The respected Massachusetts-based group Physicians for Human Rights has published a report finding that 11 former detainees showed clear signed of torture in medical examinations following their release from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan.. The detainees were released for lack of evidence of terrorism.
The 121-page report details evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses. Retired U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Army’s investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in 2003, wrote the foreword to the report and stated “There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account.”
The record on the American torture program is now comprehensive and unavoidable, including the recent disclosure that the Administration began work on the torture program long before any inquiry from the field, here — a direct contradiction of earlier statements from the Administration.
Despite the fact that interrogators and officials now admit to using torture, here, Congress continues to feign interest while withholding any substantive action against those who ordered a torture program.
For the full story, click here.
What is most striking is that these men were released for lack of evidence of terrorism. A recent study showed that the Administration continued to hold men for years after it became clear that they were innocent, here.
LindyLou:
From me, thank you for reading. It sometimes seems like a battle fought in a vacuum. When I was in England for a summer a dozen years ago, I always enjoyed the banter at the dinner table among the fellows at Cambridge who sat at the head of the hall. It was high honor to be asked to sit with them and purely out of cross-Atlantic comity, I was asked to do so on a very few occasions. They were brilliant advocates who could rip your argument to shreds without so much as a smile. I thought it mean at first, but came to understand that the deadpan, understated replies and uncomplimentary compliments served the purpose of getting me to think critically and free from the veneer that our culture wraps around our minds. As one of the few Americans, I was constantly on the defensive, but I must say they were gracious and treated me as much like a peer as their temperament and senior status would allow. I still hear from one or two today by email. If our little salon reproduces that in any small way, we have done everyone a service. I am guessing Professor Turley may feel this way too. I am not trying to be mean-spirited or haughty in my replies, but I find a slight pinprick to the ego gets the juices running and puts the rational mind into drive.
Big Al:
Jokes don’t match arguments, and you would do well to remember that there is plenty of shade around Bush’s White House too. I hear the Saudi’s like it.
Anyone know why the streets of Paris are lined with trees?
Cuz the German soldiers like to march in the shade.
Macho bushies? They’re afraid of everything and everyone that isn’t just like they are. It must be hell living in a constant state of panic and fear.
It’s a hoot seeing the difference between these guys and the lawyers. The difference is eons of evolution.
I can’t express how much pleasure I get from the classy replies of Jill, Mespo, Bob,Esq.
Jill:
You obviously don’t “have the balls” to torture someone with that attitude. I suggest a few days at Big Al’s Academy for torture and assertiveness training.
oops, I mean, “you’re”–but I didn’t make a mistake, I don’t regret what I wrote above. It was the right decision!
Your goddamn right!
Jill