Open Letter to Senator McCain

[Jack Rabbit]

And yes, I really sent it to him.

Senator:

I am very disappointed in your decision to support Mr. Bush's torture and war crimes immunity bill.

I'm sure you are aware that only an act of Congress can make waterboarding into something other than torture. A form of this "harsh intettogation technique" was used during the middle ages to punish scolds and to "persuade" witches to confess. It seems that torture -- I will continue to use the term, regardless of what laws Congress passes -- was used to persuade a detainee on by the name of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi to confess to all he knew about Saddam's biochemical arsenal. Mr. al-Libi was in Egypt under "extraordinary rendition" -- a practice explicitly prohibited by the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Witchcraft, Saddam's biochemical arsenal and Santa's workshop on the North Pole have a great deal in common, don't they? It seems that torture played a role in the confession of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen and technical worker who was under "extraodinary rendition" in Syria, to confess that he trained with al Qaida in Afghanistan. In fact, Mr. Arar has never been to Afghanistan, accodrding to a recent report released by the Canadian government on the affair.

Tales of Mr. al-Libi, Mr. Arar and a few thousand witches should tell us something about torture. That is: Torture is very good at getting the subject to say what the interrogator wants to hear, but not so good at getting the subject to tell the interrogator what he needs to know.

But why should I tell you this, Senator? You know this far better than I do. I believe while you were in a North Vietnamese prison camp you became acquainted with a guard the POWs called Rabbit because he had buck teeth and long ears and another they nicknamed Straps and Bars after his favorite -- pardon me -- harsh interrogation technique. I have only read about these monsters in human flesh. You have experienced them.

I used to admirer you, Senator. They call you a maverick Republican and I fancy myself a maverick leftist. I don't follow the party line. Although I think he should stand trial as a war criminal, I cringe when I hear Mr. Bush compared to Hitler. I am very skeptical of cheap conspiracy theories, while I know many people who are all too eager to assert them as fact. I love mavericks of all stripes. I think we mavericks ought to get together and form a club, except that tonight I'm not sure you belong in it.

Even this week I wrote a defense of you on a liberal/progressive/leftist website against skeptics and cynics who were sure you'd turn, but I said "No, McCain knows what torture is about. He was a POW in North Vietnam. He was tortured himslef." Well, they were right and I was wrong. I am very disappointed.

How could you? How could you serve this nation in uniform and suffer so much for it and then betray all it stands for in an afternoon? How could you betray not only that, but your own past?

I don't know what power Mr. Bush holds over you, Senator, that you will forgive him the lies about you and insults to your family that Karl Rove spread in South Carolina in 2000 or that will make you shield that heinous man from prosecution for war crimes or to say that torture isn't torture when he orders it. But I know that whatever it is, I don't like it.

[Clarkie1]

1. On the PBS news hour they said the agreement would ban waterboarding

but allow some sleep deprivation.

I think we need to have all the facts of the agreement before we can discuss it's merit. Certainly we need to remain strong in our convictions against torture, and for American ideals.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Of sleep deprivation, I would say the same thing

Only an act of Congress can make it something other than torture.

When I was in the Army, we used to say of an obnoxious officer (like the Commanding General of the Second Infantry Division when I was in Korea in '77 and '78), "he's a gentleman by an act Congress."

[waiting for hope]

2. Bravo!

K&R! :thumbsup: Here's a good one I read earlier from the KOEB: McCave.

[elehhhhna]

12. MC CAVE. That one will stick.

[ShortnFiery]

4. Kudos! K & R n/t

[NanceGreggs]

5. K & R, natch!

"How could you serve this nation in uniform and suffer so much for it and then betray all it stands for in an afternoon?"

How, indeed?

:kick:

[SaveOurDemocracy]

6. Hurrah!!

"How could you? How could you serve this nation in uniform and suffer so much for it and then betray all it stands for in an afternoon? How could you betray not only that, but your own past?"


Thank you, Jack, for your very eloquent, meaningful post.

[Thickasabrick]

7. Great letter - but the part that bothers me the most is that these

people will not have legal recourse. John Dean wrote an excellent article about it. Bush and the Senators basically ignored the Supreme Court's guidelines of what the bill needed to look like.

Not to mention the get out of jail card.

[BlueJac]

8. Thank you for calling a traitor out........

His word is very weak..................the man is a fipflopping fool

[autorank]

9. "I don't know what power Mr. Bush holds over you, Senator(s)..."

Why does * need this bill so much. Is is really a fear of international prosecution? That's a red herring if there ever is one. There are people who enjoy this, revel in it. They can't give it up. There are people, a much larger group, who are complicit in allowing this to go forward. They're fearful too. When this bill came up, I'll bet anyone a Franklin that they went and dug up the very worst stuff on McCain and Graham that they could find and made the most profound threats imaginable. They win these contests because they're willing to break every rule. This does not surprise me at all: the capitulation of McCain (and Graham) and the rest of these embarrassments to humanity. Someone unexpected and probably obscure within the government will spill the goods and there will be a collective "horror" that will last decades.

[LynneSin]

10. McCain, Warner & Graham - all Smoke & Mirrors

"Lookie at Us!! We're republicans and we're going against the Bush Regime! See, we aren't lockstep in line with voting with him"

:puke:

I have more respect for someone like Bill Frist or Rick Santorum - they're disgusting republican pukes but at least you know what they are and don't pull crap like this!

[NanceGreggs]

11. Just another kick ...

... for the early risers.

GREAT stuff there, Jack Rabbit!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[The Wielding Truth]

13. McCave -- exactly! K&R Kudos to Jack. and Nance from starter thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2840379#2840621