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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerican Torture -- Past, Present, and… Future?
from TomDispatch:
American Torture -- Past, Present, and Future?
Beyond the Senate Torture Report
By Rebecca Gordon
Its the political story of the week in Washington. At long last, after the endless stalling and foot-shuffling, the arguments about redaction and CIA computer hacking, the claims that its release might stoke others out there in the Muslim world to violence and throw the C.I.A. to the wolves, the report -- you know which one -- is out. Or at least, the redacted executive summary of it is available to be read and, as Senator Mark Udall said before its release, When this report is declassified, people will abhor what they read. Theyre gonna be disgusted. Theyre gonna be appalled. Theyre gonna be shocked at what we did.
So now we can finally consider the partial release of the long-awaited report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the gruesome CIA interrogation methods used during the Bush administrations Global War on Terror. But heres one important thing to keep in mind: this report addresses only the past practices of a single agency. Its narrow focus encourages us to believe that, whatever the CIA may have once done, that whole sorry torture chapter is now behind us.
In other words, the moment we get to read it, its already time to turn the page. So be shocked, be disgusted, be appalled, but dont be fooled. The Senate torture report, so many years and obstacles in the making, should only be the starting point for a discussion, not the final word on U.S. torture. Heres why.
Mainstream coverage of U.S. torture in general, and of this new report in particular, rests on three false assumptions:
1. The most important question is whether torture worked.
2. U.S. torture ended when George W. Bush left office.
3. The only kind of torture that really counts happens in foreign war zones.
Lets look at each of these in order. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175934/tomgram%3A_rebecca_gordon%2C_the_torture_wars/
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American Torture -- Past, Present, and… Future? (Original Post)
marmar
Dec 2014
OP
There are some countries that WILL remind the US that it's now member of the torture-club.
DetlefK
Dec 2014
#1
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)1. There are some countries that WILL remind the US that it's now member of the torture-club.
North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba...
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)2. I found a nice comparison: imagine a post-WWII Germany where the Nuremberg Trials never happened
Picture this:
Germany, after WWII. A fresh start for the country. Except there have never been the Nuremberg Trials and all the old Nazis are still hanging around, doing Nazi-politics, giving lectures and speeches in favor of national-socialism, writing books how great everything was in Nazi-Germany, drumming up voter-support for the latest slate of Neo-Nazi-politicians...
This is exactly what the US has become.
"Sure, we tortured and killed people in the concentration-camps, but we deemed it necessary at the time. Buy my new book."
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)3. It also doesn't mention torture done by proxies
on their behalf.