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Edited on Mon Jul-21-08 01:44 PM by mmonk
Here follows an excerpt from. "The Dark Side" by Jane Mayer, copyright 2008 by Jane Mayer, Doubleday, pp. 219:
Looking back, Mora believed that the media had focused too narrowly on allegations of U.S.-sanctioned torture. Waterboarding, in particular, was covered as the sine qua non of criminality. As he saw it, the authorization of cruelty was equally pernicious. "To my mind, there's no moral or practical distinction," he said. "If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America-even those designated as 'unlawful enemy combatants.' If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It's a transformative issue."
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This is something to think about as we lose our rights, even those such as the recent 4th amendment protections under the latest FISA bill, as we become more of a police state, and the fact that crimes against the Constitution it appears, will not be dealt with or anyone held to proper account.
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