Over the last 24 hours, news about U.S. torture has been leaking out:
- A former prisoner testified to Congress that he was beaten, hung by his arms for five days, subjected to electrical shocks and, "They stuck my head into a bucket of water and punched me in the stomach," he said. "I inhaled the water. ... It was a strong punch."
- The FBI was so disturbed at what they saw at Guantanamo that FBI staff created a "war crimes file" to document accusations against American military personnel at Guantanamo. For example, the head of the FBI's national security law unit wrote in July 2003: "Beyond any doubt, what they are doing (and I don't know the extent of it) would be unlawful were these enemy prisoners of war"
- The U.S. military not only tortured prisoners for themselves, but also did the "dirty work" of "softening up" prisoners for Chinese interrogators
The U.S. has also tortured
prisoners to death in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Not bad enough for you?
Well, the U.S. has imprisoned 2,500
children since 9/11 as "enemy combatants", in violation
of the Geneva Convention against classifying children as POWs.
Still not disgusted?
Okay . . . Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh says that
the
U.S. Government has videotapes of boys being raped
at Abu Ghraib prison (see also this
and this).
This doesn't come as a complete surprise, given that assistant deputy
Attorney General John Yoo has publicly argued that the
president can order the torture of a child of a suspect in custody
– including by crushing that
child’s testicles.
Congratulations, America. This is being done in your
name.
If you're not sick to your stomach by learning that your government
has been killing and torturing people - including children - then
you are a psychopath or a pervert.
Don't try to tell me that torture
is a necessary evil. It is
well-known
by professional interrogators that torture doesn't work.
Experts on interrogation
say that torture actually interferes with the ability to gather useful
information.
