The Defenders of Torture
Story of the Day
The Defenders of Torture
by Paul Craig Roberts (Counter Punch)
The spectacle of an American Secretary of State being sent to Europe to reassure America's allies that the US does not torture prisoners has brought an end to America's moral grandeur. America stands revealed before the world as just another unaccountable police state.
Condi Rice's declaration that the Bush administration is too morally pure to engage in torture was just another transparent Bush administration deception. What is the point of Bush's rendition policy that Rice was sent to Europe to defend if the purpose is not torture? Why else do CIA agents kidnap foreign nationals in foreign countries and fly them to secret prisons in other foreign countries?
The Bush administration defends its policy of "extraordinary rendition." Everyone who has survived the policy has testified to experiencing brutal torture. Just read the account in the December 11 Sunday Observer (UK) of the Ethiopian student that the CIA kidnapped and tortured in Morocco.
The student, who speaks no Arabic, was brutally tortured for 18 months until he was forced to confess to conspiring with top al Qaeda chiefs and plotting with Padilla. While one American hand was forcing the tortured student to incriminate himself in the "Padilla plot," the other American hand was dropping plot charges against Padilla... (full story)
Headlines for December 12, 2005 (English - Español)
- Car Bombing Kills Anti-Syrian Politician in Beirut
- Stanley Tookie Williams Scheduled to be Executed Tonight
- Torture Reported in Second Iraqi-Run Prison
- Red Cross Criticizes U.S. For Hiding Prisoners
- China Accused of Covering Up Killing of 20 Protesters
- 10,000 Gather to Protest in Hong Kong Outside WTO
- Report: Israeli Army Prepares to Attack Iran in March
- 20,000 Soldiers Hospitalized After Anthrax Vaccine
- Sen. Eugene McCarthy, 89, Dies
- Comedian Richard Pryor, 65, Dies
Related Stories
'Never Before!' Our Amnesiac Torture Debate
Into Harm's Way
Weaselly Rice Tortures Facts
Abuse Cited In 2nd Jail Operated by Iraqi Ministry
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It took a lot for me to accept a piece by Paul Craig Roberts to stick on the SOTD. Roberts, for those who don't know, is an extreme conservative who frequently resorts to race-baiting and other shallow tactics in his writing and who comes down on the opposite side of me on almost every issue. I always wince when Counter Punch runs his columns, remembering such past gems as Reagan Changed the World and America Is for Aliens. Granted, he has gone from publishing such offensively reactionary tracts as The New Color Line to his recent Bush-bashing volume The Tyranny of Good Intentions, but I remain highly skeptical whenever I see his name in print over at CP (whose acronym is no accident). All of that being said, this piece is quite good, and it is reprinted here with the above reservations.
The Defenders of Torture
by Paul Craig Roberts (Counter Punch)
The spectacle of an American Secretary of State being sent to Europe to reassure America's allies that the US does not torture prisoners has brought an end to America's moral grandeur. America stands revealed before the world as just another unaccountable police state.
Condi Rice's declaration that the Bush administration is too morally pure to engage in torture was just another transparent Bush administration deception. What is the point of Bush's rendition policy that Rice was sent to Europe to defend if the purpose is not torture? Why else do CIA agents kidnap foreign nationals in foreign countries and fly them to secret prisons in other foreign countries?
The Bush administration defends its policy of "extraordinary rendition." Everyone who has survived the policy has testified to experiencing brutal torture. Just read the account in the December 11 Sunday Observer (UK) of the Ethiopian student that the CIA kidnapped and tortured in Morocco.
The student, who speaks no Arabic, was brutally tortured for 18 months until he was forced to confess to conspiring with top al Qaeda chiefs and plotting with Padilla. While one American hand was forcing the tortured student to incriminate himself in the "Padilla plot," the other American hand was dropping plot charges against Padilla... (full story)
Headlines for December 12, 2005 (English - Español)
- Car Bombing Kills Anti-Syrian Politician in Beirut
- Stanley Tookie Williams Scheduled to be Executed Tonight
- Torture Reported in Second Iraqi-Run Prison
- Red Cross Criticizes U.S. For Hiding Prisoners
- China Accused of Covering Up Killing of 20 Protesters
- 10,000 Gather to Protest in Hong Kong Outside WTO
- Report: Israeli Army Prepares to Attack Iran in March
- 20,000 Soldiers Hospitalized After Anthrax Vaccine
- Sen. Eugene McCarthy, 89, Dies
- Comedian Richard Pryor, 65, Dies
Related Stories
'Never Before!' Our Amnesiac Torture Debate
Into Harm's Way
Weaselly Rice Tortures Facts
Abuse Cited In 2nd Jail Operated by Iraqi Ministry
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It took a lot for me to accept a piece by Paul Craig Roberts to stick on the SOTD. Roberts, for those who don't know, is an extreme conservative who frequently resorts to race-baiting and other shallow tactics in his writing and who comes down on the opposite side of me on almost every issue. I always wince when Counter Punch runs his columns, remembering such past gems as Reagan Changed the World and America Is for Aliens. Granted, he has gone from publishing such offensively reactionary tracts as The New Color Line to his recent Bush-bashing volume The Tyranny of Good Intentions, but I remain highly skeptical whenever I see his name in print over at CP (whose acronym is no accident). All of that being said, this piece is quite good, and it is reprinted here with the above reservations.
posted by Isaac at 11:25 AM
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