CIA EMBRACES THE ‘IN’ IN ‘INJUSTICE’
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistRemember the golden years of the CIA? Where the agency was so much better respected and its people admired for protecting America and its interests at home and abroad?
Remember those days?
Well, those days are–sadly–over.
In light of the interrogation tape scandal where the CIA went against orders and
destroyed them in 2005, the agency and the people within the Justice Department have shown a strong perchance for
injustice.
And torture.
Naturally, the proclivity of the secret spy institution was
immortalized in many spy movies as having a ‘tough guy’ image whom could accomplish anything–even if it meant bending the rules a bit to succeed in the given mission; the one thing that set the spy agency apart from the bad guys was that in the end…?
They didn’t stoop down to their level.
But now…?
They have.And no one is batting an eye at that.
The destruction of the spy tapes wasn’t done intentionally to protect the interrogators and their families.
No. That would be too easy a way out.
No, this was done to avoid another embarrassing repeat of Abu Ghraib–where some members of the US military abused and tortured Iraqi prisoners for months on end; before someone on the inside blew the whistle.
The CIA and the Justice Department have been engaged in an age-old game of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”.
This time, the Justice Department has been running interference for the CIA to cover its tracks in the destruction of the interrogation tapes.
Tapes which have shown interrogators torturing
terror suspects in order to extract information from.
But the CIA doesn’t want this information to come leaking out. And neither does the Justice Department.
In all fairness, this behavior didn’t just
start recently. This could easily be traced all the way to the top of the Executive Branch; where we have an imperial President whom believes that he is outside the law.
And as such, this model behavior has reinforced the idea that everyone
within the government can also act in part–thus providing the American people a clear and present example of just how
lawless their seat of representation has become.
Including the Senate GOP–whom have rejected a recent bill to outlaw harsh interrogation techniques such as water boarding; citing that it will tie
our hands in the interrogation of terror suspects.
It just goes to show just how
injustice has managed to prevail unchecked all these years since 2001.
The year our government and its agencies declared itself to be beyond morals, rights, and justice.
This latest example just reinforces the notion that such bad behavior within is widely acceptable–while the truth is not.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Abu Ghraib, CIA, interrogation, Justice Department, tapes, torture, water boarding
GOVERNMENT TERROR CONVICTION IS TROUBLING
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistNothing could be far from the truth in the conviction of Jose Padilla–a U.S. born citizen.
The government sought to paint him as a “star recruit” in Al-Qaeda’s drive to build a secret terror cell within the United States and detonate a “radiological” dirty bomb–all at the same time.
But where was the
proof of such convictions?
Was Padilla actually the terrorist they painted him to be? And why did they hide him away for years without ever trying him in the first place? And was this man grossly tortured into making a false confession?
People, the proof is in the pudding:
The government does not want to appear soft on terrorism!Much like the fake terror plots, our own government is actively engaged in the worse crime imaginable right under our very noses…
Convicting innocent people for crimes that don’t exist
!
Who can say exactly what Jose did in the Middle East. Perhaps he was studying and helping with humanitarian relief efforts as he claimed. But the government never saw that to be the truth.
Or wanted it to.
Instead, they fabricated false claims that Jose was a true terrorist, was going to blow up apartments with natural gas and then detonate a “dirty bomb” somewhere in the United States.
They held him against his will, tortured him so bad that he became mentally deficient to the eyes of those whom knew him personally, and to make things worse?
He was an American citizen detained illegally on his own country’s soil–by his own country’s government
!
How much is one man’s life worth in order to keep the Bush administration's little-held secret of torture and illegal detention without trial, evidence, or charge–going?
Is this what America stands for?
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: America, conviction, crimes, dirty bomb, illegal detention, Jose Padilla, terrorist, torture, US government
SURVEY SHEDS SOME SAD FACTS ON IRAQ WAR CONDUCT
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistWhat did we go to Iraq for? To find Saddam’s WMDs? Nope.
To overthrow a once US-supported impotent dictator? Nope.
To give the Iraqis their freedoms and liberties? Nope.
To make Iraq a model of freedom and democracy in the Middle East? Nope.
So what
did we go to Iraq for?
Well, according to a latest survey of US troops, we went there to torture the very people we are trying to save,
and to mistreat civilians while we’re at it.
Shocking?
Yes.The study by an army mental health advisory team found continuing problems with morale and that acute mental health issues were more prevalent among troops with lengthening tours or on their second and third deployment to Iraq.
So what does this mean?
It means that our troops mental facilities are
breaking down with each extended tour. It would explain a lot about the Haditha incident last fall and Abu Ghraib in 2004.
This report says that the burden of extending tours and an endless war is wearing down our military–and as a result–our government is either
blind or inherently ill-equipped to deal with the situation.
But more than that, it shows that our troops are beginning to show a
hardened, indifferent attitude towards Iraqi civilians:
Exhibiting behavior which would almost suggest a teenage
mentality.Examples:
About 10 percent of soldiers surveyed reported mistreating non-combatants or damaging their property when it was not necessary.
Less than half of the soldiers and marines would report a team member for unethical behavior.
More than a third of all soldiers and marines reported that torture should be allowed to save the life of a fellow soldier or marine.
Why is this happening now?
In the words of Major General Gale Pollock–the army’s acting surgeon general:
"These men and women have been seeing their friends injured and I think that having that thought is normal."And while Pollock is saying that because of their military leadership is
preventing them from acting on these thoughts, it makes one wonder:
How long will it before the military brass is burned out from constant war–and this mental “instability” starts affecting them?
Just one more reason why this war should end and end
sooner rather than
later.
But I doubt that Bush sees this as a problem. I seriously doubt that he understands the mental
strain our men and women are under.
Because to him, war is a game. But war profiteering? That is a horse of an entirely different
color.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.comLabels: Bush, condone, Iraqi civilians, mental strain, report, torture, US soldiers
