Torture of detainees by the US?

[red_jon]

...

[Solly]

The position they are looks no more uncomfortable than the position in which they would pray.

[red_jon]

Anyone who condone this sort of treatment on another human being is sick in the head, IMO

[Solly]

Originally posted by red_jon
Anyone who condone this sort of treatment on another human being is sick in the head, IMO

I'd prefer to see this than have another 3000 Americans killed as a result of not garnering intelligence from these animals.

[Jaakko]

Well Pekka, they are calling it the "stress and duress" technique, so I can't think of anything else they would be doing. As for forcing them, I can't see how you can force someone "just a little". Either they make you do something or they don't.
IMO it's all just trying to put something distasteful into politically correct terms.

[red_jon]

Originally posted by Boddington's


I'd prefer to see this than have another 3000 Americans killed as a result of not garnering intelligence from these animals.

These are soldiers - how much intelligence are they going to have?

I hardly see how these people are animals. These people in particular didn't commit the atrocities of 9/11, many were already a member of the organisation.

I'm no big fan of theirs (obviously I detest their treatment of homosexuals) but if we lower to this level we become nothing but animals ourselves.

[Solly]

[Jaakko]

Red_Jon, you too should note that Gitmo (where they didn't keep the prisoners like that for long) isn't the issue here anymore, but the other bases where they can act without observers. Then there's also the matter of giving prisoners out to people who will torture them in the traditional "electric shock to the genitals" way.

But in any case, good job trying to educate Stewie, though the day I see him interested in honest debate is the day hell freezes over.

[red_jon]

Originally posted by Jaakko
Red_Jon, you too should note that Gitmo (where they didn't keep the prisoners like that for long) isn't the issue here anymore, but the other bases where they can act without observers. Then there's also the matter of giving prisoners out to people who will torture them in the traditional "electric shock to the genitals" way.

Well exactly. Of course virtually no attention will be paid to that.

But in any case, good job trying to educate Stewie, though the day I see him interested in honest debate is the day hell freezes over.

Oh, he's just a pathetic little troll. The sad thing is, he seems to honestly believe half the **** he comes out with.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Boddington's
I'd prefer to see this than have another 3000 Americans killed as a result of not garnering intelligence from these animals.

And you don't even notice that this is the same way like Taliban make their people think. Think of the enemy as being an animal/monster - everything but not human. Having got this small step you can do anything you want to them without feeling guilty. That's how people don't even bother to try to understand (intellectually) what had to happen that the other became a "terrorist" (US-version)or "imperialist aggressor" (commie-version) or "devils" (Fundi-version) etc.
Viewing the enemy as "animal" is the reason how and why torture and butchering can occur. So you can guess that I think that you have a high potential of commiting such acts.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Shall we argue about the skin tones of the aerage middle-eastern male? I think it's safe to say it isn't white.

Most Arabs are considered 'Caucasian' in skin tone. So yes, Arabs are white.

Anyone who condone this sort of treatment on another human being is sick in the head, IMO

It looks like an American prision. I see nothing wrong with making them sit facing the outside. Do you?

[Jaakko]

Imran, why don't you address my arguments as well...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Which arguments?

You just seem to be talking to red jon.

[Jac de Molay]

It looks like an American prision. I see nothing wrong with making them sit facing the outside. Do you?

A super-max prison, maybe? I don't see too many maximum prisons caging their prisoners like rabid animals, with hoods over their heads

Is this torture? No. More like abuse. Affording them a minimal amount of dignity and well-being is not giving comfort to them.

[Jaakko]

Imran - It just seems to me you're ignoring the serious accusations. You know, the stuff about "stress and duress" techniques, beatings, giving prisoners to be tortured elsewhere and so forth. All that stuff in my earlier posts.

Here are some relevant quotes from the articles that should make it clear that we're talking about something way beyond Gitmo.

Those who refuse to cooperate inside this secret CIA interrogation center are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, according to intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogation methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights -- subject to what are known as "stress and duress" techniques.

Some who do not cooperate are turned over -- "rendered," in official parlance -- to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human rights organizations.

According to one official who has been directly involved in rendering captives into foreign hands, the understanding is, "We don't kick the [expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them."

"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job," said one official who has supervised the capture and transfer of accused terrorists. "I don't think we want to be promoting a view of zero tolerance on this. That was the whole problem for a long time with the CIA."

Edit (one more):

According to Americans with direct knowledge and others who have witnessed the treatment, captives are often "softened up" by MPs and U.S. Army Special Forces troops who beat them up and confine them in tiny rooms. The alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep. The tone of intimidation and fear is the beginning, they said, of a process of piercing a prisoner's resistance.