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AlterNet Article - Americans Are Basically OK With CIA Torture Methods Like Rectal Feeding - Plus Comment I Had Posted is Disqus Forum

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AlterNet Article - Americans Are Basically OK With CIA Torture Methods Like Rectal Feeding - Plus Comment I Had Posted is Disqus Forum Empty AlterNet Article - Americans Are Basically OK With CIA Torture Methods Like Rectal Feeding - Plus Comment I Had Posted is Disqus Forum

Post by Big Fat Heretic Tue Dec 30, 2014 9:38 am

OK, here is another article concerning CIA torture methods.

This one is from AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/shock-poll-americans-are-ok-cia-torture-methods

And I had posted a comment in their Disqus Forum a couple of weeks ago.

The Disqus Forum is now closed for any further comments because the article is two weeks old now.

Anyway . . . here it is.



AlterNet / By Cliff Weathers

Americans Are Basically OK With CIA
Torture Methods Like Rectal Feeding

Despite a scathing report on torture, a majority of survey respondents
approve of the CIA's grisly methods.


December 16, 2014  |  Most Americans are fine with the CIA's torture methods used in the wake of 9/11, according to a new poll conducted by Pew Research.  

In the wake of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report, released last week, 51% of respondents said that they think the CIA was justified using the methods in question, which included water boarding, rectal feeding, and sleep deprivation.

Only 29% of Americans said that torture was not justified. Another 20% said they did not have an opinion. The survey of 1,001 adult Americans was conducted December 11-14.

AlterNet Article - Americans Are Basically OK With CIA Torture Methods Like Rectal Feeding - Plus Comment I Had Posted is Disqus Forum 1poll

Despite the Senate report, which said torture provided no actionable intelligence that couldn’t be found elsewhere, poll respondents disagreed; 56% of them said that torture did provide intelligence that prevented terrorist attacks. Only 28% concurred with the intelligence committee report that torture didn’t provide this type of intelligence.

Republicans were much more likely to approve of the CIA’s use of torture, with more than two thirds saying that it was justified. Democrats could not agree on this issue, while 46% said that the CIA’s methods were wrong, 37% said that they were justifiable.

Respondents were almost evenly split on whether the Senate Intelligence Committee should have released the report. Forty-three percent said that the decision was not justified, while 42% said it was the right thing to do.

Most white Americans (57%) found the CIA’s methods justified, while blacks and Hispanics were more divided.  Younger respondents  (under 30) were less likely to say the CIA’s methods were justified than those over 50 years of age. Men were more supportive of torture than were women.

AlterNet Article - Americans Are Basically OK With CIA Torture Methods Like Rectal Feeding - Plus Comment I Had Posted is Disqus Forum Poll2

However, the public didn’t seem to pay much interest in the matter. While it was one of the most reported news stories of the week, just 23% of respondents said that they followed news about the torture report closely. By contrast, 35% said that they were paying close attention to the demonstrations around the country in the wake of two grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.

Cliff Weathers is a senior editor at AlterNet, covering environmental and consumer issues. He is a former deputy editor at Consumer Reports. His work has also appeared in Salon, Car and Driver, Playboy, Raw Story and Detroit Monthly among other publications. Follow him on Twitter @cliffweathers and on Facebook.

Then, I had posted a comment in their Disqus Forum.

Here is a copy of my comment.



WOW! I can't believe that 51% percent of Americans favored the torture of war prisoners!!! Oh! REALLY???

I am very sadly disappointed!!!

OK, I'm a white male over the age of 50, I'm 63 years old, and I want to go on record that, I AM ABSOLUTELY AGAINST THE USE OF TORTURE ON WAR PRISONERS!!!

Let me tell you a little bit about myself here.

My parents taught me how to read before I even started school so that by the time I was only in the 3rd or 4th grade, I could already read at high school and adult level.

As a kid I would hang out most of the afternoons in the public library during the summer when school was out.

I was always interested in science, especially Astronomy. That has always been my absolute favorite.

Now, you're all probably wondering what this has to do with torture.

Please bear with me. OK?

Anyway . . . when reading a lot about Astronomy, you get into some of the history.

For example:

Back in the 1500s when Catholic church doctrine held that the earth was the center of the cosmos, and that the sun and all the planets revolved around the earth, a Polish astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus, thought that instead, the earth and planets revolved around the sun, and he wrote a book which he titled "On The Revolution of The Celestial Orbs" but he waited until he was an old man before having his book published. Eventually the catholic church place his book on the index of forbidden literature. Yeah! Censorship!!

OK, you're all thinking by now that I'm way off topic. Yeah, like, what does this have to do with torture?

