November 07, 2005

• "...CIA." Sorry, but I needed closure on that last last sentence.
• I would gladly Oswald the cunt.
• Wait...if we don't torture, why do we need an exemption from the "don't torture" rule? /head exploding
• bizackly.
• I think someone here coined the term "freedom tickling" for torture - I wish I could remember who.
• "freedom tickling" oh thats good!! can I borrow that one next time I am interrogating a victim in the name of de-mock-crazy?
• Wait...if we don't torture, why do we need an exemption from the "don't torture" rule? Chewbaca Defense?
• ...If the nipple-clamp-car-battery-electrodes don't fit...
• Let me just add that this is the most truthful, believable, and downright honest administration the United States of America has ever seen. We should all be full of pride! And freedom! For our families! *smirk*
• All I can say is: Cheney
• That Cheney pic looks CG.
• Cruel & Grotesque? I agree.
• Oh, f8xy! Will you NEVER learn? The man has an unflattering photograph - what more proof do you need that he is a criminal warmonger who enjoys torturing people? Honestly, you conservocrats need to brush up on your Aristotle - who conclusively disproved Plato's "Forms" by displaying an unflattering picture of the founder of the Academy picking his nose, or perhaps it was Crito's nose, I've never read it. Now go back to Palestine and fix the middle-east peace process like we told you to. HURRY UP.
• I don't know about CG, I was thinking zombie was more like it. (Brrrraaaiinnnsss!)
• I swear to ZEUS I'm about to go all Xenophon up in this motherfucker, quidnunc, OR SHOULD I SAY EUTHYPHRO?!?!
• Oh, go fuck yourselves. Ahh! That feels better!
• "Lynne says when I curl my lip like Elvis, I look extra virile. She lets me have angry sex with her. Saves me from having to go across town. Damn escort catalogue is never up to date..."
• did someone say "zombie"???
• *shoots HuronBob in the face*
• damn... i hate it when that happens! :-(
• Bush doesn't torture, the pussy. He sends the Spanish InquisitionCIA to do his dirty work for him.
• I hate my first name, now.
• If anyone's curious, over on Fark the Bush groupies made it clear how he could possibly utter that statement - they're still going off the "few bad apples" assumption. So, essentially, the US doesn't torture people; people torture people. Except when we legalize torture, at which point the OTHER half of that statement becomes true. ("Any activity we conduct is within the law.") And besides, it's not ACTUALLY torture - you have to pull off fingernails for that. And if the military beats someone to death? Well, that's MANSLAUGHTER. Get your crimes straight. /This insanity summary brought to you by the Innocent Bystander
• Whoawhoawhoa -- you still read the comments on Fark when you have MoFi available to you instead? What the hell..?
• Well, it was either that, or go see how the Freepers were spinning this. And, well, there are things even I would not do.
• We "do" not torture. Not we "did" not torture. Not we "will" not torture. Clearly, he had all torturing operations suspended for today so that he could make that statement while being honest at that very moment.
• Yeah, we do not torture. We also did not have sexual relations with that woman. A fool and his money are soon elected.
• Didn't we have sexual relations with that woman? But at least we would never use chemical weapons against people, right?
• Oh, and I forgot - there was no torture if there was no photographic evidence. That the government admits there IS photographic evidence and refuses to heed a court order to release it is absolutely immaterial - seeing is believing, period. The rest could just be liberal media lies.
• Key to all this, according to the good folks at Frontline, is that it's only torture when someone deliberately causes organ failure. Anything up to that point is fair game. Accidental organ failure is just fine.* *This being 'torture' when applied to the U.S., not anybody else, of course.
• If anyone's curious, over on Fark. . . *beeep!* message deleted. End of mailbox. (good intention though - i just don't care how any Bushie wants to spin it. It's sick and deeply disturbed to back what they've done in Afghanistan, Abu Gharib (and other), and who knows what's going on in Poland. Did you forget Poland??)
