Tuesday, December 11, 2007

More on torture, taking pictures, and then feeling a bit guilt...if your in the government.

Crooks and Liars has the latest on the CIA's torturing of suspected terrorist, and the destruction of the evidence of what the did and learned.

The #5 story on Monday’s Countdown delivered a bombshell - John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who actually led the team of agents who appeared on the destroyed torture tapes has come forward in an interview with ABC to confirm the tapes DID show waterboarding and that while he believes the technique was effective, he now believes it is torture and is wrong. It’s becoming more and more difficult for President Bush to convince the world that he hasn’t committed war crimes.

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On torture.

Torture does not work. But it can. If you put people under duress they will say something eventually. It seems they might have got some good intel from this. But, this guy is speaking of second hand word to him, so perhaps, someone was trying to make him feel what they did was worth it?

What happen here was they captured a guy who was in the middle of soldering a bomb to use. He probably was a terrorist. So he had something to give, and they might have been lucky and got facts and not lies. But what about Guantanamo? What percent are actually terrorist? What percent know anything of value? Or new?

It is just hit and miss. And when you inflict it on someone what does it say and do to us as a society? How about when they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time? How should we feel then? Torture as policy, just a tool in the box, bespeaks a good deal about a people. I have a family friend who lived in Afghanistan during one of the previous unpleasant periods, and he can tell stories of torture, electricity and water don't mix.

What are we becoming as a people? Who are we? Are we truly the people who proclaim that might makes right?

Maybe not. The government still seems scared to get caught. Maybe we have it in us to rebuff the temptation of false security.

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