Torture Chicks Gone Wild, Maureen Dowd

"Who are these women? Who allows this to happen? Why don't the officers who allow it get into trouble? Why do Rummy and Paul Wolfowitz still have their jobs?....."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/opinion/30dowd.html?oref=login&hp

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Torture Chicks Gone Wild
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: January 30, 2005

WASHINGTON

By the time House Republicans were finished with him, Bill Clinton must have thought of a thong as a torture device. For the Bush administration, it actually is. A former American Army sergeant who worked as an Arabic interpreter at Gitmo has written a book pulling back the veil on the astounding ways female interrogators used a toxic combination of sex and religion to try to break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba. It's not merely disgusting. It's beyond belief.

The Bush administration never worries about anything. But these missionaries and zealous protectors of values should be worried about the American soul. The president never mentions Osama, but he continues to use 9/11 as an excuse for American policies that bend the rules and play to our worst instincts.

"I have really struggled with this because the detainees, their families and much of the world will think this is a religious war based on some of the techniques used, even though it is not the case," the former sergeant, Erik R. Saar, 29, told The Associated Press. The A.P. got a manuscript of his book, deemed classified pending a Pentagon review.

What good is it for President Bush to speak respectfully of Islam and claim Iraq is not a religious war if the Pentagon denigrates Islamic law - allowing its female interrogators to try to make Muslim men talk in late-night sessions featuring sexual touching, displays of fake menstrual blood, and parading in miniskirt, tight T-shirt, bra and thong underwear? It's like a bad porn movie, "The Geneva Monologues." All S and no M. The A.P. noted that "some Guantánamo prisoners who have been released say they were tormented by 'prostitutes.' " Mr. Saar writes about what he calls "disturbing" practices during his time in Gitmo from December 2002 to June 2003, including this anecdote related by Paisley Dodds, an A.P. reporter.

more......

um, I think they mean "prostitute".

Moral majority, indeed.

More from the Chicago Sun-Times:

"The concept was to make the detainee feel that after talking to her he was unclean and was unable to go before his God in prayer and gain strength," says the draft, stamped "Secret."

The interrogator used ink from a red pen to fool the detainee, Saar writes.

"She then started to place her hands in her pants as she walked behind the detainee," he says. "As she circled around him he could see that she was taking her hand out of her pants. When it became visible the detainee saw what appeared to be red blood on her hand. She said, 'Who sent you to Arizona?' He then glared at her with a piercing look of hatred.

"She then wiped the red ink on his face. He shouted at the top of his lungs, spat at her and lunged forward"-- so fiercely that he broke loose from one ankle shackle.

"He began to cry like a baby," the draft says, noting the interrogator left saying, "Have a fun night in your cell without any water to clean yourself."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-gitmo28.html

of the world should follow?

This makes me sick!

Saddam's "rape rooms". Qouth Mr Burns - "Ah, the hunter becomes the hunted."

.....I doubt that the thong tease works as well on inmates at Gitmo as it did on Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.......

she knows Fascism when she sees it

and actions of those who we vote into public office, IMHO.

Once again despite all the rhetoric about this being a "War on Terror", Chimp and the Neocons are reinforcing the radicals' belief it is really a war of religion. Hearing all the Neocon pundits claiming this is not torture or it's not so bad because it's not physical are missing the point. If we are using these detainees' beliefs against them, it can and will be viewed that way and put more Americans lives in danger, create more radicals and further sully our reputation in the rest of the world. Just another attempt of the Christian fundies to dismiss other beliefs, while beating into others their own and condoning policies that will come back to bite us in the ass as so many others recently have done.

Really!

Damn it, where's the frickin' Catholic Church? Where's the Pope? They made such a HUGE damn stink about how terrible it was that the Catholic candidate for President wouldn't toe the church's line about abortion. Oh man they just went on and on about how terrible Kerry was and how Catholics couldn't support such a depraved candidate.

Well, what about torture? All of a sudden the voice of moral outrage is strangely silent. Where are the Bishops who were so upset with Kerry? Are they sending out fliers to their congregation telling their parishioners to demand a halt to torture?

Please, anyone, have you heard a peep about this from the church leaders?

Where is the outrage? Or maybe this really IS a religious war.

Damn it, this is MY country, a country I was once proud of, and we're torturing prisoners and the moral leaders of our nation are absent. I even wrote to my two Democratic Senators two weeks ago and...nothing.

:nuke:

This is one of the worst things about the Neocons activities. I keep hearing how the Religious Right is not representative of all of mainstream Christianity and a lot of church leaders disagree with the war and other Bush policies. Yet as you say...where's the outrage?
If indeed the Pat Robinson crowd only represent a small, albeit powerful, minority of Christian sects, why are "true" Christians and their representatives afraid to mount an opposition. The size and influence some of these groups have would be enough to turn the tide against the Bush fundies. That's assuming this all is true and the fundies don't reflect all or most believers. I think any Christian that believes otherwise and doesn't speak out is responsible as well for the killing, hate and intolerance the fundies support.

If women aren't kept mindlessly pumpin' out babies, they're more likely to think for themselves and challenge those celibate men in dresses.

Also, fewer babies born equals fewer chewtoys for the priests.

After we treat them in these ways do we really expect them to think Christianity is a better religion. We have many in America who are demanding this be/is a Christian religion, but then we have people who are really acting on behalf of the American government acting in the most unchristian, unmuslim, insane ways. Are we not only stirring up more and more hate for our nation?