[Vision2020] Frank RIch on W

[Ted Moffett]

*Paul Rumelhart* godshatter at yahoo.com
<vision2020%40moscow.com?Subject=%5BVision2020%5D%20Frank%20RIch%20on%20W&In-Reply-To=69D4F3F5A9774B3EB325297B8FF34F53%40gmc>
wrote:

It was well written, but it skimmed over some of the more egregious
effects of his presidency.  No mention of ..., waterboarding, ...

-----------------
Water boarding is among the less horrific forms of torture that have been
committed by agents of the US or by those to whom the US has "outsourced"
torture and interrogation during the Bush administration, though if carried
too far can result in death.   However, torture has been committed in the
past by agents of the US long before the Bush administration, though the
Bush administration was astonishingly arrogant, though some might argue
honest, in attempting to legalize torture to explicitly undermine the Geneva
Convention.  To some degree the focus on water boarding is a diversion from
more egregious torture methods employed.

Techniques of torture that were developed under the MK Ultra CIA operation
in the 1950s and 60s can destroy a human being without utilizing crude forms
of "physical" torture.  Sensory deprivation, chemical brainwashing, and
electroshock induced seizures can regress a person to a infantile state.
Naomi Klein's courageous (Klein unflinchingly faces very disturbing and
often ignored or dismissed conduct of the US government) well documented
book, "The Shock Doctrine," offers evidence that MK Ultra methods were
employed at the US Guantanamo prison during the Bush administration.  The
title both refers to economic, military and political "shock" being
exploited to promote the agenda of "disaster capitalism" (recall the "shock
and awe" bombing campaign in the first days of the invasion of Iraq), and
even literal electrical shock employed as a method of mind control/torture
against human beings.

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman interviews Naomi Klein about her book "The Shock
Doctrine:"

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/17/the_shock_doctrine_naomi_klein_on


*NEWSREEL:* The 1940s have been a decade of breakthroughs and developments
in medicine and psychiatry. Scientists have developed a new technology to
cure mentally ill adults. With the use of electroshocks, the minds of sick
patients are being wiped clean, giving them a fresh start. On this blank
slate, physicians then imprint a new healthy personality.

 *NAOMI KLEIN:* Remaking people, shocking them into obedience. This is a
story about that powerful idea. In the 1950s, it caught the attention of the
CIA. The agency funded a series of experiments. Out of them was produced a
secret handbook on how to break down prisoners. The key was using shock to
reduce adults to a childlike state.

 *TEXT:* The following narration is excerpted from the CIA's 1963 and 1983
interrogation manuals.

 *NARRATION:* It's a fundamental hypothesis of this handbook that these are
techniques are, in essence, methods of inducing regression of the
personality. There is an interval, which may be extremely brief, of
suspended animation, a kind of psychological shock or paralysis. Experienced
interrogators recognize this effect when it appears and know that at this
moment the source is far more open to suggestion, far likelier to comply,
than he was just before he experienced the shock.

 *NAOMI KLEIN:* But these techniques don't only work on individuals; they
can work on whole societies: a collective trauma, a war, a coup, a natural
disaster, a terrorist attack puts us all into a state of shock. And in the
aftermath, like the prisoner in the interrogation chamber, we, too, become
childlike, more inclined to follow leaders who claim to protect us.

------------------------------

URL to info on Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine:"

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book
--------------

URLs to info on the CIA's MK Ultra program:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA
--------------


Declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents


http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm

------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett


On 1/4/09, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> It was well written, but it skimmed over some of the more egregious
> effects of his presidency.  No mention of the "Patriot" act, illegal NSA
> wiretaps, Gitmo, waterboarding, extraordinary rendition, extreme
> expansion of executive power, or signing statements.
>
> Can't film critics form opinions like everybody else?
>
> Paul
>
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> >     *From:* keely emerinemix <mailto:kjajmix1 at msn.com>
> >     *To:* vision2020 at moscow.com <mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com>
> >     *Sent:* Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:28 AM
> >     *Subject:* [Vision2020] Frank RIch on W
> >
> >
> >
> >     Brilliant analysis, heartbreaking reality --
> >
> >     http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/opinion/04rich.html
> >
> >     Keely
> >     http://keely-prevailingwinds.blogspot.com/
> >
> >
> >
> >
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