White House Sex Offenders

AlterNet has a disturbing and saddening news article on the tortures at Guantanamo. By now everyone knows that torture occurred there, including even sex abuse, but the author here maintains it wasn’t sex torture just to gain information. She claims that those in the White House and in Gitmo where enjoying the torture:

Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

I had a sense of deja vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration was spinning the notion that the torture of prisoners was the work of “a few bad apples” low in the military hierarchy, I knew that we were seeing evidence of a systemic policy set at the top. It’s not that I am a genius. It’s simply that, having worked at a rape crisis center and been trained in the basics of sex crime, I have learned that all sex predators go about things in certain recognizable ways.

We now know that the torture of prisoners was the result of a policy set in the White House by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rice — who actually chaired the torture meetings. The Pentagon has also acknowledged that it had authorized sexualized abuse of detainees as part of interrogation practices to be performed by female operatives. And documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union have Rumsfeld, in his own words, checking in on the sexualized humiliation of prisoners.

The sexualization of torture from the top basically turned Abu Ghraib and Guantnamo Bay into an organized sex-crime ring in which the trafficked sex slaves were US-held prisoners. Looking at the classic S and M nature of some of this torture, it is hard not to speculate that someone setting policy was aroused by all of this. And Phillipe Sands’ impeccably documented Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, now proves that sex crime was authorized and, at least one source reports, eroticized: Diane Beaver, the Staff Judge Advocate at Guantanamo who signed off on many torture techniques, told Sands about brainstorming sessions that included the use of sexual tension, which was “culturally taboo, disrespectful, humiliating and potentially unexpected.”

The full story is at AlerNet.

Kucinich reads Bush Articles of Impeachment on the House floor

I flipped on my television at approximately ten-thirty Eastern time on Monday night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) speaking on C-Span. Kucinich was talking about President Bush and his various crimes against the United States, and I soon became aware that the Representative was introducing Articles of Impeachment against President Bush (also known as House Resolution 1258).

Dennis Kucinich had begun his long trudge through the Articles two hours earlier, and he would continue his reading, to an almost empty House chamber, for nearly another three hours. There were 35 Articles in total, each one detailing a crime that Bush had committed that warranted impeachment. I congratulate Kucinich for having the courage and conviction to undertake this task.

A summary of each offense for each Article, as provided by the index of the Articles of Impeachment, reads as follows: Read more

What Makes a Terrorist

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp should be shut down. But what will become of the prisoners, many whose only contact with Americans was at the hands of torturers? At least one man turned his anger at Americans in to a terrorist act reports the BBC News:

A former Kuwaiti detainee at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay carried out a recent suicide bombing in northern Iraq, the US military has said.

A spokesman for US Central Command told the Associated Press that Abdullah al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul on 29 April that killed several people.

Ajmi and two other Kuwaitis blew up two explosive-packed vehicles next to Iraqi security forces, media reports say.

Conservative pundits are sure to use this as an excuse for why Gitmo detainees need to be tried and executed in these monkey trials, now referred to as milatary tribunals. American policies has surely deranged the prisoners at Guantanamo, and what are we to do with these ex-prisoners that are sure to hate Americans with a new vengeance? Surely we should let the innocent ones go, but we have potentially made an angry man ripe for terrorism.

But this raises two other points a liberal would surely agree with. One, apparently torture wasn’t effective in getting information from Abdullah al-Ajmi. Two, his experiences at Gitmo only served to reinforce his anger towards America for being an imperialistic nation, and encouraged this event.

The Guantanamo Bay torture center proved ineffective in stopping terrorism, so why heap abuse on suspects, while tarnishing America’s image as the center of the free and civilized world?

Photo by Ed Jones

Head of Prison Rehab Ministry Defends Torture

I use to have respect for Chuck Colson, a man connected to the Watergate controversy, jailed, and then freed. He went on to start a non profit that helped to rehab prisoners, take care of prisoners families, and created the Angel Tree project. Sure he was still a prominent conservative, and had ideologies I disagreed with, but at least he was doing a good work.

But today comes news that Chuck Colson, a man who has dedicated his life to helping prisoners, has called torture a noble act. In Newsweek he is quoted as saying:

Centuries of Christian ethical reflection would lead to the answer “no.” Inflicting bodily or psychological harm on a helpless captive would be inconsistent with the Christian understanding of human dignity. But as with all moral obligations, there may be circumstances for exception.

