WHY Is Bush So Determined To Torture? BECAUSE HE CAN!

[kpete]

The President of the United States does not know what "human dignity" means. He needs clarification.



BUSH: What does that mean, "outrages upon human dignity"? That's a statement that is wide open to interpretation. And what I'm proposing is that there be clarity in the law so that our professionals will have no doubt that that which they are doing is legal."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-2.html


Call Cruelty What It Is

By Tom Malinowski
Monday, September 18, 2006; Page A17

......... the president might review the memoirs of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, who describes experiencing sleep deprivation in a Soviet prison in the 1940s: "In the head of the interrogated prisoner a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep, to sleep just a little, not to get up, to lie, to rest, to forget. . . . Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger or thirst are comparable with it. . . . I came across prisoners who signed what they were ordered to sign, only to get what the interrogator promised them. He did not promise them their liberty. He promised them -- if they signed -- uninterrupted sleep!"

The Soviets understood that these methods were cruel. They were also honest with themselves about the purpose of such cruelty -- to brutalize their enemies and to extract false confessions, rather than truthful intelligence. By denying this, President Bush is not just misleading us. He appears to be deceiving himself.

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/17/AR2006091700516.html


King of Pain By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 18, 2006

So why is the Bush administration so determined to torture people?

To show that it can.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/18krugman.html?hp

[Annces]

1. Yes, they want carte blanche and will use any and all avenues to

get there. Try to think of a way to knock down any rules preventing them from doing anything they want, at any time, and that is probably what they are working on right now. The authoritarian state for your own good. The good of the state is by definition what is good, ala Cheney.

Who can they make friends with?
Who can they disregard and trample?

Friendships with the Christian Right.
Friendships with the Saudi Royalty.

[KittyWampus]

2. Hopefully DU'ers Will See Value In Comparing Bush & Co. To Soviets

Katrina= Chernobyl
Gitmo= Gulags

Remember, Condi was an 'expert' in Soviet studies.

[pansypoo53219]

4. that is why

i did not call the bush regime bushenistas as was first used on blogging, but called them bushevics. guess which one has stuck.

[indepat]

3. Damn, they must get their jollies up over perverse techniques