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This moment, in which the Attorney General of the United States claims to be considering the possibility of allowing our laws against torture to be enforced seems a good one in which to reveal that I have seen over 1,200 torture photos and a dozen videos that are in the possession of the United States military. These are photographs depicting torture, the victims of torture, and other inhuman and degrading treatment. Several videos show a prisoner intentionally slamming his head face-first very hard into a metal door. Guards filmed this from several angles rather than stopping it.
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) of Australia revealed several of these photographs, video of the head slamming, and video of prisoners forced to masturbate, as part of a news report broadcast in 2006. But the full collection has not been made available to the public or to a special prosecutor, although it was shown to members of Congress in 2004. When these photos are eventually made public, I encourage you to take a good look at them. After you get over feeling ill, it might be appropriate to consider Congress' past 5 years of inaction. You'll be able to feel sick all over again.
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) of Australia revealed several of these photographs, video of the head slamming, and video of prisoners forced to masturbate, as part of a news report broadcast in 2006. But the full collection has not been made available to the public or to a special prosecutor, although it was shown to members of Congress in 2004. When these photos are eventually made public, I encourage you to take a good look at them. After you get over feeling ill, it might be appropriate to consider Congress' past 5 years of inaction. You'll be able to feel sick all over again.
A week ago, I published a report on 1,200 photos of U.S. torture that I have examined but the public at large has not seen. I talked about the photos on a few progressive radio shows. I received calls from some advocacy groups that have been trying for years to get hold of these photos. But I received not one single inquiry from the corporate media. Even most good blogs ignored this story despite a handful of prominent blogs promoting it. This started me thinking and fantasizing: what would the world look like if we had major media outlets that were worth more than a warm bucket of spit?
Imagine if the media monopolies were busted, a diversity of private outlets were free to compete, and public media were developed, including free substantive air time for election campaigns. Imagine media outlets with democratic accountability. Imagine media outlets that judged a story important if the majority of the public said so, and not if those in power said so.
Imagine if the media monopolies were busted, a diversity of private outlets were free to compete, and public media were developed, including free substantive air time for election campaigns. Imagine media outlets with democratic accountability. Imagine media outlets that judged a story important if the majority of the public said so, and not if those in power said so.
Media eulogies for Walter Cronkite -- including from progressive commentators -- rarely talk about his coverage of the Vietnam War before 1968. This obit omit is essential to the myth of Cronkite as a courageous truth-teller.
But facts are facts, and history is history -- including what Cronkite actually did as TV’s most influential journalist during the first years of the Vietnam War. Despite all the posthumous praise for Cronkite’s February 1968 telecast that dubbed the war “a stalemate,” the facts of history show that the broadcast came only after Cronkite’s protracted support for the war.
In 1965, reporting from Vietnam, Cronkite dramatized the murderous war effort with enthusiasm. “B-57s -- the British call them Canberra jets -- we're using them very effectively here in this war in Vietnam to dive-bomb the Vietcong in these jungles beyond Da Nang here,” he reported, standing in front of a plane. Cronkite then turned to a U.S. Air Force officer next to him and said: “Colonel, what’s our mission we're about to embark on?”
But facts are facts, and history is history -- including what Cronkite actually did as TV’s most influential journalist during the first years of the Vietnam War. Despite all the posthumous praise for Cronkite’s February 1968 telecast that dubbed the war “a stalemate,” the facts of history show that the broadcast came only after Cronkite’s protracted support for the war.
In 1965, reporting from Vietnam, Cronkite dramatized the murderous war effort with enthusiasm. “B-57s -- the British call them Canberra jets -- we're using them very effectively here in this war in Vietnam to dive-bomb the Vietcong in these jungles beyond Da Nang here,” he reported, standing in front of a plane. Cronkite then turned to a U.S. Air Force officer next to him and said: “Colonel, what’s our mission we're about to embark on?”
he accolades are still pouring in for departed anchorman Walter Cronkite. Few mention his critical "that's the way it is" reporting on the atomic melt-down at Three Mile Island.
Yet Cronkite and TMI are at the core of today's de facto moratorium on new reactor construction---which the industry's new champion, Senator Lamar Alexander, now wants to reverse through the proposed federal Climate Bill.
Technicians who knew what was happening shook with terror as Cronkite opened his March 28, 1979, newscast with "the world has never known a day quite like today. It faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the Atomic Age. And the horror tonight is that it could get much worse.." ( http://www.examiner.com/x-14272-70s-Culture-Examiner~y2009m7d18-Walter-Cronkite-reporting-on-Three-Mile-Island ) .
Yet Cronkite and TMI are at the core of today's de facto moratorium on new reactor construction---which the industry's new champion, Senator Lamar Alexander, now wants to reverse through the proposed federal Climate Bill.
Technicians who knew what was happening shook with terror as Cronkite opened his March 28, 1979, newscast with "the world has never known a day quite like today. It faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the Atomic Age. And the horror tonight is that it could get much worse.." ( http://www.examiner.com/x-14272-70s-Culture-Examiner~y2009m7d18-Walter-Cronkite-reporting-on-Three-Mile-Island ) .
