Thursday, May 29, 2008

A Kinder, Gentler Torture

From In These Times via antiwar.com:
Every time I visit [Gitmo], Al-Ghizzawi asks me,
“What happened to America?”
I try to explain the unexplainable. I tell him that the American government now believes that torture is permissible; that we can hold people forever without charge; keep people in isolation for years; bar communications with family members; force-feed those who want to die and refuse to provide medical treatment for those who want to live. I explain that the American people, whose nation once stood as a beacon of human rights, neither care about this nor want to hear about it.

I also assure him that I am collecting the names of those responsible.