Turpitude

I am interrupting my originally scheduled observations to bring you the following summary!


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"Morally, operationally, and politically…blah blah blah.. Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda…blah blah blah…cooperative "liaison" intelligence efforts…blah blah blah…Arab states…blah blah blah…sin, retribution, sex…blah blah blah …at least 100 men…blah blah blah…part of a global pattern…blah blah blah…top of a slippery slope…blah blah blah…Abu Ghraib…blah blah blah…abusive antics… aggressive interrogations…MTV imaginations… juvenile understanding…blah blah blah…Arab sexual ethics…blah blah blah…regime security… sexual intimidation…more polite, dictatorial regimes …blah blah blah…educational impact of rendition…blah blah blah…hard-nosed bureaucrats… "ragheads"…many Americans…blah blah blah… privately agree…dirty work….Arab enemies…blah blah blah…violent political behavior…blah blah blah…the compelling reason… two great advantages…blah blah blah…proving guilt…civilian or military court…extremely difficult…blah blah blah…minor-league would-be Islamic terrorists or guerrillas…blah blah blah…guilt by association…lack of legally admissible evidence….blah blah blah…eliminates the Guantanamo detention problem …blah blah blah…large-scale renditions to Uzbekistan…Guantanamo-avoidance type…limited operational range…blah blah blah…14 years of pretty warm relations…best liaison cooperation…any Central Asian state…blah blah blah…muted sounds…human beings…memories of 9/11…blah blah blah…efficacy of rendition…indefensible…ugly… blah blah blah… needed tool…blah blah blah…abdication of intelligence professionalism…blah blah blah…maintain control… good, even excellent… greater knowledge… greater access… dominion …blah blah blah… intelligence sources…blah blah blah…Syrian debriefings… aiding Iraqi insurgents…Palestinian terrorist organizations… Lebanese Hezbollah… Iran's Revolutionary Guards… drug-smuggling organization…blah blah blah… in-house aggressive interrogation… blah blah blah…Bush's pro-democracy foreign policy…blah blah blah…Ambassador Negroponte …reluctantly…blah blah blah… grow to appreciate…blah blah blah… assent to torturing…blah blah blah …truth will come out…blah blah blah… primitive notions of justice and salvation…blah blah blah…thoughtful, humane counterterrorist program…blah blah blah…proved to have committed specific terrorist acts…blah blah blah…years--decades, perhaps--in American jails…blah blah blah…Repatriation isn't rendition…blah blah blah…unjust…blah blah blah…truly innocent who get sucked up…blah blah blah…allied dragnet…blah blah blah…ethical codes…divine authority…blah blah blah…torture…extract information…save lives…blah blah blah… expansion of democracy in the Middle East…blah blah blah…determined promotion of democracy…blah blah blah… liberal democracy in the Middle East…blah blah blah…encourage and empower progressive Muslims…blah blah blah…rendition ethic in Washington…blah blah blah…"forward strategy of freedom"…blah blah blah."

So yes, by all means! Let's have that "great debate" between torturers and/or their intellectual advisors. What do you say? American Enterprise Institute's Reuel Marc Gerecht vs. our Judiciary's Ayatollah Shahrudi. Assuming, of course, that the fellows would ever step out of their safe haven provided them by that babble of "moral equivalency."

Isn't it way too easy to just continue hiding behind millions of one's fellow citizens, and the history of one's nation and the deity of one's choice instead of exhibiting the audacity it requires--in the words of an old professor of mine--- to "appear naked in public?"