Holy Crap: CIA Has Secret al-Qaida Prison
NEW YORK - The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement, the Washington Post reported.
posted by Carmen @ 11/02/2005
6 comments
6 Comments:
I guess we gotta go pick back up the Chomsky.
I agree Art. I thought we heard many stories about this months ago.
Thanks, Meta. That actually was my point. The context of the issue, that we have created unsanctioned Gulags where we send people of one culture to be imprisoned elsewhere, doesn't even try to justify the situation in the same way that sending people to Egypt did, by saying that Egypt was an Arab nation and could be more effective at getting the intelligence we wanted. Yes, I know, both are BS, but this latest round really is indefensible.
Jimmy Carter was on Hardball last night talking about this and promoting his new book, the loss of american values or something like that.
Yep, I agree with Art again. Just who is surprised or even upset at this news? Right-wingers won't be, just look how they excuse prison abuses in Iraq as nothing more than "fraternity" pranks, or because torturing "terrorist" might save a few of "our boys." In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that many in the Bush adminstration see publicity around this type of thing as only enhancing its image in the eyes of the "base," which has begun to squawk loudly about Bush not protecting our borders with Mexico.
I think that you are overvaluating the international impact of this news also. Are there politicians in other countries that are going to be turned in their perspective on the Bush administration as a result of this news? I doubt it. America hasn't symbolized "noble causes" to anyone for quite a while now. "Terrorists" don't need more examples to know the impact of our foreign policy. Politicans in countries like Japan and Korea and Poland will continue to suck up to Bush as long as they can get get away with it politically and still get their kickbacks. Berlusconi has started to turn, Spain turned - but that happened because of specific political events in their own countries; the anti-American public sentiment existed in those countries at the very beginning of the war.
It is a sad day when the a lack of surprise equals a lack of indignation. I really don't care if right wing US residents are not surprised or even glad that such tactics are used by our government. I don't even care if other countries see this as part of the new US policies. What I do care about is that forward thinking, morally sound and active citizens dismiss this as not worthy of protesting. The sad truth as dumplingeater has laid out is that many industrialized nations will follow our lead as long as the purse-strings remain firmly attached. So, accept it and make sure that just as they are following an immoral and misguided US regime, so too would they follow one that adheres to the Geneva Convention, understands that the political battle against terrorism is based on providing a better set of values than terrorists and that integrity is the linchpin that ties them all together.
So, in short, please knock off the lack of surprise is naive crap. I hear way too much nihilism here and want your ideas on how to recognize the attrocity and attack it, not simply why to toss it into the pot of things that our government continue to do wrong. Clear enough for everyone?
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