<div>Nick et. al.</div>
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<div>Thanks for your reply.</div>
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<div>Yes, I understood what you meant.</div>
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<div>I found it amazing that McCain would make the claim that due to the recent legislation, torture of detainees would not happen again. McCain was a military man who was tortured in Vietnam, I am sure you know, and he should know as well as anyone that even if the US Congress passed very strict legislation against torture for detainees in US custody, it would likely happen again by some means, even if illegal. And beyond that, the legislation has loopholes, such as denying habeas corpus, that renders torture less likely to be uncovered than a more strict version of the legislation. As I stated in the post you reference, prosecution of higher level command in the military or CIA for war crimes involving torture would have a serious chilling effect on torture of detainees in US custody. McCain should know this also. But this is almost certainly not going to happen.
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<div>To even suggest that upper level command in the US military or CIA should face prosecution for war crimes involving torture is to risk an ugly personal attack, perhaps even jeopardizing personal safety.</div>
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<div>McCain seems to be an independent minded Republican who often surprises in taking a stand on issues opposing the Bush administration. But then he appears to get back on the Bush bandwagon to give the Bush administration support, like his endorsement of the "compromise" legislation on detainee treatment, legislation that is seriously flawed. This is perhaps a clever strategy to present himself as an independent minded politician, while not taking his independence too far from the agenda of republican group think. McCain is a US Senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater's state, so McCain perhaps in some ways expresses the approach of the old more varied and independent minded Republican party that Goldwater represented.
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<div>To totally change the subject, I was surprised and pleased to hear and see McCain in an interview announce that "we will pay a terrible price for global warming." Conservatives like McCain are the sort of spokespeople we need to make this sort of warning, because he can reach the "liberal" and/or "environmentalist" hating audience skeptical of the dire predictions regarding global warming.
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<div>Maybe the proof of the torture of detainees rendered by the CIA to Uzbekistan is not as solid as a Defense Dept. autopsy report, but the extreme nature of the torture existing in what is recognized as a brutal human rights denying regime, a regime to which the US is giving aid, is appalling. Some of this torture is against Uzbekistan residents, not rendered US detainees. I first heard of the "boiling alive" account of Uzbekistan torture, that comes from a source with some credibility (former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan), on KGO AM 810 from San Francisco on the Bernie Ward show (10 PM-1 AM M-F) last year.
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<div>Bernie does one of the best politically oriented shows on the airwaves.</div>
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<div>Also, the account of the mother from Uzbekistan who protested the horrible torture of her son and ended up imprisoned for her efforts is heart breaking. Read the account if you have not here:</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0516,hentoff,63104,6.html"><font color="#800080">http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0516,hentoff,63104,6.html</font></a><br> </div>
<div>Like in the cold war with the Soviet Union, the US now in the "war on terror" is willing to ally itself with and give aid to brutal regimes to carry out its agenda, while we tell the world we overthrew a brutal dictator in Saddam to spread democracy...I'm reminded of the picture of Rumsfeld from the 1980s shaking hands with Saddam when giving aid to Saddam was used in part to carry out US foreign policy against Iran.
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<div>Making deals with the devil is business as usual in the snake pit world of international politics and policy.</div>
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<div>Ted Moffett<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/1/06, <b class="gmail_sendername"><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:nickgier@adelphia.net" target="_blank">nickgier@adelphia.net</a></b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:nickgier@adelphia.net" target="_blank">
nickgier@adelphia.net</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Hi Ted,<br><br>Thanks for pointing out that my reference to McCain was ambiguous. I was using his statement to show that it directly implies that we have indeed tortured detainees contrary to what Bush has said.
<br><br>I'm revising my piece eliminating any reference to McCain. Of course I agree with you that the Republican critics caved into Bush and there will be no guarantee that "alternative interrogation techniques" will not be used. The Great Decider will decide to waterboard if he wants to.
<br><br>Thanks to your research, Ted, I have many more verified examples of torture to add to my original essay "Beheading, Hooding, and Waterboarding: CIA Torture in Vietnam, Latin America, and Iraq." There is no better proof than a Department of Defense autopsy report.
<br><br>Nick Gier<br><br>=======================================================<br>List services made available by First Step Internet,<br>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.fsr.net/" target="_blank">
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