Letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer

Dear Philadelphia Inquirer*,

I was so very gladdened in the abattoir of my heart to hear that torture advocate John Yoo is gracing your pages with his wit, reason and legal acumen. Perhaps he can take his considerable cognitive skills and advise readers as to when a mere reprimand of an insolent waitress can morph into a physical beating, or just how far to twist the nipples of an obnoxious crossing guard. The list is surely endless, and should provide reams of fodder for the keen mind of Mr. Yoo. Maybe you could have his picture alongside his words, perhaps a striking portrait of him wearing a hockey mask just to set the mood? I'll leave that up to you folks--after all, you're the professionals!

But why stop there when you have a theme just crying out for more thorough coverage? I think it would be worth it to devote many sections of your newspaper to like-minded idealists, thereby dovetailing the disparate features and news stories you cover on any given day and giving the whole enchilada a little spice. Perhaps Hannibal Lector could dish out some recipes for the Food Section, Vlad the Impaler could provide ideas for staking out that special backyard garden, and John Wayne Gacy could answer questions ranging from child psychology and clown costuming to how to build a truly scary basement for Halloween!

Though the individuals mentioned above are either dead or fictitious I don't think your subscribers would find their appearance in your paper to be objectionable. I mean, come on, you've hired someone to write a column whose legal opinions helped our previous administration to violate the Geneva Convention and our own laws against torture, not to mention violating universal tenets of morality, decency and basic human rights. The piece de resistance to Yoo's opinions is that the use of such torture was probably invoked to gain false information, to help buttress the case for going to war against a country that had not attacked us! I'm sure your editorial staff now looks in the mirror with just a little extra gleam in their eyes, a little more arch in their eyebrows and just a tad more goose in their steps!

Thank you for your time! Let me know if you have any trouble sleeping at night: I hear tell Freddy Krueger has a whole laundry list of ideas that can help fend off bad dreams!


Sincerely,

(Holy moly, I gave them my real name!)

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Idea for this letter came from Digby's Hullabaloo--she is of the opinion that the Philadelphia Inquirer might be a good place to send your words concerning torture, especially in concern of a certain Mr. John Yoo.

Note from mjs: I don't write letters much, but felt the Holy Spirit within me and just wanted to share.

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The Opinuary Column

The Opinion The United States does not torture died yesterday from a variety of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, up to and including being repeatedly slammed into a false wall, simulated drowning, stress positions and sleep deprivation. The Opinion had a long, full life, and it is with sorrow and regret that we note its passing.

Family and friends will join together to celebrate the life of the Opinion at an undisclosed detention facility next week. The general public is not welcome. Period. If anyone not specifically invited to this event shows up such a person will be placed in a small, dark box with a variety of arachnids tossed inside. You and your spider friends will be left there for a period not so long as to cause prolonged mental anguish or undue suffering, but long enough to totally freak you out. Additionally, you will be so close to organ failure that you could taste it.

In lieu of flowers the family has asked that would-be donors go to the closest window in their home or workplace or what-have-you, throw said windows open and howl in abject horror so that the whole world should hear their wailing, indeed scream from the very core of their beings until the mountains of our nation shake with despair, our fresh water lakes, rivers and streams dry up from shame, and our guilty, besotted souls are dashed upon the flesh-rending rocks that line the abject hollows of eternity.

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The Opinuary Column appears every Friday afternoon at Jesus' General.

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Jose Padilla and Our Civil Liberties

I just read remarks by the psychiatrist who spent 22 hours interviewing Jose Padilla in preparation for his recently ended trial and conviction. The thing I found most disturbing was this: She reported that Mr. Padilla still maintained that if he could just let the Commander in Chief know what had been happening to him that the CIC would understand and get him out of there.

While most people tend to dismiss this as the ravings of an insane person or at the very least, delusional, I found this to be the most heartrending part of the entire interview with its details of sensory deprivation, Stockholm syndrome, methodical brainwashing tactics and finally due to his long period of confinement under these conditions, what the psychiatrist described as actual, organic brain damage caused by the actions of our government.

Mr. Padilla is a US Citizen, and regardless of his past, he still believes in the basic fairness of the OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, and that if his situation could be heard, fairness would release him from this captivity. Even in the face of the treatment he has been subjected to, he still believes in the fairness of our institutions including the executive branch - and the occupant thereof.

We must not forget, although all the rest of us have been listening and been inundated with the daily list of scandals, cover-ups, whopping mistakes, lies, obfuscations, deceptions, manipulations, gaffes, spin and distortions coming out of this executive branch by and on behalf of George Bush and Dick Cheney, Mr. Padilla is probably been one of the few adults on the planet who knows nothing of all of this. Mr. Padilla has been kept in solitary confinement - absolutely no contact with the outside world - since he was arrested. He has not seen a TV, heard a radio, read a newspaper or book, or been able to talk with anyone other than his jailors and tormenters.

