Posts Tagged ‘torture’
Torture photos we apparently don't need to see
Here’s a video of Obama explaining why he’s refused to allow the release, which would no doubt lead to the publication, aggregation, blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, and what-not-ing, of photos of detainee abuse by U.S. forces abroad. In other news, watch this space for my deconstruction of the Torture Memos, which will run next week in [...]
Monday morning…humor?
Unclear, and probably depends upon your personal affinity for irony and/or your admiration for George Orwell. But apparently there is a face-off happening between America’s ideological big mouths, Sean Hannity on the right and Keith Olbermann on the left. Hannity says waterboarding is not torture–so not torture that he’s happy to do it! For charity!–and [...]
On torture, from around the blogosphere
It is a topic of distraction, in part because of the news, and in part because of my most recent piece. Here’s an insightful look at what the bureacratization of language does to experience, from William’s Dispatches The danger of bullshit euphemisms is that they actively obscure meaning. Common usage can’t afford to beat around [...]
Maybe Bush won't get away with torture after all
Here’s a story from Salon today, suggesting that an Obama administration may investigate–and I wonder, prosecute?–Bush and his subordinates for their pursuit of harsh interrogation policies, otherwise referred to in the rest of the world as “torture.” The piece suggests, among other things, a fight within the Democratic party about whether to have a fact-finding [...]
What makes torture torture?
That’s a question that has obsessed me since America began debating whether torturing people is “warranted” or not. The debate started a few years ago, with the insistence of the Bush Administration that torture is the only way to get vital national security information out of bad guys. There was a heated public conversation about [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [