Torture Report Tuesday

++Our torture establishment filled the zones to day with appearances on all the networks and stories that George W. Bush was working to stop the publication of the Senate report. 

++We also had the obligatory op-ed from Marc Thiessen about the wonders torture brought with a discovery of a dangerous man we hadn't been able to identify.

++The State Department and Pentagon are prepared from any violent reaction from abroad. 

++If you want to review the run-up to the Torture Report, you should read Andrew Sullivan at the Dish. First his rant on The Bushies about the torture program and his later piece on why some in the beltway claim the warnings about the dire consequences of releasing this $40 million report over several thousand pages is pure rubbish.

++I don't want to repeat the several posts I have done over the years about the American torture program. I think it's better if the reader enjoys Terminal Atrocity Zone: Ballard, edited by Candice Black about the period in J.G. Ballard's life when he examined the relationship between violence and sex in works like Crash and Atrocity Exhibition. Love and Napalm: Export USA traces a psychiatrists nervous break down in 15 stories that cover his encounters with violence of all types and sex. I'm reminded of the book because of the role played by the American Psychological Association (APA) in changing the ethics of engaging in the Torture program to accommodate their members who were earning lucrative contracts.

++Our Torture Program is just that--Ours. We will say we are mimicking the worst of the KGB,North Korea and Nazi Germany. But the truth is we created new frontiers in torture using sensory deprivation and dramatic changes in time and space to literally break a person's mind. This was done over an extended period of time. That is why the supporters of American Torture are so proud--It is a purely American product.

++That is why J.G. Ballard would have been perfect in capturing the unique artistic possibilities of Our Torture Program. J.G. Ballard soured on the US in his latter years. He thought the future always came from this violent country. I think the Torture program would have brought him back. He actually thought all this violence dreadful but he felt he had to honestly deal with it.

++Hopefully we can but I am skeptical. Remember while this was going on,Jack Bauer was the big TV hero who did not hesitate to use torture against TV terrorists.

++To grasp the gravity of the situation, don't dwell on the fact we did it but concentrate on how we did it. I'm so pleased countries where I worked on anti-torture programs never attempted to be as sophisticated and deadly as we were.