I am (becoming) an Independent

Liberty Beat
Whitewashing Rumsfeld
Circling the wagons around the defense secretary and his commander in chief

by Nat Hentoff
April 4th, 2005 3:56 PM


(Excerpt) Read the entire Village Voice article

Where the hell is the Democratic leadership—Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, and that touted veteran sage Joe Lieberman? Where are the Democratic press conferences, the ringing statements against these Republican chieftains circling the wagons around the lawless secretary of defense and the commander in chief who, on June 26, 2003, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, declared:

"The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading the fight by example." (Emphasis added.)

From Amnesty International's "United States of America: Human Dignity Denied: Torture and Accountability in the 'War on Terror' ":

"An Iraqi detainee has recalled how the U.S. soldiers 'used to beat up a prisoner who was from Syria and strip him all night. We heard him screaming all night.'

"It is not known if this was the Syrian national who was kept incommunicado 'in a totally darkened cell measuring about 2 meters long [a meter is a little over 39 inches] and less than a meter across, devoid of any window, latrine or water tap, or bedding.' On the door of the cell was the inscription 'the Gollum' and a picture of this character from the film Lord of the Rings."

Also in the Amnesty International report, an Iraqi working for Reuters news, held in military detention near Falluja, said: "He asked me to pick up a shoe, took it and beat me on the face with it. . . . He made me put my finger in my anus, then he made me smell my hand and put it in my nose, and keep the shoe in my mouth, with my other hand in the air. . . . Every time I mentioned God they beat me."

All this in furtherance of spreading freedom and democracy throughout the world?