Torture Roundup
By Bad things are happening in Congress. For more read Belle Waring, Ted Barlow, and Katharine at Obsidian Wings, Kevin at Lean left, Jeanne at Body and Soul.
If you don’t know what “extraordinary rendition” means, then you’re just like me about a half hour ago. Katharine explains:
“Extraordinary rendition” is the euphemism we use for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post, “We don’t kick the sh*t out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the sh*t out of them.”
If you can’t see how problematic this is from a moral standpoint, then there’s probably not much point in try to talk to you about this (and, no doubt, many other issues). From a legal standpoint, this clearly and directly violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the US has signed and ratified (in fact, Hastert’s amendment explicitly notes this and declares the treaty unapplicable on this point).
The story so far: Dennis “I actually wrote a whole book about how clever it would be to have a 38% federal sales tax” Hastert has managed to add provisions to the “9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004” that would legitimate and routinize this practice. Edward Markey has proposed an amendment that would end the ambiguity that may exist in domestic law regarding this practice and explicitly make it illegal.
This atrocious nonsense probably won’t end up passing, but I’m slowly learning to not underestimate the depths to which the radical Republican tribe currently in power will sink to. I fear that if that if they stay in power for the next four years, I’ll still be playing catch-up.