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Apr 22, 2009

Torture Quote Round-Up begins with John Yoo

The following Torture Quote Round-Up is brought to you by the Information Clearing House Newsletter and begins with 'torture attorney' John Yoo:

"Congress's definition of torture in those laws - the infliction of severe mental or physical pain - leaves room for interrogation methods that go beyond polite conversation." John Yoo

"The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their 'vital interests' are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the 'sanctity' of human life, or the 'conscience' of the civilized world." James Baldwin

"The aim of torture is to destroy a person as a human being, to destroy their identity and soul. It is more evil than murder..." Inge Genefke (1938- ) Danish Doctor & Human Rights Activist

"Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason." Octavio Paz (Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat, 1914-1998)

"Torture is banned but in two-thirds of the world's countries it is still being committed in secret. Too many governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murder or "disappearance" to be carried out by their officials with impunity." Peter Benenson- (1921-2005) Founder of Amnesty International

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When it comes to torture-promoters like John Yoo, David Addison, the other attorneys who did Bush's and Cheney's bidding on this matter - and the politicians who smudge America's soul with torture and 'rain' bombs on women and children - it may be as simple as allowing each of them to sample the techniques they've ordered for others to suffer - then they might quit playing with semantics and understand down to the cellular level - just how torture is defined. And it might not be quite so polite.

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