Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side is a good documentary which details the American policy on torture, specifically focusing on Afghanistan and Iraq. The US shows utter contempt for the Geneva Convention. The technique administration officials use to evade prosecution after they leave office is to "redefine" torture. Redefining a term is just a weasel way of escaping all responsibility for their heinous crimes.

The other laughable claim made by the administration is that the torture/sadism is limited to certain "rogue officers" and that there is no high-level policy condoning torture. Right ...

I forget if the "ticking time-bomb" justification is mentioned in the documentary. This justification is that "a terrorist knows the whereabouts of a bomb that's going to go off in an hour or so and thousands of people may die, so it's OK to torture". The problem with this justification is that such a scenario has NEVER occurred ever except on stupid TV shows and Hollywood. Additionally, once torture is condoned for this dubious reason, it's only a matter of time before it becomes a routine tactic under a variety of other circumstances. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that torture will produce information of any value.

Also shocking is how the social sciences are used (abused) to futher military and political ends. Completely despicable and total lack of respect for humanity.

In more recent developments:

Here is some of the wording from the Executive Order signed by Barack Obama on Jan 22, 2009 for ensuring lawful interrogations:

“…an individual in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government, or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States, in any armed conflict…”

This article by Allan Nairn points out two MAJOR problems with this wording:

• Majority of the torture is done indirectly through US proxies, hence not covered under this executive order
• A lot of torture also happens when there is no armed conflict therefore also not covered under this order

The article also discusses other disturbing facts.