European Epistle #4 Secret Prisons and Vassal States

[Cain]

European Epistle #4 Secret Prisons and Vassal States

"They would take you to a secret sub-basement of a military or government building, where they would methodically savage your body and brain with the latest ,Äòadvances,Äô in torture methods, designed to inflict the maximum pain a human can tolerate without losing consciousness or dying, until you named all the other ,Äòleftists,Äô you knew. You would then be ,Äòdisappeared,Äô from the face of the earth, and these men would pay a visit to everyone you had named.",Äî Michael Levine, on the estimated 25,000 desaparecidos of Argentina, from The Big White Lie
(p. 29)

"Protective Custody is an act of care.",Äî the despicable Heinrich Himmler, attempting to veil the true nature of the Concentration Camps through propaganda

"Comrades, we are not uncovering conspiracies, we are fabricating them. We are persecuting and killing people on the basis of unfounded and slanderous charges.",Äî Drovyanikov of the Leningrad NKVD (who was shortly thereafter executed for "treason"as a result of this statement)

In all of the sickening things I have heard of in the pantomime we like to call the War on Terror (Or more accurately, the War on Some Sorts of Terror and Not Others), possibly the worst is the ,Äúsecret prisons,Äù that the CIA use as part of its extraordinary rendition program, the black sites where people are kidnapped and quite likely tortured without any charges brought against them, or trials or evidence.

Of course, right now, its not certain if the sites exist, but we'd have to be na?Øve to believe otherwise, especially after Guantanamo and in Iraq.  Its well known that the CIA, as well as several other services, such as French Intelligence, are allowed and do take prisoners to countries where torture is perfectly legal and take down what the person admits to after a few days or weeks of ,Äúspecialist treatment.,Äù  Taking notes for fucking torturers!  And our own governments are complicate in these actions!  In the UK, over 2005 there were more than 400 CIA rendition flights.  It is highly likely that we knew what they were doing and refused to stop them.  We knew they were taking people to be tortured and kept in secret prisons, people who had not been charged or found guilty.  We aided them by standing aside and doing nothing, even though we knew what was going to happen.  Spain and Germany have done the same too, and the European Council believes the main black site for these kidnapped people (for thats what they are) is either in Poland or Romania.

Welcome to the new Europe, same as the old one!  

What the hell makes us any better than the barbarians of the KGB, or the murderous thugs of the SS who did the same thing?  Oh sure, right now its only ,Äúsuspected terrorists,Äù (or at least, thats what we are told) but how long until they are used on other ,Äúdissidents?,Äù  People said the same thing in Germany when Hitler set up the camps in 1934, that they were only for Communists and Anarchists and other dangerous types.  How wrong they were, when they found SPD members, or kids who said Hitler was a psychotic madman, were thrown in alongside these oh so dangerous individuals!  

Why don't we just build a few dozen huge ovens and get it over with, huh?  I mean, this is where this is going to end, anyway.  I'm sure we can find some obscene message to scrawl over the prison gates while we're at it too, maybe ,Äúyour side lost, hippy!,Äù, or ,ÄúQuit your fucking whining.,Äù Its what will eventually happen, if something isn't done soon.

Secret anything is an abomination in a democratic republic or constitutional parliamentary democracy.  If something is kept secret, it should only be to keep people safe, such as the intelligence services, where information can lead to loss of life.  Who are we protecting here?  What people, whose lives are at stake by disclosing the truth of these prisons?  No-ones, of course.  The secrecy has one use and one alone, for that of installing fear.  Toe the line, support your government, keep waiving your rights with your flags, lest we come and throw you into our secret jails.

That our own governments are complicate in these actions should tell you something important too.  Your government is unable to protect you, not against terrorists or anyone else who would seek to do you harm.  Our nations are slaves to the American intelligence services ,Äì no, not slaves, for slavery has a moral factor of force being used, they are servants, vassals who will sacrifice you to keep their Washington masters happy and on good terms.  So much for the social contact then.

Our own ,Äúleaders,Äù have forfeited their right to that name or their leadership through supporting this.  We never damn well learn, do we?  Not once the truth about Hitler was learnt, not when the Berlin Wall came down and not now.    We are humans, not animals and we do not deserve to be treated as such.  We should never stand by while others are beaten and deprived of their basic rights, no matter what they have been accused of.  Because, by my moral reckoning, most of our political leaders should have been tortured to death several times over.  But we don't do that.  We don't label threats without trial or charge.  We don't torture at all, or execute extrajudicially.  We are losing the moral high ground here, as well as something central to our whole conception of how the world should be.  And once these rights are no longer seen as central, how long until yours are violated?  How long until we march under another future swastika, or hammer and sickle?

[Triple Zero]

YES
\


i started out with printing 20 of these (doc).

[Wolfpoet]

i once compared invading Iraq to Hitler's invading Poland, I have also compared Guantamano to a Concentration camp. People have laughed at me and called me "anti-American"

I think History will yet vindicate my comparisons.

[East Coast Hustle]

first of all, if you were going to compare the current American military misadventure in the Middle East to the Wehrmacht, the correct analogy would be Hitler's crossing into the Sudetenland, not Poland.

second of all, you ARE anti-American. Not that it's a very difficult thing to be in this day and age, given the thieves and bastards running our government, but please try to remember that not all of us are like that.

third of all, last I checked, there were no women and children locked up in Gitmo. Your attempts at hysteria do nothing to help the actual situation, which really doesn't NEED to be overdramatized.

lastly, you seem to have lost your way. EB&G is over there.  :arrow:

[Cain]

There are children locked uo in Gitmo.  Under-16s at least, so teenagers, which count as kids in my book.  Also, I would have to agree, this is more analagous to the pre-war period, where Germany was following the line of most autocratic 20th century states.  Thats why I included the USSR too, to point out the similarities and not get lumped into the "Bush is the next Hitler" crowd, whom I dislike intensly for making my position look stupid.  I only use Nazi Germany as a reference because I have studied it in great depth.