Torture

[filkertom]

Concision is a beautiful thing, so I'll just nick this from markbernstein :

Quick summary for those who haven't been following the news:

Last Thursday, it was revealed that in 2002 and 2003, top Bush administration officials, including the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the National Security Adviser, the Attorney General, and the head of the CIA, met and explicitly discussed and approved a series of "interrogation tactics", many of which I, and many others, would classify as torture.

On Friday, George W. Bush, in an interview on ABC, openly admitted that he knew of and approved those meetings.

The ACLU is now calling for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate, and asking for help. They've set up a web page where you can fill in your name and address, modify the text of their standard letter, and send it to your Representative and Senators with an easy click.

It's easy to be cynical, and dismiss this as something that will never happen. But is that really an excuse to not even try?

Add your voice. Be heard.

Thanks to Digby for the link.

I would add the inestimable Glenn Greenwald as further resource.

Comments

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Tom.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I added my voice.

Also, Alberto Gonzales is apparently having trouble finding a job. The first sip of justice. May their cup run over!

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Signed. Thanks for the notice, Tom. I miss a LOT of news since I don't get it at work and get home after the dinner time news is over (drive-time "news" on the radio seams to be either mostly fluff and repeating the same 3 "real news" stories over and over again until you are bored out of skull hearing them).

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Signed.

I might not always agree with the things that the ACLU does but this is one time I can honestly get fully and 100% behind them. If there were alleged violations of the law then there should be an investigation to determine the facts before a final decision is made on prosecution.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I wish there was some channel for non-Americans to make their voices heard. (And yes, I would be happy for non-Brits to do likewise with our mob. It's all one planet.)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I wonder how they're going to blame this on the people who were against torture from the beginning?
That's what always winds up happening, after all.

Iraq War going to shit? It's the protesters fault for wanting us to fail.
Economy's tanking? It's the Democrats fault for taking over Congress.
Climate crisis? It's Al Gore's fault for living in a big house.

Maybe it'll be our fault because... We didn't want to outlaw S&M porn?

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing this out. I've stopped reading the news on a daily basis, at the request of my wife - she says it makes me somewhat depressed. I'm glad to hear someone is finally (hopefully) making the connection between "that's not right" and "we should do something about the fact that they did something not right."

[snowishness.livejournal.com]

I sent it, and got a very pretty reply back from one of my senators talking about torture in general and how he opposes it and it's ineffective and he wants greater oversight.

So, hopefully for better, my voice has been added.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I just let some people on a so called "christian" message board know about this.

The response I got almost made blood shoot out my eyes

"Well pink war is H***, so those kind of things just happen. accept it, and move on."

When I asked her if she seriously meant this and thought that torture was acceptable she replied with the following.

"Yes it is acceptable, and what you have nine more months of him, so learn to like it."

I'm horriblly ashamed of my fellow Christians right now for not speaking out and if this is their general attitude I must ask forgiveness from you all. I try to speak out against things like this and it hurts my heart to see people act and say things like that. I apologize profusely, from the bottom of my heart for her attitude. That's not what Christ taught us and I'm sorry.

I don't really know what else I can say.