Dick Gordon "The Story" on NPR [View All]

[Triana]

He interviewed a former IRA prisoner ('Jim') who had been tortured in much the same ways the US is now torturing prisoners in AbuGhraib and Gitmo. Then, he interviewed an 'interrogator' who was in the Army in the past year and who worked either at Gitmo or A-B (can't remember which). The interrogator said he KNEW they were committing war crimes. The story of 'Jim' (the IRA dude) was horrendous. To think that WE or our gov't is doing to people in Iraq what was done to this guy is just absolutely sickening. I literally got sick listening to it.

My GOD. Both men said we're only CREATING MORE TERRORISTS by torturing people (duh). 'Jim' said he wasn't in the IRA but joined AFTER he was tortured because he was so angry about what had been done to him (can you say 'insurgent')? The interrogator acknowledged that more than 90% of the detainees they tortured were innocent. People they just pulled off the street because they happened to be near a bomb, explosive, or guns.

Then, Dick had some airhead woman on who could not sufficiently answer the question as to where the lines ought to be drawn and would not admit that what is being done IS TORTURE - even though it is. She danced around his questions, obfuscated, avoided direct answers, of course. She kept saying that the Geneva Conventions and the 'rules' concerning treatment of war prisoners and detainees were too strict - she said it's OK to cross those lines but simultanously that she was NOT condoning torture. :wtf: Yea. Right. I wanted to grab that beyotch and choke her. What she said made absolutely NO sense at all. She had to ack that it's finally up to the individual 'interrogator' whether to torture or not - because there are no clear rules against it (WTF are Geneva conventions?).

If you remember, Dick Gordon's new show is replacing The Connection on NPR and if you missed today's show, you missed a very important one - not only the first, but on a very timely subject - torture.