Allan Nairn on the Torture Ban

[carincross]

http://www.counterpunch.org/nairn01262009.html

The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture By ALLAN NAIRN

"When President Obama declared flatly this week that 'the United States will not torture' many people wrongly believed that he'd shut the practice down, when in fact he'd merely repositioned it. Obama's Executive Order bans some -- not all -- US officials from torturing but it does not ban any of them, himself included, from sponsoring torture overseas. Indeed, his policy change affects only a slight percentage of US-culpable tortures and could be completely consistent with an increase in US-backed torture worldwide. The catch lies in the fact that since Vietnam, when US forces often tortured directly, the US has mainly seen its torture done for it by proxy -- paying, arming, training and guiding foreigners doing it, but usually being careful to keep Americans at least one discreet step removed.

... For every torment inflicted directly by Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and the secret prisons, there were many times more being meted out by US-sponsored foreign forces."

[tavalon]

1. This needs to be highlighted

I respect President Obama but he's going to need to be quite a bit more aboveboard on this issue.

[newfie11]

2. But I thought I heard him say he was closing the secret prisions

The ones run by US in other countries.