• I do not breathe.
• Sounds an awful lot like "I am not a crook." That worked for Nixon, didn't it?
• In other news, Bush declares "black is white" and "Gigli was a great movie."
• there was no torture if there was no photographic evidence. That has been the only way for the 'public' to acknowledge some events lately. No photo, no video = it didn't happen, in the eye of the audience, and in the speeches of the apologizer, at least. That by itself is troubling, as we kept being nudged by those graphic shocks. And the blade cuts both sides, too... remember all the visual impact images from the war, the falling statue, the dictator on his undies, the martyred hostages, the victorious banners...
• And on cnn.com headlines right now: • Five U.S. soldiers charged with detainee abuse | WATCH • Bush: 'We do not torture' | WATCH ah so.
• Monkeyfilter: Bush doesn't torture the pussy.
• Best case of missing comma ever.
• Aw, shucks, you noticed.
• George W. Pussy
• So u was too naive To stop Abu Ghraib?
• So does that mean we can "not torture" Bush to get the truth out of him?
• "We don't torture" but we have friends who do it for us
• I heard on a news report tonight that Bush's comment that "we do not torture" may be wrong. Not lying. Not fucking lying but just plain ol' wrong. This is why reporters need to be kicked. Wrong. Fucking Jebus Gosh.
• I do not fart.
• "We have tried torture, but we didn't let them inhale."
• Not lying. Not fucking lying but just plain ol' wrong. Well, heck, maybe torture is sorta like pronouncing nuclear nookyooler. After all, nobody tortillas. It's not really an action!
• The Medium Lobster explains all. Hurrah for Fafblog.
• PBS documentary names U.S. torture commanders View "The Torture Question," and learn more, at this site.
• Is the U.S. above the Geneva Conventions? The debate over McCain's anti-torture bill is a sad moment for a country that once stood for human rights. (Salon, daypass req.)
• Cruelty in war may be universal: but an international code acknowledging limits on cruelty has been, until now, a fundamental part of civilization. The Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1949, put it plainly: Even in war, all persons are to be treated "humanely"; "cruel treatment and torture and outrages upon personal dignity" are prohibited. This really is the most disgusting act these bastards have perpetrated yet. Lobbying - bullying even, for the right to torture. These sick motherfuckers aren't Christian, they aren't honest, and they aren't good. Anyone who thought otherwise needs to wake the fuck up and complain loudly. Goddamn.
• "We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop." Craig Murray, formerly the UK's ambassador in Uzbekistan, releases evidence that he had clearly informed the British government that it was using intelligence obtained under torture. Via Bloggerheads, which gives more context and background.
• nice. Hand blood anyone?
• Call Cruelty What It Is
• Gonzales defends interrogation methods
• Torture is indefensable. In a speech, Gonzales said CIA interrogators lack guidance on how to comply with the international Geneva Conventions, saying the provisions banning "humiliating and degrading treatment" and "outrages upon personal dignity" are too vague. Which is why I'm kinda pissed off that I - on the surface anyway - agree with Al Gonzo on that particular point.
• petes, have some ))) - because ye get pissed at all the right things!!!
• Iraq torture 'worse after Saddam' Many bodies have missing skin, broken bones, back, hands and legs, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails, the UN report says. Victims come from prisons run by US-led multinational forces as well as by the ministries of interior and defence and private militias, the report said.
• We surely can't have another guy out there torturing people better than we do. We have a reputation to protect.
• Didn't used to.
• *gets out the power drill*
• CIA ‘refused to operate’ secret jails
• And now a message from the President...
