"Pain" And "Suffering" As Distinct Concepts: The Waterboarding Memo Set To Music

What starts of as a novelty music video quickly becomes much more. In setting the waterboarding memo text to music, Jonathan Mann makes plain the linguistic gymnastics required to separate the "pain" and "suffering" of waterboarding from the "pain and suffering" of regular torture. Remember, "The waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode,/ lacking the connotation of a protracted period of time/ generally given to suffering." All clear?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJSXbA9j0Js&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]


[via Boing Boing]

Discovering How the US Became a "Torturing Democracy"

Related Post: Fox News Anchor: "We Do Not F****** Torture!"

By coincidence, as the latest furour over torture escalated, I was writing chapers on the early months of the Bush Administration. That, in part, is why I have been unsettled by the spin, diversions, and outright lies of former Bush officials: the evidence offers no gray area in which to hide. The Bush Administration authorised torture, under the label "enhanced interrogation", and persisted in that authorisation even though there was no evidence of its effectiveness, let alone its legality or morality.

One of the sources I have been using is the website for the documentary Torturing Democracy. It is invaluable for its interviews, documents, and commentary (and the full documentary is on-line). A few of many notable examples:

Richard Armitage, former special forces officer, Deputy Secretary of State in the Bush Administration: "There is no question in my mind -- there's no question in any reasonable human being, there shouldn't be, that [waterboarding] is torture."

Moazzam Begg, detainee in Camp Bagram in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay:

The CIA, the military intelligence, and the FBI had decided in May 2002 to begin my interrogation in earnest, which included during that period me being tied, "hogtied" as I call it, also as they call it in America, with my hands tied behind my back to my ankles and being left like that for hours on end at various points....They brought photographs of my family, which they'd taken off my laptop computer, which they'd seized in Pakistan, which include pictures of my children that they waved in front of me and asked me, "Where do you think they are? Do you think they're safe? What do you think happened to them? Do you think you're going to see them again?" And during this period hearing the sounds of a woman screaming. The implication of which was it was my wife being tortured next door; they didn't say as much, but they didn't have to.

Martin Lederman, Department of Justice Legal Adviser:

The purpose of the torture memo [of August 2002] was to give the CIA absolute assurance that no matter what it did, in terms of interrogation, that it would never be subject to any criminal culpability. None of its agents would ever be exposed to criminal culpability under domestic law, putting aside foreign tribunals.

Michael Gelles, Chief Psychologist, Naval Criminal Investigative Service:

We know that people who are tortured provide information. We just don't believe that in most cases that information is accurate and reliable. Because people will provide information to stop the discomfort.

Fox News Anchor: "We Do Not F****** Torture!"

Related Post: Discovering How the US Became a “Torturing Democracy”

Warning: Language in clip below may offend

Only three months after the Bush Administration left office, American society has passed a "tipping point" on the question of torture. In January 2009, even though those following the story knew the details of how George W. Bush and advisors set out the path to torture in December 2001 and formally authorised "enhanced interrogation" in summer 2002, it was not considered a "fact" in public discussion.

Now there is so much discussion of torture that even a 24/7 newssite can't keep up with the political developments. For now, here's a passionate, symbolic marker of the US crossing the Rubicon of the illegal, immoral activities of the Bush years.

On Fox News --- yes, Fox News --- anchor Shepard Stone, upset by attempts to rationalise torture's effectiveness, said clearly and loudly, if colourfully, ""We are America. I don't give a rat's ass if it helps. We are America! We do not fucking torture!"

Senate Armed Service Committee Report: Bush and Co. Authorised Torture

The Senate Armed Service Committee has just released a 263-page report, based on a review of more than 200,000 pages of documents and more than 70 interviews, on the Bush Administration's detention and interrogation policies. The report was completed in May 2007 but held back until now because of political sensitivities.

This is the clear conclusion: "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority."

The full report is available via The New York Times website.

The Daily Show and Karl Rove: "Oh, No, Our Torture Techniques Have Been Ruined"

This one goes out to Karl Rove, as he bravely fights his Twitter campaign to vindicate the Bush Administration:

Jon Stewart:"Apparently everyone's not upset about the fact that we torture. They're upset about the fact that we know about it."

Karl Rove: "All of these techniques are now ruined."

Peggy Noonan (former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan): "Sometimes in life you want to just keep walking....Some of life has to be mysterious."

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
We Don't Torture
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