April 20th, 2009 8:40 am
Is torture compatible with Democracy? Apparently it is, in several democratic systems, US, India, South Africa for example, whenever perceived law and order issues and perceived national interest issues are at stake.
The operative word is "perceived."
Torture is incompatible with ETHICAL conceptions of DEMOCRACY. It violates the human body and spirit.
And it is approved and deployed by those in Power, whether they are state-sponsored as in the CIA or extra-state actors like the Taliban.
The expose of waterboarding as a torture technique teaches us that Democracy is always as much a destination as it is a journey.
Democracy's craft is a work in progress, democracy's work is never done. Only We the People can disarm govts. and overturn torture.
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April 20th, 2009 8:55 am Comment #592
TORTURE & THE MEDIA
Why are these revelations about waterboarding coming so late in the deadly game that the US govt has played in Iraq?
Where was the US media? Embedded as well as bamboozled?
Wasn't "shock and awe" itself a form of mass terror and torture? So why this postmortem approach to waterboarding?
Q.Is the US MEDIA complicit (this is not conspiracy theory, it's about complicity) in this delayed reporting on torture? Where are the investigative journalists on the staff of the NYT or The Washington Post?
Besides, civil society publics, both in the US and elsewhere have always suspected that torture was being used in Iraq and Guantanamo.
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/politics/21intel.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Obama Urges C.I.A. Not to Be Discouraged by Memos
President Obama spoke at C.I.A. headquarters as C.I.A. director Leon Panetta looked on.
By PETER BAKER and SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 20, 2009
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Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 19, 2009
http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/04/20/world/20detain.html
