Electronic Politics Asks: “What Is Torture?”
By NoQuarter on November 17, 2007 at 2:27 PM in Torture, Valerie Plame Wilson
George Kenney has some strong opinions on torture — and the dirth of discussion in the MSM:
[I]t seems to me that it’s newsworthy when a person in that position [Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture] says (1) waterboarding is unequivocally torture and (2) that U.S. officials must be held to account by international courts — specifically, that it was a good thing for several groups to have pursued Rumsfeld on his recent trip to Paris but that French jurists dropped the ball by not indicting him. Nowak goes further, generalizing about the use of torture as practiced by authoritarian/dictatorial regimes, brings in some historical discussion, and talks about the optimistic trend he sees, internationally, against torture.
Frankly, it’s a disgrace that the mainstream media has not been talking to Nowak about his views.
Kenney’s fine radio program, Electronic Politics, did an exceptional in-depth discussion yesterday on the root questions surrounding torture:
What Is Torture?
“Give me Liberty or give me Death.” To put this famous saying attributed to Patrick Henry somewhat differently, we easily recognize that death is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Indeed, there seems a large class of worse circumstances, though we generally don’t categorize them or, perhaps more importantly, often lack adequate language to describe them. Worse than death: it’s a subtle difference that doesn’t lend itself to formulation in terms of rules. Perhaps that’s why, when we find such rules, we elevate them to preeminent positions in international law. Here, I talk with Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, to get a better sense of what the world is thinking, and doing, about a most peculiar abomination. And, no, the U.S. is not off the hook. It was extremely generous of Prof. Nowak to take time to talk with me, for which I’m most grateful. Please pay close attention and help redistribute widely. Total runtime an hour and eight minutes. (PODCAST / DOWNLOAD)
Yes, it was George who did the exceptional audio for Larry’s interview of Valerie Plame Wilson.
[...] post by SusanUnPC This was written by . Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007, at 1:27 pm. Filed under [...]
how about having the Cheney Administration for 7 years, now that torture. Heck of a job Bushies:
The Ministry of Culture has begun insisting that tourists visiting the country’s monuments, including the Taj Mahal, pay the entrance fees in rupees rather than in dollars. Entrance to many sites for foreign tourists is priced in dollars and then converted to rupees, but the ministry has been losing tourism revenue as the dollar slid more than 12 percent this year against the rupee. The government had fixed a $5 entrance fee for World Heritage sites like the Taj Mahal and Humayun’s Tomb and $2 for other monuments at a time when the dollar was worth about 50 rupees. It is now worth around 39 rupees. The new rate for Heritage sites is 250 rupees, meaning a foreign tourist will pay the equivalent of about $6.50.
end of hegemony.
Honestly I’ll have to take a raincheck and come back to the runtime of an hour and eight minutes. Too bad EP doesn’t have a transcript.
Meanwhile FWIW my brief layman’s version of torture is, extreme pain or suffering and/or threat of imminent death. Why do it?
Objectively, there must be something it accomplishes, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. The animal world doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. My cat tortures prey all the time. As far as I can tell, he does it for entertainment or maybe a feeling of superiority.
The best I can come with is that people torture for similar reasons.
Good for George Kenney! Nice to hear someone say it: there are worse things than death, and handing over our freedoms to a-holes who abuse it is one of them.
Torture is watching a White House Press Conference.
Death is change Sometime-CIA -defender and some of those who pioneer their morality should be careful they are not held to account. Eternity is an enormous amount of time, whereas are lives are a blip in this respect.
Sound investment would be to assume you continue, if you are unsure. If you continue, it would be fair to consider that there might be a higher power looking over you and your life has been as it were a test. The result of this test is a pass or fail.
As with any test, you must have always known what you should have done (conscience). Therefore, what do you need to enable your conscience?
Isn’t that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do we have that, in any stretch of the imagination?
A few of you bright people will now start to see the light!
everyone knows mainstream media is a disgrace already.