Troubling comments within the GOP presidential field over whether to reinstate torture and implement other war crimes have been drawing criticism lately, with the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, even feeling compelled to weigh in last week by calling out the “loose talk” in the Republican primaries.
Last night's debate was testament to what so much of the country has become (or always been?). Mindless rubes happily throwing insults in their fact-free zone. Their venomous attacks are successfully further dividing the masses so that the masses don't see that the elite are furthering their stranglehold on the nation and the world. I am so grateful for Bernie's leadership on that state of affairs. Bernie 2016!
This is very important (so I am repeating it):
"What the current “debate” over bringing back torture highlights, however, besides how perverse the Republican dialogue has become, is why prosecutions of the Bush-era CIA torture program are essential, and why it is so damaging that the Obama administration has shirked its responsibilities in this regard for more than seven years.
"As human rights advocates have long maintained, prosecuting Bush administration and CIA officials involved with the torture of terrorism suspects in the post-9/11 period is needed so that torture is not repeated in the future by subsequent administrations who – because of previous decisions not to prosecute – may consider themselves above the law."
Lately, commentators have sought to make Hillary Clinton singlehandedly responsible for everything from the destruction of Libya to genital mutilation (there).
With that type of reasoning, the Bush administration--or perhaps Bush, himself--is singlehandedly responsible for ALL the torture that's gone on at Guantanamo and other black-ops. sites... and the TRIGGER that made war of aggression possible.
All of these "worst of the worst" prisoners are patsies... props in a war that never started from outside enemies!
I also find it both curious and chilling that NO ONE (apart from me) calls out what should be a grotesque disconnect between all these Republican "bring on the torture!" madmen--in their endorsement of extreme torture sans trials--and their stated Christian beliefs!
Torture is NOT what Jesus would do!
The Manchurian Candidate unintentionally exposes his loyalties:
"For his part, Obama used the publication of the Senate report as an opportunity to tout the virtues of the United States, and actually praised the CIA for its professionalism in carrying out its responsibilities."
Bush, Sr. was head of the CIA. Certainly junior was influenced by Daddy's position.
Clinton may have been "influenced" or coerced. Obama seems like he was groomed from Day 1.
Reagan was an actor who followed a script, and Nixon was good pals with Allen Dulles.
The question really is--what President was NOT CIA and/or profoundly CIA-influenced since JFK's fate was written in blood? (Carter is the only possible exception... and yet, "The Carter Doctrine" still haunts.)
A skillful videographer or documentarian could juxtapose the following words by Obama, with actual footage of the carnage done unto Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and its trade-coerced equivalents in Central America:
"Obama said: “Throughout our history, the United States of America has done more than any other nation to stand up for freedom, democracy, and the inherent dignity and human rights of people around the world.” He went on to offer a tacit defense of the torture techniques while touting his own virtue in bringing these policies to an end."
When I dated an attorney years ago, he told me most took acting classes. This approach was used to sway juries.
I wonder if the CIA actually teaches those it manicures for high office HOW to converse in intentional double-speak: stating a thing when the speaker fully intends to invoke its opposite:
Example:
“That is why I unequivocally banned torture when I took office,” Obama said, “because one of our most effective tools in fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe is staying true to our ideals at home and abroad.”
"He went on to claim that he would use his authority as President “to make sure we never resort to those methods again.”
"But clearly, by blocking criminal investigations into the policy’s architects, Obama has done very little in a practical sense to ensure that those methods are not used again."
When people in HIGH office lie and are never taken to task for it, the public's confusion, cognitive dissonance, and psychological manipulation can be forgiven, if not better understood.
Might be nice to mention Obama's guilt as well as failure to prosecute here. Avoiding this creates an apparent divide where none exist.
Your last paragraph, "When people in HIGH office lie and are never taken to task for it, the public's confusion, cognitive dissonance, and psychological manipulation can be forgiven, if not better understood.", is a little confusing to me. This psychological manipulation during the days of the 'cold war' was called brain washing. There are many members of the public who are well aware that High officials have been lying to us for years and the lies have only gotten worse and with increasingly disasterous effects. Yes, many of our citizenry has been 'brainwashed' but many have not and continue to allow the lies to continue without legal or civil action. It is our democracy if we will only defend it. The US gov't accused the USSR of running a state controlled news which delivered propaganda to its people; the US accused the Russian government of maintaining gulag style prisons of torture; our government accused the Russians of attempting world conquest; our government tries to bully other nations into dropping their nuclear arms programs when we are the only nation to ever use those weapons against another nation in warfare, are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Pact and are now under Obama engaging in a $one trillion upgrade of our weapons while our country's infrastructure crumbles, many live in poverty and and the human caused climate disaster looms over the world's childrens' heads. We have become precisely what I was taught in school the Russians were. Sorry SR1 but I started rambling. 'We' are a pathetic citizenry to have allowed our government to become what it is, and a lot of it during my life time meaning my fault, too. If these so-called High officials are not put on trial for their horrible offenses then our Democracy is lost and we are slaves!
