[Marxism] Torture "fundamentally un-American" ?

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

"So to those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of the U.S. armed forces,
I offer my deepest apology... It was inconsistent with the values of our
nation, it was inconsistent with the teachings of the military to the men
and women of the armed forces, and it was certainly fundamentally
un-American," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/politics/08ABUS.html?hp

"In a sense, we already use torture anyway," one CIA officer told me. "When
we arrest a foreign national who we think has important information, we hand
him over to a foreign government such as the Egyptians. Its police will
arrest the suspect's wife and children, put them at the other end of the
same cell, and then produce a couple of pit bulls and say: 'Talk, or we let
these dogs go at your wife and child.' That usually works." (...) One senior
FBI officer told me: "If I knew that the man in front of me had the critical
information that would enable the US to prevent a catastrophic attack from
taking place on its soil, I would torture him, and take the consequences.
Wouldn't you?" "You can duck the question," the FBI officer continued, "But
we can't. Our ability to protect you depends on how we answer it. We can't
rely on other countries' doing it, because the one man who knows the secrets
may be a US citizen who we pick up right here in the US." (...) Alan
Dershowitz, a professor of law at Harvard and one of America's most
distinguished advocates of civil liberties, has come to the conclusion that
judicial torture is not prohibited by the US Constitution. He argues that
the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits self-incrimination, only means that
statements elicited by torture could not be introduced as evidence against
the tortured defendant. He argues that the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits
"cruel and unusual punishment", is not violated by torture either: it
applies only to punishment after an individual has been convicted.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/12/15/do1501
.xml

"These past years for me have been full of thousands of calls and complaints
of an increasingly disturbing nature. I hear from people locked in supermax
prisons throughout the [United States] and there are similarities to their
complaints. Many describe cold, filth, callous medical care, extended
isolation sometimes lasting well over a decade, use of devices of torture,
harassment, brutality and racism. I have received vivid descriptions of four
point restrains, restraint hoods, restraint beds, restraint belts, stun
grenades, stun guns, stun belts, tethers, waist and leg chains. Family
members report that during visits their prisoner relatives remained
standing, shackled and chained to poles despite the thick plexiglass between
visitors and their prisoner loved ones. I've had reports of visits only
being allowed via a small video screen. In other cases, prisoners tell me of
being strip searched for a window visit, including a humiliating anal probe.
This, despite the fact that they've had no human contact for months and will
have none during the visit. I continue to monitor people who have been held
in isolation for the past 15 to 20 years. The AFSC has received so much
credible testimony, including drawings that we have produced two pamphlets.
The first is a "Survivor's Manual" written by prisoners living in extended
isolation for prisoners living in extended isolation. The second is a
pamphlet of testimonies of torture from isolation units and prisons from all
over the country."
http://webarchive.afsc.org/nymetro/criminaljustice/resources/CJcure200110.ht
m

On July 24, the American delegation to the United Nations Economic and
Social Council (UNESOC) tried and failed to table an anti-torture protocol,
losing the vote 29-15. The protocol was then approved by a 35-8 vote and
goes to the fall session of the UN General Assembly for ratification. Since
it is not a Security Council resolution, the measure is not subject to US
veto. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/aug2002/tort-a05.shtml

1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative,
judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under
its jurisdiction. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm

The United States [since 2002] aligned itself with some of its fiercest and
least democratic enemies in opposing efforts to strengthen an international
treaty that outlaws torture, according to diplomatic sources. Washington has
found itself on the same side as Cuba, Libya, and Syria, among other states,
in trying to block a proposal before the United Nations Human Rights
Commission in Geneva designed to give more teeth to the Convention Against
Torture. http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0419/p07s01-wogi.html

Gov. Janet Napolitano on Wednesday rejected building a private prison for
women in Pinal County, deciding instead to expand the Santa Maria Unit of
the Arizona State Prison at Perryville. She did endorse the planned
construction of a private prison in Kingman but indicated that was primarily
because the contract had been awarded. The governor's decisions reflect the
widespread doubts about privatization in corrections that persist 20 years
after the idea gained popularity in the 1980s.
"I think private prisons are an option of last resort," Napolitano said.
"I've never been persuaded that they are more cost-effective than a well-run
(public) system."
http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special21/articles/1018prisons-private18.h
tml

Jurriaan











Jurriaan











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