It is well understood in Christian tradition that while we are supposed to obey the law, there may be times when there is a higher obligation (see Aquinas, Augustine, and Martin Luther King). To rescue a drowning person, a Christian would be justified in disobeying a “no trespassing” sign.

So it is with torture; if a competent authority honestly believed that this was the only way to get information that might save the lives of thousands, I believe he would be justified. That is not moral relativism. It is making a difficult decision when human life and dignity will be affected either way. The Greeks called it prudence.

We have to remember that many of these “terrorists” that the CIA takes don’t have the information we need, or even in some cases are not terrorists at all. Because they don’t know anything they can’t answer any questions, and are tortured for something they know nothing about.

By running a prison rehab ministry, Chuck Colson should realize that a lot of what happens inside prisons is responsible for the trap that sends these men back to jail. Compared with the relatively minor horrors of American jail, how do you expect someone to become a normal citizen after being beaten, drowned, and held naked in rooms with below freezing temperatures? That’s enough to encourage a man to create another September 11th.

And how can he use Martin Luther King, one of the worlds most famous peacemakers, as an example to torture someone? The acts of Augustine and King where both crimes that didn’t harm anyone. If I remember correctly, Augustine challenged an alcoholic king to give up his addiction, and since this was the time of monarchy’s challenging a king would have been a crime. And it’s obvious that Kings civil disobedience hurt no one either, but rather challenged corrupt laws.

But at least the right has progressed to realize that what we are doing is torture. The next step is to help them realize that torture is always wrong.

How Could They? Mukasey Gets Confirmed

Mukasey has just been confirmed by the senate as the next attorney general. This is completely absurd. I mean come on. Congress is a joke. That joke isn’t funny anymore. How does Mukasey get confirmed without answering the waterboarding question? His inability to answer is his answer. Waterboarding is torture under United States law. No reasonable person can argue that it isn’t, so Mukasey hasn’t. He is telling America that he will be no different from Alberto (“I don’t recall”) Gonzolez. We deserve different. We deserve better. We should demand it.

It is hard to express my outrage over Congress for both confirming Mukasey and effectively killing Kucinich’s attempt to impeach Cheney in the same week. I just want to shout out “Arrrrrg!” like Charlie Brown.

This is disgusting. What congress has done by confirming Mukasey is effectively tell the President a few things that he is very happy to hear. Congress will not oversee his actions. Congress will not even attempt to control him. Congress approves of waterboarding. The democrats won’t live up to what they promised the American people during the last elections. Where is the democratic party’s passion for democracy and human rights?

Mukasey might have actually been a good candidate for attorney general, but when he decided to stay silent about waterboarding, he became completely unacceptable. With Gonzolez, we didn’t know beforehand that he was for torture. With Mukasey, we learned his stance on torture during the confirmation hearings, but he still got confirmed. How did this happen? Congress has effectively approved torture.

The only reason this could possibly be acceptable is if there is some sort of a compromise. But there isn’t a compromise. Instead congress has just decided to roll over for the President.

There has been talk of a bill that would close loophole in the law that allows waterboarding, but in fact, there isn’t a loophole. It is clearly illegal under the Geneva Conventions. And even then, any bill that would close up whatever supposed loophole Bush is using to claim that his actions are legal won’t be passed. Even if the bill somehow got through both houses of congress, it would be vetoed, and the democrats certainly don’t have the votes to overturn a veto.

Not confirming Mukasey was congress’ only chance to stop, or at least to voice its objection to, the practice of waterboarding. Now we’re stuck. Great job idiots.

Attorney General Appointee Doesn’t Know What Torture Is And More

Torture is illegal and unconstitutional. Even George Bush admits this. I am not an expert on torture. What I can say is that torture is defined by federal law as “means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control”. Mental pain or suffering is defined as “the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from - (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (C) the threat of imminent death; or (D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality.” You can’t argue that the definition is something different from what it says right there is in the legal code. You can argue that it is a bad definition, but you can’t argue that it isn’t the definition.
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Texas Murders 400th Criminal

On Wednesday August 22 at 6:20 PM Johnny Connor was pronounced dead. But this man was not ill, he had no diseases, Johnny was murdered. Not by a private citizen, or by a gang, but by the State of Texas. This is the 400th such murder that Texas has carried out. Read more

Students Confront Bush About Torture

On Monday June 25, 2007, 50 high school seniors graduating in the Presidential Scholars program gave Bush a letter demanding the end of torture citing human rights violations. It’s great to see our generation taking a stand already. The letter’s most important part said:

“We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants,” the letter said. [washingtonpost.com]

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