HELIOLITH

So an Italian judge is trying to decide whether to request the extradition of 26 U.S. citizens in connection with the kidnapping and torture of Mr Hassan, also known as Abu Omar. He was released from prison in Egypt last Sunday, 2/11/07. According to this BBC article, “He says that he was repeatedly beaten and tortured during his four years of detention in Cairo.”

This isn’t our first entry on the practice of torture as sanctioned by the U.S. Government. Talula and I have already discussed it here, here, here, and here. It hasn’t gone away, and it’s receiving disturbingly little public attention.

You’ll remember that the U.S. conveniently narrowed the definition of torture in 2004 to that which “must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death”, and argued that actions that inflict any lesser pain, including moderate or fleeting pain, do not necessarily constitute torture. via Wikipedia’s page on Torture and the United States.

So let’s say it’s electric torture; is there a new mark on the dial somewhere around 94% of lethal shock advising that turning the dial past this point is not officially supported by the U.S. Government? I doubt it. I make light only in an effort to illuminate that which is one of the darkest clouds over the soul of America.

I’m not optimistic that the agents would be actually brought to stand trial in Italy, regardless of what the judge requests, but they should. They should quickly indict officials all the way up the chain of command. If only Bush himself could stand trial in international court for the war crimes that he has sanctioned with his aggressive policies. No doubt his intentions are motivated by what he believes is right, but torture is simply WRONG. I realize that this trial would center more around the practice of ‘extraordinary rendition‘ rather than torture itself, but anything that brought this ugly beast to the public’s eye more forcefully would be a welcome advance.

Condoning or practicing torture in any case is unconscionable and criminal. We have bloodied our own hands past any point of moral standing against an enemy that only draws strength from our barbarism.