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In reply to the discussion: Massive leak exposes how the wealthy and powerful hide their money [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)142. Oh! So, THAT's why all the Immunity for Banksters, Warmongers and Traitors.
Alfred McCoy explained why on Democracy Now, way back on May 1, 2009:
Historian Alfred McCoy: Obama Reluctance on Bush Prosecutions Affirms Culture of Impunity
EXCERPT...
AMY GOODMAN: Well, talk about President Obamas approach, on the one hand, releasing the torture memos and Id like you to respond to specifically whats in those torture memos
ALFRED McCOY: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: but then saying he will not be holding the interrogators responsible, people involved with it; we have to move forward, not move back.
ALFRED McCOY: Right. Thats exactly how you get impunity. Thats whats happened every single time in the past. For example, in 1970, the House and Senate of the United States discovered that the Phoenix Program had been engaged in systematic torture, that they had killed through extraditial executions 46,000 South Vietnamese. Thats about the same number of American combat deaths in South Vietnam. Nothing was done. There was no punishment, and the policy of torture continued.
In 1994, for example, the US ratified the Convention Against Torture. There was no investigation of past practice. So, when that ratification went through, it was done in a way that in fact legalized psychological torture, because when we ratified that convention, we also, if you will, passed a reservation, which then got codified into US federal law, Section 2340 of the US Federal Code. In that code, we said that psychological torture, which is actually the main form of torture practiced by the United States since the 1950s, is basically not torture.
And we defined, very cleverly, under that code, what psychological torture is. We simply said its four things. Its extreme physical pain, forced injection of drugs, threats against another, or doing that to a third party. OK? Thats all that psychological torture is. In other words, everything in those torture memos, all those techniques of belly slaps, face slaps, face grabbing, waterboarding, is, under US law, supposedly not torture, because when we President Clinton ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, he didnt look into the past, he didnt discover what the nature of American torture was. And so, were now at a moment where if we dont prosecute or dont punish or dont seriously investigate, that this will be repeated again.
Another thing that emerges from the memos is, in fact, that the Bush Justice Department is very well aware. If you read the May 2005 memo by the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Steven Bradbury, he says, Look, I cant assure you that waterboarding is not torture. You know, the courts may find that it is torture. But dont worry about it. Because you know what? The courts arent going to rule on this. So in other words, dont worry about the law, because the law doesnt apply to you. The law will not be brought to bear. And thats the problem of President Obamas procedure. The men were assured that they could torture, because it wouldnt come before the courts.
Theres another problem with those memos, as well. Those memos argue again and again that the most extreme of all the authorized CIA techniques, waterboarding, is not torture, because it does not violate that same Section 2340 of US Federal Code. But it does. Waterboarding is the most cruel, the most extremely cruel form of torture known to man, very simply because of this and people dont understand, I think, waterboarding. Amy, if you and I were riding in a car, and we went off a bridge in January here in Wisconsin and crashed through the ice and went down to the bottom of the Ohio River, within three minutes you and I would be dead from drowning. If there were an infant in a car seat behind us, that infant could survive for twenty minutes under water. A weak, fragile three-month-old infant could survive twenty minutes under water, be plucked by the rescue crew from the waters and suffer no brain damage, be perfectly fine. Alright? How can this happen? Its the mammalian diving reflex. The human being is so afraid of death by drowning that we are hardwired into our biology, into our
JUAN GONZALEZ: I want to
ALFRED McCOY: brains with this bizarre mammalian diving reflex. So, therefore, waterboarding, which induces this primal fear of death by drowning, is the most painful form of torture you can concoct. Thats why its existed for 500 years.
CONTINUED...
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/1/torture_expert_alfred_mccoy_obama_reluctance
Prof. McCoy warned us that it's business-as-usual for Empire and it will happen again -- unless it's punished and those responsible held accountable, which would make my rainbow unicorn sooooo really happy it wouldn't be funny.
