<div><strong>Paul Rumelhart</strong> <a title="[Vision2020] Frank RIch on W" href="mailto:vision2020%40moscow.com?Subject=%5BVision2020%5D%20Frank%20RIch%20on%20W&In-Reply-To=69D4F3F5A9774B3EB325297B8FF34F53%40gmc">godshatter at yahoo.com </a>wrote:</div>
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<div>It was well written, but it skimmed over some of the more egregious <br>effects of his presidency. No mention of ..., waterboarding, ...</div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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.</d!
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<div>Democracy Now's Amy Goodman interviews Naomi Klein about her book "The Shock Doctrine:"</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/17/the_shock_doctrine_naomi_klein_on">http://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/17/the_shock_doctrine_naomi_klein_on</a></div>
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<blockquote>
<p><strong>NEWSREEL:</strong> 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.</p>
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<p><strong>NAOMI KLEIN:</strong> 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.</p>
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<p><strong>TEXT:</strong> The following narration is excerpted from the CIA's 1963 and 1983 interrogation manuals.</p></blockquote>
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<p><strong>NARRATION:</strong> 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.</p>
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<p><strong>NAOMI KLEIN:</strong> 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.</p>
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<div>URL to info on Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine:"</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book">http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book</a></div>
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<div>URLs to info on the CIA's MK Ultra program:</div>
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<div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA</a></div>
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<div><font size="5">Declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents</font></div>
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<div><a href="http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm">http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm</a></div>
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<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 1/4/09, <b class="gmail_sendername">Paul Rumelhart</b> <<a href="mailto:godshatter@yahoo.com">godshatter@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">It was well written, but it skimmed over some of the more egregious<br>effects of his presidency. No mention of the "Patriot" act, illegal NSA<br>
wiretaps, Gitmo, waterboarding, extraordinary rendition, extreme<br>expansion of executive power, or signing statements.<br><br>Can't film critics form opinions like everybody else?<br><br>Paul<br><br>><br>><br>
> ----- Original Message -----<br>><br>> *From:* keely emerinemix <mailto:<a href="mailto:kjajmix1@msn.com">kjajmix1@msn.com</a>><br>> *To:* <a href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</a>><br>
> *Sent:* Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:28 AM<br>> *Subject:* [Vision2020] Frank RIch on W<br>><br>><br>><br>> Brilliant analysis, heartbreaking reality --<br>><br>> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/opinion/04rich.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/opinion/04rich.html</a><br>
><br>> Keely<br>> <a href="http://keely-prevailingwinds.blogspot.com/">http://keely-prevailingwinds.blogspot.com/</a><br>><br>><br>><br>> </blockquote></div>