Wait! I'm getting there!

Another fine gentleman, by the name of Giordano Bruno, he embraced the Copernican view of the cosmos and went a step further, saying that all the stars were really distant suns with their own planetary systems, and that there could even be intelligent life on those distant planets. So he was way ahead of his times! Although he did believe in God, he could not accept Catholic church doctrine. He rejected the concept of the Trinity and the Catholic concept of God. He was actually more religious than the clergy, believing in a much greater God who created an infinite universe. To him, the God of the Bible was too small and petty! For this reason, he was imprisoned, and TORTURED!!! Then, in the year 1600 he was burned at the stake! Yeah! The Catholic church used TORTURE!!!

Now, can you see where I'm coming from?

Water-boarding is not new. The Spanish Inquisition invented water-boarding centuries ago!!!

So, the Republican party, who advocates the use of torture on war prisoners, they are still living in The Dark Ages.

HEY MY FELLOW AMERICANS!!!

This is the year 2014, and NOT the year 1214!!! Ya got that???

Can you get that into your thick skulls???

OK, I was about 8 or 9 years old when I started reading books on Astronomy, my favorite subject. Over the years I have read hundreds books on Astronomy. Remember, I'm a 63 year old coot! Yeah! I'm fat and bald and I smoke cigars!

Anyway . . . . .

While I was still only in grade school, I had read about how Galileo was put on trial. He was never actually tortured but he was threatened with the possibility of being tortured. He was interrogated for many long hours, and eventually he broke down, and recanted his convictions that the earth and planets revolved around the sun. He signed a confession, under duress, of course. Then he was allowed to return to his home in Florance, Italy where he spend the remaining years of his life under house arrest until the day he died.

Yeah! The Inquisition used enhanced interrogation!!!

When Galileo was being held at the Vatican, he was made to remove his regular clothes, stripped down to his under garments, and made to don the white robe of the penitent, and as he approached the Catholic Inquisitors, first, he had to lay prostrate, face down on the floor before getting back up on his feet again to stand before his accusers.

Anyway . . . . .

After having read about Galileo, I was about 11 years old when I started checking out books on the Inquisition from my public library, and I got to learn about all the many different methods of torture that were used. Not a pretty sight!!!

So, if you want to hear someone's opinion on torture . . . . . go ask an Astronomer!!!

Well, I'm just an amateur Astronomer myself, and not a professional. But I did have three years of college at NMSU, New Mexico State University from 1975 to 1978, but I didn't have a chance to finish earning my degree. I even personally knew Dr Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto back in the 1930s and he taught at NMSU. When I got to know him, he was retired, but he still hung out at NMSU.

Anyway . . . . . when one reads a lot of books on Astronomy, and the history thereof, one gets to read all about the Roman Catholic church, and about the Inquisition and all about torture. Yeah! Sweet! Really sweet!

One day, I came across an old book with a 1900 copyright date on it. The pages were yellowed with age.

The book was titled "A Short History of The Inquisition" by Ingersoll.

Short, my fat ass!!! It had over 2000 pages!!! It took me about two weeks to finish reading it, and it gave me nightmares!

I very highly recommend this book! If ya have the guts to read it!!!

The inquisition lasted from 1100 to about 1830 and then it goes into some of the history of slavery in America and how slaves were beaten, tortured, and murdered during and even after the Civil War.

Of course, the book is very hard to find. I've been searching the Internet to see if I can order a copy for myself.

And now . . . here we are, boys and girls, we're now living in the 21st century and our Republican party embraces the use of torture on war prisoners.

Oh! What was that, Texas Governor Rick Perry said, about Galileo being out-voted?

We have a Republican party that is morally corrupt, and rotten to the core, trying to push America ever closer to becoming a theocracy!

So! According to this article, Americans are basically OK with CIA torture methods?

Oh! REALLY???

Well . . . I for one . . . am not OK with it.

No! Not at all!

I'm very much not OK with it!

Signed

~ ~ ~ Big Fat Heretic ~ ~ ~


OK, these polls were conducted by the PEW RESEARCH CENTER.

I would dearly love to see some kind of poll conducted where they ask college professors who teach Astronomy, Astrophysics, Paleontology, Biology, etc. etc. and also professional Astronomers, Astrophysicists, Paleontologists, Biologists, etc. etc. about whether or not they approve of torture.

Since they would be most familiar with the history of the Inquisition, and how so many intellectuals were tortured and murdered  by the Roman Catholic church, and the so-called Holy Office of The Inquisition, I'm sure that 100% percent would all respond with a resounding . . . . .

NO!!!  
Big Fat Heretic
Big Fat Heretic
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