torture

All posts tagged torture

Tortured into silence

Posted by Shoogle on October 3, 2015
Posted in: General Blatherings. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

GuantanamoBayWell this is scary stuff.  Not only was this guy tortured for years by the U.S. government — which failed to provide any terrorism-related information — but he can’t even talk about it to anyone except his lawyers.  If he does, our military drones will probably bomb his house.

U.S. government blocks release of new CIA torture details

U.S. government officials have blocked the release of 116 pages of defense lawyers’ notes detailing the torture that Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah says he experienced in CIA custody, defense lawyers said on Thursday.

The treatment of Zubaydah, who lost one eye and was waterboarded 83 times in a single month while held by the CIA, according to government documents, has been the focus of speculation for years.  “We submitted 116 pages in 10 separate submissions,” Joe Margulies, Zubaydah’s lead defense lawyer, told Reuters. “The government declared all of it classified.”

Oh, and then here’s this.  Finally, a valid reason to use the sarcastic phrase “Thanks, Obama!”  Because Bush Cheney started this illegal and indefinite detainment thing after 9/11, and Obama has done virtually nothing to put a stop to it.  In anything, he’s made it worse.

Margulies and lawyers for other detainees said that the decision showed that the Obama administration plans to continue declaring detainees’ accounts of their own torture classified. A Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson declined to comment.

Sigh.  America:  we do whatever the fuck we want, where we want, to whomever we want.  Got a problem with that?  Better watch your back.

Foie Gras: cuisine pour les assholes

Posted by Shoogle on September 8, 2015
Posted in: Cultural Wasteland, General Blatherings. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
This picture isn't meant to shock. It's just how they make that delicious stuff you put into your asshole mouth.

This picture isn’t meant to shock — it’s simply how they make that delicious stuff you put into your asshole mouth. Bon appétit!

I do eat some meat (chicken and turkey 99% of the time), so in that way I’m contributing to the industrialized killing of animals, just like most of the rest of the country. However, there’s a slight difference between that and eating something that resulted from an animal being force-fed until its organs nearly explode. Foie gras is simply animal torture with the sole purpose of pleasing some human’s tastebuds.  It’s a grotesque luxury item. The “foodies” will tell you that the birds are roaming freely around the yard, happy and comfortable, and occasionally someone comes by and “gently” funnels a mass of food directly down their gullets. Um, even if that was true (and I’m not convinced it is), does that make it any less of an asshole thing to do? On the asshole scale it’s right up there with people who make or eat veal. The foodies can suck it on this one.

Foie Gras Is For Assholes

Foie gras is made by force feeding birds until their livers swell up. It is the Abu Ghraib of poultry dishes. Many people believe that eating any sort of meat is immoral, because you have to kill an animal to do it. I am not even arguing that position in this blog post. I am arguing the much more modest position that you should not torture your food before you eat it.

“Why eat food that only involves killing an animal, when I could eat food that also involves torturing an animal?” – A foie gras aficionado, and an asshole.

Waterboardin’ U.S.A.

Posted by Shoogle on November 14, 2010
Posted in: Idiots & Assholes (Politics). Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Somebody please tell me again just who is abusing his power as President.  Obama?  What?  Fuck you — Bush actually gave permission for our government to torture people.  He should be brought to trial for this crime, end of story.

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday joined a growing chorus in the human rights community calling for a special prosecutor to investigate whether former president George W. Bush violated federal statutes prohibiting torture.

In his new memoir and ensuing book tour, Bush has repeatedly admitted that he directly authorized the waterboarding of three terror suspects. Use of the waterboard, which creates the sensation of drowning, has been an iconic and almost universally condemned form of torture since the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

Except for a brief period during which a handful of Bush administration lawyers insisted that the exigencies of interrogating terror suspects justified its use, waterboarding has always been considered illegal by the Justice Department. It is also a clear violation of international torture conventions.

via Huffington Post

Torture? What torture?

Posted by Shoogle on November 10, 2010
Posted in: Idiots & Assholes (Politics). Tagged: , . Leave a comment

So this is how things work in our country now:  illegal torture is covered up and nobody gives a shit.  The CIA is hereby allowed to do whatever the hell they want, without accountability or consequence.  (Probably not much new there.)

But no worries, America.  Go back to your reality shows and your “Glee.”  Keep watching those sports scores, too — you don’t want to miss those!  There’s nothing to see here.

CRIMINAL charges will not be filed against US intelligence officials accused of destroying videotapes showing CIA interrogations of terror suspects.

The US Justice Department announced that the official who headed an ”exhaustive investigation” has decided not to lay criminal charges relating to destruction of the interrogation tapes filmed at secret prisons.

CIA director Leon Panetta said: ”We welcome the decision”.

He said his agency had been co-operating with the inquiry from the beginning and would continue to do so ”but we are pleased that the decision was made not to charge any agency officers for the destruction of the tapes”.

via The Age

Is waterboarding torture? Ask Mancow, the girly-man

Posted by Shoogle on May 27, 2009
Posted in: Idiots & Assholes (Politics). Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

“Mancow”, one of the many loudmouthed douchebags of radio, has been demanding that waterboarding isn’t torture…so he volunteered to try it himself.  How long did he last?  Well, let’s just say it was far less than your average torture victim.  So I guess he’s both full of shit AND a wuss.

Heh…I love it when über-macho types embarrass themselves. Now, if only we could get all these right-wing media twats to try it, we’d be in business!

These guys play dirrrty!

Posted by Shoogle on June 16, 2005
Posted in: General Blatherings. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

This is kinda old news by now, but I still think it’s amusing.  Apparently the torturers at Guantanamo had certain ideas about what kind of music would break their captives’ will and turn them into quivering, secret-spilling mounds of jelly.  According to their logs:

After the new measures are approved, the mood in al-Qahtani’s interrogation booth changes dramatically. The interrogation sessions lengthen. The quizzing now starts at midnight, and when Detainee 063 dozes off, interrogators rouse him by dripping water on his head or playing Christina Aguilera music.

Yeah, I know that this was probably just a way to force some American culture on them, but Christina Aguilera?  Surely they can do better than that.  Why not make them watch Jessica Simpson or Britney?  Or play some Joanna Newsom…that’ll reduce them to tears of agony in mere minutes.  (Listen to the clips and you’ll see what I mean.)

Madness!

Posted by Shoogle on May 9, 2005
Posted in: Bullshit Detector. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This is old news by now, but I just wanted to say:  “oxygen-deprived at birth” as an excuse for torturing prisoners?  Are they fucking kidding??  If that defense works for Lynndie England, then can I claim the same condition if I’m arrested for some nasty crime?

Thongs of protest

Posted by Shoogle on October 15, 2004
Posted in: Fun Stuff, Idiots & Assholes (Politics). Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

OK, this is one of the cleverest protest actions I’ve ever seen.  Six guys in Harrisburg, PA got the bright idea to strip down to their undies and form a human pile similar to the one that U.S. soldiers forced Iraqi prisoners to make in those notorious prison abuse photos.  And they did this while Bush was driving by in his motorcade.  Brilliant!  Of course they were arrested, but the charges were later dropped.  I just hope Bush got an eyeful thru the window of his limo.