• Torture as a semantic game
• Punked
• The Democrats showed they are ciphers who don't have the stones to even say a word when the most important moral issue confronting the government is being debated. Unless the Dems ready to threaten to filibuster a national security bill a month before an election --- which I doubt --- I expect that the Republicans are going to rush this through the conference and force through this piece of shit bill in a hurry, just like they forced the AUMF through in October 2002 and give the republicans a big honking "victory" in the GWOT. The Dems are all going to be twisted into pretzels and look like they have no backbones as they struggle with a united GOP saying that McCain and Huckleberry Graham made sure "the program" is moral and necessary. Vote for it for for the terrorists. So they'll end up voting for it without getting any benefit from it. Dammit. Fuckin' Democrats.
• Deal on detainee treatment quells GOP revolt But the agreement explicitly gives the president "the authority for the United States to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions." Yay. What a blow for humanity. The POTUS can decide and he's the FUCKING DECIDER. Why legislate at all? What a worthless pile of shit this ineffectual, miserable excuse for a congress is. Bush said earlier this month that 14 suspected al Qaeda leaders had been held by the CIA in secret facilities overseas and subjected to "alternative" interrogation techniques he said were tough but did not violate U.S. laws barring torture. As long as the US taxpayers are funding that, I don't see a problem. Oh, okay we'll let big Pharma fund it. Fine.
• "The agreement clears the way to do what the American people expect us to do -- to capture terrorists, to detain terrorists, to question terrorists and then to try them," said Bush. When used by Bush, the word "terrorists" loses all meaning. And the word "suspected" doesn't seem to be in his vocabulary.
• Engaging in a public argument in favor of abusive detainment. Un-American at the very, very least. Why won't a single Democrat force that fucking point? What, voters will hold it against them?
• Because Americans are real people, and those others are not real people.
• Those others am us!
• According to Bush, those people are "terrorists," which means that they are no longer human and have no rights to protect. Who cares if the evidence of their terrorist activities is questionable, and in many cases, nonexistent? Better to be safe than correct. Bush has a solid kill them all, and let Gawd sort them out philosophy going here.
• And what could go wrong with that.
• People who torture other people are terrorists. Hey, good news, everybody- we're gonna win the war on terror by becoming terrorists. Is no one able to put this together? Are the days gone when one might hope to see the obvious truth in print or hear it spoken on television? Jesus, every time I think we've bottomed out, they find a new bottom. Good thing we can take our passports to the polls in November and set all this right via the untraceable magic of Diebold.
• Jesus, every time I think we've bottomed out, they find a new bottom. You just said the right word there, Stan. It's because our people love Jebus that we're not terrorists, and because they love Moojamad that they are. Semantics makes right.
• Honestly, I don't know how many more "straws" I can take. Is the damage irreversible? I've lost faith in the election process. I've lost pride for my country. Every day, the news seems to be more and more disheartening. Now, my gut sense only tells me that this is the beginning of the end of the so-called Greatest Nation on Earth.
• The "scenic route" to torture The GOP enacts its drama to perfection
• Faithbased Torture
• Torture Inc.: America's Brutal Prisons NSFW.
• Damn! What a brutal, barbaric people we are. We have learned nothing!
• Torboto: The Robot That Tortures People
• To understand how Bush justifies a torture policy that is the bane of our nation, consider the sentimental cowboy art that decks his Oval Office walls.
• I dunno. That article was depressing in the hollow thud of copious notation showing all the various ways Bush doesn't get it, doesn't care, doesn't want to. God told him to do it, Saddam=bad, no lessons learned, no interest in learning them.
• Clap If You Love Torture
• In a stadium full of GOP faithful? Huh.
• The Military versus the Politicians on Torture
• "Verschärfte Vernehmung"
• Critics will no doubt say I am accusing the Bush administration of being Hitler. I'm not. There is no comparison between the political system in Germany in 1937 and the U.S. in 2007. What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death.
• If morality can be said to evolve--abolition of slavery, voting for all, furthering women's rights, promulgation of the Geneva Convention and elimination of torture, environmental awareness--Bush and his cohorts have caused an erosion of moral consciousness in this nation.
