Génération torture
par Jerome ITU ~ 05/03/2007, 23:21 . Classé dans : Politique US .
La télé influence les jeunes recrues de l’armée américaines sur les techniques de torture.
C’est pourquoi le Brigadier Général, Patrick Finnegan, s’est rendu sur le tournage de la série 24, à la rencontre des producteurs de la série la plus controversée, afin de les alerter sur les dangers des méthodes de l’agent Jack Bauer :
Finnegan said: ‘I’d like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires. The kids see it and say, ‘If torture is wrong, what about ‘24′?’ The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do.’
Finnegan a dit : “J’aimerai qu’ils arrêtent. Ils devraient faire un épisode où la torture se retourne contre ses auteurs. Les gamins la regardent et se disent : si la torture est mauvaise, qu’en est-il de 24h chrono? Le plus perturbant c’est que, bien que la torture cause des angoisses à Jack Bauer, c’est toujours la chose patriotique à faire.”
L’acteur, Kiefer Sutherland, a depuis pris position contre la torture, en expliquant qu’elle ne donne que des renseignements biaisés puisque la victime “dit exactement ce que vous voulez entendre.” Et il a aussi accepté de se rendre à West Point pour parler aux cadets de la plus prestigieuse des académies militaires US.
Reste une question.
Est-ce que ce sont les fictions qui sont vraiment à blâmer ?
Ou une certaine politique interne mise en place en secret par un gouvernement peu soucieux du droit international ou de la Convention de Genève ?
Et peut-être même que 24h Chrono n’est pas LA série pour conservateurs zélés.
…
06/03/07 à 14:24
What I find amazing, though, is that a guy like Kiefer Sutherland goes to West Point to give a talk to the cadets. Hollywood types are really pulling their weight when it comes to discussing political and social issues. On This Week, the show hosted by George Stephanopoulos every Sunday morning, he always features at the end some Hollywood celebrity who talks for one or two minutes about some hot political issue.
06/03/07 à 16:49
Wait a minute? I thought there was a grand consipiracy in the US military to torture people! What’s this all about?
Could it be that all the hysteria about “torture” is really nothing more than that - hysteria??? After all, where is the evidence that someone has been tortured, unless you count loud Christina Aguilera music and thong underwear as torture. Sure, lots of jihadis say the US “tortured them,” but they also say pregnant women are unclean, you should beat your wife, and jews drink the blood of children.
06/03/07 à 22:47
Elisabeth,
that’s the point.
Who will be talking ? Kiefer Sutherland, and not Jack Bauer. So what will understand those cadets?
Greg,
Hum…
>> Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
07/03/07 à 03:33
#2 Wow!. Assimilation. “A lot ofihadis say ….. pregnant women are unclean” therefore when they claim that the US tortured them, they lie.
Come on Greg, I’ve been reading you for months; You are smarter than that.
07/03/07 à 03:35
# “ofihadis”
Don’t check your Arabic-English dictionary. No such word. Shoud have been “A lot of jihadis”…
Zut alors!
07/03/07 à 15:55
Is it really crazy to ask for more proof than the testimony of someone who admits hating America in the first place? I have no doubt that people are mistreated (Abu Ghraib, eg.). But I question that it is widespread or gov’t policy.
Abu Ghraib, in fact, is a great example of my point. Did anyone else read the story about the officer who preceded the Abu Ghraib abusers? I can’t even find it now. The guy is seething angry b/c a small group of sadists ruined what his unit had created, which was a model prison where the prisoners even appreciated their guards and thanked them when they were released. Abu Ghraib has been blown way out of proportion. As has GITMO. People need to take a deep breath, stick to facts, and stop assuming the worst about the American gov’t. I don’t think that is too much to ask.
In the meantime, can we take an unfiltered look at prisons in Europe? Would they look better or worse than GITMO?
14/03/07 à 14:32
Greg,
The point is that the US gov’ (= bush et al.) constantly strives to pass bills that: 1. eat away at the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens, and 2. aim to make the gov’ and it’s affiliates “not responsible” for the actions that they take. That is something you simply cannot deny, if you are correctly informed.
However, unfortunately most Americans do not get the information they deserve, but instead the information that the gov’ wants them to absorb.
I really would like to believe you when your say that it’s not all that bad, but I cannot without lying to myself. In fact, it might be even worse. It depends on what one knows, and knowing that what is most important is often least known, this is not a good thing.
People who want to solve things, talk about solutions. People who want to have it their way talk about actions. You figure it out from there, Greg.
Peace on you.
TJABBO
14/03/07 à 14:46
Tjabbo: Indeed, one should not believe everything one reads. Remember the “rapes and murders” in the Superdome after Katrina? The ones so widely reported? That never happened?
I want proof of torture, not some journalist’s conjecture; or the slurs of some biased UN committee that refuses to even visit the facility; or the testimony of some lunatic jihadi. Give me proof, that’s all.
14/03/07 à 16:50
Greg
Is it really crazy to ask for more proof than the testimony of someone who admits hating America in the first place? I have no doubt that people are mistreated (Abu Ghraib, eg.). But I question that it is widespread or gov’t policy.
So, the US doesn’t use rendition? C’mon Greg! Get your head out of the sand, I love my country and wish that this stuff wasn’t true, but Bush and Cheney have been cheerleaders for torture since they’ve been in office.
Did you forget this?
Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who also holds Syrian citizenship, was detained when he was switching flights in New York to return to Ottawa from Damascus, The Mass. Community Newspaper MetroWest Daily West (MA) reported.
Mr. Arar said US officials nabbed him in JFK airport in Brooklyn as a presumed Al Qaeda terrorist in October 2002 and sent him to Syria where he was tortured for 10 months. Arar, who denies any terror links and was never charged with a crime, charges the US government with violating the Torture Victim Protection Act and his Fifth Amendment right to due process.
I don’t think this guy “hated America” and he wasn’t our enemy. Even if he was, he didn’t deserve to be tortured.
14/03/07 à 16:52
Ooops, the first paragraph above was a quote from Greg’s previous post, I forgot to put the parenthesis in. Sorry. Anything after the first paragraph came from me.
14/03/07 à 18:38
Torture Victim Protection Act? I thought torture was now legal in Amerikkka under the fascist Bush junta. :D
14/03/07 à 20:14
Greg
Ahhh! So you think that torture IS a good idea? I have the feeling that Mr. Arar’s wife would beg to differ. Not to mention the FACT that it is proven that torture does not yield good information because the victims will say whatever you want to hear just to make the torture stop. But, then again, facts don’t mean much to the fascist Bush junta’s. :-D
15/03/07 à 15:58
Of course I do not support torture (which you already know, Mary Ellen). I’m poking fun at those who believe torture has been legalized by the US gov’t, when in fact, the US gov’t allows people to sue it in its own courts should the law against torture be broken.
15/03/07 à 18:37
Greg
Well, torture is “illegal” in the US…but Bush and Co. think it’s ok to break that law at will and call it “national security”. They just think if they don’t get caught, it’s ok, just like most criminals. Of course, Bush loves to play the “executive privilege” game and thinks he doesn’t have to answer to anyone.