by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
The Bush administration came up with the appalling and sadistic practice of taking suspected terrorists to third-party countries where they could be severely tortured in order to gain intelligence. It turned out to be not only barbaric, but totally useless as well. People who are being tortured will say anything in order to get the torture to stop, and much of the intelligence being gathered from the practice of extraordinary rendition was totally false and of no use to anyone. The prisoners simply said what their torturers and the CIA wanted them to say - anything to get the pain to stop.
Our Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual" punishment, but the Bush-Cheney cabal just moved people to other countries to avoid that little inconvenience.
But if there ever was a case for extraordinary rendition, it would certainly be that of "Reverend" Terry Jones of Florida. Jones, a fundamentalist zealot, threatened to burn a copy of the Muslim Holy Book, the Koran, last September, but he withdrew that threat after a personal appeal from President Obama who wisely noted that such a provocation would place Americans abroad, such as members of the military, in harm's way.
A couple of weeks ago Terry Jones rethought his threatened publicity stunt and put the Koran on trial in his church. A "jury" of twelve ignorant crackers found the Koran guilty (of what, I do not know) and sentenced it to a good Christian burning. The result: a group of angry Afghan Muslims, unable to find any Americans to kill, settled on attacking a United Nations compound in Afghanistan and killing at least twelve people - including seven United Nations workers and four Nepalese guards.
Terry Jones fashions himself as a man of peace. In his case, and his case alone, I think extraordinary rendition would be totally appropriate. Our government should grab this "man of God" and fly him to Afghanistan where he could stand on a street corner and tell the Afghanis why his Holy Book is better than theirs. If Mr. Jones' God is the one true God, he should be able to proselytize in relative safety. If not, oh well.
(As an afterthought, maybe Fred Phelps should be invited to go along and give Jones moral support!)
Citizen Journalist
The Bush administration came up with the appalling and sadistic practice of taking suspected terrorists to third-party countries where they could be severely tortured in order to gain intelligence. It turned out to be not only barbaric, but totally useless as well. People who are being tortured will say anything in order to get the torture to stop, and much of the intelligence being gathered from the practice of extraordinary rendition was totally false and of no use to anyone. The prisoners simply said what their torturers and the CIA wanted them to say - anything to get the pain to stop.
Our Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual" punishment, but the Bush-Cheney cabal just moved people to other countries to avoid that little inconvenience.
But if there ever was a case for extraordinary rendition, it would certainly be that of "Reverend" Terry Jones of Florida. Jones, a fundamentalist zealot, threatened to burn a copy of the Muslim Holy Book, the Koran, last September, but he withdrew that threat after a personal appeal from President Obama who wisely noted that such a provocation would place Americans abroad, such as members of the military, in harm's way.
A couple of weeks ago Terry Jones rethought his threatened publicity stunt and put the Koran on trial in his church. A "jury" of twelve ignorant crackers found the Koran guilty (of what, I do not know) and sentenced it to a good Christian burning. The result: a group of angry Afghan Muslims, unable to find any Americans to kill, settled on attacking a United Nations compound in Afghanistan and killing at least twelve people - including seven United Nations workers and four Nepalese guards.
Terry Jones fashions himself as a man of peace. In his case, and his case alone, I think extraordinary rendition would be totally appropriate. Our government should grab this "man of God" and fly him to Afghanistan where he could stand on a street corner and tell the Afghanis why his Holy Book is better than theirs. If Mr. Jones' God is the one true God, he should be able to proselytize in relative safety. If not, oh well.
(As an afterthought, maybe Fred Phelps should be invited to go along and give Jones moral support!)
"There are few things in this world more evil than a 'good' Christian!" Pa Rock
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