NEWS: Amnesty Releases "Made In America" Torture Report

POLITICS: Amnesty Releases "Made In America" Torture Report

With one week to go until the Presidential election, Amnesty International has released a 202-page report on policies involving the use and endorsement of torture by the current American administration. The release of the report, titled Human Dignity Denied: Torture and accountability in the “war on terror”, coincides with a press statement made by the organization encouraging both candidates to publicly commit to the wholesale end of the use of torture techniques. That is something that neither candidate has done.

The report is composed of two sections, the first of which aims to track the development of the administration's response to terrorist threats. In this, Amnesty asserts that the United States has "fallen into an historically familiar pattern of abuse to respond to the 'new paradigm' it says has been set by the atrocities of 11 September 2001." The report then continues part one with a study of the development of a particular precondition for the use of torture: specifically, the development of "the other." This is done by an examination of the dehumanization of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. A third section, on the legal ramifications of torture technique application and the rationale for human rights as a road to security, concludes the first half of the report.

Part two, however, is much more direct in its condemnation of American actions, and singles out Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for particular notice. Much of this criticism is based on the first premiss of the report's 12-Point Program for the Prevention of Torture by Agents of the State: the necessity of an unequivocal condemnation of torture techniques.

Among the items specifically refuted in the report are the notions that only "a few bad apples" were involved, that allegations of torture have been adequately investigated, and that American military and political policy is set to oppose the use of torture techniques in the war on terror. Kate Allen, the Director of Amnesty International UK, articulated the gist of these points in her press release.

Every time someone refers to "the other" in relation to "the self", baby jesus cries

uhh, i think it's unique in that particular use.

i know, i meant that context, as distinct from "the other football team" or "the others" crappy film..
but this is distracting from the serious topic.. sorry

Yeah, it's a cheese-stick way of putting it, but it's a short way of saying that the harder it is for you to identify with someone, the easier it is to torture them. The more inhuman you can make them seem, the more you're willing to treat them inhuman(e)ly.

There's an interesting documentary on Rumsfeld that was on Frontline that touches on this.

Watch it here.

Sorry, not available online until tomorrow.

[Edited on Oct 28, 2004 by rickets]

hmm, i'll need to check that out

This coincides nicely with the recent "Frontline" on Donald Rumsfield which also showed that Rummy feels that the Geneva Covention & the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are rather, uuuh, "flexible", documents.

What a dink.

Edited to say oops- didn't notice that Rickets beat me to the punch while I made my tea.

[Edited on Oct 28, 2004 10:48AM]

[Edited on Oct 28, 2004 10:50AM]

Thank god I live in a country where I am free to argue about grammar.

an ideal companion piece. comes highly recommended by every single review i've read on it. and by me too.

Wait, these guys aren't humanitarians?