This op-ed appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on December 18, 2014 The executive summary of a nearly 7,000 page report into the C.I.A.’s Detention and Interrogation program under the Bush administration confirmed not only what has long been public knowledge – that America did, in fact, engage in torture – but also revealed that, despite
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jordon Cooper rightly argues that we should move away from forcing people to rely on homeless shelters and other stopgap measures when we can afford to provide permanent homes: We fill a bus for the hungry while ignoring that the reason for
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Reflections on a Nation Brought Low From Within
Salon.com pundit Andrew O’Hehir looks at the week’s revelations on American torture and sees in it the demise of American democracy. O’Hehir asks, “Can we quit pretending torture is some huge aberration? It fits into a larger pattern of America’s imperial decay.” He says it’s convenient to blame this on
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Torture Cons
We have all read the horrifying stories about the CIA's torture campaign. The systematic brutality, the mechanical cruelty, the monstrous depravity.And a lot of Americans are finally understanding how they got from 911 to Ferguson. When hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and an empty Pennsylvania field
Continue readingAmerica and the torture chronicles
So the U.S. has finally and formally confessed its sins. Good for the Americans. All nations sin, the better ones own up. That the CIA ran a torture regime isn’t really news but it’s important for the U.S. to officially get the nasty business out on the table, discussed and
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: International Human Rights Day: 50 civil society groups urge Harper to oppose torture
On International Human Rights Day, 50 civil society organizations urge Harper government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The post International Human Rights Day: 50 civil society groups urge Harper to oppose torture appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: _THIS_
I was never a fan of Bush II and his malicious sidekick Cheney, and even less so of their misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yesterday’s revelations of CIA Torture are crimes. These people abused prisoners in ways that all Western powers should be horrified by, and they knew damn good and
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Secure Housing Unit Psychosis – A Window into the World of Torture
Have you ever wondered about some of the shared traits of humanity? One could prosaically think of Love, Compassion and Happiness and one would be correct. If the similarities ended there, I wouldn’t be writing, nor would you be reading about the prevalence of torture across the globe. “The
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Is Christianity Moral
You can bet your bottom dollar it is not, but let’s allow DarkMatter2525 illustrate yet another putrid facet of the glory of christianity. Mmm…sweet sweet torture symbols for the winz! Filed under: Religion Tagged: christian “morality”, DarkMatter2525, Morality, Religion, The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice, Torture
Continue readingArt Threat: Skinny Puppy bills US military for music use in torture
The U.S. military is using a Vancouver band’s music to torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay — and the artists are working to make sure they pay for it. Electro-industrial act Skinny Puppy has learned through a former guard at Gitmo that inmates would be drowned in their unsettling sounds for
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada must arrest Dick Cheney for torture, war crimes: Lawyers
A group of lawyers has asked Canada to arrest former US Vice President Dick Cheney for torture and war crimes when he visits Toronto later this week. The post Canada must arrest Dick Cheney for torture, war crimes: Lawyers appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Guantánamo Bay: The Hunger Strikes
Shutdown this, markets crashing that. Hey, if the Americans want to self-destruct their country maybe they should start with Guantanamo Bay. Filed under: Politics Tagged: Force Feeding, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Hunger Strikes, Institutional Evil., Torture
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Why should CSIS have all the fun?
We learned recently that the policy framework which allows CSIS to trade in information that might be the result of torture, or might lead to torture, or both, was actually a collaborative effort involving several federal agencies and departments. Now we have confirmation that CSEC is playing by the same
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Not Just Waterboard Them?
One of the dirty little tricks American interrogator/torturers adopted during the War on Terror has made it to the homeland. It is subjecting the prisoner to the prolonged stress of intense cold. That, according to lawyers, is a method being used against hunger-striking prisoners by California prison guards. Prison guards
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: A group effort
A year ago last March, I took Vic Toews to task for granting CSIS the authority to trade in information derived from torture. In that post, I described a scenario in which the torture of one, possibily innocent, person of interest could easily lead to the torture of additional, possibly
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Forced Feeding At Guantanimo
I really questioned whether I should put the following video on my blog, so graphic is it in its depiction of the forced feeding that 40 of the detainees in Guantanimo are currently being subjected to. Rapper Mos Def volunteered to undergo the procedure, for purposes that I think will
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: War Crimes Attorney Says He Will Get George W. Bush
Richard Hughes Political Blogger The ‘Truth Seeker’ is revealing legal efforts to arrest and prosecute George W. Bush and Barack Obama for illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Further charges for illegal surveillance, war crimes including torture, genocide, drone attacks world wide are being pursued against President Obama as well.
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: They ‘Will Lie, Trick, and Deceive’: Jailed CIA Whistleblower’s Warns Edward Snowden
Richard Hub Hughes-Political Blogger It is becoming hard to keep track of all the ‘Whistleblowers’ and the tunes that they are whistling. It is clear that many countries spy, snoop and infiltrate. It has been going on for centuries but accelerated during World War 2 and the Cold War that
Continue readingFlanagan’s flop reveals deeper truth about the nature of hypocrisy in Canada
I am not writing this blog post with the idea that the right to free speech, or expression is without limit. Tom Flanagan proves that in exercising that right, the social consequences can be swifter and less judicious than any of the hate speech crimes we have on the books
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Zero Dark Thirty Leaves Plenty of Space for Viewer’s Moral Judgment
Spoiler alert: The U.S. Navy SEALS murder Osama Bin Laden and several others in his Pakistani compound without mercy and with vengeful malice. Most of the controversy swirling round the film revolves around whether the filmmaker, Kathryn Bigelow – positioned as auteur by most commentators – endorses torture or whether the film’s narrative
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