Twelve documents relating to detainee torture at Guantanamo Bay and other overseas prisons were released by the Obama Administration. They were released because of the ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Much of the contents of these documents has been redacted. The 200 page CIA report that was due out weeks ago is now scheduled for release on August 31. Absent that, take a minute or two to read the report of Physicians for Human Rights that can be found here. Scroll down to the link named: Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by U.S. Personnel. I was in my car a few days ago listening to the Thom Hartmann show. Hartmann was reading a portion of this report:
He also recalled having been forced to wear soiled underwear, often for weeks or months at a time. “I had diarrhea and I was in handcuffs. I was making my toilet in my underwear and I was very dirty. That was very painful.” He reported being denied medical attention for any of his injuries. When he asked to see the doctor he was told that “we brought a medicine to you.’” Laith explains that, in fact, “They brought to me bottles [of] urine and [they] told me if you do not drink these now we will bring your mother and sisters. Because I was hearing the voices of women and children, I [believed him and] drank it. I was in handcuffs and they poured the urine [into my mouth] and sometimes I vomited from that but when I vomited they kept on pouring [the urine] on my head … I died at that time — after that I could not eat anything.” He said that he was forced to drink urine from the soldiers on eleven different occasions.
Just as Hartmann began to read, I was stopped at a light and a woman drove up next to me. Her car was full of stickers for Bush, Mark Kirk and McCain and she had a Jesus card dangling from her rear view mirror. Did she have any idea she voted for what I just heard?
I don't think we can really celebrate Independence Day until we come clean on torture and punish the decision makers who not only let it happen, but made it so to justify their war based on lies.
Let me know when we've prosecuted the National Security Principals Committee: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Tenet, and Ashcroft. You can throw Bush in there too for heading the entire operation and Mark Kirk for defending it. That's when we'll be Independent again. Until then, happy July 4th, it's just a date.
1 comments:
Wow I've been in my own malaise today. Not really feeling celebratory .
When I heard Palin announced she's resigning the governorship I thought " leave it to her to use the 4th of July news-cycle to maximize herself." How Patriotic "You Betcha!"
I bet she's going to get out of the media eye, lay low, let Greta Van Sustren and her husband re-invent Sarah all over again, you know, re-brand, and re-emerge as the female phoniex of the Republican machine and run with the big dogs in 2012.
After a long eight and a half years I've grown cynical, and disappointed in the lack of accountability. Still hungry for that change we voted and worked so hard for. Nice to know I'm not alone.
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