George Bush’s Secret Black Torture Sites

Now you can take a virtual trip inside a few of George Bush’s secret black torture sites.

Salon Online Magazine has made this possible by posted a disturbing account today about a poor innocent guy being held inside one of George Bush’s secret black torture CIA directed sites for 19 months without any charges ever being filed. While held under American custody he was clearly tortured and treated badly. He was made to simply disappear. Hummmmm. That doesn’t sound very American to me. 

Of course, George Bush looks the cameras right in the lens and proclaims to all that the United States “does not torture.” What the sad little sick man means by that I suppose is that the US doesn’t torture prisoners on our own soil. Why that would be UN American. However, if the prisoners are held in cozy places like Guantanamo Bay or at an American facility in Afghanistan, and subjected to “aggressive interrogation techniques”, hey no problem, we don’t torture.

In Salon, an account of an unfortunate Indonesian businessman named Bashmilah is told. Bashmilah was picked up and turned over to the CIA while he was visiting Jordan.  As far as I know this is the first detailed public account of life inside a black prison site.

Bashmilah’s story appears to show in clear terms that he was an innocent man. After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered.

“This really shows the human impact of this program and that lives are ruined by the CIA rendition program,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, an attorney for Bashmilah and a professor at the New York University School of Law. “It is about psychological torture and the experience of being disappeared.”

That acts such as this can be done by the CIA in our name as American citizens is deplorable. And don’t try to tell me that George Bush has no knowledge of these rendition programs and of the black site secret prisons. Even President Bush receives daily intelligence briefings and must read at least the headlines. 

The fact that the mainstream media lets him get away with his weak defense of these horror events is damning to the American media as well as to the public. We should demand a full investigation and an end to these programs. Could it be that we have sunk so low as a nation that we don’t care about what is done to innocent people as long as it’s not being done on our soil?

Could the poison spread by George Bush and his team over the past seven years have infected us so badly that we just no longer care? Hopefully not. America used to be respected in the world as a nation that deeply cared about human rights. America has never been perfect, we have had our own issues with human rights and equal treatment of citizens, but over time we have moved a long way forward to resolve the issues.

Can’t America do the same when it comes to our government being involved in secret black prisons and torture? American citizens have the opportunity to clean up these disgraceful practices in the 2008 elections. We should be asking every candidate about their position on secret prisons, Guantanamo, and rendition programs. We should also ask each candidate about their position about the CIA getting involved in coups, assassinations, and other dirty business as a means of advancing American interests.

And we wonder why we are so hated around the world? While most Americans are good friendly people too often we have let “leaders” set courses for us that are morally and ethically indefensible. It indeed is time for a change in Washington. The American people must let the politicians know that we have had enough of “business as usual”. New leadership and new direction right across the board is required to get American back on a path that again leads to greatness.

If America continues on the present path there will be disastrous consequences. Thanks largely to the George Bush team it may already be too late for America to avoid additional serious blowback no matter who wins the office of President in 2008.

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