbury documented so well in her book Truth, Torture and the American Way.

This time Bush appears to have finally made enough actual patriots mad that he just might might soon find that the whole world is watching. Which could have serious consequences for his planned retirement in Paraguay – if World Court operatives catch up with him first.

Ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson dares to publicly ask, Did Bush Eat Popcorn While Watching the Torture Tapes? This is a very scary article, more for its plausibility than for its audacity. There are rumors circulating that there were copies made of those torture tapes, and that at least one (likely more than one) national news source is in possession of them right now. Even if these rumors are off-base, we can be fairly sure copies were made, and that they have not all been destroyed. Such things do have a way of bubbling to the surface eventually.

It is not a stretch to surmise that we haven’t heard the last of this episode yet, so stay tuned!

Links:

Did Bush Eat Popcorn While Watching the Torture Tapes?

Truth, Torture and the American Way

Jennifer Hardbury’s Interview with Buzzflash

The Investigations of the Destruction of CIA Torture Tapes: How an ACLU Lawsuit Might Force the Bush Administration to Reveal What Actually Happened

NYT Editorial: On Torture and American Values

Related Ads:

Filed under Analysis, Books, Bush, Intelligence, Media, Torture, War | Comments (2)