Stuart Hughes [thanks tex] links to “Torture by the book” by Vikram Dodd which debunks the theory that torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident carried out by a ‘rogue element.’ Hughes also provides links to the CIA manuals dealing specifically with interrogation techniques.
George attempted an ‘apology’ along the lines of “Americans like me are sick to their stomachs.” Okay. George should know as an alcoholic who claims to be recovered that an important step in the process of making amends includes being completely honest and setting things right if doing so does not cause harm to those who’ve been injured. To minimise the horror of this torture by referring to it as abuse and continue to assert it was an isolated incident causes further harm to the victims and negates his silly apology. Try again, George. Maybe his spiritual counsellor can write the next one for him. Who is that these days?
On the subject of full disclosure:
Greg Palast on Michael Moore and Disney’s censorship of his latest film.
According to this NYT‘s article, FAA managers destroyed a 9/11 tape despite receiving orders to keep everything related to the day. Who are these unnamed people who decided it wasn’t relevant to the investigation? It doesn’t look like we’ll ever know with certainty what was on the tape since ” no one ever listened to, transcribed or duplicated it.”
[via Meria Heller]