Shame

A recently released Gitmo detainee (even though Cheney insisted just months ago that the torture facility housed only the "worst of the worst . . . the most dangerous . . . the truly evil . . ."), Lakhdar Boumediene, tells Dan Rather during an interview on the cable channel HDNet about his recent torture -- among other horrific procedures his being force-fed through a nasal tube for over two years while he was trying to maintain a hunger strike in protest of his treatment. Boumediene's story was the focus of a recent New York Times article in which he describes his seven years in the U.S. torture compound.

The Rather interview describes other tortures applied to Boumediene including the insertion of needles into his arms and being humiliated in the presence of female guards. Keep in mind that Boumediene -- as is the situation with nearly all those the U.S. has condemned to endless incarceration -- was never formally charged with a crime of any sort.

According to the Times article " . . .

Boumediene was captured in 2001 in Bosnia and handed over to American officials. He was kept at Guantánamo from January 2002 until May 15 of this year as terrorism suspect No. 10005, when he was released and put aboard a plane to France . . .  He said he underwent more than 120 interrogations, mostly about foreign Muslims in Bosnia, before he stopped cooperating with his questioners. . . He was the plaintiff in a 2008 Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, which gave detainees the right to judicial review, and he was later ordered released by a United States District Court judge in Washington."

Boumediene, now in France, has made the controversial claim that torture is still going on despite the change in administrations. "Nothing change in Guantanamo," he said during the interview. "They torture me in the Obama time more than Bush."

So . . . who are we to believe? Who is telling the truth about any aspect or degree of our war crimes, our treaty breaches, our ignoring of our own laws, our violations of the Geneva Conventions, our flaunting of international laws, our disregard for what is considered acceptable conduct by one country invading and occupying another? (Yes, there are rules even for that! ) Do we listen to the war criminal Dick Cheney? The right-wing cretins who pour neo-fascist propaganda daily into talk radio and television? Former Bush Crime Family officials? Obama officials? Released detainees? Who?

Or . . . do we take what seems to be the most applicable and effective action remaining as a means of dealing with this never-ending horror story of what the Bush Crime Family has done to our country - putting our hands tightly over our ears and shouting la-la-la-la-la . . .???

If so, how long can we do that?