Sunday, June 10, 2007
the land of the free
i've just been watching a fascinating and disturbing documentary on BBCworld about the CIA using secret prisons in eastern europe and afghanistan to get around their own laws banning the use of torture. the evidence is compelling that this abhorrent practice has been used extensively by the USA and further undermines their claim to be a bastion of freedom to the rest of the world. no-one wants the terrorists to get the upper hand but surely when countries that claim to stand for freedom start using torture to gain (often false) confessions and information then they are no better than the terrorists themselves. after all, how can we ask other countries to behave in ways that we are not prepared to do ourselves?
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3 comments:
They had something similar on 4 corners here a week or so ago.
Amazing to think that the US administrations "definition" of torture seems limited to things where they hurt the victim, and excludes stress positions (where the victim is in extreme pain because of the position they are told to be in) and things that break a person psychologically (which they have "studied" extensively). Isolation, sleep deprivation.. To my mind these are much worse that inflicting physical pain, although the physical torture has physiological implications.
They said the US administration have been able to get away without actually defining torture, so that their own departments don’t know where the line is..
And (apparently) all the "studies" show that the information gained through any torture is as unreliable as without torture (although they get it faster).
Peter Munns
All pretty much as you'd expect. I'm sure much worse will come out in 50 years time. Thing is, I don't see value in looking for good guys and bad guys in all of this. There is not a 'rightous side' and a 'criminal opposition'. There are just all nations living in a fallen world scratching for supremecy. As God said back in Noahs day he prob thinks now 'No-one does good, not even one'. The war will eventually be 'saved' vs 'unsaved'. Citizens of heaven v citizens against it. Its all a bit irrelevent which country they happen to live in...
You’re right; looking for good or bad guys is a waste of time.
It is right to be outraged, to oppose oppression. This something that I admire in Dave, and something I’m not good at. Too often I sit back and say “well, what do you expect in a fallen world?”, and so distance/disconnect myself from what is happening to real people.
Peter
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