Letter Never Sent

I came across an article in the Washington Post about the methods of torture employed by the US Government and how they skirt provisions in our laws to get away with torture.

Free from the scrutiny of military lawyers steeped in the international laws of war, the CIA and its intelligence service allies have the leeway to exert physically and psychologically aggressive techniques, said national security officials and U.S. and European intelligence officers.

Although no direct evidence of mistreatment of prisoners in U.S. custody has come to light, the prisoners are denied access to lawyers or organizations, such as the Red Cross, that could independently assess their treatment. Even their names are secret.

This month, the U.S. military announced that it had begun a criminal investigation into the handling of two prisoners who died in U.S. custody at the Bagram base. A base spokesman said autopsies found one of the detainees died of a pulmonary embolism, the other of a heart attack. …

According to Americans with direct knowledge and others who have witnessed the treatment, captives are often “softened up” by MPs and U.S. Army Special Forces troops who beat them up and confine them in tiny rooms. The alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep. The tone of intimidation and fear is the beginning, they said, of a process of piercing a prisoner’s resistance.

The take-down teams often “package” prisoners for transport, fitting them with hoods and gags, and binding them to stretchers with duct tape.

Bush administration appointees and career national security officials acknowledged that, as one of them put it, “our guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath.” Another said U.S. personnel are scrupulous in providing medical care to captives, adding in a deadpan voice, that “pain control [in wounded patients] is a very subjective thing.” …

Jordan is a favored country for renditions, several U.S. officials said. The Jordanians are considered “highly professional” interrogators, which some officials said meant that they do not use torture. But the State Department’s 2001 human rights report criticized Jordan and its General Intelligence Directorate for arbitrary and unlawful detentions and abuse.

“The most frequently alleged methods of torture include sleep deprivation, beatings on the soles of the feet, prolonged suspension with ropes in contorted positions and extended solitary confinement,” the 2001 report noted. Jordan also is known to use prisoners’ family members to induce suspects to talk.

The Voice of America is really disgraceful. The propaganda is so thinly concealed in their unsigned ‘editorials’ which are probably written by entire committees of psyops personnel. For example, in an ‘editorial’, 12/19/02 – STUDENT DEMONSTRATIONS IN IRAN – Editorial #0-10321:

The protests reflect the growing impatience of the people of Iran. They want genuine democracy, not a regime manipulated by reactionary clerics. Hard-line Islamists are a minority in Iran’s parliament. But they control the police, the judiciary, and the Guardian Council. And no act of parliament can become law without the council’s approval.

Or, maybe the growing impatience of the US government? And, the choice of words: reactionary, genuine democracy (Iran is at least now a Republic in name. This is doubly ironic since the US supported the prior authoritarian government under the Shah)

Results of recent elections demonstrated that the people of Iran want political reform and an end to repression. A poll found that nearly seventy-five percent of Iranians favored dialogue with the United States.

What poll? Who funded it?

The demand for political reform is not only being made in the streets, but in the parliament as well. Rajabali Mazrouei [rah-jah-bah-lee mahz-roo-ee], leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, told fellow members of parliament: “If you believe people support you, then let’s hold a referendum and allow people to determine [their] fate.”

Sure, everyone knows elections are never manipulated or gamed. It happened here, it can certainly happen in Iran. I’m sure the Iranian government is pretty undemocratic. That’s one of the problems with mixing church and state. Religious authority is used for political purposes. That’s just another reason why we should not be funding so-called faith-based initiatives.

The U.S. stands with the people of Iran in their quest for freedom, civil liberties, prosperity, judicial due process, and the rule of law. Iranian officials are fully aware that these calls are genuine and come directly from the hearts of their own citizens. The U.S. looks to the Iranian government to be accountable to its people and respect their aspirations for freedom.

A tad hypocritical in a time where our own government has abrogated many such ‘civil liberties’, freedoms explicitly mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution.

I saw this article today about an American soldier being killed in Afghanistan.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — An American soldier died of gunshot wounds after suspected al Qaeda militants fired on a patrol unit in eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of Saturday morning, the U.S. military said.

Ok, what exactly makes an Al Quaeda militant? I’m really frustrated that more actual information isn’t given in the news. Has Al Quaeda just become this umbrella name for any Muslim or Arab who opposes the American government? Americans who send money to Islamic charities who oppose Israel are considered Al Quaeda. Afghans who want independence from the US are labeled Al Quaeda. Do we know for a fact that Al Quaeda even exists? If so, how do we know? The word itself means simply, “the base” or “the foundation” which is insanely vague. How can we trust what we’re being told? The truth is we cannot. The only thing we can know for certain is that the World Trade Center collapsed after two planes flew into it. Everything else is smoke and fog.