on the history channel the other day

i saw a listing for a documentary on torture (i think it was the history channel). i thought i'd give it a whirl. it had already started so i didn't see it from the beginning. i actually didn't see more than about 12 or 13 minutes of it actually. was that because it was such a poorly presented show? hell no. it was BECAUSE IT WAS ABOUT TORTURE. the part i hit upon was wwii and some khmer rouge cambodian stuff. my hair stood on end. what they were presenting wasn't new to me. it just hurts more each time i hear, read about it or see it. TORTURE IS WRONG. torture is against humanity as a whole. i'm not skilled enough at writing to say it any deeper than i just did. torture is wrong. period

ACLU: Memos authorized CIA torture
Nick Juliano
As long as CIA agents could convince themselves they were not deliberately inflicting severe pain or suffering on detainees, they were free to do virtually anything in their questioning of suspected terrorists, including waterboarding. Furthermore, the agents' belief they weren't in fact torturing their captives didn't even need to be "reasonable."

These are the implications of a controversial August 2002 memo from the Justice Department to the CIA that was released Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained several internal Bush administration documents it says authorizes the CIA to torture detainees.

“These documents supply further evidence, if any were needed, that the Justice Department authorized the CIA to torture prisoners in its custody,” Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, said in a news release. “The Justice Department twisted the law, and in some cases ignored it altogether, in order to permit interrogators to use barbaric methods that the U.S. once prosecuted as war crimes.”.........