Guest Column: Impunity at Home, Rendition Abroad

How two administrations and both parties made illegality the American Way of Life
by Alfred W. McCoy
excerpted from HuffPost column 08/14/2012

Torture RealityAfter a decade of fiery public debate and bare-knuckle partisan brawling, the United States has stumbled toward an ad hoc bipartisan compromise over the issue of torture that rests on two unsustainable policies: impunity at home and rendition abroad.

President Obama has closed the CIA’s “black sites,” its secret prisons where American agents once dirtied their hands with waterboarding and wall slamming. But via rendition — the sending of terrorist suspects to the prisons of countries that torture — and related policies, his Continue reading

Brian’s Column: The Truth Torpedo

Blowing away the Barrier Cloud
by Brian Wright

PhotonHow many of my baby boomer generation remember sitting around the college dorms (on Friday night, no less) watching Star Trek? Whenever the Enterprise found itself in a major battle and the phaser banks neared depletion, Captain Kirk would tell Chekov to fire the heavy artillery, the ultimate weapon: the Photon Torpedo. Then, FWAP! The heavens instantly flashed white, and Bah Bah to the Klingons or Romulans or whatever fleet of Galactic Pond Scum felt it could mess with our high-flying Federation-istas. Continue reading

Brian’s Column: Torture Boycott

America’s time to ‘Come to Jesus:’
Organize and join the ‘Torture Boycott’
by Brian Wright

Torture boycott… or at least think about maybe, say, between work, watching the hockey playoffs, and taking your kids to choir practice, possibly considering working with fellow citizens to, some would say, take a stand—no, stand is too strong a word: perform a fullblown, unapologetic sit—against, hmmm, how shall we speak of it, well, okay, torture by the US government…

You can see what we’re up against, can’t you? Continue reading

Guest Column: Lawless Roads

America’s everexpanding torture matrix
Chris Floyd


Zelikov Memo“How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.”
— Henry David Thoreau

In two brief posts over the past week, Scott Horton at Harper’s gives us a harrowing sketch of the entrenchment and ever-spreading expansion of the Torture Matrix that now sits enthroned at the very heart of the American state. This entrenchment and expansion has been carried out — enthusiastically, energetically, relentlessly — by the current president of the United States: a progressive Democrat and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Continue reading