Suffering Semantics

Bush says that it is not torture but "enhanced interrogation measures". Skimming only the headlines, an interested civilian might be easily led to believe the large font headlines screaming, "Bush Bans Torture", as if the great humanitarian had unilaterally asserted the natural moral law inherent in an civilized mind, that there is never any justification for torture - ever. Bush appears to have overstepped his bounds.

The President of the United States, George W. Bush, signed on Friday, July 20, 1997 a characteristic Orwellian doublespeak Executive Order by using meaningless, pedagogic wordiness in order to obscure the truth of the daily routine of torture. In the audio Torture Warrant, is a stirring speech by Gallus commenting on the injustice in the Roman Empire.

There is no Jack Bauer. This is everyday, contemptible standard procedures that are internationally illegal. If these strong-arm tactics used result in losing consciousness within hours, then of what investigative purpose is served by rendering a person mentally stultified? What useful information can be gain from such delirious and irrational wretchedness?

Lord Coke wrote in the "Third Institute," that " ... there is no law to warrant tortures in this land, nor can they be justified by any prescription".

In the book, "Unspeakable acts, ordinary people: the dynamics of torture" by John Conroy, on page 128, Hinkle & Wolff is quoted from the magazine - "American Medical Associations, whose article, "Archive of Neurology and Psychiatry" states, "The effects of isolation, anxiety, fatigue, lack of sleep, uncomfortable temperatures, and chronic hunger ... lead to serious disturbances ... no reason to differentiate them from any other form of torture." [1956]

In the book that Tony Laqouranis wrote called, "Fear Up Harsh," Allen Mikaelian, an ex-interrogator said, "If you don't include torturing helpless prisoners in your definition of evil," he replied, "your definition of evil is meaningless."

The euphemisms are used to hide the fact that the CIA is still allowed to create pain that is "equal to organ failure or death." Repeated near-drownings, chronic sensory isolation and brainwashing techniques, are all well known to create permanent physical and mental disability.

If Bush is calling techniques that damage in hours and which are used routinely for extended periods of days into months, "not torture" then Bush's definition of what is torture is utterly merciless.

Torture was regarded (in Jardine's words: op cit, pp 6 and 12) "totally repugnant to the fundamental principles of English law" and considered it the royal prerogative of the king ...inflicting torture at pleasure at the mere instance of the Crown.

Jose Padilla, an American citizen, arrested on America soil, has already been tortured and held since 2001 without habeas corpus. Padilla's mental state renders him unable to assist his lawyers in his own defense. The presumption of innocence has been abolished in the case of Jose.

In the poem "First they came..."by Martin Niemöller is an practical manifestation of not helping others who are not unlike ourselves. The last stanza is "Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me."

In the book Unspeakable acts, ordinary people: the dynamics of torture" by John Conroy, wrote about brutal persecution, states on page 27, "... one of the central aspects of torture, is that the type of people whom society accepts as torturable has a tendency to expand."