i wonder who or what is behind this sudden burst of anti-torture activism.

I don’t know but I posted this recently,

Is the War in Iraq a conspiracy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXQEKl_uiPY&NR=1&feature=fvwp

It was going on about uranium. It is totally toxic you know. We are destroying our world and our own soldiers with it, EVERYDAY.

It would be quite the story to have the rule of law in the US saved by art and culture.

I made a coup stick for Cheney, if that helps.

That’s what the ‘about’ feature of the website is for.

There’s nothing mysterious or out-of-nowhere about this campaign, nor is it unprecedented, though it has the potential to broaden the base for action via TV ads and the involvement of musicians. There has been a coalition of former military working within a coalition of anti-torture organizations for years.

The launch of this campaign now was made necessary by the administration’s handling of the Guantanamo issue (and its stance on detention issues generally). But the people involved, particularly Tom Andrews, are inclined to put all the the heat on the Republicans and right-wingers who’ve framed the debate, and not on the “liberal” Democrats who’ve allowed that to happen.

And it’s spreading, getting increasingly normalized, as torture always does. Between midnight and 6 am yesterday, the Honduran military continuously bombarded the Brazilian embassy (where Manuel Zelaya, the legitimate president of the country, has been staying since returning to the country on Sept. 21) with music, pig grunts, jungle animal sounds, and church bells. They used the U.S.-manufactured LRAD to do this for hours on at least two previous occasions, Sept. 22 and 25. The American Technology Company, manufacturer of the device, says it causes damage to humans in the path of its highly focused, directional beam (capable of putting out 150dB) within 300 feet. The device was placed within ten feet of the building last night.

Reporters and photographers in the embassy said that no one had been able to get any sleep. Only their testimony kept other reporters from making light of the matter; as it was, at least one felt it necessary to use scare quotes when characterizing it as “torture”.

The Brazilian government was able to call it what it was, and the Organization of American States denounced the assault on the embassy and its residents yesterday in language that underlines the effects:

The Permanent Council denounces and strongly condemns the hostile action by the de facto regime against the embassy of Brazil in Tegucigalpa and the harassment of its occupants through deliberate actions that affect them physically and psychologically and violate their human rights. [my emphasis]

Although the U.S. representative joined in the OAS’ unanimous statement, our government is unlikely to want to focus too heavily on this particular incident given that our own military pioneered this hideous technique against the Vatican Embassy in 1989 where Noriega had taken refuge. Given the timing, coinciding with this excellent campaign by the musicians, it also risks highlighting our use of music torture at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan (where Binyam Mohamed said it was the worst of the tortures he underwent, which is pretty remarkable if you remember what was done to him in Morocco).

There is no evidence that the LRAD was used in Guantanamo, although it’s been used as a weapon in Iraq since March 2004 and the Navy has had access to the LRAD since May 2003. I assume that the delivery method in Guantanamo was simply speakers cranked up all the way, playing the same thing over and over.

If they can sue college students, they can sue torturers.

taking action!!!

as a beginning, this is great news.

some of the pictures showing americans torturing their little brown brothers

might make quite a statement up on one of those giant screens at a concert or two.

i wonder who or what is behind this sudden burst of anti-torture activism.

So did they apply for a license to repeatedly play these songs and specify the function? Did they pay royalties on the songs repeatedly played ad nauseum?

The complexity comes from:

1. his being a registered Democrat,

2. his having endorsed a Democrat for Congress,

3. the fact that the only candidate for Congress he’s ever endorsed was & is as Blue a Dog as it’s possible to be without being actually Republican,

4. his having spoken in favor of supporting President GWB in his war on Iraq, clearly, unreservedly, repeatedly, and at several points for months on end,

5. his more recent post Surge position of consistently denial that he was ever actually in favor of any war on Iraq,

6. his several appearances on The Colbert Report, during which, in a feat that IMO is at least rare & quite possibly unique among all guests on that show, he has been able consistently to stake out & maintain a position to the right of the cartoonishly-exaggerated right-cliff-hanging position assumed by the host [bearing in mind that early on its history, certainly prior to the 2006 Press Corps dinner, the show was still able to secure a number of movement conservative guests],

7. his consistently [shall we say] less than entirely supportive comments on the positions taken by the Dixie Chicks on the Iraq War & GWB,
and

8. his being named, within a day of the announcement by the Norwegian Nobel committee, among the very first group of musicians committed to perform at this year’s honoree’s concert.

[The above list is incomplete, but fairly representative.]

The out comes from the fact that there’s no actual suggestion that the McCain-Palin campaign even tried to commandeer any of his excessively wordy lyrics & non-catchy melodies.

When I heard that “I Love You” had been used at Abu Ghraib to break the will of terror suspects, I just laughed.

I can honestly say I have never laughed about any aspect of torture. Never. The mind boggles. The guy who wrote “I Love You” hasn’t the faintest comprehension of the definition of love. Unbelievable.