Torture Without Regrets –

“Damn Right”
Bush Boasts About Waterboarding

“Former President George W. Bush continues to be beyond shame. Those favored with an advance copy of his memoir, Decision Points, say it paints a picture of a totally unapologetic Bush bragging, for example, about authorizing the CIA to waterboard 9/11 (alledged)  ‘mastermind,’ Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. For such a frank admission of high-level criminality, we can say, with ample justification, Shame on Bush. But that shame also sticks like Saran wrap to the rest of us – and especially to the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM), which has soft-pedalled the significance of Bush’s confession, and to his make-nice successor, Barack Obama, who has refused to demand any accountability. However, if we are still a democracy, we are all complicit. Last but hardly least, shame on Bush’s timid successor. Every time I hear that Obama is a former professor of Constitutional law I find myself muttering, ‘And that would be the constitution of which country?’ The President’s soaring rhetoric falls flat fast the moment you stop to ponder how he has betrayed his oath to see to it that the laws are faithfully executed — in this case, by holding self-confessed torturers accountable. Bush has brought the issue of torture to a head. Shame on us all, if we allow the recent history of waterboarding and other torture techniques to go unchallenged and to end up defining us.”

Ray McGovern | “Damn Right”: Bush Boasts about Waterboarding
See full article: http://act.commondreams.org/go/3042?akid=261.56000.4-rrck&t=18
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President’s Daily Brief and chaired National Intelligence Estimates.

Wikipedia (an online encyclopedia) defines waterboarding as:
“a form of torture that consists of immobilizing the subject on his/her back with the head inclined downwards; water is then poured over the face into breathing passages, thus triggering (a sensation) of drowning. In contrast to submerging the head face-forward in water, waterboarding precipitates an almost immediate gag reflex (causing) extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to (the) lungs (and) brain….from oxygen deprivation (as well as) other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage or, if uninterrupted, death.”

Related Links:  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26804.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26807.htm

Bush authorized and expanded extra-judicial imprisonment and torture.  Obama has not only failed to follow through on his promise to close Guananamo Bay prison, but also has authorized extra-judicial killings.

Shame on Bush!  Shame on Obama!

Shame on us all!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net   http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Nov. 19, 2010 – 479th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

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