(no subject)

[catsittingstill]

Just kicking back and reading a bit before going home. Found something I want to pass on.

Amnesty International has a petition against the use of torture. I don't remember how to make a link just now (my brain is fried) but it's here

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/petition/index.asp?id=30.

I'm feeling significantly bent out of shape about Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition, and this was one little thing I could do. Maybe you'd like to do it too.

Comments

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Thank you for passing it on - I just signed too.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Glad to pass it on, and thanks for signing!

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Amnesty lost all credibility decades ago, but whatever decayed shred of its former reputation still clung to it was lost about two weeks ago, when its spokesmen claimed that there was a "gulag" going on in Guantanamo, and then admitted that they actually had no idea whether this was true, but "it would be fascinating to find out". Any comparison of Guantanamo to the gulag is a sign of moral cretinism, and not only because the prisoners in the gulag hadn't actually done anything wrong (though that's a significant difference ain its own right, if one more were needed).

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

My heart is not set on voicing my opposition to torture through Amnesty International. If you know of a petition against the use of torture sponsored by an organization you consider more reputable, I'll be happy to sign another.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I don't think the people who are actually engaging in torture at the moment (e.g. the Baathists and Islamists in Iraq (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/international/middleeast/19torture.html?ex=1276833600&en=c71124875a2b43e6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss) and the Iranians) will care about petitions or letter writing campaigns. Meanwhile, whipping up hysteria about the USA, making wild and unfounded accusations of torture, only serve to support the enemy, and I believe that is Amnesty's intent.

If you know of actual torture going on in USAn facilities, or of anything worse than goes on every day in domestic prisons and police stations, you don't need a petition, you can write directly to those responsible. But I don't see the problem; if the worst complaint about Guantanamo is that the Korans the army gave the prisoners are being 'mishandled', or that the 20th hijacker was made to piss his pants, things are pretty good.

Or, better still, you can just concentrate on what does go on in prisons and police stations, which is pretty shocking; the fact that elected officials actually joke about prison rape (http://www.cato.org/pubs/papers/palmer-06-06-01.html) should be far more worrying to us than how enemy fighters are interrogated. Prison reform can happen state by state, and police reform (http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/snyder_prison.html) city by city, so it should be easier to achieve if that's what you want to put your efforts into.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Cat. As always, the world is blessed by you.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Err. Well, thanks. Happy to help.

[patoadam]

Thanks. Signed.

What admnaismith said.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Thanks

Yeah, it really rots

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Sympathies.

I think the last word on this goes to the inimitable Fafnir, who reminds us that we are better than Galactus.

Re: Yeah, it really rots

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I am prepared to concede this point to Fafnir. For now.

[patoadam]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050619/ts_latimes/iraqisecuritytacticsevokethehusseinera

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

An interesting, if not precisely appetizing, article. I am saddened to think that we may have spent all that money and blood and credibility only to end up oppressing the Iraqi people with someone as bad as Saddam. I earnestly hope things will get better.