A Question Of Torture - March 2006
By Gordonskene Wednesday Aug 26, 2009 5:00pm
(Alfred W. McCoy, author of A Question of Torture, interviewed on Late Night Live - ABC Radio National, Australia. March 15, 2006)
Note: This is a re-post from May - considering the current events in the torture issue, it seems apropos to take another look at it now.
I'm always amazed at how, in order to get any information about my own country, I have to listen to the radio or watch the news from another country in order to find out what's going on.
If you aren't familiar with it, ABC Radio National is Australias public Radio network - it's the equivalent to the BBC in the UK and CBC in Canada. Like the other two, ABC National offers a massive amount of information and news that just doesn't make the mainstream media here.
Case in point - I ran across this episode of Late Night Live, while downloading a group of podcasts from 2006. It features torture/interrogation expert Alfred W. McCoy. He explains at length our history in the field of torture, the techniques used and the reasons why most of them don't and haven't worked.
It was conducted in March of 2006, shortly after the revelations of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. There are some fascinating insights to be found, especially in light of recent developments and soft peddling to the contrary.
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The Secret Government here
An email from Dick Cheney perhaps?
No…
from the Doolittle Report commissioned by Eisenhower in 1954.
These guys have been at it for a long time.
And who that person was the protege of, and whose son that person was and whose son's son etc. Its a family business of crime and nastiness stretching from 1924 to 2008.
The war-time OSS (WW-II) was due to be disbanded. The National Security Act of 1947 established the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The leadership of the OSS shifted to these new agencies, dragging their dirty tricks and un-Constitutional behaviour over with them -- all in the name of "protecting the USA" from international communism. Truman was duped. By the time President Eisenhower tried to warn the American people about the Military-Industrial-Complex in the winter of 1960, it was already too late.
The rest, as they say, is history. The consolidation of power into the hands of the Corporate Oligarchs could not have happened without the explicit support of the USA's national intelligence community. Today we have democracy by, for, and of the corporation (aka National Socialism) -- democracy by we the people? Not so much.
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Explains a few murky legal and ethical point quite succinctly. Basically we are screwed, the CIA and any associated perps will not give up their new toys.
in a democracy as ours and where free speech
is a prized right, our govt is one of the most
secretive and deceptive in the world.
if you want information about this country,
you have to listen to the news broadcasts
on radio and tv of other countries across
both oceans and in different hemispheres.
disgraceful and deplorable.
That tie is torturing me!
He IS an expert.
Love Newstalgia, Gordon. You really class the joint up!
Well, there is that Finnigan Barre of Excellence we gotta come up to ya know!
I wouldn't be classy if you didn't start it first!
I know I've posted this here before, but it bears repeating:
Lara Logan of CBS-TV told Jon Stewart on his program that, if she had to watch American television to get her news, she'd slit her wrists.
Relevant, I think, in light of the comments above.
Just keep an eye on the Worldwide Press Freedom Index:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_withou...
Currently 36th: tied with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, South Africa, Spain, and Taiwan. An improvement this year but a way to go to challenge Ghana, Mali and Namibia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skU-jBFzXl0
Conan in 30 years.
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