• Scholars Urge Bush to Ban Use of Torture
• Here's an interview with two of those students: “We Do Not Want America to Represent Torture”: High School Presidential Scholars Deliver Bush a Message on Human Rights
• Bush’s New Interrogation Order Contains Loophole: ‘Does Not Create Any Right Enforceable At Law’
• Two former Reagan officals speak out against Bush's latest executive order: War Crimes and the White House: The Dishonor in a Tortured New 'Interpretation' of the Geneva Conventions ... we cannot in good conscience defend a decision that we believe has compromised our national honor and that may well promote the commission of war crimes by Americans and place at risk the welfare of captured American military forces for generations to come.
• ^ officials!
• Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations
• We know this administration is a bunch of liars, so why do we put up with their shit? Asshole Bush.
• We're waiting it out until 2008. That's what it feels like.
• A long wait that will surely be fruitless...
• SMT: Unfortunately, you are so right. We're on our way to hell with a handbasket full of idiots.
• But it's on sale!
• Fort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII "During the many interrogations, I never laid hands on anyone," said George Frenkel, 87, of Kensington. "We extracted information in a battle of the wits. I'm proud to say I never compromised my humanity."
• Bush's "Enhanced Techniques" A Lot Like Klaus Barbie's
• Carter declares: We Torture! Hawt damn...
• Watchdog of C.I.A. Is Subject of C.I.A. Inquiry
• Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
• The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us
• Waterboarding is Torture… Period
• An excellent piece [above]. Please read...
• Someday, I'd really like to know if John Woo is just a foot-soldier of the War on Terror, or one of the Generals. Does he argue what he does just because it's his job at hand, or because it's his sincerely-held, batshit-crazy belief? Either way, he's a fascinating, perverse guy.
• Just because it's important to understand: Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word. Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral. Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.
• But, but, but... Prez Bush says we do not torture. Can't be that bad. That man deserves to rot in seven hells
• Only seven?
• Well, once he got past seven he wouldn't be able to count them up, anyway.
• FUCK
• Bush Administration Blocked Waterboarding Critic
• Where's Lee Harvey Oswald when we actually need him? seven hells is fine--but I'd like to see three of them involve waterboarding
• French Journalist Henri Alleg Describes His Torture Being Waterboarded by French Forces During Algerian War
• Torture: the new abortion
• The legality of torture takes over as the political litmus test in campaigns and confirmation hearings. Next up: Gravity; Secular Plot?
• The President’s Coming-Out Party
• Wow, I didn't know that about waterboarding and James I. Plus ça change...
• MPAA censors torture documentary, gleefully approves of fake torture
• Urge to boycott . . rising
• Discovery Channel Accused of Political Censorship for Dropping Oscar-Nominated Doc on U.S. Torture
• We Do Not Torture Like The Spanish Inquisition... It's More Like the Khmer Rouge
• I saw this. WTF???? "We torture 'nicer' than Torquemada." They seem to have lost sight of the fact that they are now essentially confessing to International war crimes.
• The Valentine’s Day Torture Trifecta
• Torture in Our Own Backyards: The Fight Against Supermax Prisons
• Torture and the Law: Experts Weigh in on Top Officials Talking Torture With Bush's Approval
• Torture - China outsources back to the US.
• Does Bush Believe McCain Was Tortured?
• That's an excellent point. I'd not thought about it like that. Good link h-dogg, thanks.
• Oh, the vast cognitive dissonance on the Right!
• Ending Torture
• CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos. Waterboarding Got White House Nod
• Like we didn't know this? Like it won't be forgotten as soon as tomorrows newspaper comes out? Meh, just another Bush day.
• White House not likely to pardon torture officials, claims torture memos make pardons ‘unnecessary.’
• I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq
• Senate report links Bush to detainee homicides; media yawns
• Since I doubt if Bush will get anything but richer after he leaves office, I can only hope that I'm wrong, that there is a hell, and that he rots in it eternally. Justice IS blind, as well as stupid sometimes.
