They Added a Tracheotomy Kit to the Torture Chamber
Fri Apr 24, 2009 at 04:07:07 AM PDT
Reading the OLC memos justifying "enhanced interrogation techniques" has revealed a frightening picture of our Government practicing torture. Below I focus on three of the OLC memos from the perspective of a physician. The first two were written in 2002, when the the OLC defined torture and the CIA outlined the protocols they would be using. The second is the 46 page memo of 5/10/2005, written after these techniques had been applied and after there had been serious dissent over their use within the government.
Close reading of these memos shows that:
1. The CIA misled the OLC about the harmlessness of waterboarding.
2. The waterboarding actually used on detainees fit the 2002 OLC definition of torture.
3. When the 2002 memos were rescinded, the OLC simply redefined torture to allow the waterboarding that fit the previous definition of torture.
Read on...
Peacenik doesn't particularly like analogies to Nazi Germany or to Nazis. But that is what Peacenik thought when Peacenik read this story this morning. A lot of people were astounded by the detailed record keeping that the Nazis kept of the holocaust. Peacenik is astounded by the documentary evidence there is about U.S. war crimes, even after many videos were destroyed in direct defiance of a court order. The new Nazis. One of them is being welcomed to Toronto next week to debate Bill Clinton. Who is the genius who dreamed up that promotion?
Close reading of these memos shows that:
1. The CIA misled the OLC about the harmlessness of waterboarding.
2. The waterboarding actually used on detainees fit the 2002 OLC definition of torture.
3. When the 2002 memos were rescinded, the OLC simply redefined torture to allow the waterboarding that fit the previous definition of torture.
Read on...
Peacenik doesn't particularly like analogies to Nazi Germany or to Nazis. But that is what Peacenik thought when Peacenik read this story this morning. A lot of people were astounded by the detailed record keeping that the Nazis kept of the holocaust. Peacenik is astounded by the documentary evidence there is about U.S. war crimes, even after many videos were destroyed in direct defiance of a court order. The new Nazis. One of them is being welcomed to Toronto next week to debate Bill Clinton. Who is the genius who dreamed up that promotion?
