rssWhy Isn’t the Justice Department Enforcing the Convention Against Torture?
Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 1:48 pm
- 7 Comments
Marcy Wheeler made a great point on Friday that’s worth following up on. President Obama’s declaration to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention Against Torture tosses the responsibility for developing “effective policies and programs for stopping torture” to the State Department, asking it to “solicit information from all of our diplomatic missions around the world …”
But the President’s speech seemed primarily aimed at stopping torture abroad, which is presumably why he’s called on the State Department to get involved. But what about torture committed by our own government?
I know some are still debating which techniques constitute “torture” — such as in this scolding piece from The Washington Times — but because the Convention Against Torture, which the president was commemorating, prohibits torture AND cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as I’ve noted before, at this point we can put that debate aside. There’s little question that the sort of techniques engaged in by U.S. government officials — whether partial drowning, “walling,” weeks of sleep and food deprivation or locking detainees inside a tiny box with what were believed to be deadly insects is, at the very least, cruel and degrading.
It’s odd, therefore, as Marcy points out, to see the president — who vowed on his third day in office to end torture — refusing to prosecute those who engaged in acts that clearly violate the anti-torture convention he commemorated on Friday.
As Marcy put it: “Mr. President, the agency that must take the lead in stopping torture is the Department of Justice. The effective policies for stopping torture you’re looking for? They start with prosecuting torture.”
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7 Comments
Comment posted June 28, 2009 @ 8:33 pm
Yes, by all means let's get going Daphne. Maybe you could enlighten us all on proper burqa attire and how stoning women to death is just a progressive update and not really torture at all. The World is about to explode and you are concerned with only 3 terrorists involved in the 9/11 massacre, while hundreds die daily to live free of Islamofascists. I can only assume you are a useful idiot a la Lenin or a true Stalinist yourself. Yes dear, Communists and Nazis were both Socialist Totalitarians.
Comment posted June 28, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
What? When is the world exploding? And who is manning the evacuation ships?
Comment posted June 29, 2009 @ 7:48 am
The US has long had programs of torture which were focused on domestic citizens rather than foreign nationals. In its extremes COINTELPRO reached that, as did MKULTRA. These sorts of programs did not end, even if the names were phased-out. That was especially true under the GWB regime after the 9/11 pretext, but it is still true with Obama as the figurehead.
Comment posted June 30, 2009 @ 2:38 am
He is an accessory after the fact by now and should be tried along with Eric Holder and the Bush degenerates who worked 8 years to besmirch and belittle the Constitution and our national heritage. IF Obama and Holder won't enforce the law of the land, who will?
Comment posted June 30, 2009 @ 2:44 am
You are ignorant or a liar or Jonah Goldberg's Mother/lover. Nationalist Socialism is a product of the right and the direct descendent of American political thought from Henry Ford, noted anti-semite and car manufacturer. Socialism for white people, not Jews, not Italians, not Irish, not Slavs or Balts or Greeks. Socialism like this is not Marxist, it is Eugenicist and really no different than GOP policy-encourage the designated White people with tax breaks and punish the rest with loss of the social safety net. Or did the Jews on Kristallnacht get a sudden socialist lift? The Poles who went to Dachau and Belsen? White on the outside, but not “German” enough. It's funny O'Reilly and O'Hannity are such right wingtards when the old Partei considered them to be subhumans until they needed to change the definitions because there were too many “ethnics” who might band together for fair representation otherwise.
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 7:58 pm
UN Convention Against Torture in US, is Our Federal Anti-Torture Law- SEE http://tinyurl.com/besdd3 BO's Refusing To Enforce Federal Law #fb
Pingback posted October 1, 2009 @ 6:21 pm
[...] the United States is bound by the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights not to send people to countries where [...]
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