The electrodes' switch is in Washington

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=517277

The story of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US and British forces is rightly gaining a demonic momentum. As a US Army report published by The New Yorker followed revelations by CBS and the allegations by the Daily Mirror, President Bush and Tony Blair must be wondering when it is going to end. It is now clear that not only did they fail to find weapons of mass destruction, but that their fall-back justification for the invasion, that of bringing democracy and human rights to Iraq, is little more than a sham.

The Americans have been negligent in the extreme to allow this situation. Try as we might to forget these episodes, we can be sure that they will live on in Arab minds for a generation. Al-Qa'ida and Hamas could not have designed a better recruiting poster.

The Abu Ghraib portfolio is shocking, but not at base so surprising. Since the "war on terror" was inaugurated in the dust of 11 September 2001, the US has permitted itself a much more relaxed interpretation of civil liberties. An individual's rights are not defined by any absolute standard of decency but by his or her allegiance. Both public and media has squared the national conscience on the question of prisoners being held without trial or legal representation in Guan-tanamo Bay. Even the arrest of civilians on the mainland, their detention without explanation or hope of release, has caused little stir.

Quite apart from underlining how things have changed since 9/11, it is clear that if the US is prepared to ignore the liberties defined in the Bill of Rights of its own citizens, it doesn't require special deliberation before foreigners are abused on their own soil by US Army personnel and their contracted thugs.

must not be renewed. People in this country do not realize it could eventually be used to detain them if they are not "with *" on some issue unrelated to "terrorism."

It is not hard to envision a scenario when those in D.C. say that the mere fact you disagree with them on some point is "terrifying" them and that you must be put away.

of power and force. And with the permanent installment of the Patriot Act there will only be further encroachment on liberties and individual rights.
Anybody here hoping that the tutu-democrats are seeing a wakeup call for our rights in this situation? the progression from Gitmo, to Iraq, and what has already been done by Asscroft and his minions in the US SHOULD BE REALLY ALARMING TO THEM. We have been alarmed for a long time.
And if you watched C-Span at 8:00 a.m. ET (database society--about all the information being collected in the US and globably which can be used legally without our consent) it gives you a chill up your spine.

snip>

In the course of researching a novel, I came across alarming evidence of "arm's-length" torture being committed by those acting on behalf of the US. A contracted special forces mercenary, who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq in both military and intelligence roles, avoided the question when I first asked him about the interrogation of suspects in the "war on terror" over lunch in London. Then he conceded that "maybe they were slapped around a little".

"Does that include the use of truncheons and electricity?" I asked. He looked over his habitual dark glasses so we had eye contact. "Who's to know what foreign governments do to their citizens? That is not the responsibility of the USG." The implication was utterly clear.

So far, we have evidence only of "stress and duress" <caron> torture lite, as it is called by the professionals <caron> but there are grounds to believe that the US has used a number of proxy nations to go the whole way with terrorist suspects. There are rumours that Egypt, Jordan and Syria have all complied with American wishes in the interrogation of suspects shipped to them by the US. This practice started before 9/11 and, in one case documented by The Wall Street Journal, five men were flown from Albania to Egypt where they were tortured before two were put to death.

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Thanks for the post, TIB

does the Spanish Inquisition ring a bell? The Catholic Church saved the Jews and Muslims by torture till they "saw the light" or the church got their property. Hmmmm sounds familiar

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A522-2003Nov4¬Found=true

Deported Terror Suspect Details Torture in Syria
Canadian's Case Called Typical of CIA

By DeNeen L. Brown and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 5, 2003; Page A01


TORONTO, Nov. 4 -- A Canadian citizen who was detained last year at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a suspected terrorist said Tuesday he was secretly deported to Syria and endured 10 months of torture in a Syrian prison.

Maher Arar, 33, who was released last month, said at a news conference in Ottawa that he pleaded with U.S. authorities to let him continue on to Canada, where he has lived for 15 years and has a family. But instead, he was flown under U.S. guard to Jordan and handed over to Syria, where he was born. Arar denied any connection to terrorism and said he would fight to clear his name.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that Arar was deported because he had been put on a terrorist watch list after information from "multiple international intelligence agencies" linked him to terrorist groups.

Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Arar case fits the profile of a covert CIA "extraordinary rendition" -- the practice of turning over low-level, suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are known to torture prisoners.

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:kick:

would come in handy back home with "dissidents".