torture

Last week, I described how the Texas Republican party proposed legislation that would require a woman who wants to have an abortion to receive a vaginal exam (two actually). Well, the Texas Democrats at least fought back (which is more than the national Dems ever do): Houston state representative Harold Dutton got the most coverage for repeatedly making the point that "pro-lifers" drop all pretense of caring about life the second it can't be used to punish sexually active women. In rapid order, he introduced three amendments that were tabled by the majority, who really didn't want to…

Reading the prepared text of Obama's speech at the Tucson Memorial Thursday night, there was one part I really liked: And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud. I would prioritize honesty--that is, speaking with words that have meaning and are not simply utterances designed to manipulate--…

In his weekend roundup, driftglass reminds us that there was a time when our mainstream pop culture villified torture and praised those who attempted to resist it: And then Fox TV's Torture Porn Show, also known as 24, made torturing fashionable. Strength was to be had in torturing people, not in resisting it. At this point, it's tempting to bemoan our nation's sorry fate, but Thomas Levenson offers a good explanation of how we reached this dismal point (italics mine): ....this [bizarre and obscene definition of lynching] is an example of the kind of rhetorical deceit that would have made…

tags: Disappointing Torture, cultural observation, political commentary, politics, torture, funny, satire, humor, streaming video Two agents (Jimmy Mulville and Phillip Pope) are preparing to interrogate a suspected secret agent (Tony Robinson). Unfortunately, the suspected secret agent is afraid of torture, which seems an ideal situation, right? Well, not really, not when you wish to test your torture kit for the first time.

Monday's NY Times, in a story about the remote possibility of torture investigations by the Justice Department, describes the Obama administration's concerns: A series of investigations could exacerbate partisan divisions in Congress, just as the Obama administration is trying to push through the president's ambitious domestic plans and needs all the support it can muster. "He wants to dominate the discussion, and he wants the discussion to be about his domestic agenda -- health care, energy and education," said Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor of political science at Towson University who…

You see, this is the method of The Enemy, so therefore we don't torture. Or something. From Glenn Greenwald comes this nauseating account of media spinelessness in the face of the evil that is torturing another human being: The most noteworthy point was her [NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard] explicit statement (at 17:50) that "the role of a news organization is to lay out the debate"; rarely is the stenographic model of "journalism" -- "we just repeat what each side says and leave it at that" -- so expressly advocated (and see Jon Stewart's perfect mockery of that view). She also said -- when…

Since I don't own a television that actually gets reception, and I refuse to pay for cable*, when I'm on the road, I occasionally turn on the TV. What do I see, but CNN criminal shock jock Nancy Grace. For those of you who don't know who Nancy Grace is, she hosts a 'criminal justice' show that consists of finding murdered attractive white women and whipping the audience into a frenzy over whether a relative or husband killed her. It pays the rent, I suppose. What I would like to know is if Grace will turn her talents, such as they are, towards Dick Cheney (not to mention Rumsfeld)? After…

John Schwenkler points me to Rod Dreher's shock that religious people seem to support torture more than the non-religious: And get this: the more often you go to church, the more pro-torture you're likely to be! What on earth are these Christians hearing at church?! Very sad indeed. John notes: There are plenty of data showing that Christians' attitudes toward abortion, contraception, and the rest don't differ very significantly from those of the rest of society; the real factor, of course, lies in political affiliations, and I have little doubt that most of the relevant findings can be…

Amid my flu frenzy I missed Vaughn Bell's excellent consideration of CIA psychology through the declassified memos: I've been reading the recently released CIA memos on the interrogation of 'war on terror' detainees. The memos make clear that the psychological impact of the process is the most important aim of interrogation, from the moment the detainee is captured through the various phases of interrogation. Although disturbing, they're interesting for what they reveal about the CIA's psychologists and their approach to interrogation. As Vaughn notes, A couple of the memos note that the…

Apparently the Bush Administration's survey of the legal literature of torture missed something. From Antemedius: George W. Bush's Justice Department said subjecting a person to the near drowning of waterboarding was not a crime and didn't even cause pain, but Ronald Reagan's Justice Department thought otherwise, prosecuting a Texas sheriff and three deputies for using the practice to get confessions. Federal prosecutors secured a 10-year sentence against the sheriff and four years in prison for the deputies. But that 1983 case - which would seem to be directly on point for a legal analysis…