Consistently this comes up. Posters like you take the EVIL done by covert insiders and then hold citizens responsible for it... as if good people have a MEANS for thwarting evil.
It's essentially the same problem that the domestically abused woman faces in seeking help or redress through a sexist legal system.
It's the same as the Black community seeking redress through a Racist system.
Many have been seduced by lies told often. And since I AM the one who always argues for those who do see and know (against imbeciles like "Andrew boston" and before that, a long line of embeds insisting on that SAME thing--that the public is ignorant, are sheeple, have no interest in knowing, etc.), the real issue is how corruptions that go to the top of the legal, financial, media, military (and often church) food chain CAN be corrected.
Why don't you sit down and watch this entire documentary and THEN try to take the high crimes in High places and put the ONUS on decent citizens... for systemic corruption that allows NO pathway for redress:
The TRUTH is... we have been and ARE slaves. It's like the Matrix... some are waking up to the controls placed on them by the heartless, machine-driven world of clones. The awakening to Truth, however, is not the same thing as LIVING as a Free individual within a FREE society.
If you do, it will blow your mind. No one can view this material and walk away blaming "the American people." There are very real actors who are the authors of enormous evils. They operate like icebergs... with only a fraction of their dangerous activity visible from the surface. They are the living embodiment OF the dark side.
Thank you Nat Parry for this timely article and for the excellent commentary here on Commom Dreams. I totally agree with you Siouxrose in your assessment. The movie "Every Thing Is A Rich Man's Trick" is timely and a must see. I'm currently reading "Queen of Chaos" by Diana Johnstone a real insight to Hillary's obfuscation. Thanks to all, JK Galbraith's concept of Countervailing Power is finally kicking in.
I've been reading a variety of books--more than usual, and there is a common denominator to all of them: the importation of Nazis BY families with ties to oil and/or banking, and how bringing this "element" into the U.S. military (and Deep State govt.) has turned our nation into a veritable Fourth Reich.
Here are the titles that connect the dots just mentioned:
These connect through the covert money chain:
The Psychological component (which religion and fear factor into)
So much comes down to the same GROUP of empowered families ruling America like dynasties. And so much that they effect in the way of policy (foreign and domestic) is done in the shadows... behind closed doors or through what would be felonious deals had this nation a functioning Judicial System and its Chief Attorney General NOT in the pocket of the same interests.
and I ordered a copy of "The Deep State" by Michael Lofgren
This is a decent little video. You DO realize that you are choosing to believe its claims because it fits within your personal set of paradigms, right? Just as every other citizen chooses their own echo box. Yeah , plenty of people are ignorant, and plenty are perfectly aware of what is going on and have been for decades. This is not the first time I have seen this information.
First of all, a 3-hour video with LOTS of factual information is not just "decent" and using a term like "little" is meant to demean over 3 hours of potent commentary.
Second, because I am a Feminist and because I challenge the Dominant Patriarchal Paradigm, I have been given a taint by posters like you. So when you insist that this important video is "approved of by me" because it comports with my world view, it seems you are stating this with the hopes it will discourage others from watching it.
That's what YOU gatekeepers do.
You try to taint messengers who DARE to say what you (and those who pay you) don't want said.
I suppose the FACT that hundreds, if not thousands of scientists and engineers demand a new review of the 911 Official Story is just another idea that I advocate.
Only fools or those paid to appear foolish still believe that JFK was assassinated by a lone gunman, that the CIA was not in on it, that lots of NAZIS were not imported into the U.S. State Department (and the filthy fruits speak for themselves as shaped over time), or that 911 happened as officials claim it did.
I've watched how you junior spooks and opinion shapers operate here for YEARS. I know most of your antics, recognize the mind games you play, and the ways that you project your Control Agenda onto me and the few others who dare to stand up to the little group orthodoxies artificially created by those assigned to these threads daily.
And I will continue to BROADEN the understanding of Truth... even though people like you can't stand that.
Sr1, I watched it last night. The most eye opening, stunning account of this subject I have read - watched to date and I have read a lot and watched many documentaries on various "scandals" and atrocities involving people in positions of power in the US gov't (scandal is not an adequate word I know). Thanks for your insight, comments and references in your many posts.
Nice thread about our real world here. Thanks SiouxRose1, for the reading list and the video suggestion. That video now has two million views...link here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Qt6a-vaNM
Peacefully but there was a great deal of suffering in the Soviet union. The US lacks the infrastructure that the SU had. It will be much mute painful here... but I'm starting to think we earned it.
How could PBO not "shirk" his obligation to prosecute. He would have set a dangerous precedent of prosecuting past presidents and their admin right before he committed way crimes and performed extra judicial assassinations on Americans and a child no less!
We don't always see eye to eye. You think I'm a paid troll but I'm going to thank you anyway with hopes that others watch the film you recommended.
I've read the majority of the books in the reading list but the film....
Is hands down the best linear presentation of those facts that I've ever seen. I can't believe I've never come across that film. I'll be watching it at least one more time and recommending it countless times! While I'm aware of 80+% of the facts presented the movie connects them in a way that is incredibly clear!
Thank you. So far the most valuable comments I've come across on this website.
