Did anyone see those gory Saddam torture tapes?

[RebelOne]

They showed them on CNN yesterday night.

[onebigbadwulf]

1. No..

But I'd love to see the GITMO or ISRAEL torture tapes.

[rfranklin]

10. Those were actually S & M tapes...

of Wolfowitz and his fuck buddy, Richard Perle.

[Kamika]

2. no what were they?

what happenend etc

[RebelOne]

6. It showed people being pushed off buildings

and hands and fingers being chopped off. And a man being flogged. I couldn't watch any more. It was too gross.

[Paschall]

11. Are you sure that was Iraq and not Saudi Arabia?

At least 123 people were executed and there was an alarming increase in the number of amputations. One person reportedly had his eye surgically removed as judicial punishment...

Judicial corporal punishments
There were 34 reported cases of amputations during 2000, seven of which were cross amputations (of the right hand and left foot). Flogging continued to be frequently imposed for a wide range of offences.

• In August, 'Abdel Mo'ti 'Abdel Rahman Mohammad, an Egyptian national, was reported to have had his left eye surgically removed as punishment ordered by a court in Medina after he had been found guilty of throwing acid in the face of a compatriot and damaging his left eye.
• Two teachers, arrested following demonstrations in Najran, were reported to have been sentenced to 1,500 lashes each to be carried out in front of their families, students and other teachers.

Death penalty
In an increase over the previous year, at least 123 people were executed, all after trials about which very little was known. Among those executed were three women. The majority of those executed - 71 - were foreign nationals, from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Philippines, Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Egypt, Bangladesh, Syria, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Thailand. Some were sentenced to death for crimes without lethal consequences such as highway robbery, sodomy, drug smuggling and sorcery.

• The body of one of those executed in May, Muhammad Mustafa Kamal 'Abd al-Qadir Jadi, an Egyptian national, was reported to have been crucified following his execution in Jizan on charges of murder.

Amnesty International

[EdGy]

13. these tapes are documenting Reagan/Bush policy

What was being shown on those tapes was happening while Donald Rumsfeld was warmly embracing Saddam in Baghdad.

While Reagan prevented the UN and the US Senate from denouncing Saddam for supporting terrorism.

While Reagan and Bush were allowing Saddam to obtain from the US precursors to biological weapons.

While Reagan was having the CIA give Saddam info to better target his chemical weapons attacks against Iranian troops.

Reagan and Bush KNEW that all of this was happening, they knew Saddam relied on torture etc., yet they supported him whole-heartedly.

Iraqis KNOW that the US supported Saddam whole-heartedly. That's why it's a joke to them when Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz or Bush tell them that the US wants to help them, that Saddam was evil, etc.

These tortures were the DIRECT result of US policy under the Republican presidents Reagan and Bush.

But I don't suppose they mentioned that on the broadcast.

[matcom]

3. yup. and they were HORRIBLE

now, i wonder why CNN showed those but refuses to show the results of "Shock & Awe"

:eyes:

[rooboy]

4. They're absolutely nothing...

compared to the torture tapes you could get out of Saudi Arabia or Uzbekistan - both Bush allies.

Now can the republicans explain why they were opposed to the Kosovo intervention?

[vi5]

5. I saw clips. And as horrible as they were to watch...

I think it's ridiculous that they are being used in a way to justify the war.

The fact is that these horific methods of punishment and execution are used in any number of countries particularly African and Arab countries. That doesn't make it any less horrific, but when there are countries that use those kind of methods as open, legal (in their country) punishment and in some places where people actually engage in it as specatators, I don't see how that justifies us going into Iraq and killing thousands of civilians.

I'm also not sure how we draw the moral line between some of the stuff on those tapes, and the practice of strapping someone to a chair and sending live electrical current to their body and frying them to death.

[leftchick]

7. agreed with everything you said vi5......and

To take this seriously I think someone should tape the torture going on at Gitmo to contrast and compare which regime is worse.

[Jivenwail]

8. And it certainly does not justify

The loss of hundreds of American military lives. Nor does it justify the horrendous loss of innocent Iraqi lives in the process.

These morons simply can't come to terms with the fact that their great leader LIED us into an unjust war for greed. And they can't come to terms with no WMD anywhere to be found. So they stoop to the lowest levels possible.

It's disgusting to actually learn how low CNN has finally gone. And to think of what they once were, just a scant 10 years ago. They are bottom-dwellers, lower than a snake's belly and becoming more like Fox everyday.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Torture is revolting, but...

even more revolting is using torture to continue to justify a war and occupation that is becoming more unpopular.

We TEACH torture in the now-renamed School of the Americas, and our puppet dictators have used it for years. We don't have many puppet dictators any more, but torture is still in rampant use all over the world.

If CNN thinks torture is so bad, they should spend more time covering:

http://www.amnesty.org/

[KharmaTrain]

12. Date, Time, Place???

From what I saw, this was yet another grainy film that could have been filmed anytime in the past 25 years. Also, I couldn't tell if that was an Iraqi or a Kuwaiti or Egyptian or Algerian...they all get tortured.

It's a desperation move by the regime to "shock and awe" people...that's what *'s popularity is based on...they're just running out of simple things. It's the more complicated tricks this regime can pull that concern now...not bin Laden.

[Papa]

14. Has anyone in the administration been quoted about this?

Im curious to see what the administration has to say. I'd like to see a reporter ask a question about this. I bet the answer would be something along the lines that the American people need to see for themselves how hideous Sadam was. There should be a followup question about why Americans are not being shown our dead and injured and that isn't it important to let Americans know how horrific war is.

The media blacks out pictures of coffins, yet they have no qualms about showing human beings being tortured and killed. It's revolting.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. Dupe

Please continue the discussion here:

http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=621332&mesg_id=621332

Thanks,
MrsGrumpy
DU Moderator