(from here) And I don't mean that in a good way. Washington Post columnist and Compulsive Centrist Disorder sufferer, regarding prosecutions for torture, scribbles: The memos on torture represented a deliberate, and internally well-debated, policy decision, made in the proper places -- the White House, the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department -- by the proper officials. One administration later, a different group of individuals occupying the same offices has -- thankfully -- made the opposite decision. Do they now go back and investigate or indict their predecessors? Let me…

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/23/prosecutions/index.ht… It's one thing to be a stenographer--and a bad one at that. But, as Glenn Greenwald notes, our celebrity press corps goes beyond that: ...the favorite mantra of media stars and Beltway mavens everywhere -- Look Forward, Not Backwards -- is nothing but a plea that extreme government crimes remain concealed and unexamined. This remains the single most notable and revealing fact of American political life: that (with some very important exceptions) those most devoted to maintaining and advocating government secrecy is our…

In yesterday's NY Times, Ali Soufan, an F.B.I. supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005 who worked on counterterrorism, wrote a devastating indictment of the failure of torture to collect useful intelligence. To me, the most critical part of the op-ed is about how torture fails to reveal novel information: There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn't, or couldn't have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions…

via Nicholson cartoons Veteran, author, and blogger Kelly Williams, who was there, ponders what torture does to the torturers: There have been lots of questions raised -- about the history and effectiveness of these techniques, the impact on those tortured, the larger foreign policy implications -- all of which are important considerations. There is, however, one aspect of the conversation that I believe has been neglected: What does this do to those committing the acts? [snip] Some of those who participated in the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment (please check out that site -- it is totally…

Earlier today I drew attention to a post by Questionable Authority on The Torture Memos, Medical "Professionals", and the Hippocratic Oath. Says Mike, I cannot remember ever in my life being as ashamed of my country as I am at this moment. The contents of the memos are so insanely wrong that I'd like to believe that they're fiction, but they're clearly not. He ends by calling for the AMA to identify the medical professionals involved and help them find new lines of work. A commenter on one of my earlier posts on psychologists, doctors, and torture, T. Hunt, joins him: While the modern…

Ed Yong examines how a simple writing exercise helps break vicious cycle that holds back black students. The Questionable Authority considers The Torture Memos, Medical "Professionals", and the Hippocratic Oath. Jessica Palmer, in a healthy display of online media's corrective power, tries to make clear that For the last time: that "Twitter is Evil" paper is not about Twitter!. Zimmer takes a tour of assisted migration. Effect measure argues the lack of universal health care in the US is morally and fiscally bankrupt.

ScienceBloglings Greg Laden and John Wilkins have discussed whether or not CIA employees complicit in torture should be exempt from prosecution. The debate has revolved around the 'following orders' issue. But this misses a key point: CIA personnel are not military personnel. There is a specific reason the CIA is a civilian agency and not a military command (in fact, there are strict regulations about the percentage of military personnel that can work for the CIA). In a military command, soldiers can disobey orders if those orders are found to be unethical. However, if the orders are…

The Times is reporting that health care workers actively assisted in the torture of CIA detainees overseas. This, as you might imagine, sickens me. Many of us have seen movies or read spy novels where a doctor stands by as someone is tortured, monitoring their condition and telling the interrogator when they need to back off. It turns out this really happens. I don't have that much to say about this that isn't obvious, i.e., it's never acceptable for health care workers (HCWs) to participate in activities designed to cause their patients intentional discomfort or injury. That's a no-…

...and both Helmut and the Mad Biologist told you that would be the case over a year ago. From The Washington Post (italics mine): When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him. The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the…

I'm becoming more enthusiatic about Eric Holder as Attorney General. It's nice to see some clarity about waterboarding--that is, partial drowning interrogation. From Steve Benen: The exchange was helpful in learning about both the senator and the nominee. [Republican Senator] Cornyn wanted Holder to admit that he'd torture a terrorist in a "ticking-time-bomb scenario," in order to "save perhaps tens of thousands of lives." Holder responded sensibly, noting that we have interrogation methods that aren't torture, and that torture wouldn't produce reliable intelligence anyway. Cornyn was…