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Jackson Stevens ties also to the Clintons, Alltel, Systematics, Beverly Enterprises
LiberalArkie
Apr 2016
#31
wondering how long it will be before the clintons and their foundation are implcated
Ferd Berfel
Apr 2016
#129
I don't think they will be and if they were it would not make any difference at all.
LiberalArkie
Apr 2016
#131
The way I see it is that most of the HRC supporters are for big business less regulation.
LiberalArkie
Apr 2016
#135
Of course not, it'll be all 'we had NO idea what that investment firm was up to, we're as outraged
AtheistCrusader
Apr 2016
#133
Leak from just one firm. Imagine what the rest of them have, helping offshore tax dodgers?
Octafish
Apr 2016
#16
As Ambassador DeSadesky said: ''That is an astonishingly good idea you have there, Doctor.''
Octafish
Apr 2016
#71
Bumping, in response to the DU'er who dissed Octafish some time back on one
silvershadow
Apr 2016
#5
Panama Papers: Iceland’s prime minister had offshore holdings in collapsed banks
bemildred
Apr 2016
#6
Yeah, I think our media is working overtime to cover up the Americans involved.
fasttense
Apr 2016
#117
'The story behind the #PanamaPapers?' tweets Edward Snowden. 'Courage is contagious.'
Octafish
Apr 2016
#68
Panama papers: Biggest data leak in history exposes offshore holdings of 12 current and former world
bemildred
Apr 2016
#9
Ted Cruz just named Phil Gramm his economic advisor. Here's Gramm's economic legacy:
KoKo
Apr 2016
#154
Phil Gramm toils at UBS with Bill Clinton in WEALTH MANAGEMENT (cough OFFSHORING?).
Octafish
Apr 2016
#156
More than half companies listed in #PanamaPapers are registered in British-administered tax havens
LiberalArkie
Apr 2016
#11
2.6 terabytes, 11.5 million documents, and 214,000 shell companies. Details
LiberalArkie
Apr 2016
#14
Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals New Zealand used to keep tax secrets
bemildred
Apr 2016
#15
This is one reason that going after "Wall Street" is like regulating buggy whips...
Sancho
Apr 2016
#19
You are right about the need for "stronger agreements and cooperation with other governments" but
pampango
Apr 2016
#82
Wouldn't be surprised CGI donors on this list awa in the Unaoil/Ahsani bribe machinery
stuffmatters
Apr 2016
#44
Wonderful Octafish! This will take a while....you bring the good stuff! Thanks! nt
haikugal
Apr 2016
#41
They're not hoarding it or stashing it on an island - they're hiding the flows
muriel_volestrangler
Apr 2016
#80
Zeitung responce to lack of U.S. individuals in the docs, saying "Just wait for what is coming next"
krawhitham
Apr 2016
#46
Certainly does. Remember how Princess Christina of Spain is under indictment for tax evasion?
Octafish
Apr 2016
#99
UBS one of the 10 Banks that Requested the Most Offshore Companies for Clients
Octafish
Apr 2016
#149
This isn't news, this is information. None of this is a shock or scandal to anyone who is
underahedgerow
Apr 2016
#70
So these are all the non-U.S. tax dodgers in just one (smallest) of the top four
valerief
Apr 2016
#93
and in 1987 reagan repealed the fairness doctrine and a CIA connected company
certainot
Apr 2016
#118
Over 200,000 shell companies are involved in the Panama Papers leak — here's why that's a big deal
bemildred
Apr 2016
#115
The Nazi, CIA And Nevada Connections... And Why It's Now Rothschild's Turn
Ichingcarpenter
Apr 2016
#120
K&R#199 Catherine Austin Fitts was revealing some of the structures from that Reagan/Bush/Clinton
bobthedrummer
Apr 2016
#126
Sirota: Hillary Pushed Panama Free Trade Agreements Amid Warnings this Would Happen
berni_mccoy
Apr 2016
#147
Foreign Policy asks: Will the ‘Panama Papers’ Bring Down Ukraine’s Chocolate King?
Octafish
Apr 2016
#155