Taxi to the Dark Side and John McCain

"America does not torture." -- John McCain

"Nay" -- John McCain's vote on an appropriations bill that would have legally forbidden the CIA from torturing prisoners.

"And we cannot ever, in my view, torture any American, that includes waterboarding." -- McCain's most recent stance on the use of torture.

On December 10, 2002, a young man from a family of peanut growers named Dilawar, whose greatest sin was the pride of owning a Toyota sedan his family had purchased him to use as a taxi, was declared dead the Bangram detention center in Afghanistan. He had arrived there only five days before, having been abducted along with three passengers by American soldiers under suspicion of being involved in a rocket attack on American forces earlier in the day. Two years later, according to the New York Times his passengers were released from Guantanamo Bay with documents indicating they posed no threat to Americans. Dilawar's death certificate, signed by a US Army medical inspector, indicated the cause of death as homicide. He had been subjected to torture at the hands of American soldiers.

The 2007 film Taxi to the Dark Side is Dilawar's story and an explosive indictment of United States and its criminal abuses of prisoners. The documentary won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary, not that you'd know it given the limited release in theaters in the US, the possibly intentionally poor performance of its distribution company, and the Discovery Channel's purchase of the broadcasting rights and subsequent refusal to air the film due to its controversial nature. This film has shown on broadcast television in at least eight countries, most of them in Europe, and will be aired on HBO in September 2008, coinciding with its release on DVD.

The film's trailer and two excerpts may be seen at IMDB.com: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1283981593/

A consistent theme throughout the film is the manner in which United States government officials have attempted, and largely succeeded, in claiming the illegal actions of soldiers and intelligence officials toward prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Bangram, and other prisons run by or used by American forces are the actions of a few "bad apples." The abusers have been brought to justice, the government would like us to believe, but as the film makes clear through numerous interviews with the abusers themselves, their superiors, government officials, and true journalists who would not let the story die, this is a political cover story.

John McCain has himself been at the center of it, himself using the "bad apples" analogy on numerous occasions. He didn't let it end there, however, as he, himself a victim of torture who rightly asserted that torture is a poor interrogation technique since the prisoner will say anything to get the pain to stop, as he knows. At first, though, he claimed this doesn't happen, then insisted it will never happen again by authoring legislation to prevent it, eventually agreeing on exceptions for the CIA at President Bush's insistence despite the CIA itself declaring that the Army regulations against torture would work equally well for that organization. Finally he moved toward voting against legislation to prevent the CIA from engaging in torture, and later encouraged Bush to veto that legislation once it had passed over his objection.

While some of us are determined to focus almost exclusively on whether our candidate is a triangulator, let's please remember these facts about John McCain. He is a liar and a hypocrite, and he does not care whether innocents die at the hands of Americans who engage in the torture and murder of prisoners. He wants to be President so that he can continue this war. He wants to be President to salve the thirst for power he has held for ages.

He does not deserve to be our President. Don't you let him.