BROKEN LAWS, SHATTERED LIVES

Before an astonished and outraged world, we
have regressed morally to using tactics first
made infamous by the Inquisition. I'm not
just referring to water boarding, but also the
whole program of secretly grabbing "suspects,"
holding them secretly, and then torturing them
until they confess to something, and then
punishing them on the basis of the tortured
"confession" augmented by secret evidence
that can't be revealed at trial for "national
security" reasons. This is just like the Star
Chamber procedures in the Inquisition!

Why bother? This is such a mockery that it
makes "rule of law" a laughingstock. Who is it
supposed to fool? It fools no one in the rest of
the world; it may fool some of us. All it does in
the rest of the world is cause great anger and
contempt, and strengthen the terrorists. It
reminds people of Saddam and Stalin. It's
unbelievably stupid, as well as grossly immoral.

Inquisition victims were often tortured until
they were insane. They rode to their burning in
open carts, wearing dunce caps and babbling
like the idiots they had become. Saudi-born Abu
Zubaydah is a broken man now, certifiably insane,
according to Dan Coleman, who was an FBI
agent who worked on his case. (He is no longer
with the Bureau.) Coleman says that Abu "knew
very little about operations or strategy." Never
the less, he has received the full treatment at
numerous CIA black sites around the world
before winding up at Gitmo. If you have a strong
stomach and want to know what the full treat-
ment entails, read the account in The Washington
Post (2/23/08) entitled "Inside the Mind of a
Gitmo Detainee." It is written by his lawyers,
and the procedures used on Abu are pretty
standard, as reported by the FBI (on other cases),
and in CIA training manuals.

The pious "we don't torture" claims repeated ad
nauseam by Bush and Rice are simply lies, reminding
one of similar claims made by the Church during the
Inquisition. The Church was careful to have
their victims seized and tortured by the secular
authorities under their control so their hands
would appear clean. Our government is fond of
"outsourcing," and does this with much of its
dirty work. Italy is preparing to go to trial next
month against 26 of our CIA agents involved
in kidnapping an Egyptian known as Abu Omar
from the streets of Milan and secretly flying him
to Egypt, where he was tortured for several
years, found to be innocent, and was finally
released. This story is reported in detail by
Mother Jones (Mar./Apr. 2008) along with an
excellent review of the whole history and bogus
legal basis for this extensive and expensive
criminal program known as "rendition." I was
surprised to learn that it was going on under
the Clinton administration, but was vastly
enlarged after 9/11. Unless we want it to
happen against ever more American citizens
working abroad, it needs to stop completely!

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net