It's Sunday - Darwin is Dead

Science deniers have further official “proof” that man does not evolve. In fact, here in America, we are experiencing devolution.

Amnesty International has written a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates objecting to the conditions of Bradley Manning's detention.

[...]

The letter follows a report from Manning's lawyer, former Lt. Col. David Coombs, that the conditions of his detention temporarily worsened in the past week, prompting a formal complaint under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Amnesty's letter also follows a report that the U.N.'s leading official on torture is formally investigating the conditions of Manning's detention, a fact confirmed two weeks ago by The New York Times ("the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Mendez, “said he had submitted a formal inquiry about the soldier’s treatment to the State Department").

Of course, caring what Amnesty International or the U.N. have to say about the conditions of America's detainees is so very 2004. Now, such a concern is -- to borrow a phrase from Alberto Gonazles -- a quaint and obsolete relic of the past.

Glenn Greenwald

Precisely. This is the age of American Stalinism.

Relatedly, the ACLU has obtained new documents which shed more harsh light on the 190 War on Terror detainees who died in American custody. Specifically, many of these documents -- autopsy reports and military investigations - - show that at least 25 to 30 of those cases were "unjustified homicides," i.e., murder. [...] Gen. Barry McCaffrey has said: "We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A."

[...]

The Brookings Institutions' Benjamin Wittes last week criticized the Obama DOJ for merely leaving open the possibility of prosecution for some of these CIA interrogators who were so sadistic and lawless that they even exceeded the boundaries of the torture permission slips given to them by the Bush DOJ.

Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it? Oh, but the fact that I can still (as of this date anyway) write about it and express my opposition to it means that we’re a great and free country, eh?

We can now officially count ourselves amongst the lowest minded and most brutal regimes of history. But we’ll still be seeking sanctions against other countries for “human rights abuses.”

Bet on it.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.