So the part that almost makes me cry is that this man, who has been treated so abominably, still believes in the integrity of the Office of the President. And that the person sitting in the White House MUST be a person of fairness and justice, and that somehow he must not know what is happening to Mr. Padilla because surely if he did, it would not continue to happen.

This is the most powerful commentary on the state of our Union and our Constitution today - that we, all of us, and George Bush in particular, believe that it is okay to treat anyone this way. Our country was founded on ideals of striving towards perfect justice (a high benchmark we have yet to achieve) and a country that has never espoused or condoned torture from our Revolutionary War on - until now.

Mr. Padilla will no doubt spend another long period in sensory deprivation (if you don't believe this look at the most recent photographs of him at the courthouse in Miami - he is transported to and from the courthouse in earmuffs and goggles - and no one seems to think this is untoward) until all his appeals are heard. At that point, if he is to be confined to any one of our civilian prisons, in his current poor mental health state, he is at very high risk among the inmates and I fear for his life. Of course that may be the intent of the "government" now - just have him killed in prison 'accidentally' and all this will just go away.

WE THE PEOPLE must pay attention. Mr. Padilla IS A CITIZEN of this country, like it or not. And if he can be treated this way, so can each and every one of us. It is not enough just to shake our heads, wring our hands and think too bad for him but that won't happen to me. No??? Well, the White House spin on this conviction started moments after the verdict and they are claiming it as a "vindication” of Bush's unrestrained and unaccountable powers to name ANYONE as an unlawful enemy combatant (including US Citizens), hold those persons without charge (writ of habeas corpus - remember that?), make a new law to fit what the person has allegedly done, and then - far after the fact - charge, try and convict them on something that was not a crime at the time they did it. Ah yes, those pesky details.

It can happen to you. To me. To anyone. We need to start talking about these issues to our friends, neighbors, family, co-workers, church groups, anyone. Write letters to the editor – join a blog – start a group. Sign petitions, call/write/drop in on your Congressional delegations either in Washington or in your local districts. When they come home on breaks - make a point to go see them. Tell them this is unacceptable. Do something! It doesn't matter what party you are from - this is not a Republican or Democratic issue - this is a Citizens of the United States of America issue. WE THE PEOPLE need to take back our government - otherwise we have become what we claim to be so afraid of.

Thank you to The General for his gracious invitation to post here.

MTV's Cribs (Gitmo Edition)

Aussie detainee David Hicks shows us his crib.



Elsewhere: Other videos by Ranger Dan.

Raping our way to victory

Presented without comment.

From IraqSlogger:

Complete Transcript

Bold type denotes off-camera voice of one of two other men present

**** indicates an edit in the tape.

Get this on tape man. Say it again. Say again what happened.

Say what?

You know, like what was going on? What was it like being a guard there?

A guard at Abu Ghraib?

Yeah. That place, man, it's fuckin' world famous now.

I don't know what to say. Nothin' special. It's better than being a fucking bullet sponge.

Know any of those guys who got busted, you know, for torturing those inmates?

They got fucked, man. You know, just cuz someone let the pictures get out.

I don't get that.

Yeah, why'd they....

No one expected...

****

I mean, compared to what we were doing every day? Teasing a couple of hajjis? Give me a fucking break. You know, what's the big deal about making a haji walk around like a dog and bark?

****

....expected anyone to get all upset...

****

What else would you guys do?

What would we do?

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Or we would take plastic and wrap it around their heads until they started choking....

****

CIA showed us a lot of shit....

****

.....crank generator, where we'd hook it up to their nipples or their nuts, fucking crank it and shock the shit out of them.

***

What was the most fun things?

The most fun thing, umm....definitely the women.

Yeah? They had chick insurgents, man?

No, they didn't have chick insurgents.

***

Something goes down, they just grab everyone around, you know, fuck em. I mean, you gonna have 35 trials? No, you know. People are like, "Oh they're innocent." You know what, I don't give a fuck. As far as I'm concerned, they're all guilty. You know what? They should have kicked Saddam out themselves. Instead, we're there doing the fucking job. We're losing guys.....

***

Were those people in the World Trade Center guilty? No. Fuck them. They fucked us, so now we're fucking them. Fuck them, dude, anyone with a fucking rag on their head is fair game.

***

....girl, she was probably like 15 years old. Yeah, she was hot dude. The body on that girl, yeah, really tight. You know, hadn't been touched yet. She was fucking prime. So....

***

One of the guys started pimping her out for 50 bucks a shot. I think at the end of the day, you know, he'd made like 500 bucks before she hung herself.

Really?

Yeah.

She hung herself? How's come she hung herself?

I don't know. She wasn't happy.

***

In their culture, it's really shunned upon if you get raped. I guess she would have been stoned to death anyways by her people, you know. It's fucked up.

She was fucked anyway, I guess. In more ways than one.

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You didn't get shit from the CO, did you?

Uh-uh, not until those fucking pictures came out. After then the biggest rule was no fucking cameras.

See the video.