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Mukasey Confirmation - Torture: A US Standard

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Workers World - Nov 15, 2007 issue - Published Nov 8, 2007 10:35 PM
http://www.workers.org/2007/editorials/torture-1115


EDITORIAL

Torture - a U.S. standard

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were joined by Democrats
Charles E. Schumer and Dianne Feinstein on Nov. 6 in approving
President Bushs nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the new attorney
general. It is expected that Mukaseys confirmation is now assured when
the vote moves to the full Senate.

Mukasey had refused to say in the hearings whether waterboarding is
torture and illegal. According to the Washington Post: Waterboarding
generally involves strapping a prisoner to a board, covering his face
or mouth with a cloth, and pouring water over [the prisoners] face to
create the sensation of drowning. ... The practice dates at least to
the Spanish Inquisition and has been prosecuted as torture in U.S.
military courts since the Spanish-American war. The State Department
has condemned its use in other countries. (Oct. 31)

Now liberals have joined conservatives in implying that torture is OK
if its being used by the United States"which it is, according to many
published accounts.

The New York Times says that other Democrats portrayed their
opposition as a defining moment for Congress in standing up to the Bush
administration in upholding basic human rights and constitutional
values in battling terrorism. (Nov. 7) How convenient during an
election season, when they have yet to take a real stand against the
wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. The real defining moment, however, came
with the votes of Schumer and Feinstein, which represent a further
capitulation by leading Democrats on an issue that is clear to the
world"that despite all its human rights rhetoric, the U.S. government
uses torture against Third World people.

In a statement, Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Judiciary panels
chair, remarked that waterboarding is below the standards and values
of the United States. That avoids being truthful about the history of
this imperialist country. Torture has long been a practice here,
especially against oppressed people.

Lets not forget Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was tortured and
raped by officers of the New York Police Department.

When the Abu Ghraib torture was exposed, political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal"locked up on death row at the SCI-Greene correctional
facility"wrote, I [wasnt] even remotely surprised when a former
guard from SCI-Greene just happened to be at the forefront of the vile
and violent assaults at Abu Ghraib. He just took what he learned here,
over there. (Workers World, Sept. 23, 2004)

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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