The Dartmouth Observer |
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Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Sticky Fingers: Worldwide CIA Torture Network Exposed News sources confirm that the Administration's policy of detainment stretches far beyond Guantanamo, senior members of al-Qaeda are being detained by the CIA in "black site prisons." SENIOR al-Qaeda members are being held in top-secret CIA- operated "black site" prisons across the world, it has emerged. According to anonymous CIA sources quoted by the Washington Post, the agency has been transporting the captives to secret facilities in a number of countries for interrogation. Abu Ghraib was not the work of a few bad apples. The torture of suspects has been a systematic administration policy from the beginning of the (global) war on terror. This is larger than the psychology of a few people frustrated by circumstances of the war. And, as the New York Times article I linked to earlier shows, most of the mid-level brass is probably using "nonlethal" methods to get their way. Every patriot worth their salt should be calling for the impeachment of the Vice-President, whose office has been fully behind this from day one, and for the resignation of a lot of military leaders. This is unacceptable behavior for a country who wants to export democracy; democratic self-rule has never been built on the scarred-backs of torture victims. Scott McClellan, white house spokesperson, defended the Administration by saying: "What I can say ... is the president has charged the administration to be doing what we can to protect America against another domestic attack and to protect our allies and those who are working with America but to do so in a way that is consistent with our legal obligations both domestically and internationally." My next posts will attempt to illuminate the following aspects of the Bush Administration's policies: (1)Why the reasons we are fighting the war on terror allow us to torture people (2) My take on the Article 3 of the Geneva convention and whether it applies |