Linkmeister

Fawlty Towers

Reagan memorably called America a shining city on the hill. It's being pulled down bit-by-bit, stone by stone. Only the foundation is left, and it's cracking (pdf).

This is what Senator Durbin (D-IL) said on the floor of the US Senate yesterday:

To win the war on terrorism, we must remain true to the principles upon which our country was founded. This Administration’s detention and interrogation policies are placing our troops at risk and making it harder to combat terrorism.

[snip]

When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here -- I almost hesitate to put them in the record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:

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. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold....On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

This is not the America I grew up in, nor is it one I can be proud of, and the blame lies solely with the current Administration. Yes, we were attacked by maniacs. Yes, they continue to target us. But somehow we managed to go through nearly four years of holding prisoners during World War II without contravening the Geneva Conventions or their predecessors, and the Bush Administration could have done things differently now. I think the policymakers were bent on revenge for 9/11 and didn't care much how the world saw us. We are now reaping what they sowed.

Document via TalkLeft.