One Japanese civilian employee at a POW camp was sentenced to 5 years at hard labor for nothing more than delivering an open-handed slap for a rules violation, which was common practice in the Japanese army and viewed as an acceptable form of discipline in the training of recruits and as a rebuke for minor infractions. The slap was so common that it was one of the charges in a large number of cases, and the only charge in several. Now, our own President has personally authorized not only water torture, but such things as belly slaps, "stress positions" (like hanging by the wrists with hands cuffed behind your back; or "short-shackling" in a position where the prisoner is unable to fully stand, nor fully sit), and the use of trained combat dogs in interrogations.
Psychological torture, said by experts to be even worse than physical abuse, was also approved by our freedom-loving Oval Office dweller. Deprivation of sleep, food and water was acceptable. Also allowed was extreme sensory deprivation in which prisoners are isolated in a soundproof room, bound, wearing earmuffs and blackout goggles or sandbags over their heads, with soft mittens on their hands to deprive them even of their sense of touch.
The C.I.A. has admitted the use of these techniques, and even put out a manual explaining how to use them most effectively. That same manual reveals that the C.I.A. is well aware of the debilitating psychological effects caused by these methods, stating that sensory deprivation "induces stress; the stress becomes unbearable for most subjects ... some subjects progressively lose touch with reality, focus inwardly, and produce delusions, hallucinations, and other pathological effects."
Forced nakedness and sexual humiliation was condoned. Dowsing prisoners with cold water, exposing them to cold and hot temperature extremes, constant bombardment with loud music, recordings of crying babies, and the shrill squeals of dying rabbits, injections of mind-altering drugs, refusal of necessary medical treatment, threats of imprisonment, rape, or killing of prisoners' family members - any normal human being wouldn't dare try to say these things do not rise to the level of torture.
Bush also put his stamp of approval on the C.I.A. program of "extraordinary rendition" in which people are kidnapped, drugged, and shipped to another country for "interrogation." Many of those countries are on the U.S. government's list of human rights violators, and some have been sanctioned for their barbarism.
One need look no further than the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who was sent to Syria where he was tortured and interrogated for nearly a year before being released. The U.S. government would not even allow Arar to have his day in court, dismissing his civil case on the bogus premise that the trial could not be conducted because it would expose "state secrets." Arar was found by Canadian investigators to be innocent of any crime. The Canadian government awarded him reparations of millions of dollars and offered a sincere apology for their acquiescence to his mistreatment. The U.S. did neither, and is not expected to. Bush doesn't do apologies.
Milan has issued international arrest warrants for 22 C.I.A. agents for the kidnapping and rendition of Abu Omar, who had been granted political asylum in Italy. Omar was handed over to Egyptian authorities, and was tortured. Warrants for 13 C.I.A. operatives have been issued in Germany for the kidnapping and rendition of German citizen Khalid el-Masri to a prison in Afghanistan where he was tortured. His civil case in the U.S. was dismissed in May, 2006. Call me crazy, but I think the Founding Fathers would have valued human rights more highly than state secrets. Without the former, what good is the latter? The only legitimate purpose for state secrets is to protect humanity.
Along with those crimes, all authorized by the President, Mr. Bush has personally admitted the existence of secret "black sites," C.I.A. prisons scattered around the globe which hold "ghost" detainees - people the government has "disappeared." Of all the many violations of the Geneva Conventions Bush has orchestrated, this is one of the most abhorrent. The law, both U.S. law and international law, mandates the reporting of the names of all prisoners to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and must permit that body to conduct inspections of all prisons, and have access to all prisoners for the purpose of evaluating the humaneness of their treatment and physical condition. There is only one possible reason for denying this access: prisoners are not being treated humanely. The denial of this access is tantamount to a confession of guilt. It's just my personal opinion, but Saddam Hussein's expulsion of weapons inspectors from Iraq was far smaller a sin than Bush's expulsion of torture inspectors from the prisons.
George W. Bush looked into a television camera in 2003 and told the world that Saddam's torture chambers and rape rooms had been torn down - then he went and built his own.
Long recognized as an ardent defender of human rights, and champion of the Rule of Law, America has been unceremoniously stripped of her glorious garments of Freedom, Truth, and Justice, and clothed in the dirty rags of Oppression, Deception, and Despotism.
Saddam Hussein was a vicious tyrant and a murderer. He deserved to be tried and brought to Justice. Ahmad Harun should be tried for his crimes against humanity in Darfur, and brought to justice.
George Bush is responsible for the unnecessary deaths of at least hundreds of thousands of people around the world. He has violated dozens of long-standing laws and treaties, enacted by smarter men who recognized the value of human life and the importance of treating all people with compassion and respect. He has signed his name to some of the most immoral policies ever devised by an American President. In his authoritarian zeal and self-righteous arrogance, he has sold his soul and squandered America's crowning glory for the mere appearance of what he perceives as a "tough" image. What he calls "freedom," free men call slavery. What he calls "progress," sane men call rancid decay. What he calls "God's will," godly men call sacrilege.
To steal a line from Mr. Bush's favorite President, "Honest Abe" Lincoln:
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea, but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
I suspect that if the New York Times thought they could do it without being vilified, they would call for Mr. Bush to receive the same justice they urged for Mr. Harun. Alas, it is simply too politically incorrect to call a war criminal by his rightful title when that war criminal happens to be the President of the United States.
By JC Garrett
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