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So I'm back for another episode as Ezra's recurring werewolf guest. Thanks, Ezra! The first thing I want to do is point out the way that people on the right are confusing the torture debate. They pick up on random things happening at Guantanamo that aren't instances of torture by themselves, and claim that no torture is going on because, hey, feeding people chicken isn't torture! John Kass, the problem isn't that we sometimes played Christina Aguilera in prisoners' cells instead of, say, Sleater-Kinney. Darleen, the problem isn't that we exposed the prisoners to heat over 100 degrees. Captain Ed, you aren't even responding to anybody when you say:
If that means they get cold, or hot, or have little accidents on the floor, then so be it. That isn't torture or even abuse.This FBI agent, however, was witnessing torture:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more.I challenge right-wing bloggers to cite this and still argue that no torture is going on in Guantanamo. Just to be clear, it isn't the absence of a chair that's the problem here. Withholding a chair is not torture. Chaining people to the floor in their own feces and urine for many hours, however, is torture. If you'll follow the link, you'll see that the extreme heat and cold cited by right-wing bloggers as an example of non-torture often occurred under those conditions, which is why they're relevant, if not torture by themselves. --Neil the Ethical Werewolf
