Thursday, November 10, 2005

Republican Endorses Unspeakable Terror: "The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody.

"The proposal, which two sources said Vice President Cheney handed last Thursday to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the company of CIA Director Porter J. Goss, states that the measure barring inhumane treatment should not apply to counterterrorism operations conducted abroad or to operations conducted by 'an element of the United States government' other than the Defense Department."

In other words, the Wehrmacht is (nominally) forbidden to torture prisoners, thanks be to God they must only be handed over to the Gestapo for that purpose.

"An editorial appearing Wednesday in the Washington Post did not mince words in denouncing Cheney's intervention. His actions, the newspaper declared, demonstrated that "this vice president has become an open advocate of torture.""

"Decisions at the top have led to hundreds of documented cases of abuse, torture and homicide in Iraq and Afghanistan." While the Post does not say so explicitly, these statements brand the second highest executive official in the country as a war criminal."

After a while, one becomes almost numb to this sort of news. At the time when we thought we would be fighting for ecological survival, sustainable societies and renewable energy, we have to track back and fight old battles over torture, tyranny and 'cruel and unusual punishment.'

It seems, as MEJ says, Cheney "is being allowed to go around and do his Sauron impression by demanding the right to torture, reinforcing his image as the evil dark lord." The Post article is suggestive of how much the tide may have turned in the American establishment due to the failure of the war that Cheney has become the target.

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