True Majority teams up with Democracy for America:
Recently, Newsweek broke big news. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may be on the verge of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate cases of torture from the Bush era.
This is a major step in the right direction. If we hope to ever hold Bush or Cheney or Karl Rove accountable for their reckless disregard of the Constitution, we need the Attorney General to get the process started.
The problem is there's enormous political pressure to sweep the past under the rug. The fact Attorney General Holder is sending signals that he may move forward despite this pressure shows real courage. But courage alone is not enough. We need action. Attorney General Holder needs to hear from you.
LET ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER KNOW YOU DEMAND THE TRUTH NOW:
Torture shouldn't be a political issue. Illegal activity must not be swept under a rug. It goes to the core of our fundamental values as Americans. As he decides how to proceed, Attorney General Holder needs to hear that from you.
This is a major step in the right direction. If we hope to ever hold Bush or Cheney or Karl Rove accountable for their reckless disregard of the Constitution, we need the Attorney General to get the process started.
The problem is there's enormous political pressure to sweep the past under the rug. The fact Attorney General Holder is sending signals that he may move forward despite this pressure shows real courage. But courage alone is not enough. We need action. Attorney General Holder needs to hear from you.
LET ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER KNOW YOU DEMAND THE TRUTH NOW:
Torture shouldn't be a political issue. Illegal activity must not be swept under a rug. It goes to the core of our fundamental values as Americans. As he decides how to proceed, Attorney General Holder needs to hear that from you.
HRC President Joe Solmonese: “Once again, we have demonstrated that more than 60 Senators support the Matthew Shepard Act”
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, praised the U.S. Senate today for successfully invoking a motion for cloture to proceed to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909) Amendment, which would provide local police and sheriff’s departments with federal resources to combat hate violence. The cloture motion to consider the Amendment to the FY 2010 Department of Defense Authorization bill was adopted on a vote of 63 to 28.
Clearing the 60 vote threshold stops any Republican filibuster and allows the Matthew Shepard Act Amendment to proceed to final passage, which is expected on Monday. Cloture is a procedural tool to allow debate, and eventually passage, to occur. It requires 60 votes instead of a simple majority.
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, praised the U.S. Senate today for successfully invoking a motion for cloture to proceed to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909) Amendment, which would provide local police and sheriff’s departments with federal resources to combat hate violence. The cloture motion to consider the Amendment to the FY 2010 Department of Defense Authorization bill was adopted on a vote of 63 to 28.
Clearing the 60 vote threshold stops any Republican filibuster and allows the Matthew Shepard Act Amendment to proceed to final passage, which is expected on Monday. Cloture is a procedural tool to allow debate, and eventually passage, to occur. It requires 60 votes instead of a simple majority.
Last week’s announcement from Moscow, of a new treaty between the U.S. and Russia to begin cutting their nuclear stockpiles by a quarter to a third, is indeed “modest” and perhaps downright “disappointing” in its tentativeness, as critics have pointed out.
Even so, the heart of the future beats here.
To cobble such an accord together, the Eagle and the Bear have to dance an awkward, uncomfortable dance. They have to go against their natures, vacate, you might say, their souls and begin letting go, for the sake of a vague higher good, what they cherish most deeply: their claws, their fangs, their ferocity.
This is nuclear ferocity, of course, and it’s absurd, but I think I’m beginning to understand at last a lifetime of intense disappointment in the realm of disarmament, nuclear and otherwise.
Even so, the heart of the future beats here.
To cobble such an accord together, the Eagle and the Bear have to dance an awkward, uncomfortable dance. They have to go against their natures, vacate, you might say, their souls and begin letting go, for the sake of a vague higher good, what they cherish most deeply: their claws, their fangs, their ferocity.
This is nuclear ferocity, of course, and it’s absurd, but I think I’m beginning to understand at last a lifetime of intense disappointment in the realm of disarmament, nuclear and otherwise.
Attorney General Holder may be ready to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush-era torture program. We need to tell him to move forward, and to include the architects of the program in the investigation. Tell the Attorney General to Stand Strong on Torture! With new revelations coming to light regularly, it's critical that an impartial investigator has the power to find out exactly what happened and who was responsible. And that investigation must hold the architects of the program accountable. It's the only way we'll be able to make sure it never happens again.
But there's enormous political pressure to bury the worst abuses. The Attorney General is sending signals that he may move forward despite the pressure—and he needs to hear from regular Americans who are standing with him and want the truth. Can you email Holder right now to ask him to appoint a special prosecutor who can hold the architects of the program accountable?
Attorney General Eric Holder
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the AJ. Feel free to crib from it for your own letter.
But there's enormous political pressure to bury the worst abuses. The Attorney General is sending signals that he may move forward despite the pressure—and he needs to hear from regular Americans who are standing with him and want the truth. Can you email Holder right now to ask him to appoint a special prosecutor who can hold the architects of the program accountable?
Attorney General Eric Holder
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the AJ. Feel free to crib from it for your own letter.