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![]() Just Above Sunset
December 11, 2005 - The Hits Keep Coming
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In these pages, on November
13 here and November 20 here, there was some discussion of the case of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. This is the fellow who was the source of all the lies about
Iraq training al-Qaeda operatives, even though the Defense Intelligence Agency and other high-level intelligence operatives
had already dismissed this information as unreliable. Well, as Newsweek reported in June, this was a test case to see what we could get from torture - the fellow spent some time with our friends in Cairo. Mr. Libi was indeed initially
held by the United States military in Afghanistan, and was debriefed there by C.I.A. officers, according to the new account
provided by the current and former government officials. But... it was not until after he was handed over to Egypt that he
made the most specific assertions, which were later used by the Bush administration as the foundation for its claims that
Iraq trained Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons. Well, as many have pointed
out, this is a bit disingenuous. We obtain these "explicit assurances" which, of course, leaves us with clean hands, but we
leave it at that, and we use whatever information we get. Think of it like buying a hot Rolex watch from a seedy man in lower
Manhattan - you were told it wasn't stolen so you're not guilty of any illegal transaction, the seedy fellow who sold you
the watch is. Torture is the tool of
the slothful. The main attraction to those who defend the use of torture is how easily and quickly a suspect can be broken.
Unlike other forms of interrogation, torture requires only a small amount of training, no particular understanding of the
suspect, and scant concern for the veracity of what is revealed. It requires only the willingness to do to another human being
what one would not do to an animal. Understanding torture as the lazy person's tool makes it a bit more comprehensible why
the Bush Administration would be the first in American history to defend the practice. Ah well, we got our war.
The state department's
top legal adviser, John Bellinger... stated that the group International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had access to "absolutely
everybody" at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which holds suspects detained during the US war on terror. There are no "black sites"
where we have "disappeared" people? No comment. We're just not saying.
Draw your own conclusions.
The ruling by the House
of Lords this week, barring any legal testimony extracted by torture, makes for inspiring reading. It provides a long history
of how English common law banned torture for any reason from as far back as Magna Carta. Torture was indeed introduced in
the sixteenth and early seventeenth century by the Crown, but was revoked in 1640, which was the year the last torture warrant
was issued in Britain. After that, the use of torture was unthinkable in English jurisprudence. Nineteenth century legal historians
deemed the practice "totally repugnant to the fundamental principles of English law" and "repugnant to reason, justice and
humanity." Basically, there can be
no weighing of any evidence procured by torture. Case closed. That word honour, the
deep note which Blackstone strikes twice in one sentence, is what underlies the legal technicalities of this appeal. The use
of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it. When
judicial torture was routine all over Europe, its rejection by the common law was a source of national pride ... Just as the
writ of habeas corpus is not only a special remedy for challenging unlawful detention but also carries significance
as a touchstone of English liberty which influences the rest of our law, so the rejection of torture by the common law has
a special iconic importance as the touchstone of a humane and civilised legal system. Not only that: the abolition of torture
... was achieved as part of the great constitutional struggle and civil war which made the government subject to the law.
Its rejection has a constitutional resonance for the English people which cannot be over-estimated. So the Brits have this
honor thing, and don't want to go back to the days before 1640. We do? It seems so, and we're
working hard on tossing out this writ of habeas corpus thing, as well documented here. The United States no
longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards
on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical
dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead,
the pathetic and supine Great Britain. Ouch! ... Political language,
as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available
to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential
that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds
us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed. Well the man is not happy.
But he's a playwright,
right? What does he know? Two American Nobel Prize
winners said Thursday they are worried about President Bush's attitude toward science and accused his administration of ignoring
important research findings. Just more folks who don't
have any respect for the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. I am not going to let
oppressive, totalitarian, anti-Christian forces in this country diminish and denigrate the holiday and the celebration. I
am not going to let it happen. I'm gonna use all the power that I have on radio and television to bring horror into the
world of people who are trying to do that. And we have succeeded. You know we've succeeded. They are on the run in corporations,
in the media, everywhere. They are on the run, because I will put their face and their name on television, and I will talk
about them on the radio if they do it. There is no reason on this earth that all of us cannot celebrate a public holiday devoted
to generosity, peace, and love together. There is no reason on the earth that we can't do that. So we are going to do it.
And anyone who tries to stop us from doing it is gonna face me. But will Bill bring horror
(torture, perhaps?) to this fellow in Rhode Island? What has he done? See Paris Hilton in all
her seductive splendor, striking a provocative pose for passing motorists and spreading hot Christmas cheer in a chilly Rhode
Island winter. O'Reilly has not yet commented
on this, but Moretti says he was just trying to be different and "to be creative and let them see a little bit of Hollywood
or New York - bring it to Cranston." This is the latest in
a series of artistic lawn displays decorating Moretti's lawn. Last year, he paid tribute to Martha Stewart even as he and
another man faced charges for sneaking on to the domestic maven's property. The charges were later dismissed, and the men
donated money to public libraries near the property. Moretti calls the incident a "big misunderstanding." Okay then, this man has
an odd concept of Christmas, and of trespassing law. What would O'Reilly do? Moretti, it seems, has, in the past, built Christmas tributes to Madonna, Princess
Diana and Liberace. |
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This issue updated and published on...
Paris readers add nine hours....
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