Independent UK: Johann Hari: We must shame the torturers' accomplices

[marmar]

Johann Hari: We must shame the torturers' accomplices

Even if the people at Guantanamo are guilty, they should not be beaten or boarded or broken

Published: 08 March 2007

Guantanamo Bay - America's shining torture-camp on a hill -is humming with new activity this week. Fourteen newbies have arrived, almost certainly from secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, where they have been waterboarded into passivity. They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the 9/11 massacres, and a man known as Hambali who allegedly planned the Bali bombing in which 200 innocent clubbers were incinerated.

There won't be much time to settle in: the show-trials begin tomorrow. In these new military tribunals, the defendants can be shut out of their own trial at any time (along with their lawyers), "evidence" acquired via torture is admissible, and the accused can end up convicted on the basis of evidence they have not seen and cannot challenge.

The Bush administration propaganda - "we don't torture", "there will be a fair legal process" - is unusually ridiculous, even by their standards. When Congress tried to pass a blanket ban on the use of torture by US forces last year, the President demanded an exemption for the CIA. What is that, if not a tacit admission? In what way are these trials fair?

We have become so numbed to the idea of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram Airbase after five years that it's worth remembering: we are talking about a string of prison camps where a democratic country, supported by us, is torturing people to death. To give just one well documented example: a 22-year-old taxi driver called Dilawar was picked up driving past a US military base in Afghanistan in 2002. The people who interrogated him said he never showed any signs of being violent or aggressive - but when he was punched, he cried "Allah". The interrogators found this hilarious, so it became a running joke to beat him in order to hear the shriek. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/article2338387.ece

[Briar]

1. "And...

we need to metaphorically knee-cap the doctors, nurses and psychologists working on the literal knee-cappings within Guantanamo Bay. Every one of these "interrogations" is supervised by people who have sworn a Hippocratic oath to "do no harm". They should be immediately stripped of their medical licenses. The American Psychological Association (APA) has refused to do this. In an attempt to bargain for more cash and influence from the Pentagon, the APA have even placed a loophole in their ethics code that allows any supposedly legal military order to supercede all the other rules: effectively, the Nuremberg Defence. An organisation representing liberal professionals should be easier to shame than the Bush White House; if we can, we can severely hinder the smooth operation of these torture-chambers."

You have to wonder how people who presumably started off by dedicating their lives to helping, not harming, other people could stoop so low. How were they corrupted? How far has the rot which has debased them spread? Who else is turning a blind eye to torture, even if they aren't (directly or vicariously) enjoying it? Blaming the doctors and other medical staff involved isn't enough. One must also blame every single person who either supports or does not care to honestly think about what is being done in their name. Where is the outrage? This isn't an episode of that abysmal piece of neocon propoganda "24". Real blood is being shed. Real values are being blasted.

[Demeter]

2. Congress Is Unfortunately Shameless--Dem or GOP

and cleaning the Senate takes years--still, we've made a good start on it. Just got to keep on going.