Thursday, December 20, 2007

Advanced Technique

The painting below is on display at Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Prison, which is currently serving as a Torture Museum, a reminder of the horrors perpetrated by Pol Pot's despotic regime. The artist is Vann Nath, a former inmate.


According to John Dean, there are at least ten preliminary investigations regarding the CIA's destruction of ' advanced interrogation' videotapes, tapes on which waterboarding and other 'advanced' techniques are demonstrated.

There are more than a few things wrong with the 'official story', whatever that is at the moment. Like the reasons behind the Iraqi occupation, the rationale for torture and the subsequent obstruction of justice seems to change over time.

- The initial BushCo defense, that the tapes were destroyed to protect the ID of CIA agents, is laughable. First, Cheney didn't hesitate to out Valerie Plame, who was an honest-to-Godzilla anti-terrorist secret agent; second, doesn't the CIA have the ability to pixelate images?
If pixelation is too high-tech for our CIA, couldn't they simply take a cue from the terrorists they are supposed to be monitoring and wear ski masks?

- In the course of the waterboarding discussion, defenders of 'advanced techniques' like to claim that valuable anti-terrorist information was obtained using 'advanced' methods...that assertion reeks of bullshit. If we obtained such invaluable data during these 'advanced' sessions, why were all the tapes destroyed? Shouldn't that valuable data be preserved?

-In typical BushSpeak, what are called "advanced techniques" aren't advanced at all. Water torture has been used for thousands of years- it's about as basic as you can get. See that painting, above? That is waterboarding. All you need is water, a blindfold and a victim. Gravity does the work for you.

- Here's a scary thought : Some of the 'advanced' sessions were held with terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks. Perhaps, under torture, they gave up information that connected certain 9/11 dots, dots that BushCo would rather not have connected. These are not hard dots to connect.

In other Bad News:

- I am listening to George Bush on live TV and I find, to my horror, that I agree with him on something:
The Democratic Congress sucks at their collective job.
My reasons for believing this are different than his, however. Bush is upset that Congress waited until the last minute to collapse into jelly...I am pissed off that they caved in at all.
Not surprised, but pissed nonetheless...

- Bush just used the term 'shooters' to refer to soldiers from allied nations who are stationed in Afghanistan...'shooters' is the term used by Blackwater and other mercenary corporations to describe their combat employees. Calling a real soldier a 'shooter' is a show of disrespect.
To be precise, Bush said he was "grateful for the shooters"...perhaps he meant the Jello shooters that Pelosi and Reid were serving last night.

- He just called what we did to Iraq "bestowing the blessing of liberty".
I have to admit that the Second Amendment seems pretty healthy in Iraq...perhaps that is what he means.

-What was Dick Cheney's staff burning?

9 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

I don't know who is pissing me off the most lately..bush or them weak sister bluedog democrats..arghghg we're all going to hell in a handbasket..
don't forget your christmas meme..

AngelConradie said...

this is some very scray shit dude...

CS said...

Agggh. I find the whole justification of torture so distressing that I can hardly bear to think about it. We're barbarians, we really are.

whimsical brainpan said...

They all suck. It's a joke anyway. They are all bought and paid for.

Enemy of the Republic said...

Isn't Cheney all pro-waterboarding? I'm sure there are some Khmer Rouge left who wouldn't mind taking a toss at him. And of course the Dems caved; it's what they do best. It is irritating when Bush is right about something.

Gledwood said...

talk about making the law into a proverbial "arse"! all that blather about "illegal combattants"... Bush is lucky he doesn't get held up in the international court of justice to which America wouldn't sign up... fair do's though. America reserves the right to "rendition" anyone suspected of committing a crime against American law from anywhere in the world. So maybe the world should rendition George Bush to the international criminal court in the Hague to stand trial for all HIS many crimes against the world!!

billy pilgrim said...

cheney and his crew are pikers compared to popes past and their inquisitions.

as a species we are very slowly becoming less barbaric but we are very quickly advancing our ability to destroy ourselves.

so it goes.

Sling said...

Dude..I can't even go into the number of things about"advanced techniques" that pisses me off!..Is this 1936 fer Chrissake??..It's torture...and like you so rightly pointed out,it's friggin' barbaric..Nothing new here.
The minute we start accepting this administration's euphemisms for the complete disregard of of human rights,is the day we may as well goose step our way over the cliff,like the rest of the mindless Lemmings that look,eyes glazed over,upon Bushco and his henchmen as something other than abject totalitarianism!..

Allan said...

JS- Done...whew.

Angel- Both of us live in madhouses. Where can we run to?

CS- I'd prefer to ignore it, but if we do, it won't go away.

Whim- Nah, they love us all.

BP-Were he alive today,Torquemada would likely be our Attorney General...he'd love the current religious/political climate.

Enemy- I imagine that the a few of the 'best and brightest' from the Khmer Rouge are already working for Blackwater, Cheney and/or the CIA as 'advisers'/multi-agents. Recruit from the pool of experience, ya know?

Gledwood- The Nuremburg Defense,2007...just followin' orders from God.

Sling- I hear ya...torture is unbearable in so many ways. I'm afraid the USA we grew up hearing about is gone ...I hope I'm wrong.