Bush's Torturous Logic
Shocked, Shocked, Shocked
By DAVE LINDORFF, Counterpunch, 1-3 May, 2004

George Bush is shocked, shocked that there is torture being used by U.S. forces on Iraqi prisoners of war, in direct violation not only of basic human rights but of the Geneva Convention on Treatment of Prisoners of War of which the United States is not only a signatory, but a founding writer.

So shocked that he had his Pentagon try to get CBS not to show the pictures of the shocking behavior.

The truth is that if the Commander-in-Chief--remember him? He's the guy in charge of the military that was running the Abu Ghraib detention facility in Baghdad--really did feel the "deep disgust" he claims he feels, and that such treatment is "not the way we do things in America," heads would be rolling at very high levels of the military. [...more]

Obviously everyone from General John Abezaid, and probably from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who actually visited the prison), on down knew what was going on, not only in Abu Ghraib, but in the other less publicly known prison camps where captured Iraqi insurgents are taken to be softened up for information. There have been enough reports leaking out about torture not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, for us to know that torture is not an aberration but rather is the policy.

It is in fact very much "the way we do things," maybe not so much in America (though it certainly goes on routinely in police stations across the nation also), but wherever American soldiers fight the empire's battles. [...more]
- posted by ARYABHATT @ 10:35 pm