"Frog-boiling" and torture - US vs. al-Qaeda (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES AT LINK)

[derby378]

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, an apparent torture "manual" consisting of drawings has been found at what appears to be an al-Qaeda safe house and makeshift torture chamber hidden in Baghdad:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0524072torture1.html

Point #1: This al-Qaeda torture chamber, from what we know about the situation in Iraq, did not even exist in Iraq until after the US-led coalition invaded in 2003 (although Saddam Hussein's regime had torture chambers located throughout Iraq).

Point #2: Torture of Iraqis by US interrogators and soldiers is now well-documented - but only up to a point. Seymour Hirsh's reports allude to much, much worse torture than that which has been documented at Abu Ghraib.

Point #3: After the capitulation of Democratic legislators to the White House over Iraq funding, it should come as no surprise that there has been no strong push in either the House or the Senate to repeal the Military Commissions Act or to bring US torturers to justice.

Point #4: Neo-fascists in America are still referring to the act of putting panties on prisoner's heads as though it was the worst thing US soldiers have done to prisoners to date. And we have already seen former CIA director George Tenet deny that water-boarding is itself a form of torture.

Remember Al Gore's "frog-boiling" argument from An Inconvenient Truth? I think we're seeing it being applied to the American public's acceptance of torture as a way of life. Who needs the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, anyway?

:mad:

[Captain Angry]

1. I think that is an apt analogy.

See what flies, keep saying it's for everybody's protection...

If something egregious happens, blame one soldier who was trained and supported by a dozen others who will go free.

Right now many Americans support torturing people because it's over there, part of the war on terrorism, and to some extent because they're Muslim and non-white.

I think the next step in the boiling frog system is to start messing with illegal immigrants this way. (Latino...)

And then non-white citizens who broke a law by doing drugs...

And if they can get away with it, atheists, etc.


If you lower the expectations of your government, you can get away with doing less.

[live love laugh]

2. How ironic that we torture and "find" torture manuals in a country we occupy.

:tinfoilhat:

[yurbud]

3. they are already applying methods used throughout Third World right wing dictatorships

the security state

controlled media

widening the gap between the rich and the poor

sham democracy

crushing public debt because revenues go in the pockets of the rich


and so on.

[derby378]

4. We're talking torture techniques, not incompetent public policy

:shrug:

[yurbud]

5. It's not incompetent, it's intentional. And torture is part and parcel of methods to reach

the same goals.

Frankly, anything like that they claim is from al Qaeda I'm inclined to believe is bullshit. The Bushies have lied about that stuff so often, that it is safer to assume it's bull than real.