"The first confession released by the Bush regime’s Military Tribunals – that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – has discredited the entire process. Writing in Jurist, Northwestern University law professor Anthony D’Amato likens Mohammed’s confession to those that emerged in Stalin’s show trials of Bolshevik leaders in the 1930s.
That was my own immediate thought. I remember speaking years ago with Soviet dissident Valdimir Bukovsky about the behavior of Soviet dissidents under torture. He replied that people pressed for names under torture would try to remember the names of war dead and people who had passed away. Those who retained enough of their wits under torture would confess to an unbelievable array of crimes in an effort to alert the public to the falsity of the entire process.
That is what Mohammed did. We know he was tortured, because his response to the obligatory question about his treatment during his years of detention is redacted. We also know that he was tortured, because otherwise there is no point for the US Justice (sic) Dept. memos giving the green light to torture or for the Military Commissions Act, which permits torture and death sentence based on confession extracted by torture.
...Humorists are having a field day with the confession: "’I’m a very dangerous mastermind,’ said Mohammed, who confessed to the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, the Brink’s robbery, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the Lincoln and McKinley assassinations. Mohammed also accepted responsibility for spreading hay fever and cold sores around the world and for rained out picnics."
If there was anything remaining of the Bush regime not already discredited, Mohammed’s confession removed any reputation left."
It should remind everybody of the old joke - Jokes: A Modern Fairy Tale:
"The LAPD, ATF, and FBI are all trying to prove that they are the best at apprehending criminals. A blue-ribbon panel decides to give them a test by releasing a rabbit into a forest and have each agency attempt a capture.
The FBI places animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude rabbits do not exist.
After two weeks with no leads, the ATF burns the forest, killing everything in it including the rabbit and they make no apologies. The rabbit, it seems, had it coming.
Then the LAPD go in to emerge two hours later with a badly beaten fox, which is yelling: ('Okay! Okay! I'm A Rabbit! I'm A Rabbit!')"
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