22 May, 2009

Something to Keep in Mind

The next time someone yawps at you about the extraordinary accomplishments of the Bush regime, you might want to drop this little tidbit on them (h/t):

Former Congresswoman and prosecutor Liz Holtzman makes a good point:

The criminal justice system identified and convicted some of those involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. By contrast, not one person has been prosecuted for the 9/11 attacks, although seven and a half years have gone by. Even Khalid Sheik Mohammed, one of the masterminds of 9/11, is unlikely ever to be convicted in US courts because he was repeatedly subjected to torture. Significantly, the cruel and torturous methods used on detainees never yielded enough information to capture Osama Bin Laden or his chief deputy. So much for the claims of torture's efficacy.
So what the fuck have we done for the last nearly 8 years? Oh. That's right. Invaded the wrong fucking country so that a bunch of pathetic losers could play out their War President fantasies.

Anyone who still thinks the Bush regime was good for this country after clicking these three links is so terminally stupid that further conversation is useless.

3 comments:

busterggi said...

"further conversation is useless. "

Mike at The Big Stick said...

Even Khalid Sheik Mohammed, one of the masterminds of 9/11, is unlikely ever to be convicted in US courts because he was repeatedly subjected to torture.Khalid Sheik Mohammed was charged by military commission on February 11, 2008. He has been on trial with several co-defendants since June 5,2008. He entered a guilty plea on December 8,2008. The trial has been delayed until mental competency hearings for two of the defendants can be held.

Woozle said...

Okay, let's take this slowly.

* "KSM was charged by military commission on February 11, 2008." A charge does not a conviction make. How does this support your point?
* "He has been on trial with several co-defendants since June 5,2008."

Almost a year, and no conviction? This guy is supposed to have been the mastermind of the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. If it's taking this long to convict, something's wrong. If he's guilty, this is a red flag that someone has screwed up. If he's not guilty, then the real mastermind is probably still at large.

Again: how does this support your point?

* "He entered a guilty plea on December 8,2008." WRONG. He indicated that he wished to plead guilty... probably because he was tired of being tortured, and would have pleaded guilty to having caused World War II and dandruff, if it would make the torture stop. If the court doesn't accept the plea, that's probably why -- which is the whole point.

(And if they do accept the plea, we may never know whether it was a good decision, due to the eternally-damned secrecy of the military commissions court procedures.)

Torture not only doesn't work, it undermines our ability to fight terror.

I'm beginning to think that the crux of the conservative viewpoint on this subject is that it's somehow more satisfying to get a confession by torture than by investigation, and it ultimately doesn't really matter who does the confessing as long as they look like a Bad Guy and they get to suffer for it. Making Bad Guys Suffer is what's important -- not any namby-pamby liberal-artsy-fartsy elitist ideas like "evidence", "justice", or "truth".