• Here's a legal question for any lawyer monkeys: Can Bush issue himself a pardon before leaving office? And can he pardon himself for crimes he is not yet charged with? Likewise, can the Governor of Illinois name himself to fill that empty Senate seat? These days nothing would surprise me.
• War Crimes? A Zen Question
• Marjorie Cohn: It Would Be Illegal for Bush to Pardon Himself or Cheney for Torture and Obama Is Legally Required to Prosecute
• Glenn Greenwald: Binding U.S. law requires prosecutions for those who authorize torture
• Obviously binding on the other guy. Bush: What? Me worry?
• Think You'd Remember the Face of Your Torturer? Think Again
• Abu Ghraib investigator Antonio Taguba talks to Salon about why he backs a commission to examine Bush torture policies.
• Rachel Maddow Show - Jon Turley - impassioned case for prosecuting alleged torture
• The Woman Who Could Nail Bush: Forget nanny issues and unpaid taxes. The GOP is threatening an ugly fight over an Obama Justice Department appointee who wants to disclose more Bush-era torture memos.
• Obama, the ICRC Report and ongoing suppression
• In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Inquiry Into Their Past Use: Top U.S. officials involved in the adoption of brutal interrogation methods did not investigate the origins of the techniques they approved with little debate.
• Focus Shifting To Evidence Bushies Ordered Torture To Boost Case For Iraq War
• Did the Bush Administration Experiment on Detainees? Not only were terrorism suspects tortured, they were also used as human guinea pigs, a new report alleges.
• Supreme Court: No Day in Court for Canadian Rendition Victim Maher Arar Canadian RCMP Conducting Criminal Investigation of U.S. and Syrian Officials for Maher Arar's Rendition to Torture
• A federal appellate court appeared split Monday morning as to whether former Justice Department attorney John Yoo could be sued for authorizing the torture of an American citizen.
• John Yoo's judgment is repugnant, but I don't see how you can hold someone accountable for the actions of someone else employing a legal opinion. People take bad advice from lawyers all the time, and lose, no?
• None of Us Were Like This Before: Six Questions for Joshua Phillips
• The NYT's nationalistic double standard
• The 'rough tactics' assure an 'enhanced interrogation'. fuckin' euphemisms
• Other countries probing Bush-era torture — Why aren't we?
• George W. Bush Admits He's A War Criminal In New Book
• Yeah, I read this on the bbc just now, and I'm just dumbstruck. Trying to formulate a comment, can't. Just incredible.
• And Bush is counting on his readers to continue to be that stupid. And I'm certain they will not disappoint! Blowjobs or breaking the Geneva Convention--you tell me which constitutes immorality in the eyes of the Amerikun public?
• Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe
• George Bush and the turn to human rights in the Arab world: Some have linked the emergence of a strong human rights agenda in the Arab world with the policies of the last American president. In a way they are right: post-9/11 abuses overseen by the Bush administration were the tragedy that brought to light the urgency of claiming rights.
• Secrecy, leaks, and the real criminals
• Obama's justice department grants final immunity to Bush's CIA torturers: By closing two cases of detainees tortured to death, Obama has put the US beyond any accountability under the rule of law
• And human rights takes a kick in the nuts.
• U.S. Used This Torture Box to Interrogate Gadhafi’s Enemies
• Romney Advisers: Bring Torture Back
• Rewarding Impunity: Why is President Obama's attorney general handing out prizes for sweeping torture under the rug?
• Every time I look at this thread it pisses me off. WTF is Obama thinking?
• I would like to think Obama isn't even reading the papers he signs.
• Getting Away With Torture
• U.S. Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes
• In other news: George W. Bush: 'I'm Comfortable With What I Did'
• Bush cancels Europe trip amid calls for his arrest: Amnesty International and other groups asked Swiss authorities to investigate the former president for torture
• He should live on like L.Ron Hubbard did on a plush yacht, unable to make land any time EVAR.