Thursday, January 17, 2008
Guess Who Is On A Torture List By Canada
Canadian diplomats reading a training pamphlet on how to determine if prisoners have been tortured are given a list of nations which are known to torture. The list includes names like Syria, China, Iran and, sadly... this year America has been added to that horrible assemblage.
The document cites the use of sleep deprivation and forced nudity as torturous techniques currently used against prisoners. These techniques were once recognized by America as torture, particularly when used by the Soviet Bloc against dissenters and American POW's. Yet the debate in America now is focused on whether or not the use of feigned execution by drowning is actually torture. You can almost hear the guffawing of the right wing torture apologista's over the notion that sleep deprivation would be considered torture. After all it was Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who once justified the use of painfull stress techniques by noting he stood at his desk all day.
Nations which once looked to America to provide international leadership in the cause of human rights are now including us on their lists of nations which torture.
This is real time proof of the complete degradation of this nations image on the world stage, from the foremost international champion of human rights to making an international rogues gallery list of torturers. Shame on this administration for promoting policies which have led us to this pass, and shame on the people who silently sat by and let them do it.
The document cites the use of sleep deprivation and forced nudity as torturous techniques currently used against prisoners. These techniques were once recognized by America as torture, particularly when used by the Soviet Bloc against dissenters and American POW's. Yet the debate in America now is focused on whether or not the use of feigned execution by drowning is actually torture. You can almost hear the guffawing of the right wing torture apologista's over the notion that sleep deprivation would be considered torture. After all it was Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who once justified the use of painfull stress techniques by noting he stood at his desk all day.
Nations which once looked to America to provide international leadership in the cause of human rights are now including us on their lists of nations which torture.
This is real time proof of the complete degradation of this nations image on the world stage, from the foremost international champion of human rights to making an international rogues gallery list of torturers. Shame on this administration for promoting policies which have led us to this pass, and shame on the people who silently sat by and let them do it.
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