Torture – Official US policy 3-31-2005

31, March 2005                                 Torture – Official US policy

It is gratifying that more and more Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the failed policies of the Bush Administration. Bush's approval rating has plummeted following the social security 'dog and pony' show which exposed the ill-conceived scheme of 'private accounts'. It is also gratifying to witness the courts stiffening their collective spines and resisting unwelcome interference from the White House and Congress in their unanimous decision to allow Terri Schiabo's feeding tube to be disconnected. Mercifully, the judicial branch of government seems to be functioning, while the executive and legislative branches of government have morphed into a plutocracy, beholden to the special interests of their benefactors who dispatch their powerful lobbyists who stalk the corridors of power and demand their 'quoits' after donating their 'quids'.

The Pentagon, the Justice Department and the White House are desperately trying to distance themselves from the growing scandal of prisoner abuse. Detainees have been killed, tortured, sexually humiliated in a systematic pattern of abuse. Courageous judges have admonished the Administration and the Department of Justice and ruled that such detainees must be afforded due process. Attempts to evade the watchful eyes of the courts, have resulted in the system of rendition whereby targeted individuals are kidnaped 'mafia' style and sent to countries such as Egypt and Syria to be interrogated and often tortured.

The smoking gun, linking prisoner abuse to the policy makers in the White House and the Pentagon, has now been exposed by the ACLU who obtained a copy of September 2003 memo by Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez who approved the use of guard dogs to scare detainees in an effort to exploit what Sanchez described as the "Arab fear of dogs." Sanchez also permitted interrogators to put prisoners in potentially painful bodily positions to try to force them to talk. Sanchez was the top commander in Iraq at the time U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib.

This should dispel any lingering doubts that torture is official US policy.

I urge Indo-Americans to contact their elected representatives and demand an immediate halt to the abuse of detainees and the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate these gross violations of international law and the Geneva Convention.