cheese it, the cops!

yet more knowing what you don't know

eugene robinson has written many passionate, convincing anti-torture columns, and i agreed with all of them. but this one, flatly declaring that we didn't catch bin laden through 'enhanced interrogation,' is simply premature, or a priori. the facts can't be read off your moral principles. indeed, that they are your moral principles makes your factual conclusion suspect. it just can't turn out that way, for robinson. (alright, no facts can prove that they couldn't have gotten the info without the torture; but no facts can prove that they could have, if they actually did get it under torture.) but that doesn't mean it can't turn out that way. so: did they actually get information necessary to find bin laden through torture? i don't think we have enough information to make that assessment. the robinson a priori approach to empirical knowledge is also a way of failing to face up to the actual moral dilemma that might emerge: is torture wrong even if it works in some key or fundamental cases? well, robinson and many others don't want to square up on that, so they don't. 

knowing what you don't know, contd.

one thing i would take as an example of trying not to declare you know what you don't; it's going to take a lot more info to assess whether we found bin laden by 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' or what role torture actually played in the killing. i'm completely opposed to it; i think it's shameful. but whether it yielded key information is not a question to which my moral repugnance is relevant, and i'm going to try to admit that this is what happened if it looks like there's convincing info that it did.

if i were the operations coordinator for al qaeda or the greek anarchists or a fringe right-wing militia, or indeed for the pta of the local elementary school, i'd work on devoting the next few years - or as long as it takes - to erasing the oprah winfrey network. suicide vests, truck bombs, airbuses loaded with high explosives, dirty bombs, anthrax, sarin, beams of anti-matter, etc: i'd try them all, then start in again. then i'd devote myself to removing every trace of oprah from the cultural record: mention that name and you will be tortured just short of death, then sent crawling back out into the world, so that your horrendous disfigurement can serve as a warning. one good thing about this approach: you might get bono too.

cultural hippopotami, they bellow bigger than you and i, or even you and me; but what they bellow is meaning-free.

it's getting to be important to see that the obama administration is basically down with bush-era international torture programs, secret prisons, etc. the head of bagram says: there are no american prisons in afghanistan aside from bagram, which is subject to red cross inspection. well, bald lies are better than obscure semi-utterances. while you're at it, groove on this. and on april 16, i grin at the fact that i am myself paying to accomplish these things, and then paying again to cover them up. from myself. in virtue of being taxpayers, we are torturers and murderers. that's the social contract, baby.

in an era of fiends, nothing is more fiendish than  music torture, nevertheless, i'd like to offer my amazing expertise to the intelligence services as a music consultant. imagine "the long and wnding road," played at a pleasant low volume, over and over again. oy the melancholy!

whatever you do, don't tell david addington about this. he uses these guys as role models.

well, i would suggest hooding charles "cully" stimson, stripping a cord, and electrocuting his balls. but charles "cully" stimson has no balls.

washpost continues

the washington post has again found its center. that was an extremely strong anti-torture editorial, informative and calmly outraged. let me say again: the post should publish every bit of information it has on black sites, starting with their precise locations.

well now this is interesting, especially because it seems likely that libby, in muttering "valerie plame is a cia agent" to various reporters, was doing cheney's bidding; according to his testimony libby first heard her name from cheney. indict, convict, and then remove dick cheney to a black site. hood him. put dogs on him. leash him, bend him over naked, and take pictures up his ass.

A senior administration official said that neither President Bush himself, nor his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., nor his counselor, Dan Bartlett, was Mr. Woodward's source. So did spokesmen for former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; the former director of central intelligence George J. Tenet; and his deputy, John E. McLaughlin.

A lawyer for Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff who has acknowledged conversations with reporters about the case and remains under investigation, said Mr. Rove was not Mr. Woodward's source.

Mr. Cheney did not join the parade of denials. A spokeswoman said he would have no comment on a continuing investigation. Several other officials could not be reached for comment.

oops! in keeping with cheney's constitutional insights: skip the indictment and conviction and go straight to electrocuting his testicles.

i have found the perp, and he is i

iraq government begins inquiry into torture. what? you mean i skinned people alive? this shocks me. i will investigate my actions immediately, and, if necessary, exonerate myself without mercy.
the interior minister, who is conducting a thorough investigation, has an office and a bedroom at the bunker that was used a torture facility and personally appointed most of the commando-types who worked there. imagine the shock of discovering that your staff has been torturing people for months in your own bedroom! at least that would put you in a good position to find out what happened: you have only to investigate your own memory.
previously, this scenic torture facility was the headquarters of paul bremer of the "coalition" provisional authority.

we torture

ok. let's just examine a few of the charming developments in the cruel and unusual area.
(1) the discovery of a nightmare dungeon in the iraqi "interior ministry"

According to The New York Times, the detainees — who appeared to mostly be Sunni Arabs — had allegedly been tortured by their Iraqi captors — mainly Shiite police officers — leaving two apparently paralyzed and several others with the skin peeled off their bodies.

"A joint statement by the American Embassy and the United States military command called the situation "totally unacceptable" and said American officials "agree with Iraq's leaders that mistreatment of detainees will not be tolerated."" what is that, some kind of joke? despite the fact that the thing was revealed by US soldiers who "stumbled on to it" while searching for a missing boy, it would surprise me if the torture chamber was not created with the connivance of the american government. why would that surprise me? gee whiz, maybe because we tortured iraqi captives ourselves in saddam's prisons. maybe because dick cheney is an explicit advocate for, an enthusiast for, torture, rejecting the mush-headed torture survivor john mccain's liberal attempts to ban it. maybe because the US gov operates a gulag of secret torture facilities. torture is our main strategy in the "war on terror," indeed perhaps we are not torturing people in order to fight terrorism, but fighting terrorism in order to torture people.
at any rate what we need is a joint investigation by the american and iraqi governments. that's funny.

(2) it seems that the u.s. gov has been flying 747s full of "detainees"  to our own secret, um internment facilities, and to such torture allies as (get this) libya, transhipping them through spain. this makes you realize that there are probably hundreds of people being tortured around the world by ourselves and our cool torture dudes such as qaddafi.

(3) the senate voted to limit due process rights of guantanamo detainees while also providing some semblance of due process, much more in fact than most republicans or the admin wants. what does the admin want? of course: to hold anyone it pleases for as long as it likes with no charge or representation and do anything to them it pleasess. it is worth considering, however, that even a vidication of the rights of gitmo detainees is likely to have a horrendous backlash effect: it motivates the administration to instead hold people secretly in "undisclosed locations" or remand them secretly to dictatorships for torture. that is - more or less obviously - why the population at gitmo has not increased.

we, americans, are evil. we are torturers. we are enemies of the rule of law. we are leering betrayers of our professed values and of our traditions.