The US does not torture

New rules to misrule

I would not know, but I would leave this to the great legal minds and dons that visit my blog, suppose that is a branch of legal jurisprudence that is called military law.

This is because outlawed outpost of Guantanamo Bay has presented a Military Commissions manual to be used for trying detainees in Camp Delta, the contents of which appear to satisfy elements of civil law and in others indicate a departure from standard and accepted legal practices where the threshold of evidence is as low as hear-say.

The evidence is awash with classified monikers that the patchwork of evidence the defence would have to work with would leave enough holds to make every trial unacceptably loaded against the accused bringing to close to just better than a kangaroo court.

Now, I am no legal expert, the views might differ, no so much by the letter of the law but by political persuasion where the right would contend that these provisions are the best that can be offered with regards to the sensitivity of the issues at hand and the left would contend that premise of innocence until tried and proven guilty is lost.

Some military lawyers already have misgivings about this manual which in the circumstances might have its progeny with the military junta of Myanmar, OK! That was a bit given to histrionics, my point is, and justice should not only be done, it should verifiably be seen to be done properly.

US does not torture

The other part of the evidence that would be most interesting to every civil and human rights activist is the implication that.

+ Some evidence might have been obtained under torture

+ Some evidence was obtained by coercion and is admissible as long as it was obtained before December 2005

The question then is, have these prisoners been tortured? They most certainly have, the spectacle of Abu Ghraib was an excerpt of the “Practical Guide to Obtaining Information” introduced by the commandant of Guantanamo Bay.

As for coercion, we can presume dunking which is the deliberate deprivation of air by pushing the full face into a liquid was not torture till at least December 2005 – avoiding gruesome detail – an activity that gets a full thumbs-up from vice-President Cheney, sorry, the less aggressive word is “water-boarding”, you would be forgiven for thinking it was as hip as skate-boarding.

Yes, “water-boarding” is a variant of dunking where rather than push the face into a liquid, facing upward and the body inclined with the head at the lower point, the gardener simulates a torrent of rain over the face that the gag-reflex creates a drowning sensation as the person almost enters the delirium of death.

However, we must hear the President out, “We do not torture”, he protests, they only use vital tools of elevated persuasion – I will not be good for politics, not with my mastery of semantics.

It would appear my concept of torture is hardly coercion in the eyes of those at the forefront of the war on terror in America. Judge for yourself, as we have been told, the US does not torture.

These are no men of peace

What could have been

If it is true that in 2003, Iran offered the United States a deal that today might have helped quell the problems we see in Iraq and it was rejected outright, then we do live in unfortunate times.

It also means that all measures should be taken to bring maximum oversight and analysis to the proposed plan to escalate the battlefront or troop “surge” in Iraq as presented by President George W. Bush.

It is beyond belief that the two heads of the regime in America who in their youth, by every sleight of hand avoided serving their country in the thick of war are now the purveyors of the ignition to what might possibly be World War III.

There is no doubt that the consequence of rejection is the meat-grinder that Iraq has become, it is the graveyard of some who have unlike their leaders offered to serve their country in a war that no one wanted, at least, not I. On reflection, what America is asking Iran for now, is what Iran offered then, only this time, Iran does not have to care about responding.

Hating Iran with a passion

Surely, there must be something about the complete recalcitrance of these men that they just cannot deign to open diplomatic channels to either Iran or Syria, seeing Iraq, the country they have occupied since 2003 already has diplomatic relations with both countries.

It does not augur well for world peace that we cannot find men in leadership who can temper their belligerence with a modicum of restraint in view of the sacrifices they have demanded of others, that they themselves declined.

The question becomes, what has Syria or Iran done to George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney? Because every right-thinking person, would be left aghast at this new development.

Making up for the faults of youth

However, it may be that having been stung by the seeming “cowardice” reference most especially to Dick Cheney’s non-military record, or is it a record number of deferments from being drafted to Vietnam (for the record, none of the deferments were illegal), they now have to display a quality of bravado, braggadocio or worse still brigandage to make up for their follies of youth.

This chauvinism to military power and expedition leading to the plunder of life and peace in Iraq and its environs is of great concern, if indeed, this news is true, the personification of power corrupting absolutely has another two years in the White House.

Our war on terror would now be for the Congress to consider regime change.

They hate our freedoms

We are gathered here to fight

When President Bush addressed the Joint Session of Congress and the American People in the aftermath of the terrorist strike of September the Eleventh 2001, all the civilised world was at one with America in compassion, in sympathy and in agreement.

We all could not afford to live in a world where a threat of this sort could approach suddenly one ordinary morning and wreak so much destruction in life and the symbols of a nation’s might.

This statement then became the rallying call to go after those terrorists, hunt them down and wipe them off the face of the earth.

“Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”[1]

This is what we all hold dear and I list them in order.

+ We are a democracy

+ We have freedoms

+ We have the freedom of religion

+ We have the freedom of speech

+ We have the freedom to vote

+ We have the freedom to assemble

+ We have the freedom to disagree with each other

This all constituted the galvanising force of the War on Terror that has taken troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which are bordering on failed states despite the progress in democratic institutions.

The freedom to lose freedom

However, looking at the world today and the War on Terror we might find that we have become part of that target.

Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the speech that Dick Cheney gave yesterday when he condemned the press fro revealing that the US has been trawling the SWIFT for international transactions that might involve terrorists. [2]

We are given the notion that this activity lead to the capture of Hambali the notorious terrorist involved in the Bali bombings.

That itself is of some value, but if that is the only terrorist transaction that has been successfully pursued to a conclusion since 2001; albeit after the fact - then the War on Terror had already been lost and this transaction spoofing only helps to clear up the carnage - one would wonder what other means the terrorists use to move money globally.

There are many systems of moving money most especially using Western Union or Moneygram where sums running into billions would not even reflect on any spook radar.

Playing into the enemy’s hands

But, that is beside the point, Mr Cheney would have us believe that this operation was within the law of the land and was legitimate having tried without success to prevent this information from being published.

The further assertion that these secret activities of the United States government in prosecuting the war on terror from extraordinary rendition through the NSA eavesdropping to this filching or fishing through global transactions is playing into the enemy’s hands.

Bladderdash!

I would tell you what is playing into enemy hands – the fact that in a democracy we have the kind of transparency that would make the German Gestapo look like a window box.

The fact that we trumpet this who issue of freedoms and secretly ride rough-shod over these democratically assured freedoms on the premise of protecting the people from some undefined evil.

The fact that our freedom of religion and belief systems is usurped; to galvanise a political base whilst, dividing all others.

The fact that the freedom of speech in revealing clandestine operations of government in the public interest is railed against but the same people are culpable in revealing the identity of secret agents.

The fact that the democratically exercised will of the people of Palestine is ignored. They elected a government less favoured in the eyes of the West, and this has lead to their greater impoverishment.

And though we have the freedom to assemble, we do not have the freedom to disagree with the government without being called names.

Those are the things that play into the enemy’s hands and I am beginning to wonder who really hates our freedoms.

References

[1] President Declares "Freedom at War with Fear"

[2] Money-tracking leak angers Cheney

Sphincter melody - seriously parental advisory

Another opinion in vision and song that might have you nodding your head in agreement.

The deal - requires flash - plays back vision and sound.

Warning: The lyrics and subject are very colourful.