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USA's history of torture

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Scaramouche
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27 Aug 2006, 5:33 pm

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Beheading, Hooding, and Waterboarding: CIA Torture in Vietnam, Latin America, and Iraq

In 1966 the CIA launched the Phoenix Project, a program designed to destroy the South Vietnamese Communists, better known as the Viet Cong. Specially designed torture chambers were constructed in all 44 provinces and rape of women suspects, electric shock, water torture, and hanging from ceilings were standard methods during interrogations.

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Torture, American Style

Don Luce's essay, "The Tiger Cages of Con Son," reveals again, as did his original testimony in the 1970s, the depths to which the U.S. government sank in its ultimately futile efforts to defeat the Vietnamese people. It imprisoned those Vietnamese it considered "the enemy" in tiger cages, subjected them to physical abuses, deprived them of food and water, and, as if all that was not bad enough, poured lye on them to burn and scar them.

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The US has used torture for decades. All that's new is the openness about it

Yet when covering the Bush announcement, not a single mainstream news outlet mentioned the location's sordid history. How could they? That would require something totally absent from the debate: an admission that the embrace of torture by US officials has been integral to US foreign policy since the Vietnam war.

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Torture Is an American Value: Reality vs. the Rhetoric

I became aware of torture as a U.S. policy in 1969 when I was serving as a USAF combat security officer working near Can Tho City in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. I was informed about the CIA's Phong Dinh Province Interrogation Center (PIC) at the Can Tho Army airfield where supposedly "significant members" of the VCI (Viet Cong infrastructure) were taken for torture as part of the Phoenix Pacification Program. A huge French-built prison nearby was also apparently utilized for torture of suspects from the Delta region. Many were routinely murdered.

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Documents from the Phoenix Program

Created by the CIA in Saigon in 1967, Phoenix was a program aimed at "neutralizing"through assassination, kidnapping, and systematic torturethe civilian infrastructure that supported the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam. It was a terrifying "final solution" that violated the Geneva Conventions and traditional American ideas of human morality.

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Scrapheap
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27 Aug 2006, 5:43 pm

Yes, the USA is the epitomie of evil...... Move to North Korea dumbass!!


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Scaramouche
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27 Aug 2006, 5:54 pm

Scrapheap wrote:
Yes, the USA is the epitomie of evil...... Move to North Korea dumbass!!


That doesn't even qualify as a logical fallacy. Too ridiculous. Don't shoot the messenger. Just read the articles and learn some history.



McJeff
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27 Aug 2006, 7:02 pm

We've heard it all before.

We're still miles and miles and miles better than anyone else.



Scaramouche
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27 Aug 2006, 7:14 pm

McJeff wrote:
We've heard it all before.

We're still miles and miles and miles better than anyone else.


Including all the nations which don't torture people?



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27 Aug 2006, 7:57 pm

Scaramouche wrote:
McJeff wrote:
We've heard it all before.

We're still miles and miles and miles better than anyone else.


Including all the nations which don't torture people?


PLEASE!! ! Like there's such a thing!! There's only nations that have'nt been CAUGHT!


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VesicaPisces
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27 Aug 2006, 7:57 pm

What I dont comprehend is this this. Why torture people when we possess the cognitive capacity for information retrieval? Brain before brawn.


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27 Aug 2006, 8:00 pm

VesicaPisces wrote:
What I dont comprehend is this this. Why torture people when we possess the cognitive capacity for information retrieval? Brain before brawn.


WTF???



VesicaPisces
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27 Aug 2006, 8:04 pm

Torture is used for retrieval of information correct?


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27 Aug 2006, 8:13 pm

VesicaPisces wrote:
Torture is used for retrieval of information correct?


Yes, but I have no idea what you're talking about. What does "the cognitive capacity for information retrieval" mean??



VesicaPisces
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27 Aug 2006, 8:32 pm

Cognitive sciences have advanced to the point where torture is un'neccesary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=capacity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_retrieval
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrogation


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Last edited by VesicaPisces on 27 Aug 2006, 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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27 Aug 2006, 8:46 pm

I know what these WORDS mean!!, I don't understand the PROCESS you're referring to. How can you get information from someone who does'nt want to give it up??



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27 Aug 2006, 9:00 pm

VesicaPisces wrote:
Cognitive sciences have advanced to the point where torture is un'neccesary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=capacity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_retrieval
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrogation


What IS better? Psychological/verbal abuse or physical abuse? Eventually, that's all interrogation will be, even without physical torture.


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VesicaPisces
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27 Aug 2006, 9:26 pm

Modification of belief and perceptions. Belief is based on percieved reality. Modify the perception of reality and belief will naturally follow. The next logical question is how can one alter reality or the perception of it.
In response to Quatermass, neither is better, they are equivocal. And its not what interrogation will be, it is what it seems to be, right now, not eventually. I dont contend to know all of the answers, if that is even possible. Though I am 100% certain that the tools are available for a more effective method of extracting data. I see all of the parts of the machine. Yet they are scattered and unorganized. I have yet to discern the exact process for constructing it. Even though I am at this moment unable to piece it together, I can assume that their are more proficient mechanics other than myself.


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27 Aug 2006, 9:35 pm

VesicaPisces wrote:
Modification of belief and perceptions. Belief is based on percieved reality. Modify the perception of reality and belief will naturally follow. The next logical question is how can one alter reality or the perception of it.


If you did'nt know what you're talking about, just say so instead of posting vauge meandering non-sense. :roll:


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VesicaPisces
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27 Aug 2006, 9:51 pm

I do know what I am talking about. I was not vague or meandering, I was direct and to the point. If you can not make sense of the information available, I apologize. Even though if it was truly my desire to construct an effective system for discernment of information, I am confident I could. I have the "capacity". My intent is not to design the process. I am attempting to inspire others who may be willing to invest their time and resources in the persuit of these potentialities by providing the knowledge that the means are readily available. It is my personal opinion that these mechanisms already exist, though are under utilized because of perceived time constraints. Believe what you will.


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