NY Times on the Drone War in Pakistan

The Downside of Letting Robots Do the Bombing
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: March 22, 2009
As drone strikes kill off Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, Washington struggles to understand the long-term implications of a push-button conflict.



Pretty good article in this weeks NY Times talking about the danger of relying on Drones to do our dirty work in Pakistan.  We really do need the support of the Pakistani people to be successful in Afghanistan, I don't think this is the way to go about it.

Tales From Torture’s Dark World

Tales From Torture’s Dark World

By Mark Danner
NY Times 14 March 2009

After former President Bush revealed that we had been holding suspected terrorists in so called CIA "Black Sites", the International Red Cross interviewed 14 of these prisoners. This article outlines some of the treatment we subjected them to. It really is a shame that as Americans our government acted in this way on our behalf and that high level officials allowed it to happen, somehow believing it ultimately made us safer.  Its hard to feel sorry for these prisoners, considering what they are supected of doing, what I feel is ashamed that officials representing what our my supposed values justify this behavior as being for my safety.  If anything the fact that these men were tortured will only fuel the hatred that certain groups of people feel for us.  It seems we could have accomplished so much more by demanding the moral high road, the treatment we afforded these prisoners is exactly what these groups would do to an American if they got a hold of them, this doesn't make in right, in fact it makes it all the more wrong.

“They placed a cloth or cover over the box to cut out all light and restrict my air supply. As it was not high enough even to sit upright, I had to crouch down. It was very difficult because of my wounds. The stress on my legs held in this position meant my wounds both in the leg and stomach became very painful. I think this occurred about three months after my last operation. It was always cold in the room, but when the cover was placed over the box it made it hot and sweaty inside. The wound on my leg began to open and started to bleed. I don’t know how long I remained in the small box; I think I may have slept or maybe fainted.

“I was then dragged from the small box, unable to walk properly, and put on what looked like a hospital bed, and strapped down very tightly with belts. A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral water bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe. After a few minutes the cloth was removed and the bed was rotated into an upright position. The pressure of the straps on my wounds was very painful. I vomited.

“The bed was then again lowered to horizontal position and the same torture carried out again with the black cloth over my face and water poured on from a bottle. On this occasion my head was in a more backward, downwards position and the water was poured on for a longer time. I struggled against the straps, trying to breathe, but it was hopeless.”

After being placed again in the tall box, Abu Zubaydah “was then taken out and again a towel was wrapped around my neck and I was smashed into the wall with the plywood covering and repeatedly slapped in the face by the same two interrogators as before.

“I was then made to sit on the floor with a black hood over my head until the next session of torture began. The room was always kept very cold.

This went on for approximately one week.”

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