3.20.2006

The Black Room

Via the New York Times:

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

The Black Room was part of a temporary detention site at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a shadowy military unit known as Task Force 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to the Abu Ghraib prison a few miles away.

Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. "The reality is, there were no rules there," another Pentagon official said.
This is the legacy of the Bush Administration, at least in the eyes of the world. This is the loss of the good will that winning World War II and the Cold War let us enjoy.

This is what happens when you conduct a war along lines of 'good' and 'evil.' If the enemy is the embodiment of evil, they are not human and have no rights. If you are 'good' whatever you do will, by definition, be 'good' because you are the embodiment of good and you're doing it to 'evil' and 'evil' deserved it.

This is where Republicanism has lead America.

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