Obama Reluctance on Bush Prosecutions Affirms Culture of Impunity Pt. 1

[balantz]

Run time: 09:22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DaU_7nooH0   Posted on YouTube: May 02, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 03, 2009 By DU Member: balantz Views on DU: 1452

 
Historian Alfred McCoy: Obama Reluctance on Bush Prosecutions Affirms Culture of Impunity

This week, President Obama said waterboarding is torture but gave no indication he is planning to hold anyone accountable for authorizing it. We speak with University of Wisconsin professor, Alfred McCoy, author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror.

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6htE9VYIbk&NR=1

[sattahipdeep]

1. Thank you.

[sattahipdeep]

2. Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell

The CIA's $1,000 a Day Psychopaths

7:10 7:35

[sattahipdeep]

3. Alfred McCoy_183 times. This is extraordinary.

This is beyond the idea of sort of clinical, scientific, dispassionate torture.

That’s pure sadism. Pure sadism. And that’s another problem of torture.

It’s the mammalian diving reflex. The human being is so afraid of death by drowning that we are hardwired into our biology, into our brains with this bizarre mammalian diving reflex.

So, therefore, waterboarding, which induces this primal fear of death by drowning, is the most painful form of torture you can concoct.

That’s why it’s existed for 500 years.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/1/torture_expert_alfred_mccoy_obama_reluctance

:applause: Alfred McCoy :patriot:


....
Psychologists Called the 'Architects' of the CIA's Techniques
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7471217&page=1

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7473528
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7473637

[sattahipdeep]

4. C.I.A. contractors? Cofer Black Erik Prince

Mitchell's entry into private contracting began less than three months before September 11 with a scientific consulting company called Knowledge Works, L.L.C. He registered it in North Carolina with the help of another sere psychologist he'd worked with at Fort Bragg, Dr. John Chin. Since then, he has formed several similar companies, including the Wizard Shop (which he renamed Mind Science) and What If, L.L.C.

....
Mitchell left one clue to his activities in corporate records. In 2004, he filed a notice with North Carolina's secretary of state formally dissolving Knowledge Works. In it, he wrote, "All members of this LLC moved out of the state of NC in March 2002, and subsequently Knowledge Works, LLC ceased to do business 29 March 2002."


Mitchell has built his dream house in Florida. He also purchased a BMW through one of his companies. "Taxpayers are paying at least half a million dollars a year for these two knuckleheads to do voodoo," says one of the people familiar with their pay arrangements.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/07/torture200707

[balantz]

6. Thanks for the great info! n/t

[newmac]

5. If we don't prosecute; maybe the rest of the world can...

After all; there are loads of other countries; who could do the job

[sattahipdeep]

7. Evil deeds

THE HAGUE, 23/04/09 - The Netherlands wants the US to abolish the act that legitimises the use of force to free Americans if they should fall into the hands of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

"American legislation that would justify the use of force against the Netherlands to keep Americans out of the ICC is outdated and should be amended,"

http://www.nisnews.nl/public/230409_3.htm

....
And although U.S. ratification of the Rome Treaty isn't in the offing, Obama has pledged to work more closely with the International Criminal Court.

By ratifying Rome Statute, U.S. would signal that it believes justice and accountability for the worst human rights violations are indeed central to the rule of law, as well as a stable and just system of government.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[90-percent]

9. Why is this vid not resonating with DU?

I consider this video and Alfred McCoy's comments to go right to the root of why torture is wrong.

Prosecution of all the guilty parties seems like the only way America can restore it's moral standing in the world.

America has to take a very hard look at what our country stands for. I say our country will be much better off resorting to the rule of law and holding all torture criminals to account for their War Crimes. Including all members of the White House Administration that ordered it and managed it.

Sweeping it under the rug and holding only "a few bad apples" to account means America no longer can cite the moral high ground with out being completely hypocritical.

This video should be going viral and should also be all over Keith and Rachel!

Thanks to Amy and Prof. McCoy!

-90% Jimmy

[sattahipdeep]

10. I Have a Dream

"Justice is not done yet," Asst. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told jurors. "Each of you will be convinced in the end that the only just punishment that does justice for the victims is the death penalty."

:fistbump:

[sattahipdeep]

11. Rachel and Keith Can't Handle The Truth?

Anyone listening out there?

Surely you all understand that putting blinders on our own side is less than helpful.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5606085&mesg_id=5606085

[90-percent]

12. Ray McGovern piece at Consortium News linked above

I have been impressed with McGovern's work for some time. Regarding the torture debate, this is a comment I find deeply troubling:

"Sullivan noted that at least one active duty Army soldier committed suicide rather than follow orders to torture detainees."

The soldier that chose his own death over obeying orders to torture must have a profound story. The traitors that gave the orders should be prosecuted in this soldiers honor! I wonder what this soldiers loved one's have to say about the torture debate?*


-90% Jimmy

*debate? whats to fucking debate? it's flatly illegal and certainly unamerican!

[sattahipdeep]

14. U.S. Interrogators May Have Killed Dozens of Detainees

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5610269&mesg_id=5610269

....
Are we sure it was suicide?
A report in The Arizona Daily Sun of Flagstaff -- three years after Alyssa's death -- revealed that Spc. Peterson's mother, Bobbi Peterson, reached at her home in northern Arizona, said that neither she nor her husband Richard had received any official documents that contained information outlined in Elston's report.

In other words: Like the press and the public, even the parents had been kept in the dark.

[avaistheone1]

15. True.

Tonite I am feeling like there will be an awakening soon withing the country. There were be a few courageous people who will take a stand that will turn some of this around.

Just a feeling tonite.

[happydreams]

13. Well I will be dipped in.....

I have never heard Al McKoy speak, I've only read his books, one of them dog eared from use.

This guy is a national treasure. Did you see how he went back and gave the historical background on torture.

Read his books, they are some of the best research and analysis I've seen, and I've seen alot.

K&R