We don't torture

We don't torture. That is what Condi and others have been telling us for some time. Nor do we have secret CIA prisons in other countries. Nor do we engage in "renditions." How is it, then, that Bush has now admitted that we have held at least 14 prisoners in secret CIA prisons and, by using "tough methods" have managed to get information from them we would not otherwise have been able to accumulate? This is an incredible admission of guilt. No one seems to care much, as usual. It seems that the Bush/Cheney/Gonzales definition of torture claims that if a prisoner doesn't actually die it can't really be torture (of course some have apparently died but I guess they don't count). So now we know (of course we really knew before) that the Bush/Cheney bunch of war criminals have been lying all along. But that's okay because now we have them at Guantanamo where they can be tried publicly (thus proving how Bush/Cheney have protected us from terrorists all along). Of course Bush still wants them tried in completely illegal courts where they will not hear the evidence against them, hearsay evidence can be used, as well as evidence acquired by torture (sorry, I mean tough methods).

Along with this "positive" development, the army has now come out with a new manual which specifies that certain methods cannot be used (those that have up to now been used). Of course the new rules don't apply to the CIA or non-military entities. Besides, Bush/Cheney want Congress to rescind (or revise, or whatever) the laws that were previously passed to prevent such war crimes, thus exonerating everyone who might have been involved in torture and war crimes up until now (including themselves). I guess they really think their Republican controlled House and Senate will go along with this (which, if recent trends continue, they might). This is so utterly illegal and disgusting it goes far beyond anything even Orwell might have imagined.

They claim that now there are no more prisoners being held in these secret CIA prisons, but the prisons will not be closed (because, of course, they might be needed again). You can never tell when they might actually capture Osama bin Laden. They claim to know where he is (more or less) but can't go there because Pakistan won't let them (Pakistan won't let them, ha, ha, ha). "Although I am about as far from being a conspiracy buff as possible, I don't believe they ever wanted to capture bin Laden. He was a CIA asset in the past and, for all I know, may still be. He has certainly been repeatedly useful to Bush. I wouldn't be surprised to learn he is living happily in Paris or Rome or Athens or Istanbul, getting his share of the poppy harvest and emerging upon request to do his bit for the Republican fascist conspiracy (sorry, this is so unlike me I can't believe I actually might imagine it).

We are going to know before too long now whether the U.S. still has remnants of democracy or whether the fascists have already won. Given the mood of the country, given the negative polls on Bush/Cheney, given the disastrous Iraq "war," given the obscene national debt, given the sorry state of our position in the world, given the problems of our middle class, including the lack of medical insurance, low wages, etc., etc., etc. if Democrats do not get control of the House and/or Senate, you will know that all is lost. Enough is enough (actually, in this case enough is far more than enough). Vote Democratic (except for the Republican-lite Democrats) that want to continue the charade.