Thursday, January 31, 2008

officially torturers

Well, it's official. The United States of America tortures people.

And if you are American, then when you pay your taxes between now and April, you're helping to pay Mukasey's salary, along with the salaries of all the U.S. soldiers and operatives who will continue to murder and torture people around the world.

Think about it. Below is from this New York Times story

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Wednesday that while he would consider it torture if he underwent the harsh Central Intelligence Agency interrogation technique known as waterboarding, the practice was not necessarily illegal, and he would not rule out its use in the future.

Under sometimes angry questioning from Democrats at his first oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey found himself caught in the debate that nearly derailed his confirmation last fall: whether waterboarding is torture.

“Would waterboarding be torture if it were done to you?” asked Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, glowering at Mr. Mukasey.

“I would feel that it was,” Mr. Mukasey acknowledged in the low monotone that he uses in virtually all public settings.

But the attorney general, a retired federal judge, would not be drawn into a larger conversation with Senator Kennedy or other Democrats over whether waterboarding might amount to torture if

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is one of those things that makes me very very glad I'm not American. I don't think I'd cope very well with the thought that I was helping to fund these kinds of activities. Here's hoping there is some real change soon!

Joe said...

Hmm. I wonder if there will be any change. Methinks institutional inertia means that whoever gets in will find it almost impossible to change things for the better.