RANGER AGAINST WAR <

Friday, April 09, 2010

I Spy

--No End in Sight, Foreigner

All journeys were return journeys
--The Great Railway Bazaar,
Paul Theroux
________________

Ranger is amused by the incident of the three hikers now accused by Iran of being spies (Three Jailed Americans Linked to US Intelligence.) It doesn't matter if they are spies or not -- what matters is that the Iranians are holding all the cards.

It would be interesting if the Iranians decided to publicly waterboard these individuals. Such an event would put the U.S. leadership in a tight position: They could not condemn the practice since it has become SOP in our interrogations (and at least two-thirds of Americans do not think it is torture.)

It would be interesting to hear how the Cheney crowd would react to such an eventuality, as they adamantly maintain waterboarding is not torture, but simply a means of coercing a good confession.

Ranger likes the bazaar.

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Bookmark and Share posted by rangeragainstwar at 7:25 AM 8 comments

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Rovian Revisionism

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file
has already earned my contempt.
He has been given a large brain by mistake,
since for him the spinal cord would suffice
--Albert Einstein

That's food for thought!
--The Brain (1988)
_________________

Senior Bush advisor Karl Rove recently said he was proud of waterboarding suspected terrorists:

In a BBC interview, Karl Rove, who was known as "Bush's brain", said he "was proud we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists". He said waterboarding, which simulates drowning, should not be considered torture.

* * *

"Yes, I'm proud that we kept the world safer than it was, by the use of these techniques. They're appropriate, they're in conformity with our international requirements and with US law (Rove "Proud" of Waterboarding US Terror Suspects)."

Ranger wishes to clarify terms. Waterboarding is not simulated drowning -- it IS drowning, which is regulated by the interrogators who stop the drowning before asphyxiation, allowing the victim to recover. The fact that the interrogated person is drowning is what makes the technique effective. Drowning someone is torture.

Aside from being torture, it is an ineffective method of extracting data. there is no evidence that waterboarding broke the will of any terrorist. The fact that they spoke does not equate to breaking their will. Even if it did break their will this is irrelevant, as waterboarding cannot be proven to be an effective deterrent for future terrorist activity.

The utmost case of the U.S. use of waterboarding would be Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded beyond any intelligent purpose (183 times), clearly as sport for the interrogators at the behest of a misled president. Surely a dangerous man, KSM never broke, and his case ironically brought sympathy for the criminal due to the outlandish nature of his treatment.

How does that result make the U.S. safer?

If waterboarding is in accordance with U.S. law, then why do we Miranda criminals and have the 5th Amendment? Why don't we routinely waterboard suspects after we read them their rights?

We do not do this because -- it is ILLEGAL, which means that is against the law, gainsaying Mr. Rove's assertions. We do not have two sets of laws in the U.S., one for criminals and one for terrorists. (We do, however, have a bifurcation along wealth lines, but that is a different issue.)

The ignorance of Mr. Rove is palpable. How appropriate he was chosen as Mr. Bush's "brain".

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Bookmark and Share posted by rangeragainstwar at 7:46 AM 4 comments

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Milgram Excuse


There ain’t no substitute for the truth
Either it is or isn’t
You see the truth it needs no proof
Either it is or it isn’t
--The Truth, India Arie

Stupidity is an often fatal disease
--R. A. Heinlein

It may be we are meant to mark
with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing.
It may be beer is best
--The New Unhappy Lords,
G.K. Chesterton
_________________

Yesterday's Washington Post reported the 2002 military memo to the Pentagon advising against the use of "torture" because it doesn't work.

The military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency advice to the Pentagon was,

"the application of extreme physical and/or psychological duress (torture) [JPRA term] has some serious operational deficits, most notably the potential to result in unreliable information (In 2002, Military Agency Warned Against 'Torture)."

It doesn't get any clearer than that. "Eyes Wide Shut" comments on the Bush administration's dismissal of military dissent against "enhanced interrogation techniques" [EIT], and "Interrogation Memos Detail Psychologists' Involvement" reveals the medical establishment' collusion. It amounts to a nice confirmation of the Milgram experiments, for all our high-falutin' protestations of being better than "them".

Techniques like extreme sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, dousing with cold water, sleeping on concrete and waterboarding were not employed because they "didn't cause organ failure," but because they don't leave marks on the body. Instead, they scar the psyche, a mark that America must also bear.

Watch for the Department of Defense to release at least 21 photographs by May 28, showing detainee abuse in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan other than Abu Ghraib. They are meting it out to us in assimilable parcels so that we may process our outrage before the next onslaught of offense.

One can be assured we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

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Bookmark and Share posted by rangeragainstwar at 5:37 PM 6 comments

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Eagle Scout


The only photo we ever get of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,
Looking like one of Tony Soprano's unter-lieutenants after
a huge bender

But there's shit that I've done
with this fuck of a gun
You would cry out your eyes all along
--Mama, My Chemical Romance
_______________

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) should get a Boy Scout merit badge for being the Eagle Scout of Waterboarding.

The 2005 memo also says that the C.I.A. used waterboarding 183 times in March 2003 against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (Waterboarding Used 266 on 2 Subjects).

183 times. Surely he has earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. 183 times cannot be due to intelligence gathering by the waterboarders. It seems nothing but punitive. I have read that if the suspect does not break by the second attempt, he will never.

When will KSM be brought to trial? If the intelligence obtained was so valuable, why is it not being utilized in legal proceedings? Oh, I forgot -- by Mr. Rumsfeld's estimates, democracy is a dark and arcane process, even here.

The concept of trying the alleged perpetrators of 9-11 has apparently been dropped off the board. What happened to the concept of trial by jury? We could even waterboard him in open court, since no one gets prosecuted for it.

We can understand KSM -- he is a crazy man. But not the CIA; their actions surpass rationality. KSM is a criminally crazy crusader. What is the CIA?

By extension, what are we?

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Bookmark and Share posted by Lisa at 6:21 PM 11 comments