Taxes
for Torture
March 28, 2002
By W. David Jenkins III
I was listening to Mike Malloy last week and he made some
remark concerning the U.S. sanctioning torture because Rumsfeld
and Company couldn't get the gang down at Camp X-Ray, among
others world wide to sing about their alleged ties to bin
Laden. "No," I thought, "That can't be right."
So I called the 800 number for Malloy to ask for directions
to this information. A very nice lady at the other end of
the phone (turned out to be Kathy, the executive producer)
found the link for me and I went searching. Sure enough, there
it was. An article on Common Dreams.com referring to a Washington
Post article, from early March, on the subject of "rendition."
An article which the Post has failed to follow up on. Kids,
if you haven't heard about this yet, this is gonna send you
through the roof.
Rendition is, basically, the seizure of people and their
transfer to other countries, bypassing extradition procedures
and ignoring the legal rights of the targeted individuals.
The Post quoted a US diplomat's remarks. The statement read,
"After September 11, these sorts of movements have been occurring
all the time. It allows us to get information from terrorists
in a way we can't do on US soil." Oh, now just what could
this person be referring to? Two of the countries mentioned
in the article are Jordan and Egypt. So I went to find out
about these countries and their human rights standing. Seems
as though Amnesty International is more than just a bit disturbed
with these countries.
Egypt alone has a 20 page report of human rights violations
available for your reading enjoyment. Take the case of Mohammad
Badr al-Din Gom'a Isma'il, a 39 year old school bus driver
from Alexandria.
Seems as though Mohammad was "detained" back in 1996 because
his daughter had disappeared. Now in order for the Egyptian
authorities to get to the bottom of all this, they felt compelled
to suspend Mohammad from a door and subject him to electric
shocks, including sensitive parts of his body. I'm sure some
of you remember that scene in the first "Lethal Weapon" movie.
So this poor guy confesses to killing his daughter. Well,
then there was a small problem. Apparently, she wasn't dead.
She had just run away. So the authorities did the right thing.
They arrested the runaway daughter and her mother and detained
them for 13 days. But, lo and behold, the authorities were
able to find the body of another young girl and decided that
she was the real missing daughter and proceeded to beat Mohammad's
wife and Mohammad to get them to finally confess to a crime
they had never committed. Well, to make a long story short,
Mohammad was released about 6 months later after enduring
8 months of torture. For a crime he wasn't guilty of. This
little story is only page 1 of the 20 page report of Egypt.
Then we have Ghassan Dahduli. On November 30th, this Palestinian
born computer technician was deported to Jordan. Now this
father of five has been here for 23 years. Unfortunately,
he chose to live in Texas and on September 22nd he was arrested
at his home and held without bond on immigration fraud charges.
Okay, fair enough. But why deport him? Well, because, silly.
Seems as though last year authorities found his name in
an address book belonging to a guy named Wadih Hage. Seems
that Wadih is a close aide, according to authorities, to bin
Laden. He was also sentenced to life for his role in the 1998
bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Dahduli's
lawyer said the two had known each other "slightly" back in
the 1980's. Authorities beg to differ, so they've sent him
to a country where people are hung upside down and beaten
on the soles of their feet. And if they don't confess, they
simply take away the place to put a hat.
Back in October, the Washington Post, again, and other news
sources reported on the FBI's consideration of using torture
and drug "therapy" on detainees in order to get information.
If I'm not mistaken, Bob Barr wanted to lift the restrictions
concerning information gathering shortly after 9/11. The so
called "war on terrorism" has reduced us to a level that most
folks dare not admit. Have we become just as evil as the people
who changed our lives on that day in September?
Listen, kids, regardless of what you think happened to us
a little over six months ago, or who you think is responsible,
this is reality. We are scooping people up all over the world
on evidence that wouldn't stand up in a real court of law
and sending them to countries that can do what we can't.
Well, not officially anyway. U.S. officials are reported
to be overseeing these proceedings, but lo and behold, they
deny it. But there is enough documented information to make
them liars. Authorities tend to forget that we're not as stupid
as the folks who actually voted for Bush II. And if anybody
doubts what I've said, I will be glad to mail the information.
What it boils down to is this. If you pay taxes, you are
paying for torture. Plain and simple. Do you think that when
Dahluli's plane flew him to Jordan that General "What's-His-Face"
fished out a bit of cash at the pump to pay for the fuel to
fly him there? Nope. You and I did. You think that the U.S.
representatives who oversee these procedures of information
gathering are doing this in their spare time or out of the
goodness of their hearts? Nope. You and I paid them.
These actions go far and beyond the joke that is compassionate
conservatism. I've made remarks before how Bush II is debasing
the graves of those who died on 9/11. This, however, goes
way beyond any partisan joke or smart ass remark. This goes
beyond the disgusting push of a right wing agenda that most
of America didn't vote for but was handed by a corrupt Supreme
Court.
This goes beyond the flip remarks of a "fortunate son" whose
daddy gave him a job. This goes beyond anything we've speculated
or bitched about. This practice makes us evil. And the fact
that our leaders are desperately doing their best to deny
and distance themselves from it makes us liars. Our leaders
have used the deaths of innocents to make us as evil and hypocritical
as those we wage war on. And we wonder why they hate us.
Go ahead. Wave your flag.
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