Beagle wrote: “In fact, I was unaware of any serious allegations of systematic political torture in Syria, until now.”
“Despite the existence of constitutional provisions and several Penal Code penalties for abusers, there was credible evidence that security forces continued to use torture, although to a lesser extent than in previous years.”
Uh, probably because we don’t do business that way? It’s called “guilt by association”, and it’s against American tradition.
Let me propose this hypothetical: You have a friend of Arab descent. That friend may or may not have ties to al-Qaeda. The FBI, acting on anonymous information, arrests your friend. Your phone number is in your friend’s PDA. The FBI takes it upon itself to hassle you. You’re not guilty of associating with al-Qaeda, your friend might not even be guilty. However, the FBI has information that there may be a hint of membership in al-Qaeda.
Do you see what you’re implying? The merest hint of association isn’t enough. I don’t care how many ships, buildings, planes, or embassies get blown up.
I liked America better when we had a good excuse for our atrocities, like a totaltarian empire bent on destroying all other forms of government.
We are sending allied citizens off to “torture rooms” (ya know, like “rape rooms”), imprisoning hundreds of people without any pretense of a legal basis (even fucking STALIN would give the Gitmo Guys sham trials), and letting GW use the sacred Constitution of our great land as a goatsex cumrag by locking up Americans like Jose Padilla FOREVER without trial, without even habeus fucking corpus- (deep breath)
BECAUSE OF A COUPLA HUNDRED GUYS HIDING IN FUCKING CAVES!!! “Oh, they might hurt us!! My 401(k) went down! let’s ditch the Constitution!” YOu right-wing COWARDS piss me off.
So, how is GW bush different from Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip?
Hey Beagle- you fancy yourself an American, and you’re not stupid. Why are you playing the cheerleader for this fascist freakshow?
What a buch of fucking nancy-lads. We deserve Imperial American government.
PS Bongmaster: The full quote is “Those who would sacrifice vital liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.” -Ben Franklin, who would not have tolerated this crap for an instant.
Oh, and any dipshits out there who still believe in the “liberal media” should ask themselves why this story was a staple of CBC programs like As It Happens, yet nary a peep was heard in the USA.
HOO DOG! AM I PISSED OFF!
…
There actually were 2 stories about this poor guy- after he was released. I partly retract my last statement.
I wish to emphasize: people who would throw the principles of democratic gov. out the window so terrorists won’t hurt little Sue and Bobby are fucking vile, loathsome cowards. They’ll get the government they deserve, but it’s too bad they’re taking us down with 'em.
I’m going to go medicate myself now. 'Night y’all.
No, I was asking questions, unlike some people who knee-jerk into “fascist Amerikkka.” On this one I was wrong. The CIA has a great tradition of ignoring the rule of law and the rules of war, two things I take pretty seriously.
My dad turned down a job as a spook. It runs in the family.
If anyone had a knee-jerk response in this discussion, it was you. Upon seeing criticism of a U.S. action, you immediately launched into diatribes about how no one was blaming Syria and how could the U.S. be expected to know anything about other countries anyway? Both of which are completely irrelevant to the subject at hand, which is whether the U.S. government should be able to punish people without evidence.
Knee-jerk nationalism is no better than knee-jerk anti-Americanism.