Guess What Day It Is...

Well, those reading this blog for some time or attuned to such issues will know that today is Human Rights Day.

But it is with a sickening feeling of outrage that I have to post today.  The Senate committee's torture report (executive summary, really)  was released yesterday.  Here is a link to the executive summary, still heavily redacted.

My feeling, anyway, is that torture is one of the most egregious human rights violations.  Let's remember that the U. S. is a signatory of the U. N. Convention Against Torture, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Read through this discussion at Human Rights Watch and it should be pretty clear that torture is to be condemned and not to be permitted.  Ever.

At The Intercept there are so far three articles that are report related: I'll just give a link to the first one, an overview article by Glenn Greenwald, et al..  Please also check out the other two articles by Murtazza Hussein and Ryan Tate.

I have not read the report.  But just the pieces I've read in the articles covering it sicken me.  And this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg.  I really don't know how, with any sense of humanity, these acts of torture can be justified or condoned.

I'm also sickened by media pundits, politcos, and intelligence community members and apologists who are justifying such acts.  And the Exec. Director of the ACLU called for pardoning the torturers!  Honestly, how could he or anyone advocate that?  These evil acts need accountability if we're serious about really stopping such practices.  I sent them an e-mail decrying that proposal.

I don't know how torturers and their apologists live with themselves.  Maybe their consciences have been surgically removed or something.  But the rest of us must not let this issue (and others) go away.  More of us must say "Not in my name."  More of us must scream for the perpetrators of these despicable actions to face justice for what they have done.  More of us must not forget.  I'm sure the intelligence community (and most of the msm) would love for this to all go away.  So we must make sure our attention lasts more than a few seconds.  That it lasts past the next celebrity scandal.  This and other issues need us to be aware and for us to cry and push for action.  We must insist that America turn from its dark path.  We must drag it if we must, into light.