Tag Archives | Torture

The United States of Barbarism

The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out today an oped I wrote on the torture deal.   FFF is one of the few places that has remained true to its principles since 9/11.  FFF chief Jacob Hornberger refused to compromise or kowtow no matter how high Bush’s approval ratings rose.  The United States of Barbarism by James Bovard, […]

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Torture, the Law of the Land – and The Torture Mastermind Reviewed

The key players in the U.S. Senate have agreed with the Bush administration to retroactively legalize torture by U.S. government agents. The compromise deal struck yesterday will block prosecution for CIA officials who tortured detainees since 9/11.  I would expect that, in the name of “fair play,” someone will begin pushing similar legislation to give […]

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How to Pry the Truth out of Congressmen

The Los Angeles Times ran a piece of mine today on fair play for our elected representatives.  Online here (registration required?) and following: Modest Proposal: Waterboard Congress Maybe White House-favored interrogation techniques would coax lawmakers to tell the truth about U.S. anti-terror policies. By James Bovard JAMES BOVARD is the author, most recently, of “Attention […]

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Redefining War Crimes out of Existence

The Washington Post today details how the Bush administration is desperately scrambling to get Congress to pass a law to retroactively legalize torture. OK, this is not exactly what the Post said — they would not be so ill-mannered towards the government. But the Supreme Court’s decision last month declaring that the Bush order on […]

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My hit on Bush’s Dictatorial Signing Statements

The American Conservative posted here my hit on Bush’s dictatorial signing statements. Here’s the lead of the piece: “For generations, Republican politicians have spoken reverently of the rule of law. But since 2001, this hoary doctrine has been redefined to mean little more than the enforcement of the secret thoughts of the commander in chief. […]

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Fan Letter of the Week: “Thy Name is Cowardice”

Email Subject line:  James Bovard, thy name is Cowardice “Five to seven million Iraqis disappeared, the majority of them Shiites.” – National Geographicmagazine, June 2004, page 28More to the point, WHO is doing the majority of the killing of Iraqi civilians?(HINT: It is NOT Americans. Can you say “Suicide Bombers”? Or how about “Islamofascist Hit […]

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Bush Now Entitled to Kill at Home?

The February 13 issue of Newsweek reveals that President Bush is entitled to order killings here in the United States, the same as he has been doing around the globe for the last few years. Newsweek notes that, “Steven Bradbury, acting head of the Justice department’s Office of Legal Counsel [the office which in 2002 […]

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