After the Torture Era-By Eugene Robinson

[kpete]

After the Torture Era

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; Page A27

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We will look back on the Bush years and find it incredible, and disgraceful, that individuals were captured in battle or "purchased" from self-interested tribal warlords, whisked to Guantanamo, classified as "enemy combatants" but not accorded the rights that that status should have accorded them, held for years without charges -- and denied the right to prove that they were victims of mistaken identity and never should have been taken into custody.

A new study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, based on interviews with 62 men who were held for an average of three years at Guantanamo before being released without being accused of a crime, found that more than a third said they were turned over to their American captors by warlords for a bounty. Those who reported physical abuse said most of it occurred at the United States' Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where about half the men were initially held before being taken to Guantanamo.

Two-thirds of the former detainees reported suffering psychological problems since their release, and many are now destitute, shunned by their families and villages. None has received any compensation for the ordeal, according to the report, titled "Guantánamo and Its Aftermath."

Years from now, we will be shocked to see those pictures of naked prisoners being humiliated and abused at Abu Ghraib -- and we will be ashamed of a U.S. government that punished low-level troops for their sadism but exonerated the higher-ups who made such sadism possible.

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more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111702920.html

[slipslidingaway]

1. K&R n/t

[Winterblues]

2. Some of us will look back at this era in this manner, some will look back

and think we didn't torture and kill enough people. We have a lot of very sick people living in this country...Remember what Senator Inhofe said about how outraged people were when the torture was first made public. "I am Outraged at the Outrage". He will be one of those people that think we didn't do enough..

[Daphne08]

3. K & R

:kick:

[Solly Mack]

4. Years from now nothing...I've been ashamed of my government

"Years from now, we will be shocked to see those pictures of naked prisoners being humiliated and abused at Abu Ghraib -- and we will be ashamed of a U.S. government that punished low-level troops for their sadism but exonerated the higher-ups who made such sadism possible."



and as long as the Bush administration goes free, I will ALWAYS be ashamed of my government. Always.


K&R

[Senator]

5. The Torture Continues

Only Impeachment can stop Obama from taking the oath to be the new War Criminal in Chief.

These "tribunal tribulations" are merely the distraction for beltway navel gazers and sand kickers.

There is ONLY accountability/accusation OR complicity/cover-up.

Impeachment -- then prosecution -- remains our ONLY moral, patriotic option.

---

[pat_k]

6. Redemption remains in our grasp: Impeachment in REAL TIME.

It is too soon to talk about "After the Torture Era." It isn't over.

There is only one path to redemption, and it remains in our grasp. Only impeachment IN REAL TIME is unequivocal rejection of the ongoing torture program.

We don't need more "reports." Bush and Cheney commit their crimes in plain sight.

Bush and Cheney are shameless war criminals who seized and abused the massive power of the American presidency, but they aren't the ones bringing shame on the nation.

Criminals do not bring shame on a nation. What shames a nation is a corrupt government that willfully turns a blind eye.

It is Nancy Pelosi and her treasonous opposition to impeachment that is bringing shame on this nation. It is the Members of the House who are submitting to her "off the table" edict who are turning the USA into war criminal nation. And the derelict members of the House have plenty of enablers -- Senators who endorse "off the table," Party insiders, impeachophobic "consultants," media figures, and cheerleaders "out here," who parrot the false memes.

We have a duty as citizens to keep http://talkingimpeachment.com">talking impeachment every single day that Bush and Cheney hold the massive power of the American presidency.

There is no middle ground. Each of us must choose. Advocate impeachment or oppose it.

Those who say "impeachment is impoosible" are opponents. They sow immobilizing hopelessness and apathy. They sap the will to act.

Those who say "prosecute instead" or "convene a truth commission" are opponents. They just offer means to escape the duty to impeach NOW. They are selling the lie that this Congress can do something "after the fact" to redeem their failure to object while the crimes were in progress.

Articles could be on the way to the Senate by the end of the week. The crimes are well known. All that remains is to vote "up or down" on their intolerable defense of torture.